Controversial Terry Wogan Interview on the Eurovision Debacle

[@MrEurocat]

His decision to leave ........ certainly influenced the EBU decision to re-introduce the juries, as they knew he had a point. So it isn't really ironic. His leaving effectively changed the contest for the better. U gotta thank him for the change

[@madabbafan]

Terry was able to call where at least half the 12 points were going each year. Now the jury has been brought back it isn't quite as bad but it has been years since the best song has won.

[@Bondek1996]

A lasting memory is when Finland won in 2006 and that classic Wogan drawl "Back in the cold next year."

[@adrianprice533]

2:34.... Sir Terry was right. 2019, 2021 and every year after.

[@markpearson7532]

Even before the Eastern European countries got involved you could guarantee Greece and Cyprus would give each other 12 points even if their performers had stood on stage and alternately belched and farted for three minutes, and the Scandinavian countries would operate a sort of round robin of giving one of their neighbours twelve points.

[@grantross2609]

i suppose the only way round this would be to somehow present the songs anonymously so that voters don't know which country they're voting for..............LOL of course if the UK still came last !

[@69coolchris]

R.I.P Terry Wogan who died today aged 77. He was right about the political voting though! I'll miss his hilarious commentaries during his time on the Eurovision song contest.

[@michaelleacy]

Yes, but the UK have done better through televoting. Blue in 2011 came 5th via televoting and 20th via judges. They ended up 11th overall

[@janeslater8004]

thats because Blue were a well known established popular band in europe so thats wht they did bettee that year

[@gavinreid8937]

A rare moment when Terry drops the irish charm a bit & we see the real Wogan few interviewers got through to.but he is right as to why the UK wont win Eurovision again & why Graham Norton is now welcome to do it.

[@showmoke]

gavin reid Exactly - which is why I quickly filmed this interview with my camera facing my monitor. It's a good thing I did, as the BBC removed this interview from their website shortly after - I got it just in time!

[@bosnahercegovina]

Sir Terry Wogan was right about the Eurovision (let's still saying) "Song" Contest because it's slowly became political Contest in many ways. Today we don't have anymore that's glory of past when quality was more important than today's standards of very expensive VIP of "big 5" and EBU rules. When I just remember golden ages of truly Eurovision Song Contest: ABBA, Secret Garden, Eimear Quinn and many more from past I became so sad when I seen today's standards of the contest. I stop watching (and all my interests of today's) Eurovision long time ago and enjoying quality of the past.

[@davidk3729]

Best comment. OMG, it’s the tooth fairy and doctor death!

[@ryanbunton6987]

But what about all the Scandinavian countries giving points to each other? Spain and Portugal? Greece and Cyprus? UK and Ireland? It’s not just Eastern European Countries and generally they sent very good songs

[@andrewroberts4736]

I miss Terry. He was a national institution and radio isn't the same.

[@Jizzlewobbwtfcus]

Thx for sharing this. Terry was such a classy gentleman. He did Ireland proud

[@warriorsfan19]

He does have a point about the bloc voting though. I look at the scoreboards and just to take one example, Greece and Cyprus (except for one time) always give each other 12 points. It's ridiculous. Also, those songs worthy of being the Top 10 and/or winner don't end up winning and the bad one does (e.g. 2011).

[@anonUK]

The UK should enrol as a Scandinavian heritage country!

[@AEF091]

If the Eurovision was indeed completely biased and voting blocs were dominant, we would not see diffferent winners every year. d

[@krystlewhite7897]

Hardly controversial, it's true. He is right to say that only those countries that are in the final should be allowed to vote.

[@frostylious]

if germany,france,spain and the UK failed to get in past the semi finals there wudnt be a eurovision song contest as most of these other countries wudnt be able to afford it.

[@SunSky.]

Sweet how he has some loyalty to the UK... RIP Tel

[@Excalibur_LP]

He's right of course ...

[@MusicFanatical1]

Some wonderful old-school "point camera at monitor to record" action here.

[@showmoke]

Yes, quite so. In those days there wasn’t an easy way to record directly onto the hard drive. Also, there was a time factor involved. The BBC didn’t keep videos from their news webpage up for very long - sometimes only a few hours, so I needed to record it quickly and the best way for me at the time was to place my video camera in front of the monitor and do it that way. The result as you can see was not brilliant quality, but at least I managed to record it successfully and a few hours after I had filmed it, the BBC took the interview video down, so I consider myself lucky to have caught it in time.

[@AEF091]

While wogan is right about political votes, he is not acknowledging the fact that when Britain have had good songs (not neccesarily songs that I have liked) in Jessica Garlick and the Lloyd Webber song, they have managed to get a higher than expected finish and have done well, despite the voting blocs. They need to avoid the naffness and cheese that goes with the competition. Andy Abrahams song was rubbish. There was nothing complicated about it and was almost a caberet performance at best.

[@Ecd4life23]

The Flamingo 2009 (Lloyd Webber) was after terry’s departure 2002 was before the semi finalists voted which is what he touches on here

[@janeslater8004]

I think france uk germany spain italy should withdraw funding it. None of them do that well any more apart from italy. Germany and uk consistently and unfairly bottom

[@fezmancomments]

I propose a "Commonwealth Song Competition".

[@poertjt2]

Funny how he states that only the finalist countries should vote in the final, but fact is that if that had been the case it would only change the outcome of the winner once in the last 12 years with semifinals which was in 2004 where Serbia & M. would have won in stead of Ukraine. And also funny is that when he gave up his commentator-role everything started to turn around and almost only western-european countries have won since then, including Germany and Austria who are not countries known to have many 'neighbours' in the contest. So i would say stop being soo negative about it and just enjoy it as it was meant to be. It's so much more than just a song-contest so lighten up!

[@Ecd4life23]

Also if that was the case (finalists only voting) in 2008 as seen here when he’s complaining. 🇬🇧 would have got 0 points and he would have been even more outraged if he wasn’t already here.

[@Maarcis12]

@showsmoke hi, found this video to be interesting, but wanted to know what did ya thought on Bjorkmans comments back in 2016. Also, i myself stopped following eurovision in 2010-11, cuz i felt for the most songs of competition used the same old template of love and sad ballads. But massive respect for Wogan, i mean, he wasn't wrong, the competition till 2008 got ridiculously predictable when voting time came in.

[@showmoke]

@Martins Bemis - Don't know who this Bjorkmans guy is, let alone what he said! Perhaps you could enlighten me as to who he is and what he said? I think it's the only interview of Wogan that I've seen where he was serious pretty much all the way through!

[@Maarcis12]

@@showmoke www.theguardian.com/media/2016/apr/16/terry-wogan-totally-spoiled-eurovision-says-contest-producer

[@Maarcis12]

"He raised a generation of viewers believing this was a fun kitsch show that had no relevance whatsoever. It totally spoiled Eurovision. Because of what Terry Wogan did, the UK don’t put in their best efforts. But it’s the BBC who wanted him and let him, they did not stop him. He did his best and he did what he did very well, make fun of something, but if I would have been in charge I would never have chosen him. It totally spoiled Eurovision. If you go back to the 60s and early 70s when Britain ruled this competition that wasn’t the case. So somewhere along the line you hanged your perception of it." Bjorkman was the producer of 2016 Eurovision contest and also took part in Eurovision of 1992.

[@showmoke]

@@Maarcis12 - yes, I certainly think that Bjorkman has a point, in fact I've always said that we (the UK) were consistently marked down BECAUSE of Wogan's continuous piss taking of other countries' songs and presenters.

[@Maarcis12]

@@showmoke thanks for the answer, cause at the time it made a polarizing opinions about it, some agreed with Christer Bjorkman, some thought that Wogan was slandered. I myself thought that while Wogan had that humor that can be seen as pisstaking, he had some valid points of criticism towards how voting went, but now a lot has changed since then.

[@noelaninyssa]

When was this taken in 2009 or 2010 ?? Thanks in advance. :-)

[@murphy9039]

After Eurovision 2008, Terry's last Eurovision.

[@noelaninyssa]

@@murphy9039 Thank you very much. Much appreciated.

[@showmoke]

Maybe not all the time, but I think that if someone from one country is bad mouthing or saying something detrimental about another country on the telly, then someone somewhere will find out and the word will spread. There's always a laywer lurking in the background somewhere looking for opportunities to sue for slander/libel etc. Not happened in Wogan's case with the BBC (yet), but I'm sure someone (maybe even journalists) monitor each others stations to see/hear what's being said.

[@andrewhaines3259]

We pay to be in this ridiculous "competition ". It won't matter who writes and performs the song for the UK we won't win any points. ABBA could offer, but not a jot of difference would it make. Time we pulled the plug and devoted the money to something more worthwhile!

[@showmoke]

100% agree!

[@bigcrusher5521]

we have a jury-system now, hopefully that will make this problem better

[@alexaghios6049]

Who's listening to this in 2024?

[@showmoke]

Seemed to me that the voting was a little less political this year (2015) - that's good news!

[@PhysalisFranchetti]

showmoke But the lower end of the field was completely starved of points, just like in 2007/2008, and the two king-pins of the two remaining voting blocks came 1st and 2nd. If the voting was a bit less political this year, it's only because the EBU discarded the jury vote of countries that have been found to have irregularites. Wait until they find out how to sit below the radar and then it will be business as usual once again........

[@michaelmuldowney8]

Don't agree with everything Terry says here buy he makes some valid points. Since United Kingdom last won in 1997, there have be 21 contests with 16 different countries winning = 10 of them for the first time. So overall I think Eurovision spreads the wealth around everyone.

[@Euroviking86]

How ironic that the contest would change for the better the very year after Wogan left. Take Denmark this year; of its neighbours, only Iceland gave it 12 points, instead relying on 12 points from the ex-Yugoslav countries among others. Still, though, we do get countries like Greece and Turkey doing well just for turning up, but it still is better than it was pre-2009.

[@JeSuisRene]

Terry’s commentary was getting insufferable towards the end of his tenure, however he did consistently raise some valid points. I rewatched bits of the 2008 contest yesterday, and he raises some valid points in his closing speech. People say that Terry was awful but I don’t think he was. His commentary (slightly sarcastic but you could tell he cares about the contest) in the 1980s and 1990s are what made me a fan of the Eurovision [even if I am too young for those contests]. Though the introduction of the televote and the consequences that followed are what killed Terry’s passion for and love of the Eurovision. He saw the contest evolve into something he did not recognise and just grew more and more resentful as the years went by. All of which were vindicated by the EBU when they reintroduced the televote in 2009. Overall, I think it is really sad that Sir Terry left the Eurovision in the way that he did.

[@ytorrejone]

@showmoke The uk is one of the 'Big 4',along with France,Germany and Spain,who go straight into the final.Hence the 'buy their ticket'.And regarding Wogan's commentary,every country has their own commentary in their own language.What did you think?That all of Europe tunes in to bbc to listen to Wogan.Not by a long shot.

[@jerryfields4837]

"we only have one neighbour, Ireland"....took the soup

[@showmoke]

Not quite sure what you mean by 'buy their ticket', but I tend to agree with everything that Wogan says. It's more of a politcal occasion which is heavily diguised as a song contest and the poor old contestants are just pawns in a political game. There may, however, have been an anti-Wogan feeling in the voting (and hence an anti-UK feeling) because maybe Wogan's p**s taking of the whole event did not go down very well with other countries!

[@stephenguppy3466]

Well of course, even in the early days it had very little to do with music as the music in the Contest was stuck in the (at least) previous decade and in no way reflected the musical trends of the time. That said, nothing has changed or ever WILL change. Greece and Cyprus will always vote for each other, Norway and Sweden, Denmark and Iceland, etc, etc (and as long as all those countries get through to the final of course). Even before we joined the Common Market we were unpopular in Europe and these days everybody hates us! the best thing the BBC could do would be to withdraw our annual payment which guarantees us a place in the Final. After all. what is the point? We may as well go in as a semi-finalist, knowing we have no chance and take our chances. Then, when we DON'T get through, at least we can relax as we watch the Final. Bloody European politics!!

[@showmoke]

@Stephen Guppy - you make some good points here. The money that they save in not paying to be in the semi-finals could be put to much better use in my opinion - reducing the licence fee for a start, but I can't ever see THAT happening!

[@JeSuisRene]

But do remember in the early days (pre-1999), we won FIVE times, came second FIFTEEN times and came third TWICE. The worst the UK had ever done prior to 1999 was 13th out of 22 entries.

[@EmoBearRights]

We were sooo hated - we used to come second ....a lot! We hosted quite a few times because if that. Yes in the early days it was a bit of a club of Francophile countries but we did win sometimes. I think part of the issue that we didn't move with the times and treat the contest with a distain it returns. It's not that Europe hates us because of Brexit but we hate Europe and Brexit just laid bare that attitude. Love a proud remoaner.

[@ndwilcock6575]

I only voted for Brexit 'cos I thought we wouldn't have to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest - we still can ! Bummer !!!

[@EmoBearRights]

You got what you deserved and it just displays the depth of your ignorance really. A lot of countries in Eurovision aren't in the EU, some aren't even in Europe.

[@ndwilcock6575]

@@EmoBearRights Idiot. A "remoaner" are we. Can you not appreciate a humorous comment? (Well, I thought it was witty). If you're an example of a wannabe EU citizen, thank goodness we left. Since Israel and Australia have competed in this annual piece of nonsense, its obvious that being in the EU is not a requirement. Now go away and grow up!

[@EmoBearRights]

@@ndwilcock6575 After you dude! Humour is very open to interpretation and doesn't always come across well also 'only joking' is a poor out for offensive comments. A famous once said many a true word (aka real opinion) is said in jest. But whatever bro!!

[@ndwilcock6575]

@@EmoBearRights I am appalled that you would think (a) that anyone would believe that being a member of the EU was a requirement to compete in Eurovision and; (b) that would be a major criterion in their Brexit vote. I would also remind you that anyone is permitted, within reason, to make jokes or remarks that others find offensive just as they have a right to be offended. Fortunately, snowflake-ism has not yet been written into law. However, I cannot believe that anyone would be seriously offended by jokes about Eurovision, even if they are big fans.

[@EmoBearRights]

@@ndwilcock6575 I'm not offended I'm just saying people say all sorts of shite behind the veil of only joke. You would actually have to matter to be offensive and you've done your damage already you just don't know it yet.....give it a few years. You may not have noticed but there are an awful lot of very stupid people out there - I've learnt not to make assumptions about its limits. Sure you're allowed to make lame jokes but people are allowed to just think they make you look like a bit of a tit. Also anyone who uses snowflake unironically is usually a bit of a shitlord especially since the guys who do tend to as oversensitive as those they criticise if not more so.

[@michaellack5139]

Come on …..uk don’t need to be in this drivel of a show…we have got the best music in the world past and present….the Beatles,Queen ,Elton John,David Bowie,pink Floyd etc etc…

[@showmoke]

Agreed - and it costs the BBC UK licence payers a fortune every year as our contribution to the organisation of this 'debacle'!

[@amyclarke41]

i agree terry

[@AEF091]

Take the year that Lena (germany) won in 2010. Our entry was complete and utter tosh. Azerbaijans entry was infinitely better than ours. Perhaps we also need to show the positive side of British Culture in these competition and take them much more seriously than we are at the moment. We laugh at other entries for being 'wierd' yet fail to understand their culture and what they are trying to do.

[@Shuddersfield0303]

Wogan did have a point but 2008 was the time when the western countries hadn't won for a few years and why should they? At that time the best entries were from the Eastern side of Europe so they deserved to win, although 2008 was definitely a fix, Ukraine and Greece were so much better than Russia that year. I was never a fan of Wogan. He'd make xenophobic and ignorant comments all through every contest. I wish he'd been replaced many years before 2008.

[@showmoke]

That’s why he was popular with UK audiences because he made fun of everything. In my opinion, that’s one of the main reasons why the UK was marked down when it came to voting.

[@Shuddersfield0303]

@@showmoke yep that is possible. We stopped caring about Eurovision for a long time until this year. The UK thought they had a god given right to do well, even with crap entries. It doesn’t work like that! Duh!

[@showmoke]

@@Shuddersfield0303 - some of the songs were bad, but certainly not all of them and some of the UK entries didn't deserve to be marked down as much as they were.

[@TurnipBoyAdventures]

Hi @showmoke Do you know what TV program this interview was from?

[@showmoke]

TurnipBoyAdventures Yes, it was taken off the BBC News website, so it wasn't a programme as such, but just a video interview news item that stayed on the page only for about 24 hours and was then removed. I was lucky to capture it before it was taken down by the BBC. It was a long time ago now as you can see from the date of the upload.

[@TurnipBoyAdventures]

showmoke thanks for that info. Much appreciated. Well done capturing it!

[@amcintyre15]

Wogan speaks the truth, Eurovision is pointless. It is not about music at all. It is politics. Any slightly intelligent person can figure that out.

[@ytorrejone]

Of course there is a strong political element in the ESC but various studies have come up with some interesting facts.Firstly,to win you have to get points from practically everyone,not only from your neighbours.And secondly,there have been 14 different winning countries in the last 14 years.Wogan seems to forget that the uk 'buy' their ticket to the final and this doesn't go down well with most of the other countries.

[@Finnishkebab]

Now look, Austria, Israel, Netherlands and even Portugal won the contest last decade. ESC has changed because of the juries every countries has chance to win, but no songs are too holding back and average ballads, we dont see anymore eastern european ballads, pop songs or funny acts.

[@showmoke]

Talking of Eastern European Ballads - the best one by far has been the 2016 Polish entry called 'Colour of Your Life' sung by Michal Szpak. Absolutely terrific song and should have won in my opinion! I've played it many times here on KZbin.

[@ortakar]

2019 NORWAY !! WON TELE BUT JURY...

[@EmoBearRights]

Idk - there was a pretty decent Balkan ballad in 2012 I think Bosnian - it did quite well too I think.

[@artworx12]

Seriously, UK's song S-U-C-K-E-D.

[@canopus101]

The song contest has always been rubbish.

[@altaylor3988]

Been turned into a Bun Fight for Control .... Waste of time and Money

[@showmoke]

@madabbafan I've thought for some time now that rather than the voting being anti-uk, it was more of an anti-wogan campaign. I mean let's face it, Wogan used the opportunity to take the piss out of the proceedings and the presenters of the show. You remember his comments about a couple of the presenters (Danish I think they were) about 10 years ago now. He called them 'Dr. Death and the tooth fairy'. I remember it very well. I must admit it was bloody hilarious, but didn't go down too well!

[@michaelmorgan6012]

Sir Terry God rest his soul was absolutely right, it's just a let's vote for our neighbours contest regardless of the song, a d now the UK is out of EU. We would never stand a chance, it's completely political simple has that

[@BlueLeopard200]

What a stupid contest and voting system.

[@Jizzlewobbwtfcus]

I stopped watching Eurovision about 20 years ago because it's for kids. The "music" is infantile and the performances cringe worthy

[@EmoBearRights]

But that's it isn't it? You haven't watched in twenty years - I defy you to watch today and condemn the Dutch winning effort last year and French running up one this year on those grounds. I only exclude this year's winners as you're probably not a rock fan.

[@Jizzlewobbwtfcus]

@@EmoBearRights I am a rock fan actually. But I dont have to have seen the whole Eurovision to know. Sure I might have missed 1 or 2 good ones but as a whole I have seen enough snippets to give me nightmares for years lol

[@johnrider5701]

How can the truth be controversial? I stopped watching after Terry left he was the best thing about it ,

[@showmoke]

I guess you're right. I also loved Terry's coverage of the event, but it's possible that his continuous taking the p**s of both the event and the presenters may have had a detrimental effect on our markings. Also may be true today with Graham Norton who's following in Terry's footsteps as far as style of commentary is concerned. I understand that there are other factors as well, but in my opinion both Terry's and Graham's commentary may well be one of the causes of our entries being marked down.

[@markhayes4149]

80% of what he's saying is true but UK have sent some shocking songs.

[@showmoke]

Maybe, but not all we’re shocking as you say. Just listen to some of the other countries entries - unbelievably bad, so we weren’t the worst by far, apart from that year were the UK’s entry sang out of tune. That year we definitely deserved to come last!

[@markhayes4149]

@@showmoke oh agree Europe were worse. The Russian grannies, Polish clothes washers, Not forgetting Norweigns songs, 🤣🤣

[@galenikarlek84]

Me, as a swede think that this comment was necessery since the blockvoting is extreme. It has totally gone too far since the eastern bloc was introduced to the contest. The scandinavians arnt that extreme as the eastern bloc. Pathetic.

[@showmoke]

Remember his comments regarding the Danish (I think it was) presenters a few years ago, calling them 'Dr. Death and the Tooth Fairy', which I thought was extremely funny! I heard after that comment that the Danes refused him entry into their country (whether that's true ot not, I'm not sure). It may not be a coincidence that as soon as Wogan left, then voting for the UK improved enormously!

[@Ecd4life23]

showmoke Danish presenters in 2001 that was Dr death & The little mermaid the statue of which ironically is in the Danish capital Copenhagen as the creator of that Hans Christen Andersen was from 🇩🇰

[@Microphonunlock]

You are acting like those eastern countries hasnt brought the best song and UK (and Spain or Germany) hasnt brought uninteresting stuff in Wogan last years.

[@ClintDuza]

@crazyboyxx Agreed, the British music industry is brilliant, though I think Finland and the U.S have damn good music industries too, Finland is the fastest growing at the moment. The U.K music industry shall decline I think in the next four years as the government invest less into it, which is a shame as U.K is one of the greatest countries for exporting its art in whatever form it is.

[@huskydogeyesxx]

swag

[@DieLaurenDie]

Dreadful mistakes fom the years around the millennium change need fixin 1. Bring back the orchestra 2. Get rid of televoting 3. Go back to ONE Europe watching it on ONE night .That was the whole philosophical underpinning of the ESC, and they've WRECKED it with semifinals. (this would also mean returning to the system of bottom-scoring countries not returning the next year, but with proper jury voting this could be an incentive for quality writing again) (perhaps 4. Language restriction again)

[@anonUK]

DieLaurenDie Yes, you can sing in your own language, or English (Ireland, the Netherlands, Malta and Scandinavia), French or Italian for the Latin countries, German for German speaking countries including Switzerland which could enter in French, German or Italian. Not every country should submit a song in English or cod-English for international sales.

[@JeSuisRene]

100% agree with you!

[@ericharrison9307]

You need two finals one eastern and one western the semis mess it up.

[@EmoBearRights]

Sorry but no - maybe have the orchestra as an option. The semis at least give anyone who wants to compete a chance, televoting gives the public a say and stops Sweden and Australia winning every year no matter what tosh they send and also encourages innovative entries. Also this year the televoters were the ones supporting native language entries - Italy and Ukraine both singing in native tongues topped the televote followed by France singing in French. Last contest the juries were the main culprits from native language entries getting nerfed including Spain which was bottom of their rankings.

[@ibokocaman4626]

his thoughts on this : utter nonsense

[@shaungillingham4689]

Ironic Britain has been a leading force in the world pop music for over 50 years, european music not very much at all, it's a shit show I gave up watching about 10 years ago.

[@AckSnus]

Doesnt matter much i think, countries less leading in music should just stop? its retorical but i just looked it up, and UK is third place in leading country, Germany second, USA first, but still, doesnt matter, theres tribes enjoying the heck out of their music, drumming away, chanting, and theres lots of foreigners working within the music industry of other countries, music is music, in the end its about what it gives people, theres underground music aswell, different gernres, less populur then radio music but still huge, so it shouldnt matter, bcuz that would be missing the point of the core of it, every country is capable of contributing to music and theres not really any right or wrong. Someone could sleep to the beat of farts echoing in a bean can.

[@adrianjackson2696]

Brexit