Waveguide
May 19 2008

Eurovision hopeful Andy Abraham has insisted he has a "very good chance" of 
winning the contest for the UK.

And the former X Factor contestant is certain he will make the Top 10, even 
though his chances are not rated by the bookmakers

"If it's based on the song and everything, I think I've got a very good 
chance," Abraham, possibly hinting that other factors come into the voting.

"I think Top 10 most definitely. But there are so many different factors 
involved in it. You know we'll just have to see what happens."

http://www.waveguide.co.uk/news080519.htm#Eurovision%20Winner


BBC News
By Michael Osborn
20 May 2008

Sweden's Eurovision entry has emerged as the favourite to win this year's 
contest in a Europe-wide BBC vote.

Charlotte Perrelli, who won the event in 1999, was the convincing victor 
with her song Hero, ahead of Ukraine, Switzerland and host nation Serbia.

The United Kingdom's Andy Abraham polled only enough votes to finish in 33rd 
place in a field of 43 songs.

For the first time this year, two semi-finals are being staged - and most of 
the 43 competing countries will have to fight for a place in the final.

The Eurovision Song Contest semi-finals take place on 20 and 22 May at 20:00 
BST.

The grand final is on 24 May from 20:00.

(Extract from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7400508.stm )

On Tue, 20 May 2008 at 23:45:14, Mike Terry  
wrote in uk.media.radio.bbc-r2 :

>Waveguide
>May 19 2008
>
>Eurovision hopeful Andy Abraham has insisted he has a "very good chance" of
>winning the contest for the UK.

I take it he studied at the Gordon Brown school of optimism, then? :)
-- 
Paul 'Charts Fan' Hyett

23 May 2008
waveguide.co.uk

The UK's hope Andy Abraham is gearing up for the 53rd Eurovision Song 
Contest.

This year's contest takes place in the Serbian capital Belgrade.

Abraham, 43, the former binman who made his name on the X Factor, will be 
hoping his song, Even If, does better than last year's British entry. Scooch 
finished 22nd out of 24 with their song Flying The Flag in 2007.

Ireland's rapping turkey puppet Dustin has failed to make the final, which 
will see British TV coverage hosted as usual by Sir Terry Wogan.

Bookmakers have dubbed Abraham the UK's worst ever entrant, with odds of 
66-1 to win, which it says is its worst ever. Wogan recently said Abraham's 
song was "the best UK entry for a while".

But he added: "If we finish nowhere again, I worry that disenchantment might 
take hold. Eurovision is such silly fun, and I love doing it, but if the 
enthusiasm isn't there...

"This year is pretty crucial for me. Eurovision without Royaume-Uni would be 
unfortunate."

Eurovision has become known for bad taste in music, bizarre performances and 
political voting.

But the Danish director of Eurovision TV, the Swiss-based company which 
produces the competition, complained that Wogan does not treat the show with 
enough respect.

Bjorn Erichsen suggested that Wogan's wry observations were making 
Eurovision look "ridiculous".



"Paul Hyett"  wrote in message 
news:114h2JFBh8MIFweR@blueyonder.co.uk...
> On Tue, 20 May 2008 at 23:45:14, Mike Terry  
> wrote in uk.media.radio.bbc-r2 :
>
>>Waveguide
>>May 19 2008
>>
>>Eurovision hopeful Andy Abraham has insisted he has a "very good chance" 
>>of
>>winning the contest for the UK.
>
> I take it he studied at the Gordon Brown school of optimism, then? :)
> -- 
> Paul 'Charts Fan' Hyett

> Eurovision hopeful Andy Abraham has insisted he has a "very good chance" 
> of winning the contest for the UK.
>
> And the former X Factor contestant is certain he will make the Top 10, 
> even though his chances are not rated by the bookmakers

<chortle>

D.

On Sun, 25 May 2008 09:28:37 +0100, "David Wright"
 wrote:

>> Eurovision hopeful Andy Abraham has insisted he has a "very good chance" 
>> of winning the contest for the UK.
>>
>> And the former X Factor contestant is certain he will make the Top 10, 
>> even though his chances are not rated by the bookmakers
>
><chortle>
>

To be fair, it was an average song sung by an okay singer but was
better than fifty percent of the entries but as we are neither from
the Baltic or Balkans we hadn't got a chance.

The BBC being part of  the Big Four is now a joke.  We should
immediately forfeit our automatic entry and stop ploughing so much
money into this. The voting always used to be a bit of a joke but with
all these new Eastern Bloc countries it's just laughable.

Sir Tel sounded severely fed up with it last night and I can't help
but wonder if he'll finally say ta ta to it now.

Thus spake Mike Plowman (mike.plowman@mydomain.net) unto the assembled multitudes:

> The BBC being part of  the Big Four is now a joke.  We should
> immediately forfeit our automatic entry and stop ploughing so much
> money into this. The voting always used to be a bit of a joke but with
> all these new Eastern Bloc countries it's just laughable.

> Sir Tel sounded severely fed up with it last night and I can't help
> but wonder if he'll finally say ta ta to it now.

I think the UK itself should say ta ta to it.  The whole thing is a farce,
and a complete waste of time, money and effort.

Doesn't stop it being a laugh though, and an excuse to have a few drinks
with friends...

-- 
                                 Andy Clews
                            University of Sussex
                 *** Remove DENTURES if replying by email ***

On Sun, 25 May 2008 21:12:02 +0000 (UTC), A.Clews@DENTURESsussex.ac.uk
wrote:

>Thus spake Mike Plowman (mike.plowman@mydomain.net) unto the assembled multitudes:
>
>> The BBC being part of  the Big Four is now a joke.  We should
>> immediately forfeit our automatic entry and stop ploughing so much
>> money into this. The voting always used to be a bit of a joke but with
>> all these new Eastern Bloc countries it's just laughable.
>
>> Sir Tel sounded severely fed up with it last night and I can't help
>> but wonder if he'll finally say ta ta to it now.
>
>I think the UK itself should say ta ta to it.  The whole thing is a farce,
>and a complete waste of time, money and effort.
>
>Doesn't stop it being a laugh though, and an excuse to have a few drinks
>with friends...

It's only worth watching for the voting. According to Radio 4
yesterday, only 4 countries pay for the contest itself (one of 'em is
us OF COURSE, like the E. U. we pay for everything), and the BBC put
up £200,000 for it.

S. wrote:

> It's only worth watching for the voting. According to Radio 4
> yesterday, only 4 countries pay for the contest itself (one of 'em is
> us OF COURSE, like the E. U. we pay for everything), and the BBC put
> up £200,000 for it.  

Which is next to nothing for a programme that fills 3.25 hours of peak time 
Saturday BBC 1.

The Beeb spend more than that on some trailers.

-- 
Mark
Please replace invalid and invalid with gmx and net to reply.

On Thu, 29 May 2008 at 20:32:14, Mark Carver 
<mark.carver@invalid.invalid> wrote in uk.media.radio.bbc-r2 :

>S. wrote:
>
>> It's only worth watching for the voting. According to Radio 4
>> yesterday, only 4 countries pay for the contest itself (one of 'em is
>> us OF COURSE, like the E. U. we pay for everything), and the BBC put
>> up £200,000 for it.
>
>Which is next to nothing for a programme that fills 3.25 hours of peak 
>time Saturday BBC 1.

I'm sure if we had a whip round, we could raise more than that for them 
*not* to show it... :)
-- 
Paul 'Charts Fan' Hyett