Andrew Lloyd Webber for Eurovision
Posted Mon 20 Oct 2008 1:25PM BST by Mitch Carter in The Guestlist
Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber is set to compose Britain's entry for 
the Eurovision Song Contest 2009. The composer will write a song for the winner of Your Country Needs You, a BBC television program in which musicians compete for an audience vote.
After a string of disappointing entries into the competition many have called for an experienced hand to break Britain's run of poor scores. Previous Eurovision losers have included X-Factor's Andy Abraham who finished joint last in 2008 and Jemini's entry Cry Baby which famously received "null points".
"In my life I've never shied away from the impossible and this looks like the biggest mission impossible of all time," said Lloyd Webber in a statement on Saturday.
Controversy was rife at last year's Eurovision final with seasoned presenter Terry Wogan complaining about the political nature of the voting.
Can Sir Andrew win it for Britain or has the political voting got out of hand? Have your say below.
the Eurovision Song Contest 2009. The composer will write a song for the winner of Your Country Needs You, a BBC television program in which musicians compete for an audience vote. After a string of disappointing entries into the competition many have called for an experienced hand to break Britain's run of poor scores. Previous Eurovision losers have included X-Factor's Andy Abraham who finished joint last in 2008 and Jemini's entry Cry Baby which famously received "null points".
"In my life I've never shied away from the impossible and this looks like the biggest mission impossible of all time," said Lloyd Webber in a statement on Saturday.
Controversy was rife at last year's Eurovision final with seasoned presenter Terry Wogan complaining about the political nature of the voting.
Can Sir Andrew win it for Britain or has the political voting got out of hand? Have your say below.
Especially now that they've changed the voting system to a panel of judges instead of the public voting.
Can I just ask...WHY, year after year, are we sending some ammateur performer to win for us?! Just send someone spectacularly amazing and we'll win! If not, it will result in another Andy Abraham all over again...
What's needed ,more than public relations and neighbours' support, is an easy tune ,a happy and nice personality to take it around in Europe and some inspiration for its presentation.
It is suprising to see Britain not to do well in Eurovision, while so many musical trends are invented in UK by so many bands and the language is the best passport.Musically speaking, any other time of the year the ears of anyone interested in music are alltuned to Britain.
I believe that something's going wrong in the choice process of the type of song.The songs that have been chosen and failed so far did they ever made it in UK? If britons themselves don't like them why the rest would do?
I'm Greek,currently living and working in London and will be in UK for 2 years only. I'd like see Britain do excellent these years. In Greece we've tried the quality musicians and singers and failed. We usually send to Eurovision a tra-la-la nonsense, well presented by whoever is at their best form at that time of the youngsters. What counts is the choreographie and an easy lively refrain.
Although the recipe doesn't seen to be that one always with the nice surprises from Ireland and Finland that remind us that nothing can be predicted.
wish you luck, whatever finally comes up!
If we had our own contest there would be no politics and the winner could get something decent out of it like a recording contract.
It could be like the X Factor, but all sorted in one night, without all the nonsense with judges. The BBC could probably make a load of money on the voting as well. That should help keep them in cigars and whisky for a while.
If each voting panel was then given say 4 votes, they would only be able to use one vote per quadrant. This way their votes would be distributed more evenly, and the results would be less "blocky", so less prone to mutual back-scratching. Sometimes there would be complaints that the 2 best were in the same quadrant but this could be overcome by issuing a fifth "wildcard" vote to be used in any quadrant.
It is worth remembering that it is not just us that suffers under the current system France , Germany, Italy, Spain etc are all marginalised. I't also worth remembering that we have had the best overall recordin finishing placements since the contest began.
The songs are all pretty pants nowadays. The best thing about it is Sir Tel's commentary, and listening to him get more tipsy as the night wears on!
I hope Lord Lloyd Webber can bring back some good old-fashioned, cheesy euro-pop to take our minds off the world's problems, not some droning ballad which asks for world peace! Don't whatever you do use Les Mis as a startin point, LW!
Changing the voting system will be the only way the UK will ever have a look in again. It's doubtful we'd win it now even if we had Kylie Minogue singing for us!
Mmm, wonder if she'd be up for it? Lord Lloyd Webber, get your little black book out and get dialling! lol
The reason why Britain are doing sh@t for Eurovision is not because of polical voting (though that does happen) but because of the null entertainment value - when is this gonna get through those thick skulls? Sometimes it is more important than the music and lyrics - look at those recent Eastern European satyrical entries like Verka - which tend to do really well.
So who do we put up last year? X-factor's Andy Abraham (who???) - and behold - get the results.
So look at the people who won it in recent years - eg Lordi - until we get the act who can put those 3 things together - music lyrics and ENTERTAINMENT value - we've got no chance.
So we must keep with the Eurovision Song Contest,just to show them the way,and who better to write the song to amaze them all than Andrew Lloyd Webber.
It's not the winning but the teaching that counts