Interview with Eurovision super fan

Why has Eurovision become popular again?

A young persons perspective on Europe's biggest song contest

Joker Out performing at Eurovision
Connor Bland Connor Bland

Since the finale of the European Song Contest the BBC announced that the contest had hits highest ever final viewing in the UK with a peak of 11 million viewers.

Which begs the question why this year?

With the UK team finishing 25th and seemingly having no hope from the start to win why not have viewing figures this high last year when Sam Ryder finished second while representing the UK and definitely had a shot of winning.

One reason could be that this year’s contest was held in the UK (Liverpool) for the first time since 1998, 25 years ago, which may have increased interest for UK viewers due to it being at home. This has been seen in other areas such as sports events like the Olympics and the Football World Cup that also received higher viewing figures when they were held in the UK.

Another reason may be due to the success of last year’s UK entry Sam Ryder, who finished second in the competition, the highest result for the UK since 1998 when the contest was last held in the UK, where Imaani also reached second place with the song Where Are You?

But the interest in Eurovision could just be higher as a whole with 20 year old Toby Lenton as an example…

Q When did you start watching Eurovision?
R My first show was In 2012 when Loreen won for the first time

Q What drew you to it?
R Just how fun it was, it’s like the Olympics of music and it allows me to find new music and artists and meet new people.

Q Why did you want to go to the actual event?
R I wanted to go because I’d never been before and I had a friend in Liverpool who also wanted to go so it just made sense for this year to be the first one that I went to.

Q How much were the tickets for Liverpool?
R We bought two tickets, Semi final 1 live show was £200 which we got on release, and Semi final 2 rehearsal that we got on resale was £230, usually tickets aren’t that expensive I’ve been told.

Q How was the experience?
R The experience was amazing. The whole city was just fully into Eurovision and there were so many things to do, everyday was completely full of things to do and artists to meet.

Q What did you get up to?
R we went to loads of meet and greets, intimate performances, the eurovision village had loads of this year’s artists as well as last year’s winner, we went to a couple gigs at clubs that this year’s artists were performing as well.

Q Who did you meet?
R We met Mimicat from Portugal, Gustaph from Belgium, Teya and Salena from Austria, Remo Forrer from Switzerland, Brunette from Armenia, Joker Out from Slovenia, Tvorchii from Ukraine and Alika from Estonia. We met a few other acts in the streets as well.

Q Would you go again?
R I will 100% go again, we’re already looking at flights to Sweden and hotels etc, hopefully it doesn’t cost as much as it did this time.

Q Why do you think Eurovision is becoming more popular in the UK?
R I think the younger generation see Eurovision as something more serious now than past ones, and it’s something that makes us proud to be european. I also think that as countries try harder the more interesting it becomes, for example joker out is by far the biggest act to ever come from Slovenia in their history, and Noa Kirel is Israel’s biggest pop star, acts that once would never touch eurovision are now fighting to be in it.

Q What did you think of the UK act?
R I was disappointed in the UKs act, I never really liked the song, I think Mae Muller is a great person but her vocal skills weren’t that great either and I think we did better than we should’ve finishing above Germany.

 

Connor Bland

I am a sports journalism student at Sheffield Hallam and Abat Oliba CEU. My preferred sports are football and Formula 1.