This weekend’s dollop of wickedly unadulterated kitsch is Congratulations, Eurovision, where the great European public get to vote on their favourite Eurovision winner from the past 50 years.
Sadly, it looks like ABBA won’t be reuniting to perform 'Waterloo' at the event, even though it's a shoe-in to walk away with the title… On the plus side, Irish entrant Johnny Logan, a man who holds the dubious distinction of having won the Contest twice, will be performing in Copenhagen, alongside Brotherhood of Man, Bucks Fizz and Dana International.
I've always had a soft spot for Logan, whose crooning 80's schmaltz could have been invented to appeal to the mawkish middle-aged eurocrats who sat on the Eurovision panel. 'Hold Me Now' was only the second single I ever bought (after 'The Final Countdown', since you're asking) and still evokes memories of Tizer-fuelled school discos...
Eurovision started to become unstuck for me once they gave the general public the vote in the 90's, thus demystifying the process and turning it into just another bland popularity contest. Democracy merely diluted its appeal, and if there was one thing ever likely to kill interest in the Contest stone dead, it was credibility...
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