Since then, the BBC has relied on less-established talent. Both Look Mum No Computer and 2025 contestants Remember Monday are independent artists, without the backing of a major record label.<\/p>\n
When I explain the situation to other Eurovision contestants in Vienna, they’re shocked.<\/p>\n
“In the UK there’s a bad perception of representing your country at Eurovision?” asks a perplexed Satoshi. “Well, that’s not good.<\/p>\n
“I can understand that the UK has delivered so many powerful acts to the world that you don’t have to rely on Eurovision to get awareness, but I think it’s a wonderful contest to emphasise your musical potential.”<\/p>\n
Dara, who won the contest with her song Bangaranga, agrees.<\/p>\n
Aa a pop star with 10 years of hits under her belt, she says big artists need to shed their prejudices about Eurovision.<\/p>\n
“I don’t know what’s stopping them from experiencing this amazing place,” she says.<\/p>\n
“You might be from bigger country than Bulgaria, but whatever. Don’t be afraid to jump into a new reality, into risk, and to try new things. That’s what makes life fun, and you will feel alive.”<\/p>\n
The UK\u2019s scorn for Eurovision is something Finland also used to struggle with. <\/p>\n
After Lordi’s victory in 2006, the country experienced a devastating 15-year slump.<\/p>\n
In that time, Finland never made the top 10 again. On seven occasions, they even failed to qualify from the semi-finals.<\/p>\n
“We were pessimists for many years,” says Katariina K\u00e4hk\u00f6nen, a reporter at Finland’s MTV Uutiset. “People were always like, ‘No, it doesn’t matter \u2013 the Eurovision thing. Finland will never win.'”<\/p>\n
But since the pandemic, they’ve turned things around, entering classics like K\u00e4\u00e4rij\u00e4’s Cha Cha Cha (second place, 2023) and coming sixth this year with Linda Lampenius and Pete Parkkonen’s Liekenheiten.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since then, the BBC has relied on less-established talent. Both Look Mum No Computer and 2025 contestants Remember…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":965723,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[77,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-965722","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116587557273194588","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=965722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/965723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=965722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=965722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=965722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}