Toto I've a feeling we're fucked

35 MILLION LESS VIEWERS

THE BOYCOTTS ARE WORKING

Malta's PBS has kept quiet about the total cost of their extensive ad campaign for Eurovision which included billboards, full-page ad spreads in foreign newspapers and more. When asked directly about the price of the campaign, Culture Minister Owen Bonnici simply thanked Aidan for representing Malta and said it was the government's duty to support the Maltese Eurovision entry.

This is not the first time PBS has refused to share the cost of Eurovision-related expenses, citing "commerical sensitivity."

[Source]

In an interview, Eurovision Executive Producer Gert Kark claimed responsibility for "the scandal" of Finland's representative Linda Lampenius being able to play her violin live. He said that it was a new rule change for this year that allowed her to play, and other nations simply had not read the ever-changing rules carefully enough to understand why she was allowed to perform live, which is why they were taken aback.

[Source]

Valentyn Leshchynskyi, a member of Ziferblat (Ukraine 2026) took to social media to say that he was responsible for Ukraine handing out one jury point to the United Kingdom in the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest.

[Sources]

"Valentyn from Ziferblat was the juror who secured Look Mum No Computer's 1 point," u/_pierogii, r/Eurovision, reddit.com.

Detailed Voting Results Vienna 2026: Ukraine, Eurodex, Eurovision App.

I can give Olly Alexander a pass, that was possibly zero points worthy. But Remember Monday was catchy, smart, and lovable. LMNC was not only an excellent dance track (and dance tracks did well this year otherwise), it was incredibly well staged and just unique enough to be different and memorable.

Long answer:

The UK hasn't always been terrible at Eurovision, up until the early 00s they were one of the biggest contenders for the crown each year, much like Sweden usually is nowadays.

However it should be noted that up until 1999 there was a rule in place that countries HAD to sing in their native language, which led to a lot of bias towards English language songs.

With that rule lifted and the influx of a LOT of new countries between 1994 and 2007 due to the collapse of the USSR and Yugoslavia, the UK suddenly had a lot more competition than they had previously.

Plus they also had to contend with the fact that the public could vote for their favourite songs from the late 90s onwards, meaning songs now had two audiences to impress: the national jury and the voting public.

Since then they've struggled to accurately gauge what Eurovision audiences actually want to see, among other things such as poor song promotion, a xenophobic attitude towards their competitors, weak staging concepts and live performances, and a generally snobby, self pitying, "everyone hates us" attitude towards the whole thing certainly haven't helped.

In my own personal opinion, the UK REALLY shoots itself in the foot by composing its songs specifically for Eurovision and not letting the artist pick a preexisting recent song from their own catalogue that meets the criteria. The UK has this preconceived idea of what a "Eurovision song" should be like, and their ideas often result in generally weak songs. There's a reason our most successful song since 1998 was a song the artist had released prior to being approached by the BBC and being asked to compete, and I suspect it's the fact the song was never even intended as a Eurovision song in the first place. I don't know why the BBC hasn't stuck to this formula since, honestly.