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Getting creative for Eurovision 2016

2016-05-11T13:02:01+00:00

Dan Shipton (centre) with Joe and Jake

There is a great deal that goes on behind the scenes in preparing a show stopping performance for the Eurovision Song Contest. Jon Jacob caught up with the UK entry's creative director, Dan Shipton to find out about 'Joe and Jake's' progress at this year's competition in Stockholm.

What is your role for the �鶹Լ�� and UK Entry at Eurovision?

I am employed by the �鶹Լ�� as creative director for the UK Eurovision entry. This means that I work closely with the rest of the creative team to conceptualise, manage and deliver the creative vision for our entry. I make sure that every creative element of the staging from stage design to the lighting, screen content, costume and camera angles come together to enhance Joe and Jake’s performance and make sure we do our country proud.

Why did they choose you?

After ten years of working in TV entertainment I moved onto stadium spectaculars, which included Take That’s Progress Tour, the London 2012 ceremonies and also Sochi Winter Olympic ceremonies. A few years ago my business partners and I established Black Skull Creative to bring together the years of experience we had garnered from the industry and pass it on to our clients, which include a wide range of major music artists and brands. We regularly collaborate with Ellie Goulding, Years and Years, Jess Glynne and many major TV shows such as the �鶹Լ�� Music Awards, Royal Variety Performance and The X Factor to bring their shows to life. One of our proudest achievements is creating Ellie Goulding’s Delirium world tour, which is currently out on the road. When I was approached by UK Head of Delegation Guy Freeman to join the Eurovision team it was because he wanted someone who had a broad creative and technical knowledge that could bring our Eurovision entry to a world-class level.

So what is the creative process?

When Joe and Jake won Eurovision: You Decide I knew instantly that we had to find a creative concept that would match their energy and the vibrancy within the music. We wanted an idea that would feel cool and effective without being overly complicated and distracting.

We began by deconstructing their performance on ‘You Decide’. What had worked? What hadn’t worked? What could we capitalise on?

From the very beginning we wanted to make sure that every performance that Joe and Jake did felt part of the same concept. We knew we had to shoot a music video that would become the anchor to the campaign and would be the first opportunity we really had to establish the key look.

Filming the video for Joe and Jake's, 'You're Not Alone

We wanted the boys to put on a stadium style performance that would feel epic. The song is so vibrant and energetic we felt that using light and colour to transmit the energy across would be a great idea and so the wall of ‘magic dots’ (small moving lights) was born.

The other important thing for us was to find a way of visualising the key line “You’re not alone, we’re in this together”. We wanted to directly bring fans from all nationalities into the performance and so we felt that using selfies to form our chorus screen content would achieve this perfectly. To up the anti we also wanted to take this a step further by turning the cameras on the audience in the arena and putting them in the screens live on the night, making sure that literally everyone was part of Joe and Jake’s performance. This was all a challenge but one which we wanted to rise to.

Once I had shot the music video and the creative looks had developed into reality I wrote a ‘look and feel’ document, which has to be submitted to SVT (the host broadcaster) for approval. This included detailed designs for our staging pieces and a full script which breaks down the song into sections, giving detailed notes on what should be happening in the screen content, lighting and performer movement, whilst also suggesting some notes for how we would like to see the performance captured by the TV cameras.

At this point SVT take all of our notes and do a ‘stand in’ rehearsal where local singers learn the song and movement (when we submitted the look and feel document we also provided a video of Joe and Jake performing the song so the director knows the movement). They then send a link of the performance to us and we have 24 hours to give all our notes back to SVT. This is the first time we get to see everything in reality and there are invariably a lot of changes to be made. We unpick every detail and then put it back together again sending in pages of notes that we then work through with the SVT team.

Meanwhile, Jay Revell (our choreographer and performance coach) and Yvie Burnett (our vocal coach) are also working daily with Joe and Jake and the backing vocalists to make sure we are going to guarantee the best performance on the night. The rehearsals before we leave the UK are extensive so that the boys are flawless in both their vocal and physical delivery by the time we reach Stockholm. We know that unlike other shows as soon as we step on stage at The Globe Arena and do our first rehearsal this will be watched by the world's press and also put on the Eurovision website. We need to make sure our first rehearsal is near perfect because really, it is our first performance.

For the first rehearsal we get twenty minutes on stage to run through the song three times with full production. We have a few minutes in between each take to give notes and so we have to think quickly and give concise comments that keep improving the output each run through. After the rehearsal we go directly to ‘The Viewing Room’. At this point we get 15 minutes to watch the third take back and give detailed changes for lighting, screen content and analyse the detail of every camera shot. After all, the juries and voting audience are watching Joe and Jake on TV so the way the performance translates through the camera can make or break our position on the leader board.

I’m pleased to say that the relief after our first rehearsal was immense. SVT had implemented all of our notes and the performance was almost unrecognisable form the stand in rehearsal tape we saw. Joe and Jake had also given us a brilliant performance and looked so comfortable up on stage. The worry had now been replaced by excitement.

Since then we’ve had a second camera rehearsal where we refined the performance even more and will then perform at the Semi Final Jury show. This time it matters even more as voting delegations will be watching.

Could we win?

The Grand Final feels like the day of reckoning for all of our Eurovision hopes. Will we do well? Will we get praised or slated? Could we be left hand side of the leader board? Could we be in the top ten? Could we win? Anything is possible – look at Leicester City lifting the Premier League trophy! But more than winning, I live in hope that the rest of Europe will realise how seriously we have taken the competition and how hard the team have worked to create something amazing that the rest of Europe will love and more importantly, that the UK and everyone watching back home can be very proud of. After all, we are in this together.

Dan Shipton is creative director for the UK entry at Eurovision 2016.

The Eurovision 2016 Grand Final will be broadcast live on �鶹Լ�� One and �鶹Լ�� Radio 2 on Saturday 14 May from 8pm.
Visit the �鶹Լ�� Eurovision homepage for more details about the contest.
Read Hugh Goldsmith's 'The Road to Eurovision'.

Hull's Song for Europe

2016-05-10T09:00:00+00:00

Patricia Bredin now and in 'The Waltz for the Merry Widow'

When �鶹Լ�� Radio Humberside's David Reeves learned that the first UK Eurovision entry came from Hull he decided to find out more, and it led to a new documentary for the station called Hull's Song for Europe. He spoke to editor Jon Jacob about how the documentary came about.

Let’s get the obvious question out of the way first. Are you a fan of the Eurovision?

Me and my wife have hosted parties and get friends round for the night to mark the occasion. I would call myself a fan, yes. I’ve never been to Eurovision before, but I am going for the first time this year to share the story of Patricia Bredin – the UK’s first Eurovision entrant - to the fans in Stockholm.

When did you first start hosting your parties?

Probably around 2003. My wife was a huge fan and she would watch it every year. I guess it was her got me into it. She said: “this is a great thing to watch on TV, it’s a great moment in the calendar,” so I kind of took part. It was probably through her that I realised what Eurovision was about – how it’s a fantastic evening’s entertainment.

At the point of being introduced to it, what were thoughts about Eurovision?

I still watched it as a student. Probably because of Terry Wogan’s commentary it was still something I watched because it was something to laugh at. But, I hadn’t quite grasped how seriously it was taken in the rest of Europe. I probably wasn’t really aware of how huge it was. I saw it as this huge big colourful event – televisual event – which was sort of mocked by UK media.

Do you think that’s still the case now?

Less so. I think Graham Norton gives it a gentle ribbing, but I think there’s more respect paid to it. I think there’s definitely more of showcasing what it means to the rest of Europe. I think in that sense, I probably look at it with less mockery than before.

What are your expectations of going to the Eurovision this year?

My wife went to the Eurovision in Malmo a few years ago, so she’s given me a sense of what to expect. I’m fully expecting there to be a real wash of different nationalities and different fans from all over the world. I’m really expecting the city to be completely taken over by it. I think it’s going to be amazing.

How did you come to make the documentary about Patricia Bredin? Where did that idea start come from? Was the starting point Eurovision, or about highlighting the story of a local celebrity?

A bit of both. I’m interested in some of the stories around Eurovision, but I’m also interested in the history of it as well. I think the initial interest came from my colleague James Hogarth was on the radio during Eurovision weekend and someone had written in and said, “Did you know that Patricia Bredin was the first entrant and she lived in Hull?” He put it out on his show and he had a huge response to the question.

James didn’t have time in his live show to devote to a documentary. There were lots of questions to ask: Was Patricia still alive? Did she live locally? No-one had heard from her. There was a common theme. The people who had rung in and the retired colleagues I asked whether they knew her from the past, the answer was yes. But, did they know where she was now? The answer was that they’d lost touch and that they didn’t know where she was today. That’s when I thought that this was even more of a mystery. I needed to know where she was and whether she was even alive.

When I started looking online there wasn’t anything online written about her first appearance? The Hull Mail had some lovely pictures of her but they didn’t have much written about her. That’s when I began to think that we might have an exclusive.

Did that surprise you when you stumbled on this?

Yes, it did. That’s when I thought that there is this person on the other end of this who hasn’t had her story told and it’s a story that deserves to be told. That’s when I started the search. And when we tracked her down in Nova Scotia I realised there was a great story to explore: what her early experiences of fame were; whether any of those experiences had influenced the second chapter of her life in Canada.

Was there something about needing to establish rapport for making this doc? Was that one of the reasons for wanting to meet up face-to-face?

It was. Previous projects of mine involved working with two elderly women, Beryl and Betty. And on the basis of that experience I did think there was something to be gained from meeting up in person and seeing how the chemistry we established would filter through into the programme.

I just played it straight with her when I got there. She was exactly how I hoped and dreamed she would be. She was a bit of a showbiz luvvy, of course. But at the same time she was this wonderful woman, so open, so willing to tell her story. She was lovely.

Do you think she enjoyed the process of doing the Eurovision?

I think so. I think she was unaware of its impact – at the time it was still very new. I don’t think it had very much impact on her career in the same way that some artists might see it as a step up. I think she just saw it as another gig. But I do believe she saw it as her first, exciting experience of television, her first experience of show business, and of her introduction to the �鶹Լ��.

That was still the early days of television too, wasn’t it?

It was. If you look at the video on YouTube of her singing in the contest, it was a one-camera shot. It looks simple enough, but I think she would have been absolutely petrified by the experience. I still think she enjoyed it though. She absolutely just brushed it away as ‘just another gig’. What she talked about was how it was amazing singing in front of the orchestra, she described it as ‘floating on air’. She was 22 years old at the time, don’t forget. It would have been a big deal for her at the time.

I’m thinking about you and her, and you working with Betty and Beryl. What is it about you, do you think, that makes it possible for you to get the best from them?

I think its about being respectful. It’s showing an interest. When you’re there its all about body language. It’s about sitting close so they can hear and see you – that’s important with older people.

It’s also about showing you’ve done your research. At the same time I was aware that was a little bit scary for her. I think on the whole that it’s about being respectful and making them feel at ease. Its about treating them like you’d treat your own grandma or your own family. It’s about gaining their trust.

That’s something you really love doing, isn’t it? I think I can tell just from hearing you talk about the process.

It is. I knew when I made this that I wanted to capture all of those off-the-cuff moments. I knew that all of the unplanned, unscripted details would bring the documentary to life. Those things would make the programme. You can only really do that in radio where you can leave things recording and capture their conversation. I was able to just hang out with her and sit in the back of the car with her and be more real with her, and capture the unexpected from her. She was great in that respect. I really feel I came away with the real Patricia.

David Reeves is a prodcuer and journalist for �鶹Լ�� Radio Humberside

Hull's Song for Europe is on �鶹Լ�� Radio Humberside, 11am Saturday 14 May and also on �鶹Լ�� iPlayer for 30 days

The road to Eurovision 2016

2016-05-09T09:14:10+00:00

Joe and Jake, the UK's Eurovision entry 2016

As Saturday 14 May and the Grand Final of Eurovision draws ever closer now seems like a great time to reflect on my last 8 months working for the �鶹Լ�� as Music Consultant with the responsibility of finding songs and acts to represent the United Kingdom in 2016.

My search started at the end of September and it entailed me re-connecting with a myriad of song writers, writer managers and music publishers with whom I’d worked before as well as building a whole host of new relationships. Before getting into more detail, I should probably mention the past roles I've held that have lead to me working with the �鶹Լ�� on Eurovision.

My career actually started in the advertising world but after a few years in it the lure of being a full time musician and writer was too great and I left a career with security and potential for the exact opposite....the very uncertain existence of a full time musician. For a number of years, I played in various groups and wrote songs before moving into management and then eventually a corporate job as Marketing Director of RCA Records in 1992. My first initiative on joining was to immerse myself, with my colleagues, in the business of helping Take That get their career on track after a shaky start. Happily, the band went on to achieve huge levels of success which, unlike a lot of groups at the time, they were able to sustain due to the fact that, at their core, they had an extraordinary song writer in the shape of Gary Barlow.

Songs, songs, songs

Through my time in the music industry I have never ceased to put maximum emphasis on the song... It sounds obvious but a brilliant song is the key to true and effortless success in the industry. An amazing artist without a hit song is going nowhere. The examples of this being the case are manifold but would take too long to list here. Whilst at RCA I was lucky enough to work with a fantastic array of artists including David Bowie, M People, Annie Lennox, Dave Stewart, Kylie Minogue, Natalie Imbruglia and 5ive amongst many others. I also spent a few years working with Simon Cowell when he was still just a record executive and before he became a TV star... that was fun.

I eventually left RCA having been offered the opportunity to start a joint venture record company with Virgin Records... Virgin had just broken The Spice Girls worldwide and wanted to start a pop label to bring them more mainstream music... I called the label Innocent Records and had an amazing seven years running it and working with a passionate, hardworking team.

We launched Billie Piper who became the youngest UK female to hit the top of the charts and we also had a string of No. 1’s and sold millions of albums all over the world with Blue and Atomic Kitten. After Innocent, I moved to Sony and started another label called Brightside Recordings... Here I launched a number of great acts but I was most proud of the record sales we achieved with Newton Faulkner whose song ‘Dream Catch Me’, which was co-written by one of my song writers, went on to be a huge hit in the UK and elsewhere in the world. It also helped Newton achieve a double platinum album (600,000 sales) in the UK.

After years on the corporate side of the music business I eventually decided to strike out on my own and the last few years have been spent running a recording studio in West Sussex and building my own publishing company which has become a home to some very exciting young song writers.

Why Eurovision?

As mentioned before, I love great songs and the challenge of trying to unearth them which is why I jumped at the chance of helping the �鶹Լ�� find some strong song options (and artists too) for Eurovision 2016.

The search, which predominantly took place from October through to January, was exciting and a little challenging too. However, for the most part it was a fantastic experience. The challenges were borne out of the fact that, in the UK, Eurovision isn’t currently held in the same high regard as it is around the rest of Europe, neither by the music industry nor by the general public, so it wasn’t going to be easy to secure the best songs.

Understandably, writers would rather allocate their song to a well-known artist than enter it into a song contest. This isn’t the case elsewhere in Europe where it is seen as the highest honour for your song to represent your country in the competition. Eurovision is, after all, a MASSIVE event and, with its audience of around 200 million, is by far the biggest TV entertainment show on the planet.

This year saw the �鶹Լ�� undertake their biggest song search ever where tracks were not only coming in from top industry writers but also from any member of the general public wanting to enter.

My time was spent listening to hundreds of submissions and when I thought a song was fantastic or simply had potential I would then meet up with the writers and we would discuss ways in which we could best take the song to conclusion for Eurovision. Every song has to be less than three minutes long and needs to be immediate in its appeal as some people may only hear it once in the Grand Final (the UK does not compete in the semi final stage). Consequently, the production values need to be high and the chorus needs to be compelling and heard enough times to hook in the listener. On top of finding the songs, I also spent a lot of time searching for exciting, enthusiastic singers who could sing the them. It should be said that a couple of the songs were actually sung by the people who wrote them.

Having whittled the vast number of entries down to a shortlist of around 20, these songs were then played to senior industry people from the worlds of radio and TV as well as some top executives from the music industry in order to help us select the final six songs for Eurovision: You Decide – a televised selection show where the public made the final decision on which song was to go forward to represent the UK in Stockholm.

Fan engagement is a crucial part of Eurovision therefore we also enlisted the help of the UK branch of the OGAE (the biggest Eurovision fan club in the world) to help us select the best entries from the general public. From a strong selection of entries the public chose Joe and Jake and the song, 'You’re Not Alone'. Joe and Jake are two very talented and lovely young guys who are relishing the whole Eurovision process and winning new friends wherever they go. The guys are now about to experience the true enormity of the Eurovision experience as they touch down in Stockholm and embark on exhaustive rehearsals before the big night on 14 May!

A marathon…not a sprint

So, what does the future hold for the UK in Eurovision? We must not forget that, in recent years, some massive pan European hits have been spawned by the competition and, in the more distant past, the show has been responsible for two of the biggest pop acts of all time, ABBA and Celine Dion. My strong feeling is that there has never been a better time for a huge new act to break out of Eurovision... The audience can stream or download tracks on the night if they fall in love with a song and this, in turn, can give an artist the opportunity to literally become an overnight sensation right across Europe.

Sweden, currently home to some of the most successful songwriters in the world (songs for Taylor Swift, Rihanna, One Direction, Katy Perry and many more) recognise the power of the contest and for some years now have been totally invested in upping their game at Eurovision. And they have most certainly done this which is why the show is coming from Stockholm in 2016.

My hope is that, slowly but surely over the next few years, the UK will also attract more and more writers and acts of calibre and that we too will be truly back in the Eurovision game in the future.

Hugh Goldsmith is Music Consultant to the �鶹Լ��

Watch the grand final of the Eurovision Song Content 2016 live on the �鶹Լ�� on Saturday 14 May at 8pm

Selecting a song for Eurovision

2016-02-25T16:57:24+00:00

Broadcaster David Jacobs (centre), is pictured with singers from the first edition of the four-part series of 'Festival of British Popular Songs' host. The first UK Eurovision selection final held in 1957. The format would go through many title changes over the intervening years.

In this post, freelance journalist and Junior Eurovision commentator for the UK Ewan Spence looks back at some of his highlights from the UK's Eurovision 'national final' past.

From Studio 3 at Television Centre and Wembley Arena, to the National Lottery and the Royal Albert Hall: the �鶹Լ�� has used a variety of different venues (and different methods) to select the United Kingdom’s entry for the Eurovision Song Contest.

Friday, March 31st, 1978. Once more the �鶹Լ�� outside broadcast unit is at the Royal Albert Hall. Once more the dinner jackets are brought out to introduce the cream of British music. Once more the orchestra is ready to broadcast to the nation in the middle of the punk revolution.

Except this wasn’t the annual spectacular of The Proms: it was the �鶹Լ��’s selection show for the 1978 Eurovision Song Contest. A diverse range of performers took to the stage, including some blues funk from Labi Siffre, a pre-Bucks Fizz Cheryl Baker, and American singer-songwriter Bob James. The �鶹Լ�� even added a dash of punk rock in the Royal Albert Hall with the trailblazing 'Door In My Face' by The Fruit Eating Bears.

Coco, one of the groups who competed in the 1978 Song For Europe staged at the Royal Albert Hall. Pictured front right is Cheryl Baker, who would later form part of Bucks Fizz.

The Fruit Eating Bears also competed in the 1978 Song For Europe. Their performance did not involve one of them chewing on an electric guitar.

Punk rock would not be seen at Eurovision until 2015's Finnish entry from Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät. Meanwhile, Cheryl Baker’s place in Song Contest history is assured but we’re still waiting on Labi Siffre.

Labi Siffre also participated in the 1978 Song For Europe with the song Solid Love. He came fifth.

Selecting a song for Europe is a tricky business. Television producers across the continent, for the last sixty years, have tried to figure out the perfect way to pick an act for the Eurovision Song Contest, balancing the need to engage an television audience ahead of the main event with a desire to see the UK win the Contest.

And, for most Eurovision selection programmes - also known as the national final, these live competitive shows see the final decision is out of the hands of the producers. They can strive to get the best talent in the room, but it's up to the talent to shine on the night.

Eurovision fans love to bring up ABBA's victory in 1974 at every opportunity, but very few will rush to remind Swedish fans that one year before a group called Agnetha, Anni-Frid, Björn & Benny only finished third in Sweden's selection show Melodifestivalen. narrowly missing out on the Eurovision Song Contest that year.

But sometimes the public gets it right, and you don't need to be in a grand venue like the Royal Albert Hall. Ahead of the introduction of phone voting in the 1997 Eurovision Song Contest, the UK public was asked to make the decision on which song to send to Dublin through the National Lottery draw.

This external content is available at its source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNBoDwN9RlM

Before Dale Winton released the balls, the stage was used to showcase the songs over a number of weeks, before a Sunday afternoon broadcast of the four songs accompanied the opening of the voting lines so the public could decide the winner.

Much as there is a corner of England that will always demand songs like 'Yodel in The Canyon Of Love' should go to Eurovision, the public knew a real winner when it saw one. The ticket went to Katrina and the Waves and ‘Love Shine A Light’ ...although there was a six-day wait before the results were revealed live on the next National Lottery draw.

Lulu in a promotional shot holding postcard votes for the 1969 national selection programme for Eurovision. Lulu sang all of the songs in the selection programme. Boom Bang A Bang went on to represent the UK and won (along with a handful of other countries) the Eurovision final.

Television is an ever-changing medium, and programming styles constantly evolve. One of the key changes is speed - everything happens at a faster pace, there's far more moments in a show, and the public expect to be involved. In the early days that meant sending in a postcard to tell Lulu which of the five songs she had sung on the selection show was the most popular song, with the results announced a week later.

Today's broadcasts are a little bit faster, with phone calls and text messaging playing a key part in bringing the audience closer to the song and feeling part of the process. Hashtags may be the done thing to promote the discussion of a program online, but selecting a Eurovision act is one of the biggest interactive moments of the musical year.

National Finals have evolved - it's no longer enough to simply ask the audience what song they like. The 21st century selection shows, inspired by TV talent competitions, have brought about a new twist to the format: the panel.

Slowly replacing the classic regional juries of the 1980s that sought to mimick the finals of the Eurovision Song Contest, panels offered expert opinions from those who have experience at the Contest, who have relevant skills or background in dancing and choreography, or have experience that can help advise the public what might help score douze points.

The panel for the 2003 Song For Europe national final. Jessica Garlick (top row, middle) had represented the UK in 2002 with her song Come Back, coming third in the final voting table. Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins (bottom left) make an appearance too. The song that won Song For Europe - Cry Baby - came last with 'nul points' at the 2003 Eurovision.

Sometimes the panel can have a huge impact on the show. In 2009 - in another series of Eurovision: Making Your Mind Up - the public selected the two least favourite acts each week over a number of heats with the panel getting a 'vote to save'. Other panels have no direct input on the result but some Eurovision fans have never forgiven John Barrowman when he loudly exclaimed, "That's so Eurovision!" unwittingly anointing Scooch's 'Flying The Flag' as viewing public preferred choice to represent the UK at the Contest that year.

Scooch won the UK national final - Eurovision: Making Your Mind Up - in 2007. Scooch came second from last with their song 'Flying the Flag (For You)' in the Eurovision final.

How a song is selected has changed through the years. The �鶹Լ�� is not alone in using different formats: broadcasters across Europe use a range of different venues: arenas with capacities of 65,000; intimate studio settings with less than a hundred people standing at the side of the stage.

Jade Ewen sang won the 2009 selection programme 'Eurovision: Your Country Needs You' in which a variety of performers competed in a month-long elimination for a chance to sing Andrew Lloyd-Webber's song. Jade came fifth in the Eurovision, staged in Russia that year. Our best performance since Jessica Garlick in 2002.

The last few years have seen the �鶹Լ�� use an internal selection process, but in the current environment of interactivity and social media, it is right that the �鶹Լ�� uses the National Final to showcase the musical talent the UK has to offer. It's great that the music is presented in a suitable environment, and it is surely right that the public has the final say.

There's a reason it's called "Eurovision: You Decide"

Ewan Spence is a freelance journalist and editor of Eurovision website ESC Insight

Eurovision: You Decide is live on �鶹Լ�� Four at 7.30pm tonight
Test your knowledge of UK acts at Eurovision with �鶹Լ�� Music's special quiz
Follow @�鶹Լ��Eurovision and @�鶹Լ��Four for live updates throughout the evening
The Eurovision Song Contest shows live from Stockholm will be on 10, 12 and 14 May

Tributes to Terry Wogan

2016-02-01T10:00:00+00:00

Chris Evans paid tribute to Terry Wogan at the beginning of the Radio 2 Breakfast Show on Monday 1 February 2016.

After news that veteran �鶹Լ�� broadcaster Terry Wogan died yesterday (Sunday 31 January) tributes to the much-loved presenter flowed in. Director General Tony Hall wrote to �鶹Լ�� staff saying: "Today we lost a broadcasting legend, but also a dear friend. Terry Wogan was simply a wonderful man - courteous, courageous and delightfully mischievous. People watching and listening adored him."

On Twitter tributes filled every feed, here we've collated just a few.

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This external content is available at its source: https://twitter.com/bbceurovision/status/693753535935176704

Farewells on the front pages

This morning's papers (Monday 1 February) were also dedicated to Terry. His smiling face adorned them all from the broadsheets to the red tops. They're a fitting tribute, so we've included some of them below.

'Four days of heaven': Eurovision Radio returns

2015-05-19T09:16:16+00:00

On the eve of the first Eurovision semi-final of 2015, Helen Thomas introduces this year's pop-up Eurovision radio offering, Radio 2 Eurovision.

As Editor at Radio 2 and 6 Music, I’m responsible for a tranche of programmes across both radio networks including on Radio 2 - After Midnight, Chris Evans Breakfast Show, Simon Mayo Drive Time, Radio 2 Arts show with Claudia Winkleman and then on 6 Music - Tom Ravenscroft, Nemone and The Joy of 6. I also oversee fun things like Comic Relief and Sport Relief, and the Radio 2 Artist in Residence search. Most recently I headed-up Dermot’s Day of Dance on Radio 2 and the �鶹Լ�� Red Button - a live charity fundraiser featuring Dermot O’Leary dancing for 24 hours on the piazza outside Broadcasting House.

I love radio and I love working on radio at the �鶹Լ��, alongside amazing talent both on air and production staff behind the scenes. I adore big, shiny events too. That’s the kind of radio which really excites me. The Chris Evans Breakfast Show is an amazing example of a programme that runs five days a week, but yet manages to make every show feel like an event. And within that year of shows there are big peaks and spikes too, events like 500 Words or Children in Need. I'm interested in the kind of radio that builds towards something big, seeing it come to fruition and a climax.

Radio 2 Eurovision is a good example of what I’m referring to here. Our first pop-up service ran for four days last May. It was a real experiment - a toe in the water. Building on the success of 5 Live's Olympics Extra in 2012, this pop-up was the first time a music network had launched a temporary DAB service. We wanted to see what sort of appetite there was for it.

What we discovered confounded our expectations in terms of the number of people who tuned in, but also in terms of the passion of those people. As experiments with music led pop-up DAB services go, Eurovision was a really great model to start with because it is, on the whole, a subject which attracts the passionate.

So, when the mega-Eurovision fans contacted us saying, ‘Oh at last four days of heaven!’ we were really pleased. Even a month after the service had gone off-air, fans were tweeting us and emailing saying, ‘We wish Radio 2 Eurovision was still going,’ because they wanted more than their annual fix. And those Radio 2 listeners who weren’t quite so excited about Eurovision were happy because the reflection of the contest on regular Radio 2 consisted of Graham Norton’s and Ken Bruce’s shows coming from Copenhagen in the run up to the final – and that was it. So whilst the pop-up service was on air, Radio 2 listeners could hear their usual Radio 2 programmes, but had the option of switching over and tuning in to our bespoke Eurovision content should they want to.

This meant that our core Radio 2 listeners still felt catered for, while the real fans knew they had a dedicated station. It would have been crazy to turn Radio 2 into a Eurovision fest, completely with nothing else, for four days. This way we got to offer listeners real choice.

We learnt two big lessons from Radio 2 Eurovision and from the other pop-up service we ran – Radio 2 Country – in March. The first is to schedule our presenters on Radio 2 Eurovision this year at a time when their regular shows on Radio 2 finish. For instance, Steve Wright’s Eurovision Love Songs starts at 11am on Sunday morning, so those who want to hear more of Steve or his love song selection can switch over to our pop-up DAB service to catch a Eurovision-related special. We’ve done the same with Scott Mills who’s hosting a show for us called the Sound of Music, apt given Eurovision is in Austria this year. That goes out at 4pm, off the back of his Radio 1 show. We’ve found a way of giving listeners more of the presenters they like to hear from across two radio stations.

The other learning point was that the people who love Eurovision, really, really love Eurovision. The contest is a massively positive, inclusive, and fabulous experience. The listeners to Radio 2 Eurovision are those who genuinely celebrate and cherish the contest. We don’t want to send it up or be ‘ironic’, we want to celebrate it with them too.

This year we’ve injected more live broadcasts into the schedule, particularly on the Sunday, the day after the contest. I really wanted to give listeners a voice so they could talk about the contest from their perspective. So, Maria McErlane will present a wrap-up reaction show the day after the contest. We’ll play a repeat of the contest in full from the Saturday evening and then off the back of that, people will have the chance to phone in and express what their personal highlights were.

Being the first music network to try a temporary pop-up DAB service was something I was proud Radio 2 had a chance to do. In the wake of that, Radio 1 did their Ibiza pop-up service, and then we ran our Country service. If the first Radio 2 Eurovision hadn’t met the mark, we wouldn’t be here again. And for me, there’s something interesting going on here – the idea that some people want to immerse themselves for a short while in a particular music genre. It’s like watching an entire series of Breaking Bad back to back - it’s ‘binge radio’. I wonder whether it’s a sign that radio consumption trends are changing.

Most excitingly, it’s driving digital radio take-up which is hugely important, and we saw sales of digital radios increase significantly around the launch of Radio 2 Eurovision last year, similarly for our Country service.

We’ve got some real programming gems in Radio 2 Eurovision this year. There’s the Ultimate Eurovision Quiz - because everyone loves a quiz! There’s Terry Wogan’s Tracks of My Eurovision Years – which combines two Eurovision stalwarts - Terry Wogan and Ken Bruce. Ken of course will be commentating for Radio 2 as he’s done since 1989. And Radio 2 Eurovision for us wouldn’t be complete without Paddy O’Connell, an uber fan and a fantastic broadcaster who combines his passion for the subject material with a journalistic approach. He’s the perfect person for us to have as our anchor-man, doing a show live from Vienna every day and twice on contest day itself. There’s loads more besides – do be sure to check out the schedule.

Radio 2 Eurovision starts on Thursday 21 May at midday. I cannot wait. I do hope you’ll listen and get in contact with us on Twitter or via email.

Helen Thomas is Editor of �鶹Լ�� Radio 2 and 6 Music

Radio 2 Eurovision pops up from Thursday 21 May - see the full schedule

Songwriters and performers invited to submit Eurovision 2015 entry

2014-10-07T06:40:24+00:00

On the �鶹Լ�� Eurovision blog, executive producer Guy Freeman wrote about selecting next year's song for the competition, inviting songwriters and performers to submit songs for consideration.

We’re keen to provide as many routes into the selection process as possible, whilst remaining realistic about the proven amount of experience required by anyone wishing to put themselves forward. As we did last year, we will continue to talk to record labels and organisations who work with songwriters and artists every day – such as �鶹Լ�� Introducing – to suggest or create viable entries.

In addition, we will happily consider entries submitted formally; please click the email link below for details. The most important point to bear in mind is that entries must be in the form of a video recording of an appropriate artist or group performing the song. The video doesn’t have to be professionally shot and the audio production can be a demo – but it must be performed by the artist who you believe could perform it in Vienna, if it was selected. We are unable to accept songs submitted without an artist or artists applying without a song.

To register email: �鶹Լ��EurovisionSubmissions@bbc.co.uk

The closing date for submissions is 5pm on Friday 7 November

Read the full post including important information about submitting songs for consideration on the �鶹Լ�� Eurovision blog.

Eurovision 2014 on �鶹Լ�� Radio 2

2014-03-29T10:26:31+00:00

The Eurovision Song Contest is one of my earliest childhood memories. I remember being very tiny and very poorly on a Saturday night. My temperature was so high, that my mother called the emergency doctor. I didn’t know they did house calls. He said I would be fine, prescribed something and suggested that I stay up really really late and watch the rest of the Eurovision Song Contest.

It was 1974 and Abba stormed to Sweden’s first ever win with Waterloo. I got better, they became one of the biggest recording groups of all time.

I have recently been surprised to discover that only 17 countries took part that year, and the contest was held not in Stockholm as most people assume, but Brighton.

Forty years on and the �鶹Լ�� is set to provide its most comprehensive coverage yet of the Eurovision Song Contest.

In addition to the live semi-finals on �鶹Լ�� Three and the final on �鶹Լ�� One we are launching Radio 2 Eurovision, four days of programming that reflects the history, culture and, of course, the fun of Eurovision.

The schedule reflects the depth of content that listeners have come to expect from Radio 2. There will be live shows from Copenhagen presented by Paddy O Connell and Scott Mills along with Radio 2 regulars Graham Norton and Ken Bruce. Ana Matronic and Bucks Fizz will set the party atmosphere on Saturday night with Paddy hosting a post-show party. There are Eurovision themed editions of Sounds of the 60’s with Brian Matthew, Sounds of the 70’s with Johnnie Walker and Sounds of the 80’s with Sara Cox. Terry Wogan presents the history of the Irish in the competition while David Quantick hosts the Blaggers Guide to Eurovision. There’s loads more including the story of Abba with Scott Mills, new shows hosted by Michael Ball, Maria McErlane and a range of archive documentaries.

Radio 2 Eurovision runs from midday to midnight from Thursday 8 May to Sunday 11 May, except on Saturday when we’re on air at 10am with Graham Norton. The final will be simulcast on Radio 2.

There will be a live blog and extensive social media (@R2Eurovision) for listeners to interact with and contribute to the on air output.

We are hoping that many of Radio 2's listeners - who number nearly 15.5 million - will listen on a digital radio or online for the first time. 62% of Radio 2 is still consumed on FM. Radio 2 Eurovision will be available on digital radio, although many with older sets may need to retune their radios to receive it. Additionally you will be able to listen at bbc.co.uk/radio, within �鶹Լ�� iPlayer Radio App, and on the UK Radio Player.

So roll on 8 May and….c’mon Molly!

Brett Spencer is Editor, Digital, Radio 2, 6 Music and Asian Network

Follow @R2Eurovision on Twitter and Radio 2 on Facebook
Read Matt Deegan's post about the pop-up station on Matt Deegan Writes
Read Eurovision Executive Producer Guy Freeman’s vision for Copenhagen
Read Ewan Spence’s blog Eurovision isn’t just for May, it’s for all year

�鶹Լ�� Eurovision 2014: Our vision for Copenhagen

2014-02-28T15:59:16+00:00

If the Eurovision Song Contest’s participating countries somehow took it in turns to win the competition, the UK wouldn’t be due another victory until at least the year 2037. A nonsensical idea, but it helps to set the gap since our last win into some sort of perspective. Having won the Contest five times, we still rank joint second on the leader board of victories and despite some memorable misfires, we still have the highest cumulative points total of any country. But even the most casual viewer will be aware that over the last decade our fortunes have waned somewhat.

With 9 million UK viewers watching last year’s show and a very active online fan base, the contest is as popular as ever. There’s certainly no shortage of ideas out there as to what needs to be done.

It’s clear that people genuinely care about it and I do too. Yes, in the grand scheme of things it might all seem rather trivial to some, but when it comes to the night itself, we all want to be proud of our UK entry and then see the score displayed next to the Union Jack notch up a healthy total.

I was lucky enough to be alongside Terry Wogan in the commentary box at the Point Theatre in Dublin, when Katrina’s performance of ‘Love Shine A Light’ earned us ten sets of “douze points” and ultimate victory, in 1997. It created an instant feel-good factor and put Britain at the top.

That’s why my small team and I, who produce the nine hours of Eurovision-related programming, happily took up the challenge of finding our 2014 entry last Autumn. It’s up to participating broadcasters how they go about selecting their entries. Some countries use selection shows and we’ve done this in the past, but this year we began by taking a dispassionate look at recent winners. We discovered that simply by and large they’ve been very good songs that have deserved to win.

It’s clear there’s a disconnect between what kind of songs and artists are now winning Eurovision, versus the stereotype that many people – including much of the music industry - still hold in their minds. Yes, novelty songs and acts do still turn up in the show, provide great entertainment and make good press – but they don’t tend to win. So, early on in plans for 2014, we took the view that we needed a bespoke, contemporary song, written specifically to suit the conditions of the competition – rather than trying to get lucky with a pre-existing track from an artist.

Although Eurovision is a song contest, it’s not a pre-recorded, post-produced and auto-tuned song contest. It’s a live vocal performance song contest and we all know what can go wrong there. The choice of song is inextricably linked to the ability of its singer. And the process of finding a song that’s right for the competition and marrying it with an artist who can perform it live, perfectly, to millions of TV viewers and in front of a live arena audience is definitely an art, rather than a science.

In trying to practice that art, we all listened to a great many potential songs and looked at footage of a great many artists performing live. Nothing was quite right until we looked at a resource right under our nose: �鶹Լ�� Introducing. This is the gateway for undiscovered and unsigned music makers to upload their best tracks and get them heard and featured by the �鶹Լ��. Some of the artists who’ve received �鶹Լ�� Introducing support at the start of their careers include Florence and The Machine, Ed Sheeran, Rizzle Kicks and Jake Bugg.

It was a real treat to discover the work of artists highlighted by �鶹Լ�� Introducing and what most excited us was the quality of singer-song writing. We carefully approached a few artists who stood out to us and once they understood what we were trying to achieve, they embraced the idea of writing a song for the competition from scratch. Knowing that they’d be the one who’d have to go out there and sell it, they could write specifically to exploit their talents.

The end result is that we now have a powerful and impressive song that we hope will do us proud in Copenhagen. We’re keen to introduce the song and artist to everyone as soon as possible, so it will be premiered on �鶹Լ�� Red button next Monday (3rd March) evening at 7.30pm and available to catch up on �鶹Լ�� iPlayer.

Guy Freeman is Executive Producer, �鶹Լ�� Eurovision

The United Kingdom's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest will be played exclusively via �鶹Լ�� Red Button on Monday 3 March at 7.30pm.
The song will also be available via �鶹Լ�� iPlayer.
More information about the song contest can be found on the �鶹Լ�� Eurovision website.
Find out more about �鶹Լ�� Introducing
Read Ewan Spence's 2013 blog post for About the �鶹Լ��: Eurovision isn't just for May, it's all year

Eurovision isn't just for May, it's all year

2013-05-09T15:07:45+00:00

On May 18th, the Grand Final of the 58th Eurovision Song Contest will be broadcast on �鶹Լ�� One and �鶹Լ�� Radio 2. One of the world's biggest Song Contests, with a combined global audience of around 120 million viewers, it is an annual fixture in the calendar, and means many things to many people. For some it's a car crash of light entertainment, for others it's one of the few times the complicated landscape of European politics can be easily explained, and for a few it's the culmination of a year of hard work.

Started in 1956 in a post-second world war landscape, 'father' of the Contest, Marcel Bezançon - a then producer at the fledgling collaboration of European broadcasters, the EBU - envisioned a television show that would bring together the people and the nations of Europe.

The TV format quickly proposed and subsequently agreed upon by the European Broadcasting Union (there was another continental competition on the table which failed to make the grade) was the Eurovision Song Contest: a light entertainment show based around the Italian San Remo Song Contest, a programme to be broadcast live across all partners in the EBU - an excellent vehicle to test out and showcase the then new broadcasting technologies.

The first contest was broadcast in 1956. The �鶹Լ�� submitted their entry form too late, so the UK's first contest was in 1957. The UK has never missed a show since 1959.

One aspect of proceedings that perhaps isn't always apparent to the viewer is the co-operation needed between broadcasters in the EBU. There are countless meetings throughout the year and in the run up to the Contest between the 'host broadcaster' (this year it's Sweden's SVT), the countries entering the Contest, and the EBU themselves, to discuss not just the rules and formats of the Contest, but also logistics around the live broadcast event (now three two hour shows comprising semi-finals and final), sharing knowledge and expertise around Europe and beyond.

But, just like a puppy and Christmas time, the Eurovision network is not just for three nights in May. With a digital and broadcast network available throughout the year, the EBU not only acts as a distribution point for news clips, international sporting events and music concerts (such as dedicated music days on �鶹Լ�� Radio 3, for example), but also as a single entity when bidding for TV rights to global sporting events.

That's what the co-operation seen at the Eurovision Song Contest helps foster. A spirit of working together, to help every European broadcaster deliver the best quality television and radio to their audiences. The benefits of the Eurovision Song Contest to the broadcaster are not just external in terms of output, Eurovision has always been a test-bed for technologies inside the broadcaster too.

Broadcast in colour for the first time, the 1968 Contest was hosted by the �鶹Լ�� in London.

The first show in 1956 saw pictures beamed live from Switzerland across Europe, with commentators broadcasting for their local audience. 1968 saw the first colour broadcast when the �鶹Լ�� hosted the event at the Royal Albert Hall. The advent of Ceefax offered an opportunity for viewers to watch subtitled song lyrics in real-time. Telephone voting was fully integrated across the competing countries in 1998 when the �鶹Լ�� last hosted Eurovision in Birmingham - another way in which technology went hand in hand with the competition. Now, it's possible to watch the entire live show streamed on a mobile device. Things have come a long way since Marcel Bezançon’s idea in 1956.

It's subtle, but I reckon the Eurovision Song Contest hits the three original tenets of the �鶹Լ�� - to educate, to inform, and to entertain. The Eurovision provides one way of looking at population movements across Europe via the often commented on voting process. Is there any other mainstream programme where you can hear so much local music from other cultures? And when a live show brings in millions of viewers across a continent throughout a three hour spectacular (and even more come in from the iPlayer and time-shifted recorded versions), can there be any doubt that is entertaining?

Ewan Spence is a freelance journalist currently working with Australian broadcaster SBS Radio at the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo.

The Eurovision Song Contest is on �鶹Լ�� One, �鶹Լ�� One HD and Radio 2 at 8pm on Saturday 18 May. The semi-finals will be broadcast on �鶹Լ�� Three from 8pm on Tuesday 14 and Thursday 16 May.
Follow �鶹Լ�� Eurovision on Twitter @�鶹Լ��Eurovision.
Read more from Ewan Spence on ESCInsight and follow him on Twitter @Ewan.

George Campey and Eurovision

2010-06-24T12:50:18+00:00

George Campey OBE, who coined the term 'Eurovision' to describe the idea of a TV link-up between broadcasters in Europe, has died aged 94. Without him, there might not have been a Eurovision Song Contest. It might have ended up as the Cross Borders Cultural Collaboration Between Public Service Broadcasters In Europe And Beyond Song Contest, which doesn't to me have quite the same ring to it. The �鶹Լ�� wanted to call it the Television Continental Exchange, which sounds now a tad risquÃ©. George's snappier Eurovision title, coined in 1951, thankfully quickly caught on and the Eurovision Song Contest was born in 1956. He died just a week after the 55th Eurovision final, which took place this year in Oslo.

George was one of my predecessors in the �鶹Լ�� Press Office at a time when many of the big �鶹Լ�� press issues were stimulated by Mary Whitehouse, or the celebrated satirical programme That Was The Week That Was. Sometimes both!

George also created the first of what we now call accountability programmes. Information Desk, which began in 1955, answered viewers' queries. The �鶹Լ�� wanted to find a way of connecting directly with the TV audience. It was revolutionary at the time, and the forerunner of programmes like Points of View.

George Campey did a great job, and we're remembering him with gratitude at the �鶹Լ��.

Donald Steel is Chief Communications Adviser