| Eurovision Song Contest News - 2009 Moscow, Russia

Switzerland: Internal selection for Eurovision 2010 (22) | Telenor Arena to host Eurovision 2010 (45) | Ireland: RTÉ spent €182,000 on Irish entry (65) | Armenia: Sirusho gets married! (47) | Lithuania: Sasha Song duet with Svetlana Loboda (16) | Luxembourg : David-Alexandre Winter back on tour (8) | France: Fairytale to be released in the country (7) | June Schlager Party this Friday (3) | Israel: Lior Narkis making a controversial comeback (25) | Lithuania: Sasha Song in the UK for two concerts (105) | Finland: 2010 selection rules announced (66) | Eurovision 2010: NRK and EBU organisers meet (149) | France: Jury vote revealed (118) | France: Patricia Kaas in Istanbul (26) | Albania: Olta Boka releases new single and video. (12) | Bosnia & Herzegovina: Regina release new album (18) | Swiss jury gives 12 points to Alexander Rybak (104) | Romanian music awards 2009: The results (5) | Romania: Nico releases new video clip (15) | Ireland: Top jury votes and viewer ratings revealed (34) |

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Daniel C Bagpuss Troublemaker 2

Country: United Kingdom
Birthdate: Unknown
Sex: Male
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My story

Daniel C Bagpuss Troublemaker 2

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I have been a fan of the contest for as long as I can remember and I listen to Eurovision songs on a regular basis. My favourite decade for songs was the 1990s and if I had to pick one year, it would probably be 1997.

I greatly regret the introduction of the free language rule in 1999. Although it is fairer, the contest lost much of what I enjoyed most. 1999 began a very bleak few years in the contest with many songs sound fairly similar. Things have improved a bit again, but I will always prefer a song in the singer's native language, to a song in badly pronounced English. With so many countries taking part these days, ever more desperate things are being done to get attention, this means that it sometimes seems more like a Gimmick and Dancing Contest.

I thought the introduction of televoting was a great idea, but the predictable neighbourly voting and significant diaspora advantage that some countries have, has become very tiresome. After Russia's farcical victory in 2008, when out of the other 42 countries, 36 percent of the vote came from just 9 former USSR countries - more than the combined vote of the 19 'Old Eurovision' (pre-1993) countries - I welcome the return of juries to try and bring back some fairness to the contest.

After all this, you may wonder why I even bother with Eurovision any more? The truth is, so far, I haven't been able to give it up!
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My 2009 groupings (which are in alphabetical, not preference order)

(L) Like/love/I want to listen to that again (L)
Andorra
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Croatia
Estonia
France
Iceland
Israel
Norway
Portugal
Sweden
Switzerland

OK/reasonable/I can listen to that
Albania
Azerbaijan
Cyprus
Denmark
Greece
Lithuania
Malta
Moldova
Netherlands
Poland
Spain
UK

Don't like/poor/would rather avoid
Belarus
Bulgaria
Finland
Georgia
Hungary
Ireland
Montenegro
Romania
Russia
Serbia
Slovakia
Slovenia
Turkey

Awful/really bad/run away screaming
Armenia
Belgium
Czech Republic
FYR of Macedonia
Germany
Latvia
Ukraine