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| Ken You Believe It |
| Written by Administrator | |
| Saturday, 24 May 2008 | |
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Ken Bruce has been BBC Radio 2's voice of Eurovision since 1988. That's 20 full years of sequins, nul points, falsettos and histrionics. But does the jocular Scot still look forward to it? "Of course," he says, "although you start looking forward to it with a bit more trepidation as the years go by..." And there's no escaping Eurovision for Ken this year. As well as presenting the station's massively popular final coverage on Saturday he's also decamping to Belgrade on Friday to present his Radio 2 morning show from a studio not a stone's throw from the great Beogradska Arena itself. His guest will be UK hopeful Andy Abraham. But Radio 2 has only just playlisted his song Even If and there's been some minor criticism of UK radio stations for not getting behind our entry enough. Ken knows where he stands. "I've been playing it and I know Terry has," he says. "We should be supporting Andy as much as we can. He's a very good performer and it's a good song. It deserves to do well." But is that enough? Ken is doubtful. "The shame is that it no longer seems to be about the song," he muses. "It's now about the spectacle and the impact. People are doing interval acts to win." It's no wonder that the UK doesn't take the contest as seriously as it might. But is that a problem? And was Eurovision boss Bjorn Erichsen right to rap Terry Wogan and his ilk for their light-hearted approach? Ken thinks not. "The vast majority of people at home see it as a bit of fun," he says. "You can't watch it and honestly say that it represents the cream of European songwriting... It's not even the UHT milk of songwriting. You've got to laugh. And criticising Terry is seriously missing the point." And would Ken ever want to do a job swap with Terry on the box? "Oh no," he insists. "The freedom I get on the radio is immense. I'm describing an event in the room, and I want to paint listeners a little picture of the acts before they start. Sometimes words aren't quite enough but I do what I can." And the event itself has changed enormously since Ken took over Radio 2's coverage from the late, great Ray Moore in Dublin in 1988. "It was a black tie event back then, with the whole audience made up of dignitaries in dinner jackets. The event's got bigger and more accessible since the public got in on the act. It's more like a football match now." And it's that very, ever expanding public who are responsible for the way the voting has veered to the east in recent years. But Ken has the answer. "A few years ago I came up with the idea that they should split Europe down the Danube and have an Eastern European Song Contest and a Western European Song Contest, to see what would happen. "Mind you," he adds, "we probably still wouldn't win!" Ken Bruce presents his Radio 2 morning show live from Belgrade from 9.30am on Friday and Radio 2's coverage of the final on Saturday night from 8pm Source |
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