JOY Eurovision

2 Mar 2012

Musings – EH ? What ?!!!!!

Musings, Uncategorized

Posted by Andrew “I remember him in black & white” Bell

Eurovision just keeps giving.

And the BBC is the biggest Eurovision giver of them all.

It’s almost an All Fools Day gag a month early.

But it’s deadly serious … allegedly.

75-year-old Engelbert Humperdinck, “the King of Romance”, will carry the flag for the UK at the 2012 ESC.

The announcement came 45 years to the day that EH reached Number One in the UK charts with “Release Me”.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Brxe2wwgAXA]

Engelbert, real name Arnold George Dorsey & born in Chennai, is a name not just from my adolescence, but from the darkest recesses of my early childhood.

He was someone your best friend’s mum had a crush on … and you thought that it was hilarious.

Really hilarious.

Mr Humperdinck has never,ever been “non-naff” – well, not in my eyes.

Now, retro camp has its place, especially in Eurovision.

But this is paleo-retro camp.

I cannot for the life of me see 23-year-old dudes in Reykjavík or 19-year-old dudettes in Budapest “getting it” and racing to televote with a knowing smirk.

Of course, the song may help

It will need to.

Big time.

When I somewhat cheekily suggested the World War Two “Forces Sweetheart” Dame Vera Lynn as a potential candidate for Baku I never dreamed just how close I was getting.

In searching for something to sum up the Beeb’s decision I stumbled across an online review of the movie “The Boat that Rocked“.

“Once upon a time, before Steve Jobs, there was radio. People would spend their Sunday afternoons engaged in productive and unsatanic activities; washing the dishes, cooking pumpkin pie and listening to the weather broadcast and Engelbert Humperdinck.”

Bang on.

Or as another old bloke from the BBC might comment.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLNrLI3OBwg]