Britain tries to come to terms with a situation they�re not used to. Since the announcement of this year�s Eurovision Song Contest result, in which the British entry �Cry Baby�, sung by duo Jemani, failed to receive any points and finished at the bottom, everybody is trying to give an explanation or, more often, put a blame for the country's worst result ever.

In front of 150 million viewers world-wide, our Liverpudlian duo Jemani were thoroughly Euro-trashed. But was the song really bad?, these were the words that Catherine Jacob of British TV station Channel 5 used in order to introduce her report in the station�s news program last night. She was followed by comments saying that the song lacked the instant charm that the Turkish entry with the belly-dancing and the boom boom boom had. Catherine Jacob finished her report by saying: Yes, Turkey were this year�s eventual winners. But could it be that the voting system was based on more than belly-dancing abilities and musical talent?.

The view was shared by Channel 4 News, presented by Krishnan Guru-Murthy: Perhaps the out of tune performance by Liverpudlian duo Jemani was the reason (�) Terry Wogan (commentator of the contest for BBC1) reckoned it was just down to a post-Iraq backlash. Others say the song wasn�t good enough. Voters across Europe apparently agreed, but some are still convinced that it wasn�t Sertab�s belly-dancing performance that won the contest..

One of the people who didn�t seem to be impressed by Sertab�s performance was Jessica Garlic, the singer who represented the UK last year. I really felt her pain watching it. I really felt uncomfortable for her. She struggled. I really can�t believe she won. I really really can�t. I don�t know what people are voting for, she commented immediately after the contest on BBC3�s after-show program, presented by Loraine Kelly (the lady who gave out the results of the British vote). Other guests on the same program seemed satisfied with the staging of the contest by LTV: I think the staging was very good. I think it was excellent. said one of them, while another, commenting on the big budget of the contest, added: People will go hungry, but they�ve enjoyed themselves there. The British back-up jury didn�t seem to agree with Jessica; it was revealed on the same program that they had given their �douze points� to Turkey.

Today�s papers include Jemani�s own comments on their arrival from the Latvian capital. The Boom bang-a-bang in Iraq dashed our Eurovision Song Contest hopes was one of the titles on the front page of the Yorkshire Post. In the relevant article, Chris Comby, the male singer of Jemani, said they gave it their best, had an excellent time and they�re going to do their best on their single, which is out tomorrow. The singer also complained that they were experiencing techinical problems during their performance and revealed that their dressing-room was vandalised while he and Gemma Abbey, the female member of Jemani, were giving interviews after the contest. “With the countries across Europe something has rocked the boat in a way. We don't think it was fair we came last because we gave the performance of our lifetime,” he added. The British tabloids welcomed the duo back home with headlines varying from Why nul points? in the Daily Mirror, to �We wus robbed! (First Eurovision judges give us Nul Points� then dressing room�s burgled)� and Time to wise up after our Nul Points disaster: We need to send Robbie (Williams) and Elton (John) to Eurovision in The Sun.

The BBC themselves seemed to be more calm with the result: Chris and Gemma's rendition of Cry Baby was by no means the worst performance of the night, but as the esteemed Mr Wogan says, the European voting public is “as mad as a bucket of frogs”. The station also admitted that: Turkey proved a popular winner, and indeed deserved it as they, unlike almost every other entry, brought some of their own culture to their song., a view shared by the writer of this article. It seems that a disaster was what was needed for such an extensive coverage of the Eurovision Song Contest by the British media.