Internal creation or National selection?

In this issue of The Greenroom, as talk of countries selecting songs for The Eurovision Song Contest 2005, Kemal Shahin looks at what is better � The internal or national selection. Professed internal experts with the �know how� or the good old public. The winners of the past two years have been internally selected and clearly executed wins as well as The Eurovision Song Contest 2003�s top three places being filled with internally selected performers. So should we be giving the power to the people, or master the perfect Eurovision win and then unleash it on Europe?

The 90�s brought power to the people and in 1997 for the first time in Eurovision Song Contest history, for a handful of countries the power of awarding points was taken away from the crazy juries and into the hands of the even crazier public. Today the selection of the Eurovision entry by a country follows much of the same pattern as now in a vast number of countries; the power of televoting influences who represents a nation at Eurovision, with others opting for a partial jury influence. However Eurovision to me from 2000 onwards (especially 2003 and 2004) has begun to possible show a trend; those selected internally by the broadcaster appear to do better. Does this mean the public fail to choose the right song? Or are songs within a national final never as good as one created specifically for Eurovision by an appointed artist and team of writers? In this, now fortnightly greenroom, I want to investigate how true this is, or whether this is simply coincidence!