When esctoday.com broke the news that Monaco had withdrawn from the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest on tuesday night, many fans were shocked by the news. Two days later, and we have discussed the reasons for the decision with Mr. Phil Bosco, the man that has looked after Monaco's participation since their return to the comptetion in 2004.

Asked if there was any way that TMC would reconsider their decision, Mr. Bosco said:
"Unfortunely, I'm afraid that nothing can change the decision of the Monagasque broadcaster, TMC. It is not my own decision! I'm very sad because it was a great 'adventure, I want to say thank you to all the fans and the people who have supported the Principality of Monaco during this 3 years".

Asked if the decision was in any way due to the cost of participation in 2007, we were told:
"The decision is not a question of money , the principal reason is that we have poor chance to go in the final. In Monaco we have a jury for the voting and every year, the jury vote for the song and never for a country. In 2004 we gave 12 points to France because the jury like the song, in 2005 and 2006 it was not the same choice, it's a contest of songs not a contest of countries".

In recent weeks, editorial articles on esctoday.com have discussed in depth the voting patterns of the Eurovision Song Contest and political, neighbourly and diaspora voting. It now appears that Monaco has become the first country to withdraw from the competition because of a natural disadvantage caused by the voting behaviour of certain countries. Whilst most would agree that this voting has not yet directly affected the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest, few would argue that it means that certain countries qualify from the semi final almost automatically, leaving countries such as Monaco with only five or six opportunities to qualify from a pool of around 21-23 participants.