Having decided to to send a relative newcomer to the Eurovision Song Contest in Baku this year – the 75 year old Arnold George Dorsey, better known as Engelbert Humperdinck – the BBC have now unveiled the song he will be singing. Apparently, Engelbert is “very proud of the song”. Well, it’s not a turkey… From the Eurovision channel
Okaaay… I’m not seeing much ‘choreography’. But as the Guardian’s Stuart Heritage says
While Love Will Set You Free might not be a song that imprints itself on your memory, there’s also a good chance that you made it through the entire song without wanting to die.
Which already makes it better than the UK’s 2007 entry, which appeared to be the result of four recruitment consultants dressing up as cabin crew, called themselves Scooch and throwing together a Steps B-side full of excruciating fellatio jokes called Flying the Flag (22nd place). Or the 2006 attempt of Daz Sampson – a man in double denim who wanted to blandly recount his school days to a bunch of 30-year-old women dressed as schoolgirls (19th place).
And that’s a good sign. Humperdinck almost definitely won’t come last in Baku. He’s got so much going for him. Chances are that great swathes of Europe still remember Release Me, and Andrew Lloyd Webber proved in 2009 (fifth place) that if there’s one thing that Europe likes, it’s vaguely memorable people belting out mid-tempo songs with hopelessly generic lyrics. Besides, who’d possibly give Humperdinck nil points? He’ll be 76 years old when Eurovision rolls around. You’d have to be a monster.
Heh. Jedward, on the other hand, don’t have that advantage…