Eurovision: Ken Bruce marks 25 years

Ken Bruce admits not listening to any of the songs ahead of the big night

Presenter Ken Bruce is celebrating his 25th year broadcasting the Eurovision Song Contest for BBC Radio 2.

Despite commentating since the competition in Dublin in 1988, the 62-year-old is still not sure why he has been doing it ever since.

The BBC News website caught up with the host ahead of him going out to Malmo, Sweden, for this year's musical spectacle to talk about his favourite memories, picking the winners and whether the UK should withdraw from the competition.

This is your 25th year. Why do you keep going back for more?

I ask myself that every single year! Eurovision is a very specific moment and each contest happens and is then forgot about - at least to me - for the rest of the year.

It's an intense four or five days, but it's great fun and there's a carnival atmosphere wherever it is. If it's in a huge city like Athens or Moscow no one notices it's going on, but if it's somewhere like Malmo it will actually take over the entire town.

So even if it's been a rotten contest and the UK comes next to last, it's such a friendly event you do keep wanting to go back. You think "one more year", and before you know it it's the 25th.

For those who've only watched TV coverage of Eurovision, how would you say your commentary style differs from that of Graham Norton?

For TV, Graham has to follow whatever's showing on screen. For radio you have to fill in the gaps, but it doesn't necessarily have to be about what's taking place at that instant.

For example, there have been so-called "postcards" shown before each song of touristy shots to allow the stage to be re-set. The TV commentator has to refer to it but as far as I'm concerned, it's happening on TV and not at the contest.

So I have 40 seconds before each song to talk about whatever I want and have more freedom. I tend to talk about the act that's coming on next and my impression of how they look because on the radio you won't see it.

I don't feel I have to be the BBC talking impartially about every country, so I don't have to say "well done Slovenia for a jolly good song" if I don't think it is.

What are your favourite memories of Eurovision over the past 25 years?

A lot of my Eurovision experiences have drifted from my memory because it's just entertainment for that weekend. So I tend to only remember things that actively went wrong or things that were stand-out fantastic, and there've been more things that have gone wrong!

Of the fantastic things, Riverdance was the biggest single thing to happen to Eurovision. It wasn't even in the competition, it was the interval act in Ireland and it was just mind-blowing. We'd never seen anything like it before and have never seen anything like it since.

In terms of bad, there was another interval act in Switzerland where a man shot balloons with 20 crossbows in a circle with the aim of hitting an apple on his head at the end. He missed the apple and I thought it was the worst thing I'd ever seen and it took seven minutes to happen.

But there's always something - good or bad - to make you think "that was worth being there to see".

The UK's performance hasn't been great in recent years. Why do you think that is and should we just withdraw?

I don't think you withdraw from Eurovision any more than a political party says: "Well, we didn't get as many votes so we're not going to bother standing next time." You go back out and try again because it's just a song contest. It's not a national humiliation, it's just an entertainment show.

Jemini scored nul points for the UK in 2003

We have done very well over the years if you take Eurovision as a whole. For the first nine or 10 years we didn't win and then there were only 10 or 12 countries taking part. Now there are 40-odd so it's more difficult to win against a wider field.

And of course the voting has changed. It used to be done by expert juries who were musicians themselves and they voted for the best song. Now with public voting you can't predict what the public will do.

A lot of it is to do with territorial voting, not because they're neighbours, but because they simply have a cultural similarity. So the former Eastern block tend to vote for each other - even if they have daggers drawn - because there's a cultural feeling of togetherness.

But a stand-out song will still win, and if we put in a song people think is the best we can still win it so it's not a lost cause. We're British, we don't give up - we go in and fight again!

What's your view on producers choosing the running order this year, rather than by random draw?

I can see why they want to do this - it's a TV show at the end of the day and they want to make sure they have a balanced programme. I wouldn't go on the radio and play 45 minutes of disco music and then 45 minutes of ballads - you mix it up a bit.

But it depends how they do it because the ballot was fair. Experience tells you that going first was not a good place to be and going last can be very good. Whoever they decide is going to go first is going to complain.

What's your expectation for the UK's performance?

Bonnie Tyler is a great singer. Believe in Me is a very good song and it's getting airplay on its own merits. She's been out in Europe selling the song terrifically and that's key to success in the contest these days - getting the song out there.

It used to be you weren't allowed to see the other songs until the night itself, so you wouldn't be influenced by over-exposure. But now anything goes, so we've got to be in there and get the listening public used to it before the night so they'll vote for it.

We may not win - we probably won't win - but we could do well. If we don't do well, it's only Eurovision!

Who's your tip to win this year?

I make it a rule not to listen to the entries until I get there. Some of them won't get through to the final so I won't have to listen to all those terrible songs for no good reason!

I also prefer to come to it fresh in the old style of the competition, where you just hear it on the day and it's the initial impact of the song that works for you. Most people at home won't have heard them.

So I'd rather wait to hear the songs and have a guess then. But I've failed miserably forever to choose the winner. I've wasted so much money at bookmakers I've stopped doing it.

Radio 2 has been carrying out a poll to find the greatest UK Eurovision entry. Who gets your vote?

Lulu performed Boom Bang-A-Bang at Eurovision in 1969

I probably ought not to say because I don't want to show favouritism. Songs that were in the '60s like Puppet on a String and Boom Bang-A-Bang - they weren't great songs, but when I hear them now I think that was a great time.

Good pop songs like Congratulations didn't win, but they're fun songs to hear again. I still feel terrific about being there to see the last time the UK won with Love Shine a Light by Katrina and the Waves in Dublin in 1997. It was a great night and that is still a nice warm memory for me.

The Top 10 favourite UK entries were revealed in a special Eurovision show presented by Ken live from Malmo on Friday, 17 May.