When it was announced that the BBC were partnering with BMG I viewed it as a step in the right direction. As we wait for the song to be unveiled on Thursday morning I continue to be open minded.

I think we need a decent song in its own right, and hopefully one that will do well in the charts. If we can’t get behind our own song then how can we expect people in Vladivostok or Vienna to be voting for it?

I do think the UK is judged differently when it comes to its entries but that’s to do with our music industry and has little or nothing to do with politics. If politics or negative media coverage about a given country affects the result then Israel would never have won, and Russia wouldn’t perform so strongly in the competition. It’s just lazy, and really a rather boring ‘argument’.

The decision to have an internal selection is nothing new, and you could say on the subject of Europe the British public may not be the best people to consult… The fact is that the UK public often goes for songs that they think are ‘Eurovision songs’ rather than just choosing a song in its own right is problematic. The contest has changed, it’s arguably more contemporary now than ever, this is perhaps a chance to send something reflective of that. The fact that it’s also being debuted on Radio 1 is encouraging.

Change can, and does happen. Look at The Netherlands – for nearly a decade they were hopeless. Then they stopped blaming others, looked at themselves, got the record companies involved and won for the first time since 1975.

The BBC team is small, and works hard, I hope that they come up with the goods. Hopefully with BMG on their side, this year will be different. And if not, what’s another year?