What a busy few days it’s been! Friday saw the official EBU conference take place in BAFTA, London to mark the 60th Eurovision Song Contest. It was a thoroughly enjoyable day and whilst I was very nervous, I think my paper went down well with the audience. Huge congratulations to Dave Goodman who arranged the event as well as our compere for the day, Paddy O’Connell who did a magnificent job.
On Sunday I ran the London Marathon, it’s the third time in a row that I’ve done it. I started out too fast but still managed a PB (3hrs 28 mins 57 secs). Thank you so much for the lovely messages of support and sponsorship. I ran for Macmillan and will be running four more marathons for them this year. Please spare £1 by texting EURO83 £1 to 70070, they do truly amazing work. Thank you.
On Sunday evening I was at the Café de Paris in London for the annual London Eurovision Party where 25 acts (past and present) took to the stage. It was an excellent event and huge thanks and congratulations should go to the organisers and of course our hosts for the evening, Paddy O’Connell and Nicki French. The UK entry in particular went down well and it was really nice to see such strong support for Bianca and Alex, also known as Electro Velvet. They are lovely people and I think they will be brilliant ambassadors for the UK. I’ve written an article in the latest edition of Attitude magazine on why the UK hasn’t fared too well at Eurovision. I don’t think it’s all down to the BBC – the team work really hard and I don’t think they get the credit they deserve sometimes. I really hope that Electro Velvet will restore some national pride for us at Eurovision!
Not long to go until Vienna now – I’ll be there from 16 May although will return to the UK ahead of the final as I have done for the past few years. The Austrian broadcaster ORF are currently building the stage and preparing to produce one of the largest, most complex TV shows on the planet. Look out Austria – the Eurovision circus is about to roll into town!