Rob the Builder and Romanian Maria (as well as X Factor's Andy Abraham and former EastEnder Michelle Gayle) are vying to represent the UK in this year's Eurovision! What do we think?

http://www.esctoday.com/news/read/10552

We've all been here before, but why Romanian Maria when we are competing for somebody to represent the UK?!

Go go go Rob! I really hope he makes it through. His performance of "Piano Man" on the show was my favourite performance of the whole series!

If you poke around a bit, there's a lovely interview with Rob that pops up. It's in a java script window, so I can't give the direct link, but it's worth a read! It's here: http://www.esctoday.com/annual/2008/final/6
Last edited by Innocent_fairy : 18-02-2008 at 15:00

Well we've had Gina G and Olivia Newton John representing us in the past!

We were talking to Rob after the Palladium last night at the aftershow party (that's the first time I've ever been able to name drop!!) and he was telling us that the guy writing the song for Eurovision writes for all sorts of famous singers (can't for the life of me remember which ones he mentioned), so you never know it might be a reasonable tune this time!

They played a short clip of it on Radio1, it sounded ok (for a Eurovision entry!)

No way should the Josephs or Maria's get involved in the Eurovision. They seem to be doing very nicely on their own without getting mixed up in it. I would hate to see any of them get ridiculed for taking part.

I am a big Eurovision fan but even I feel that it has really gone down hill in recent years.

Even if we had the best songwriter and the best singer in the contest - we would not get very far. Also the other countries hate us as we, along with Spain, Germany and France can never get relagated if we get poor votes. We all put the most money in to the contest so the other countries think why should we vote for them.

What does everyone else think ? Mazza

I don't think they don't vote for us because we can't get relegated . I think they don't vote because of politics. Spain never vote for us because of Gibralta and the old Eastern block countries all vote for each other (to be fair that maybe because they like the same sort of music)

Thing is, without wanting to sound unkind, is Rob doing that well? We've got Lee, Daniel and Ben in the West End (whoopee!), and a lot of the others are involved with "Dream On", but what has Rob done apart from panto? He might as well give it a go, and he may make a good impression on someone with influence. (I agree that for political reasons there is very little chance of us actually winning).

Right. I am 100% sure I want Rob to go to Eurovision, if only for the fact that he was a Joseph (and also the fact that he was responsible for my favourite performance of the series ). However, we can be 99.9% sure that whoever gets there will get not much above 2 points.

Yes I'm with you Fairy ! Hello xx Rob's got a powerful voice, he's a nice guy - big hearted and full of enthusiasm for this, so good luck to him. He's used to Live performances - nothing is scarier than the stair climb the Josephs had to do while singing their future dream away - so he's got a good pedigree to deliver the goods on the night. And he winked at me in the Dream On Concert at the Palladium Actually, it was probably aimed Phyllis the OAP in front of me, the silver-haired minx ! She seemed to get all the action, including Seamus holding her hand and singing to her, a long lingering look from Lewis and a chat with the comedian. She got her moneys worth that night

I've listened to all the snippets of the songs - Rob's is the best one imo. But of course we know the winner will be chosen by the kids with their mobiles, as they have been for the last 3 years Still angry that Big Brovaz - who presented us with the best song we have had in years!!! - lost to Scooch last year. At least when we lose (note the when) it would be nice to go down with a decent song for a change. Not sure Rob's voice is the best for this ballad but looking forward to finding out

Big hello to any Josephans dropping in tonight to cheer Rob on \o/

Link for tonights contenders - http://www.bbc.co.uk/eurovision/

And does Simona sing "you will **cking laugh at all the chaaaaanges..." ?? Might liven up the evening if she does I suppose !

Ooo just caught this with time to watch

I like Rob's song and also one of the girl groups but apparently they have strong competition with some other countries fielding girl groups.

Go Go Rob well why not!!

Just watched these two - Rob was/is a far better singer than Simona. He's also got a much, much better personality and attitude than she has. She was way off key at the beginning - Rob was excellent throughout his song but the stupid judges, including the odious Wogan, chose her!

I hope the public get a chance to vote and vote for Rob!

This show is almost as bad as the tribute act thing.

Well guess is nil points for us again!!

I voted for Andy Abraham.

If i voted that would be who i voted for! but rob desevered to get through, i don't think robs song was that good he could have done a lot better

I thought that was the poorest selection of Eurovision songs for some time, especially Andy Abrahams and also the first song! Rob was good vocally but the song wasn't 'distinctive' enough for today's Eurovision trash!
Maybe they take a few listens to get to like them more but I'm sorry for Rob as he deserved a much better song!

Edit: The modern upbeat version of a past winner 'Love Shine A Light' that is just being sung by Katrina is tons better than any of tonight's choices!

Rob proved what a good voice he has, but the song choice let him down, on a shallow note he looked as buff as ever!!

Pants show wasn't it

Just watched it and the only song I liked was Andy Abrahams. Glad he won. I thought the same thing as JB when he watched it and he needs to have more visuals going on , with some dancers. It's a harmless feelgood tune and Andy Abrahams seems such a nice guy - he could actually do quite well for us. He's the best chance we got anyway

Simona looked fantastic. Apart from the curtain tiebacks she had in her hair I thought she was great and gave a good performance The backing singers let her down bigtime though. Two singers were way off pitch but she was spot on throughout.

Robs song just didn't suit his voice. I feel the song may have been written with Keith Jack in mind and it would have taken on a whole new feel to it if he had. Keith could have won with that song imo. Rob looked good though