Host with the most

Published Monday 22 September 2008 at 18:15

There must be numerous solutions to the current dissatisfaction with the voting procedure in the Eurovision Song Contest (Ewan Spence column, September 11, page 11).

Why not make the year’s host country responsible for providing all the performers? These could be as traditional or as bizarre as the contest currently seems to require. All countries can supply singers capable of singing in various languages and the language of songs in recent years is often not indicative of that song’s country of origin. Voting could take place in the usual way, the gimmick being that only at the conclusion of the voting is revealed the identity of the country which submitted the winning song.

On an entirely different subject and not that I am biased, having loved her all my life, but could Alma Cogan have achieved a first, in that, 42 years after her death, is it unique that an artist should have a new release featuring as many as 47 previously unreleased recordings, as well as 24 alternate versions of some of her rarer material? Ladies and gentlemen, Miss Alma Cogan is a double CD set on Sepia 8003 and all of the new items are taken from radio broadcasts from her Take it From Here days.

John Cohen

Upper Hopton

Mirfield

West Yorkshire