Will recent diplomatic tensions affect the voting at Saturday’s Eurovision Song Contest? And can just entering boost a country’s morale? Ian Jones, of the Press Association, reports

WITH diplomatic relations between the UK and Russia at their coolest for decades, this weekend’s Eurovision Song Contest in Lisbon could offer a chance for both countries to forgive, or punish, each other in front of millions of TV viewers.

Russia will be particularly keen to do well, having withdrawn from last year’s contest after the host nation Ukraine banned Russia’s representative from appearing. On that occasion, it was Russia’s recent annexation of Crimea that caused controversy.

This year the build-up to the contest has been overshadowed by the poisoning in Salisbury of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia though organisers will be hoping no trace of politics is evident in either the performances or the voting.

Russia has sent the same contestant that was due to take part last year: Julia Samoylova, a finalist from her country’s version of The X Factor. Her song is called I Won’t Break, and she will be hoping to continue Russia’s recent success in the competition which has seen one win (2008) and three second place finishes (2006, 2012 and 2015).

When it comes to the UK, Russia has not exactly been lavish with its Eurovision scores. Since 2005 the country has awarded points to the UK on only three occasions: in 2009 (six points), in 2011 (four points) and in 2016 (the first year of split voting, with the UK receiving six points from the Russian jury and none from the Russian public).

The UK has been slightly more generous, giving Russia ten points in 2013, six in 2015 and seven (from the public) in 2016. In 2008, the year that Russia won the contest, the UK gave them no points.

By contrast, in 1997, the last time the UK won, Russia gave the UK 12 points.

If both countries are to go head-to-head this year, Russia had to get through last night’s semi-final. The UK already has a place in Saturday’s final, thanks to its status as one of the biggest financial contributors to the European Broadcasting Union.

WHETHER or not there is a political aspect to the voting this year, merely entering Eurovision could actually boost a country’s happiness, research published today suggests. A new study by scientists at Imperial College London found entry into the annual spectacular was linked with an increase in life satisfaction.

While people from countries finishing higher up on the leaderboard were more likely to be satisfied, taking part in the competition and doing badly was found to be better than not getting involved at all.

The findings may offer some comfort to the UK which has suffered “consistently terrible performances” in the contest, the researchers said.

The study, published in journal BMC Public Health, analysed survey data from 160,000 people in 33 European countries, collected around the time of the competition between 2009 and 2015.

People were four per cent more likely to be satisfied with life for every ten places higher they finished on the scoreboard, the study found. However, winning was not associated with an additional increase in life satisfaction, suggesting it really is the taking part that counts.

“The good news for any country entering the Eurovision Song Contest is that it is not necessary to win to achieve improvements in the population’s life satisfaction,” the authors say.

Countries which finished near the bottom of the results table still had a 13 per cent higher chance of life satisfaction compared to those which did not enter, the study also found.

“There is no public health risk in taking part, as even an abysmal performance would be better than complete absence from the contest,” the authors say.

“This may be particularly important for the United Kingdom, where a ‘Eurovision Brexit’ is gaining support in response to the country’s consistently terrible performances.”

Lead author Dr Filippos Filippidis, from the school of public health, says the research emerged “from a jokey conversation” in the office.

“Our department employs people from lots of different countries and around the time of the Eurovision Song Contest we were chatting about whether the competition could also affect a country’s national wellbeing,” he says.

“We looked into it and were surprised to see there may be a link.”

Dr Filippidis says while the study only shows a link between the contest and life satisfaction, it fits with previous research showing national events can boost mood and productivity.

However, he says he was not the biggest fan of Eurovision.

“I’ve been known to occasionally watch it in previous years,” he adds.

“It’s certainly entertaining, but I don’t take it too seriously.”

Singer-songwriter SuRie is representing the UK. A classically-trained musician, she graduated from the Royal Academy of Music and will be performing a song called Storm.

The Eurovision final is on Saturday at 8pm and is live on BBC1.