The Eurovision Song Contest has come into focus in the European Parliament with Dutch member Toine Manders lobbying for funds to set up an alternative to the festival. The new song festival is set to strengthen the European feeling and only EU member states will be allowed to participate with songs in the each country’s respective language.

According to Belgovision.com, several  investors and television broadcasters have already expressed interest in the alternative festival. Its results will be decided by televoting as well as a professional jury.

Malta's particpant Olivia Lewis returned to Malta from Helsinki on Sunday, amid allegations of political and block voting during the semifinal and final shows of the Eurovision Song Contest.

Although neighbouring countries backing each other during the contest is no novelty, Saturday's voting was compared "to the musical equivalent of the Warsaw Pact" by Scotsman.com, as 14 out of the top 16 places were taken by eastern European states, elbowing out western European countries, including the UK's entry "Flying the Flag (for You)" by Scooch.

Nick Weinberg, from UK betting Ladbrokes said he doubted whether even Elton John could win Eurovision for the UK, given the political nature of the voting. The UK is one of its biggest financial contributors of the contest.  

Radio phone-ins and internet message boards in the UK were on Sunday inundated with calls denouncing the current voting system as a farce and demanding it be reorganised, as Scooch finished the second from the last in the contest with 19 points, 12 of which were came from Malta. The group told BBC News on Sunday that they'd be visiting the island as "Maltese favourites". Ireland was saved from the humiliation of nil points by the donation of five points from Albania. France, Spain and Germany's entries also ranked at the bottom of the list.  

Former UK Eurovision winners also spoke up on the issue, calling for the competition to be split in two in an attempt to foil tactical voting, according to The Telegraph. Alan Clayton, a spokesman for Bobby G, a member of Buck's Fizz who won the contest for the UK in 1981, said it was unlikely the band would have been able to repeat their success in the current climate of politicised voting. He proposed splitting the competition in two, with the western and eastern winners meeting in an independently-judged final.

British veteran broadcaster Terry Wogan, BBC's presenter during Saturday’s show, also blamed bias for western European entries' failure to rank higher during the contest. He warned that the nations might soon become "fed up" with their rivals' tactics and could even decide to pull out of the contest altogether. "It's a pity it's not about the songs any more," he told BBC Online, adding that "There's a definite Baltic bloc and a Balkan bloc and they've been joined in recent years by a Russian bloc. We won the Cold War but we lost the Eurovision."

According to Belgovision.com, several   investors and television broadcasters have already expressed interest in the alternative festival. Its results will be decided by televoting as well as a professional jury.

After Malta’s failure to make it into the final night on Thursday with Olivia Lewis’ entry Vertigo, some Maltese also blamed the outcome of the result on countries voting for their neighbouring nations. Others said that the result obtained by Malta during the semifinal was nothing more than an unlucky gamble. 

On Saturday, MaltaSong board chairman Robert Abela insisted that he was trying to coordinate with other countries disappointed by Thursday's voting system to forward a formal request to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to reconsider things for next year. He added that Malta would not withdraw from next year's contest unless this was a collective decision by other countries who suffered the same fate as Malta in the semifinal, but he did not exclude this is a coordinated protest motion.

Malta has also called for some phone votes to be scrapped at the Eurovision Song Contest until they can be monitored more closely.

According to BBC News Robert Abela said many results were "not based solely on the public vote", adding that "five or six" other countries during the contest were angered by block voting. Mr Abela said he had received some reports indicating how many points Malta would get from certain countries even before the finals.

"If the EBU cannot 100% monitor how the system is being done in some of the ex-Soviet countries I think they should do away with phone voting," he told BBC News, adding that "I know it is not 100% tele-voting and I personally believe these countries are messing with them."

Malta placed 25th out of the 28 participants on Thursday, receiving a meager 15 points from three countries. Olivia Lewis’ Vertigo obtained 7 points from Turkey, 6 from Albania and 2 from the UK. Forty-two countries voted in all.

By Saturday, anonymous emails were calling for the Maltese public to boycott the Eurovision’s final televote, in the wake of a declaration from the national Greek broadcasting company ERT regarding problems some televoters faced during the semifinal on Thursday. According to a report by esctoday.com, "some of the votes went to the wrong recipient and did not count in the country's result."

Saturday night’s final round saw Serbian singer Marija Šerifović winning the contest with 268 points, while Ukrainian drag queen Verka Serduchka came in second with 235 votes. Russian girl group Serebro were third on 207 votes. Many of their points came from non-eastern countries, showing that there are different ways to look at the "block voting" issue raised by some western European countries.

For more detailed information about Malta's participation in the Eurovision Song Contest see EurovisionMalta.com.        

See also:
Further throughts on the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest - from Toni Sant's Blog - 14 May 2007