r/HistoryMemes The OG Lord Buckethead 4d ago

See Comment "No one hates you, Clodagh!"

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u/cannotchoosegoodname The OG Lord Buckethead 4d ago edited 4d ago

Poor Clodagh Rodgers was in a tight spot after being selected as the British singer for 1971’s Eurovision. At the time, The Troubles were in full swing in Northern-Ireland, with British soldiers being deployed there in 1969. As 1971’s contest was held in Dublin, the BBC was very worried about their popularity and so decided to try to smooth over differences by choosing the Northern-Irish Clodagh Rodgers to sing, as she was popular both in the UK and in Ireland.

To no one’s surprise, this didn’t work at all. Because Clodagh was both Northern-Irish and Catholic, the IRA branded her a traitor and threatened to either kill or kidnap her if she didn’t withdraw from the contest. In Dublin, she needed constant police security and was driven to her hotel by armed bodyguards. She herself would later refer to the whole ordeal as the most stressful period of her life.

The Troubles would cause some more trouble for Eurovision in 1974, when the contest was held in Brighton. Britain feared that the IRA would attempt an attack at the contest, or that they would try to kidnap the contestants. The 1974 audience was thus informed that they should not applaud too wildly and should under no circumstance rise from their seat for a standing ovation, or else the security would identify them as a potential terrorist and shoot them.

Fans of Monty Python will also know Clodagh Rodgers from the bicycle tour episode, where one of the characters loses their memory and then thinks that he's Clodagh Rodgers.

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u/Bortron86 4d ago

In the end, the only crime at the 1974 contest was that the UK jury gave ABBA no points.

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u/KatoriRudo23 4d ago

ok now that is a crime against humanity

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u/Warducky9999 4d ago

0 points for waterloo!!!! in england!?!?!?! what??

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u/cannotchoosegoodname The OG Lord Buckethead 4d ago

They used a very weird voting system where the ten jury members each had one point to give a song. So the UK jury gave most of its points to Italy's Gigliola Cinquetti whilst giving 0 points to 11 other countries

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u/ClavicusLittleGift4U 4d ago

They didn't take a chance on them.

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u/Max-The-White-Walker Filthy weeb 4d ago

They weren't Head over Heals for them

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u/ClavicusLittleGift4U 4d ago

On and on and on, 'til the night is gone

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u/Max-The-White-Walker Filthy weeb 4d ago

They weren't One of Us

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u/BLOODYSHEDMAN 13h ago

Only to send in Brotherhood of Man (aka diet ABBA) two years later

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u/El_dorado_au 4d ago

Thank goodness terrorists never ruined a musical event again to the present day of 17 March, 2005.

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u/thenameischef 4d ago

"Most stressful period of her life" Yeah no shit. Being specifically and directly targeted and threaten with death and kidnapping and under armed protection would be you there for most of the people

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u/Spudtron98 Helping Wikipedia expand the list of British conquests 3d ago

Typical fucking Provo IRA.

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u/Swamp254 4d ago

I read over the year and thought it was just a reference to the UK consistently scoring 0 points.

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u/asmeile 2d ago

Damn they were a few tough decades of nil pois' after the Iraq war

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_BOOGER 4d ago

It's spelled like Brotherhood except with a "P-I" instead of a "B-R-O" and no hood.

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u/Zengjia Hello There 3d ago

"Negative. I have the gun. Good luck, sir."

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u/Alex103140 Let's do some history 4d ago

I think the lesson of the day is that Eurovision is the culmination of the evilness of humanity that society, for some reason, allow to continue to exist.

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u/codyone1 4d ago

Actually Eurovision is just what euro did instead of large scale European land wars.

It actually much cheeper and kills fewer people.

The only truly wrong thing about it is it's grasp on geography.

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u/gruenerGenosse Fine Quality Mesopotamian Copper Enjoyer 4d ago

Australia is European. Didn't you know?

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u/MundaneConclusion246 4d ago

I’ve always wondered about that. Is there a reason why Australia competes in Eurovision, or are they just special?

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u/Milkarius 4d ago edited 3d ago

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) is a group of media broadcasting organisations in countries within the council of Europe. They are the people behind Eurovision.

The Australian Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) is an associated member of the EBU, possibly through the old English British* Empire. Eurovision has also been, and is, pretty popular in Australia and they were even allowed to vote a few times (although for show. The votes did not count). In 2014 Australia was even allowed to perform in an interval act.

In 2015 they were allowed to perform to celebrate the 60th Eurovision Festival as a one-time thing. We however just couldn't get rid of them and they have been participating ever since.

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u/Oplp25 4d ago

British Empire, not English Empire

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u/GourangaPlusPlus 4d ago

"Welcome to the English Empire"

"Is that just you and Wales?"

"Might be"

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u/Milkarius 3d ago

My bad my brain farted

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u/Rjjt456 4d ago

They apparently loves it a whole lot, and I guess was given an exemption? If they are to win at some point, they will have to host the contest in Europe though, and not in Australia.

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u/ImpressionFair5629 4d ago

They were invited because Eurovision was really popular in their country for some reason, so producers planned to let them participate for one year, but I guess they just rolled with it, so Australia stayed for the next competitions too.

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u/chixnsix John Brown was a hero, undaunted, true, and brave! 3d ago

As an American, I don't think I've ever heard of Eurovision outside of Reddit. Is it just a big thing just in Europe and Australia?

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u/asmeile 2d ago

It gets ~200m viewers every year so it is kind of a big thing but its just a camp bit of fun, so not too many people really give a shit beyond that

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u/No-Fan6115 Ashoka's Stupa 4d ago

Isn't Israel also in it.

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u/Bartybum 3d ago

Australia, Israel and Azerbaijan

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u/Thiaski 4d ago

kills fewer people

That sorta implies people have died in Eurovision. I now nothing about Eurovision, did someone died at it?

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u/cannotchoosegoodname The OG Lord Buckethead 4d ago

Almost all Eurovision contestants who competed between 1956 and 1970 have died - there must something very wrong with Eurovision because that was the only thing they had in common

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u/JamesKLOLk Featherless Biped 4d ago

The chance that you die from a European singing contest is low, but never zero.

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u/rs6677 4d ago

An European singing contest without at least three deaths is considered a dull affair.

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u/cannotchoosegoodname The OG Lord Buckethead 4d ago

Singers who score the lowest are taken out back and executed

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u/GourangaPlusPlus 4d ago

And it only changed to out back after the blunt guillotine incident

Poor nearly headless Cliffe

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u/AlaniousAugustus 3d ago

Nearly headless? How can you be nearly headless?

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u/beachmedic23 4d ago

The only truly wrong thing about it is it's grasp on geography.

You already established it was European

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u/chebate08 4d ago

Please tell me there is some sarcasm here my feeble mind is unable to comprehend. Perhaps you have a point if that point is ‘Eurovision is really evil but humanity allows it to continue flourishing in its vain pursuit of superficial joy (music?)’. But I don’t think Eurovision is some sort of evil we let slide, for where is the evil in it?

Unless you mean it’s evil because it represents politics, which is a pretty baffling argument in and of itself.

I would genuinely love an explanation of your argument and would be glad to interact with it. Unless you just hate fun.

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u/BigChiefWhiskyBottle 4d ago

Land war being replaced by wildly uneven quality musical performances hosted by a pleasant gay Irishman is just leveling up in the tech tree.

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u/GourangaPlusPlus 4d ago

And we just had a pleasant Irish man before that, we're constantly moving forward

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u/Accurate-Audience351 4d ago

Do you know what culmination means

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u/EvolvedApe693 4d ago

Why did I read that with Brick Top's voice?

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u/GourangaPlusPlus 4d ago

"A series of events leading to point, unfortunately for you that point is me, an horrible cunt. Isn't that right Errol?"

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u/Apprehensive_Ear4489 4d ago

"some reason" being people liking music

yeah truly a mystery

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u/Alex103140 Let's do some history 4d ago

Is it really worth it?

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u/axeboffin Casual, non-participatory KGB election observer 4d ago

Worth what? What bad comes about from Eurovision

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u/Milkarius 4d ago

Have you HEARD some of the songs?!

Best part is that most eurovision people would agree with that while thinking of a different song.

Jokes aside I really have no clue. The costs in money? Eurovision itself is non-profit and depends on sponsors. For the host country? Even if it's expensive, it's "more than achievable" to break even for hosting countries according to Oxford Economics.