The international front disco

The news, or hint of news, or suggestion of a hint that Morrissey might write, or possibly perform in a Song For Europe this year has hit the sleepy year-start blogs like discovering your mother had links to Oswald Mosley.

Lipstick Vogue sees the discussions as a Moztastic masterstroke rather than a career-slump kick-start stunt:

La Moz has already been back in the public eye with his last two longplayers and also extensive tours around the world. It's not as if his star is diminished or falling from the sky. Some might say quite the opposite, what with the quality and success of You Are The Quarry etc. So one can assume that this current project is for more personal reasons.

Mark Simpson also suggests that this reflects well on Morrissey:

Like Tory leader David Cameron’s incessant Moz-mentioning last year, it’s the perfect way to rebrand. Tired? Boring? Totally lacking in credibility? Call Morrissey! It can’t be long before Prince Charles beats a path to Morrissey’s door pleading to use Irish Blood English Heart as the new national anthem.

Why is Morrissey’s star riding so high? Why is the man once so reviled and mocked, banned from daytime Radio 1 and pilloried in the tabloids, now so vaunted he was recently voted Britain’s Greatest Living Cultural Icon That Doesn’t Work With Small Furry Animals? (He came second after David Attenborough in the BBC’s “cultural icons” poll.)

But isn't the idea of Morrissey supposed to be on the other side, with the underdogs, the difficult buggers and the awkward squad? If he's being embraced and waved by Tory party leaders, isn't that a sign that Morrissey has lost his Morrisseyness rather than the Conservatives having caught up with 1985?

Belly calls for a glorious, flame-crashing failure:

Also, let's face it - the Eurovision Song Contest is really a politically motivated popularity contest. And when you're bombing third world countries as dear old Blighty currently is, you don't have a hope in Iraq of winning. So why play it safe? Why stick to formulas? We might as well take a risk, cause we're headed for nil point whatever we do. Or are we... what the world hates about Britain, most fair minded Brits hate to. One such fair minded Brit is Morrissey. He is very outspoken about the evils of the war in Iraq and Tony Blair's government in general. He's even had a dig at Cherie. But at the same time, he holds dear to him what England is really about, what everyone loves about it.

Charles Arthur assures us national pride would be in good hands:

Morrissey can name not just the winner, but also the second- and third-placed acts from its beginning.

Handy in a pub quiz, but does that really suggest a chance of victory in the actual contest? I doubt if Lordi could name the winner from the year before; Tatu managed to scrape second and we reckon they'd have trouble spotting Dana International in a line-up of hamsters.

World Of Chig wonders if this means there's going to be a flight from democracy at the national stage:

The BBC's announcement a few weeks ago that the UK's song would be chosen in March surprised nobody, but it was telling that it didn't mention Making Your Mind Up, leading to inevitable speculation that the process might be changed. The BBC doesn't have to have a contest at all. The UK could just do what some other countries do and select the artist and song internally, or pick the artist and allow the public to choose the song (as we have done before).

No public vote? But then again, we've always suspected Mozzer has a love of the dictatorship.

But its This Is The Siths who provide clearest evidence that we're currently orbiting off somewhere far, far away:

this is not the eurovision song entry you are looking for... this is our most desperate hour. help us, steven patrick morrissey; you're our only hope.

Actually, Betty Boo would probably be a better bet, but who asks us, eh?

music morrissey eurovision