Engelbert Humperdinck believes that the Eurovision Song Contest is “unfair” and biased against the United Kingdom. He accused the Eurovision organisers of constructing the event in such a way as to ensure that the UK entrant stands little chance of winning.

The 79 year old singer was a guest on ITV’s chat show ‘Loose Women’ on Tuesday (May 26th), just a few days after the annual continental singing competition which saw the UK put in yet another poor showing, with duo Electro Velvet finishing with just five points and fourth from bottom.

Engelbert HumperdinckEngelbert Humperdinck represtented the UK at Eurovision in 2012

Humperdinck himself represented the UK in the competition in 2012, when it was hosted in Azerbaijan, and finished second from last with a total of just twelve points. When asked about his experience, he said “It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair, and it's all to do with politics. Look what happened this time.”

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The crooner believes that, because he performed first out of the 25 entrants that year, he was effectively forgotten by the time that voting commenced a few hours later and that his affected his chances of winning. He reckons that the competition may be regularly set up in this fashion so that Britain is one of the first performers.

The last time the UK won the competition was in 1997, when Katrina & The Waves performed ‘Love Shine a Light’, though many pointed out at the time that the group’s singer, Katrina Leskanich, was American-born.

Eurovision is regularly criticised for its voting patterns, with countries of geographical proximity or those that share cultural and historical ties frequently voting for each other regardless of the quality of the actual song.

Humperdinck is most famous for his 1967 hit ‘Release Me’, which notoriously kept The Beatles’ double A-sided single ‘Strawberry Fields Forever / Penny Lane’ from the Number 1 spot. He also had another million-selling single that year with ‘The Last Waltz’, and is known in America for his 1976 hit ‘After The Lovin’’.

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