Public will now choose UK's Eurovision entry – but should we trust the BBC with the shortlist?

For almost two decades, Britain has failed dismally at Eurovision – and deservedly. Our entries have been so bad as to represent a passive-aggressive insult to an entire continent. You can blame the BBC: it picks the song, and just doesn’t understand Eurovision. It seems to think it’s the equivalent of a musical bad taste party, where the aim is to send in cheesy songs. You Europeans have awful taste, the BBC seems to say, so here’s a song so crap that you’ll love it! They tend not to.

Today, the BBC has announced that the public will choose the song. Its musical politburo won’t. This is a step forward, but it raises a very important question: can the BBC actually draw up a decent shortlist? If it struggled to find one decent Eurovision song, is it likely to find six – and in time for the May final?