Eurovision now just karaoke, says singer

This year's Eurovision song contest was so bad it could mean the end of the competition, former Eurovision winner Johnny Logan has said.

Interviewed on BBC Radio 5, he said the competition was being spoiled by the contestants singing to backing tracks.

"I think this year is the finishing of it. It has turned into karaoke," Mr Logan told former Tory MP Ms Edwina Currie on her late-night show.

The Irish singer won the contest in 1980 and 1987 and wrote a winning song in the 1990s, making him the most successful entrant in the contest's history.

"When I sang, there was an orchestra that you can sing with and they can lift you. A backing track can be nothing but a backing track," he said.

His views on the quality of the contest were echoed by Terry Wogan, who remarked during his commentary that the German entry, which finished in the top 10, did "remarkably well in view of the deep silliness of the song".

The Irish entry, Eamonn Toal's Millennium of Love, finished sixth in the contest in Stockholm on Saturday night. Denmark's Olsen Brothers won with Fly on the Wings of Love. A 16-year-old Russian singer, Alsou, finished second. Belgium came last with just two points.

This year, 24 countries took part and at least 100 million people are estimated to have watched the contest on television.