[LMBTO] Joe and Jake's first two weeks as Eurovision artists...

It's been two weeks since this embrace 'sealed the deal' on a dream night for Joe Woolford and Jake Shakeshaft, the UK's Eurovision entrants this year.  It's also been almost two weeks since my last post on this blog, during the busiest time of the National Selection process!  After a bit of a mental break and a week or so of catching up with other matters outside the ESC, I am now back and ready to blog again, all the way into Eurovision itself and through until we know the winner at Stockholm!  I thought that as it had been a fortnight since 'my' representatives had won in Kentish Town (The UK NF), I'd start off by seeing what J&J had been up to - a lot has happened over the last couple of days, in particular...

This was always going to be a likely scenario, given the increased exposure that Eurovision has been given by the BBC this year - two young handsome guys who were on The Voice, winning the UK NF on a live tv show seen by 700k people, who come across as very personable and have a great song to launch, all a no-brainer for a record company who probably will accept the financial hit if this doesn't succeed in Stockholm.  If it does do well (top five at least) then Sony have a very marketable duo on their hands, at least for 2016.  Sony's take on the deal was summed up by their Commercial Group MD, Phil Savill:

The song is already released and is currently at number 75 on the downloads chart (12 March).  The most important thing as far as Eurovision is concerned is now J&J have the PR might of a major record label behind them, with the connections and cross promotion across Europe that comes with it, something that Electro Velvet didn't have last year (they had to go to all the pre-Parties under their own steam or with assistance from the BBC, if I remember rightly).  This PR assistance seemed to help Guy Sebastian last year in his quest to be seen across as much of Europe as possible (Guy Sebastian hits Europe) - hopefully the same will be true for J&J.  They were obviously delighted about the deal too:

They've started their PR campaign...

Talking about getting their faces known (although possibly for the iTunes launch at the moment), they both appeared on BBC television, admittedly not on a Eurovision-related programme:

"Too Much TV", for those who have no idea what it is about, is a review show on early evening television, just before peak time in the UK.   The two presenters in the clip (Aled Jones and Emma Bunton) are very lightweight and the show's researchers are pretty rubbish, not even being able to find out that the first ESC was in Switzerland, not Denmark (I do not blame the presenters, as neither have ever been linked with Eurovision in any way, shape or form).  If we also ignore that the Entertainment side of the BBC still have an obsession of showing off the 'naff' side of Eurovision (judging by the introductory clips and Spain's missed cue) and the rather spoonfed questions given to J&J, the guys did come across as very personable, enthusiastic and proud to be representing the UK in Stockholm.  They also gave a decent impromptu bit of "You're Not Alone" - hopefully they will both realise that they will have tougher interviews than this one coming up!  Also there will be more people watching - only 500k tuned in for this episode...

There are 62 days left until the Eurovision Final - two months to get J&J not only recognised as a household name in the UK but known around all the Eurovision nations this year.  Yes, all 42 of them!  Get their faces seen on any television programmes, online and in their local press - it's too late to get them on any National Final (although I'm sure they could have been snuck onto Lithuania's "Eurovizijos" show, seeing it seems to have been going on for months now) but even a five minute slot on a chat show anywhere and obviously they need to attend all the pre-Parties to get fans and Press onside.  Of course, the most important thing that needs to happen is appear on the screen as a certain Geordie duo always do...