Just before Christmas our band, Georgia Wonder, had a surprising email from a casting agency asking if we'd like to attend an audition for The Eurovision Song Contest. A subsequent phone call from a very theatrical young man confirmed they'd been following our exploits on the interwebs, loved our songs and singing and wondered if we'd like to come for an audition to be held at the BBC. They were pretty specific they wanted us both to go, and were talking about 'shaking up' the way the BBC were going about this years 'Your Country Needs You' television extravaganza. It seemed as if a change of approach was on the cards, and that inviting actual bands to the auditions was part of this new strategy.

We were, as you can imagine, weirded out yet strangely chuffed. This invite was a hot potato and we only told a few close friends whose reactions ranged from 'That's Great' to 'Run The Fuck Away!'. Although we have both made complete fools of ourselves at Eurovision parties at one time or another, being asked to actually participate in this yearly dish of 39 cheeses conjured up feelings of both amusement and terror. Eurovision can Top Kill your career faster than you can say 'nil points' yet somehow its heady mix of campfoolery and chintzy glamour has always had a strange allure. Even so we still couldn't figure out why we'd been invited. Georgia Wonder for Eurovision? It sounded ridiculous, paradoxical. But the more we thought about it the more we thought we may have some kind of part to play.

For instance, our song 'Destroy' is pretty camp and over the top, and 'Love About You' is most definitely in big fluffy ballad territory. 'Would Love To Meet' is upbeat and even our most recent song 'No Credit' (the first track from our new album which we're recording entirely in our local music shop) does all the tricks you'd associate with a Eurovision number - it even has one of those key change things in it. All these songs have enough singing and enough high notes to keep a Eurovision audience entertained, especially if a stage show costing enough to drag the entire Eurozone into bankruptcy was involved. So after brainstorming this notion for at least ten seconds we concluded that the powers that be wanted us to have a crack at writing an actual song. A song for Europe! It still sounded scary and a little bit wrong but at least we'd have a chance to write something for our country that we thought was good. After all, The Eurovision Song Contest is a song contest. It's about songs.

So the day for the auditions came and as it happened, Steph had to go to the audition alone as Julian wasn't well. It was all very civil, a few respectable looking guys and girls waiting in the BBC lobby for their auditions. No bands though. Steph went in and sang an acapella version of 'Driftaway' to the small panel who were assembled in the auditions hall. They seemed impressed. 'You have a lovely voice' said one nice man. 'Can you come back again but with Julian?' said another. Everyone was very lovely.

So time passed and Christmas came and went, but we hoped they'd be making their minds up about our involvement soon so if they did want us to write a song, we'd have enough time to come up with something appropriately kitsch. But soon we heard rumours that made us think otherwise.

'Gary may take on Eurovision' read one headline in The Sun. Apparently Gary Barlow had been approached by the BBC to write the UK's Eurovision entry. If that was the case, why had we even been invited along for an audition? Did they want the two of us to sing a Gary Barlow number? We've nothing against Gary Barlow, but really? It looked like our hopes of having a crack at writing a Eurovision entry were scuppered, and that the BBC's idea of 'shaking up' the UK's entry was to pick yet another well known songwriter to write the song (as they did with Andrew Lloyd Webber) but this year get a band as opposed to a solo performer to front it. So the next question we had to ask ourselves was would either of us be willing to perform a Gary Barlow song on 'Your Country Needs You' with the potential to take it all the way to Oslo Eurovision 2010?

You must be fucking joking. We may be willing to castrate our careers in front of an audience of millions with our own material, but using a cheeky Barlow number as the removal mechanism would no doubt scar us for life and leave the nation in a state of shock.

But Gary was just a rumour. There was no mention of Gary 'taking on' Eurovision in the press over the next few months and we started thinking that 'Garygate' could have been a red herring to put the nation off the scent of the BBC's cunning plan to use fresh songwriting talent, just like they did in the days of 'Song For Europe'. But then came news that 80's pop Gods 'Stock Aitken Waterman' would be penning the UK's Eurovision entry, but without Aitken - a plan even less cunning than Baldrick's turnip shaped like a thingy.

In February the BBC officially announced that Pete Waterman and Mike Stock would be writing the song, proving that right from the start the BBC were only looking for acts to front the song of a well known writer. When 'Your Nation Needs You' finally aired it became obvious that they weren't looking for acts in the first place but solo performers, just like last year. Remember Lordi, the Finnish heavy metal band who won the 2006 Eurovision with their song 'Hard Rock Hallelujah'? Being unique can certainly get you noticed, and can even help you win. Whatever the BBC were thinking of for Eurovision 2010, it was whatever the opposite of unique is.

In many ways we were happy to be let off the hook so we could forget about the whole thing. But after hearing the hollow Frankenstein's fart of a song that Stock Waterman conjured up from the offal of hits gone by in an abattoir largely left untouched since the late 80's we stopped to think. What happened to the days when the nation looked for a great song first and foremost? We looked into it and it turns out that the public broadcaster of each country is solely responsible for choosing its own method of song selection during the run up to Eurovision, and for the last few years the BBC have deemed it appropriate to simply pick a famous songwriter and 'ask' the nation to pick someone to sing it. And by picking someone to sing it they mean use a casting agency to hand pick a handful of hopefuls already known to them and put them into their 'Your Country Needs You' show. Suddenly 'The X Factor' looks like the most democratic talent show known to man. At least it reeks of this century.

All of this has left us feeling a little sad - we'd have quite liked a shot at writing a Eurovision entry, no matter how naff. There are lots of great songwriters in the UK and we're sure they'd have liked a crack at it too. The internet could easily help democratise the selection process and anything's got to be better than picking our yearly Eurovision entry from a pool of one song. Currently the public have no say whatsoever in which song will represent their nation at Eurovision, and are thrown a token talent contest featuring six performers to give them the illusion of some kind of choice. We're delighted that we're at a stage in our career that where we can even make a blip on the BBC's radar - but it appears they've sold the nation short when it comes to encouraging new songwriting talent for Eurovision.

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PS We actually like Gary Barlow (what's there not to like?) and Julian is a fan of how Pete Waterman and Co. stuck it to the major labels back in the day. And we wish Josh the very best of luck and hope he can launch a career off the back of this years Eurovision, whatever the outcome - we will wave a flag and cheer him on. Unfortunately, bookmakers have branded 'That Sounds Good To Me' the worst Brit entry in Eurovision history. So please join our Facebook group using the link above.