Andersson: 'I don't watch Eurovision'

Benny Andersson has admitted that he no longer watches the Eurovision Song Contest.

The songwriter, who won the competition with Abba in 1974, told the BBC that the show is now too overblown to have meaning.

Andersson said: "I don't watch Eurovision. It's become so huge. What it is now is possibly a great television event, but for music it means nothing.

"It was a smaller scale [in 1974], than it is now. It might have been a little bit more meaningful in the '50s and '60s and when we entered but after that, I'm not sure if anything ever happened."

He added that Andrew Lloyd Webber had made a "brave" decision to co-write UK entry 'It's My Time' for Jade Ewen but said that he has no interest in doing the same for Sweden, despite being asked several times.

Andersson recently wrote two pop songs with former bandmate Bjorn Ulvaeus for the first time in over 15 years.