252/917 Family four: Härliga sommardag (Sweden 1972)

Warm summer, beautiful landscape and all the rest of the delights of your homeland have been constant subject for songs in the event that, apart from being a contest for songs, is a good opportunity to market your country for tourists and visitors. Sweden used the first two years of the 1970's to sing about lovely winter (in 1971) and summer (1972) of this Scandinavian kingdom. To sing both these well crafted tourism commercials Sweden chose a four member folk group Family four.

Their 1971 entry Vita vidder (to which I will hopefully return in the near future) was a melodic masterpiece by Håkan Elmquist, a song of many dimensions and stages. Perfect performance by the Family four gave this song one of the best results Sweden had ever had in the Eurovision so far.

The Swedish entry from 1972, composed as well by Elmquist, was much simpler and less structured praise of wonderful summer days. Family four did, again, a wonderful stage performance of the song with the girls starting the verse and the boys continuing. The verse is followed by a peppy and almost irritatingly hilarious refrain which is interrupted by a gorgeous middle eight with wonderful harmony singing by the group. Although not as perfect as the 1971 entry, Härliga sommardag manages, once again, be a delightful and very Swedish song to which Family four does justice with a big J. The recorded version is even better.

Unfortunately the juries, consisting of two members from each participating country, were not as thrilled of the Swedish summer as they were of the winter a year earlier. The song placed 13th among 18 participants.

Family four continued its career until 1974. Two of its members, Marie Bergman and Pierre Isacsson continued their careers as solo artists. Bergman would represent Sweden for the third time in 1994, and the same year Isacsson would, tragically, die in the Estonia ferry accident.

My points 4/5.

720/917 Aud Wilken: Fra Mols til Skagen (Denmark 1995)

The voyage between the Mols peninsula and the town of Skagen of Denmark is over 200 km long and it takes about 2 and half hours to drive by car, but only three minutes to sing a love song about. The Eurosong 720, suggested by my friend Asko Murtomäki, is a seductive ballad about a woman longing to be with her lover at the other end of the country. According to many a Eurovision masterpiece. I agree.

Denmark, who during the 1980's and early 1990's was known for bouncy pop songs, changed the pace dramatically in 1995. The song written by Lise Cabble is different from both the previous danish representatives and the other 22 songs that took part in the 1995 contest. The Danish themselves were rather hesitant, as the song was chosen as their entry with a very low margin.

However in Dublin the song stood up from the rest with its laid back atmosphere and sparse instrumentation. The interesting melody and the soulful voice of Aud Wilken was a perfect match and for once the Danish language sounds beautiful like italian to an enchanted ear. Her husky performance is at the same time thoughtful, passionate and seductive (without taking any of her clothes off).

If in the home front the expectations were not that high, the international audience took the song directly to their hearts. The song was among the favourites from the beginning and finally reached the fifth position only eight points short of the bronze medal. After the good result even the danes themselves realized the potential of the song and Fra Mols til Skagen became a big hit in the homeground.

For Denmark, who usually plays it safe in the Eurovision, to do something different really paid off. Fra Mols til Skagen is definately one of the most memorable songs of the Danish Eurovision history and the 1995 contest.

Lisa Cabble would return as a composer to Eurovision in 2011 and 2013, when her song Teardrops would win the whole contest. Aud Wilken took part in the Danish Melodi Grand Prix again in 2007 without success. She has only one solo album in her catalogue. Cannot understand why.

My points 4/5

127/917 Ulla Wiesner: Paradies, wo bist du? (Germany 1965)

This is a unfortunately usual story. A young competent artist performs well a challenging song on the Eurovision stage making also a terrific recording out of it. However, the juries (or the televoters) don't get the song and it goes nowhere and the artist is never heard of again. Such was the case also for the song performed 127th in the Eurovision history.

The song Paradies wo bist du is a not your usual Eurovision entry of the mid 1960's. The song combines in an unorthodox way German schlager and latin rhythms with an interesting melody line. The song was the first but also the most unconventional of four great Eurovision entries written by well known composer Hans Blum.

The recording of this song is excellent with arrangement and production way ahead of its time. Especially notable is the use of the wordless female vocal which is used  more like an instrument than a backing vocal. Young 24 year old Ulla Wiesner does a immaculate job following the complicated melody line managing to add some personal interpretation in the recording. The arrangement of the live version on Naples Eurovision stage is much more conventional losing the enigmatic ambience of the studio recording.

Still the song in its live version would have deserved better fate. The voting system of the mid 1960's did not do favours for songs like this. Each country gave points to maximum three songs (out of 18) they deemed best, so it was no surprise that a song so different and exotic would not receive any points at all.

For poor Ulla Wiesner the drawn last place in the 10th Eurovision song contest meant abrupt end for her singing career. In the Internet very little (if any) information can be found of her singing activities after the 1965 Eurovision song contest, although the bad result was by no means her fault. The song itself disappeared and the studio recording can be found only on German Eurovision compilations that are currently sold out. I tried in vain to find a link to the studio version on Spotify, YouTube and GrooveShark.

Hans Blum wrote another three entries for the Eurovision Song Contest in 1967, 1969 and 1985. With less adventurous songs he managed each time reach the top ten.

My points 3/5 (I make my judgement according to the live version. The studio version of song would easily receive 4 points from me or possibly the full fiver)

p.s. This song was suggested for me by a fellow blogger Tobias Larsson. If you have a song, a decade or a country you want me to write about, please send me a comment or tweet me to mikko_suhonen. I'm looking forward to your contribution.