917 songs have been sung in the Eurovision Song Contest between 1956 and 2003. In this blog I go through these songs in a random order and tell you what I think of them. What song would you like me to review?
After a very good run of high placings in the Eurovision (four victories and only four times outside of top 5) culminating to the victory in 1981, United Kingdom seemed to lose their interest in the Eurovision Song Contest in the 1980's. Good placings here and there, but the overall quality decreased dramatically. Most of their songs in the 1980's were either embarrassing or easily forgettable. The UK entry from 1985 is one of the latter ones.
Very bluntly titled love song Love is is as simple and forgettable as its title. 28 years ago it sounded modern disco ballad, but now it's synthetic and sparse arrangement is as outdated as Vikki Watson's hairdo. On recorded version the arrangement sounds slightly better but still very 1980'ish.
Watson herself gave a confident, if restrained, show on stage singing faultlessly but also without much passion. The song did reasonably well, the fourth position in the final result is no surprise when I think of the other sounds and songs you heard in Gothenburg 1985. Now almost 30 years later the song has nothing to give.
Ms Watson did not make a career out of radiofriendly europop. Instead after changing her stage name to Aeone she has become successful composer for film and television and recorded several albums of celtic folk music in a New Age style. For example her version of Scarborough fair could not be further away from the Eurovision stage.
The next Eurosong is chosen by a fellow eurovision lover Antti Salmela. The 327th song sung on the Eurovision stage is favourite among many Eurofans, but unfortunately I am not one of them.
The Yugoslavian entry in 1976 was chosen by the Bosnian television. The song was a folk orientated pop song by a Sarajevo group Ambasadori, member of which Slobodan Vujović also composed the song.
The song consists of two parts that to me are like day and night. The verse is promising and sung beautifully by the soloist Ismeta Dervoz but as she is joined in the chorus by the rest of the group the whole thing falls apart. Perhaps it is the arrangement (or is the group singing out of tune?) or the melody, but the chorus puts me off every time I hear it.
As many of my Eurovision friends have persistently told me how good this song actually is, I've tried to start liking it. But I'm sorry, I've failed.
Eurovision Song Contes entry number 181 is an example of an arrangement gone wrong. A song that sounds ok on record but turns into a nothing on live stage when arranger tries to make the song better than it actually is.
The recorded version of the Swiss entry from 1968 Guardando il sole starts with a distinctive guitar, piano and orchestral riff and the piano is prominent throughout the whole recording where the orchestra is nicely restrained. The recording ends with the same riff that opens the song making the song a well structured piece of entertainment. The composition itself is rather dull Italian ballad, but the arrangement on record manages to make it to an ok track . Unfortunately the single release of the song is so rare, that no good quality rip is available anywhere in the Internet. This is the best I found.
On stage the song is completely restructured and rearranged. The conductor Mario Robbiani is a good and experienced arranger, but he does not succeed in making a mediocre song a good performance, quite the opposite. The live version of Guardando il sole is an orchestral cliché after cliché and as the melody is what it is (or it isn't what it isn't), the Swiss entry is just three minutes of sheer emptiness. The only thing you remember of it is the brave effort by the singer Gianni Mascolo trying to make something out of nothing. It is sad that such a good singer is not given a better song.
On paper an Italian ballad sung by a strong male singer sounds good. But if the song or the arrangement gives you nothing to base your performance on, there is nothing you can do.
What is a perfect Eurovision ballad like? It should start quietly, preferably with only a piano backing, which gives the singer (preferably a female singer) to show her tender side. More instruments should join in in about 30 seconds and by the middle of the song the full ochestra should be blasting from the stage. After a short return to the sparser instrumentation should follow the overblown finale where both the orchestra and the singer can give their all. If possible, the title of the song should include the words "I", "you" and "love". Here I give you a perfect Eurovision lovesong, the Eurosong numer 472.
The Dutch Eurovision entry from 1984 certainly stood out as a song you were expecting. The song was pompous, it was well arranged to suit the Eurovision orchestra and the melody was all one could except from a Eurovision love song. On top of it all stood 24 year old Marie Kwakman (renamed rather unispiredly as Maribelle), who could really belt out the highlights of the song as well as whisper the tender parts.
With a slight reminiscense of Carly Simon Maribelle, standing alone on stage, had a total control over the cameras and caught the eye both at the Grand Théare de Luxembourg and at home. With a title translated simply as "I love you" you could have thought it would have been a pefect performance of a perfect song.
However it didn't really go that way. In 1984 the juries preferred the bouncy pop-songs (Sweden, Ireland and Denmark in particular) and more somber ballads (Spain, Belgium and Italy) rather than a positive, heart winning love song. The Dutch entry ended in the disappointing 13th place in the results with mere 34 points.
A shame really, after watching again Maribelle's performance, I can see nothing wrong with it and she would have deserved a better place in the final results. If nothing too spectacular, the song was definately better than shaky performance by the host country (10. place), the screeching ladies from the UK (7. place) and the second rate love song from France (8. place). But the world, let alone the Eurovision Song Contest, is not fair.
This time the random number generator draw me a song that I had reviewed already. In these occasions I give myself a liberty to pick a song I want. So for the first time in this blog a song of my own choosing, a bizarre number of cabaret amongs the pop and schlager tunes. Eurosong number 218 stood out among the other 11 songs like a cranberry among rasberrys and is one of my favourite Eurovision Song Contes entries ever.
Dominique Dussault was only 16 years of age when she stood on a Eurovision stage in Amsterdam. She looked and sounded very much like her idol Edith Piaf, a short and a fragile looking lady with a strong trembling voice. Even her stage costume, curly hear and overblown gestures remind me of Piaf, who had died only 6 and half years prior to the 1970 Song Contest.
Dussault did not, however, sing about the sparrow of Paris, but of another great central European diva Marlene Dietrich (who actually was one of Piaf's best friends and acted as her matron of honour when she got married). In her song Dussault describes her low voice playing from an old 78t record, a character holding a cigar, the "Blue angel", a legend that will never be forgotten.
In the second half of the song Dominique tells us how much she would like to be like Marlene but as a small girl "only 150 cm long with curls like sheep hair" she cannot match her dream character. Finally she tries to imitate her german and english with german accent making the song both poignant and funny.
This cabaret like number was not what the juries were looking for and with only five points the song ended in the drawn 8th place. With the nordic countries, Portugal and Austria boycotting the contest there was only 12 countries participating.
To young Dominique Dussault the future didn't have big success in store. The very modest result placing in the 1970's didn't help her in her musical career, so after the excellent recorded version of Marlène nothing was really heard of her. She didn't stop singing, but continued her career in a smaller circles, singing jazz and chansons away from the public eye and away from the popular music business.
I have always loved the 1970 Monegasque entry for the passionate delivery and the clever melody and text and for not hesitating to be different. These peculiar oddities that come up every now and then make the Eurovision Song Contest exciting and worth watching.
Although Israel first participated in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1973, already in 1963 not one but two israeli singers took part. Both these singers had made an international hits prior to their Eurovision appearances and secured a steady career in European showbusiness.
Carmela Corren had been discovered by American tv personality Ed Sullivan in the late 1950's, and since had appeared in both television and in films. In the 1960's she became famous in the german speaking countries, so it was no surprise that she was chosen to represent Austria in the 1963 Eurovision Song Contest.
And she filled her task beautifully. Her well trained voice gave meaning to each syllable she was singing and made the song stand out more than it would have with a less shining star.
Unfortunately for Corren, that was not enough in 1963, which in my opinion was the first really good quality Eurovision Song Contest ever. Austria did not have a chance in a contest filled with quality entries and international stars (like Nana Mouskouri, Françoise Hardy and Ester Ofarim). The change of language in the middle might have gathered one or two extra points, but to my mind it makes the song lose its authenticity and sincerity.
While the Carmela Corren never had a chance of winning the contest, it secured Austria the 7th place in the final results (among 16 participants), the arguably best result for the country before Udo Jürgens took over the Austrian representation in 1964 and finally won the contest two years later. My points 3/5.
When one thinks of Greece in Eurovision, one often thinks of their current trend of combining the modern pop rhythms with local dance styles and instruments. It wasn't always like that. In the 1980's the greek songs tried often to be more of a general european pop songs and the local flavours were very much hidden in the arrangements, or not even there. The greek entry from 1989 is a better example of this kind of song.
Mariana Efstratiou had represented Greece already in 1987 as a backing singer for a group called Bang, who sang a very ungreek Stop!, a song sounding disturbingly like Wham's (wonder where group Bang got their name from) Wake me up before you go go. Another good example of a greek song trying not to sound a bit like greek.
Efstratiou wrote 1989 entry Το δικό σου αστέρι together with Yannis Kyris. The song was an airy and pleasant ballad in the contest, that was dominated by rock and pop pastiches (Rock me by Riva, Vi maler byen rød by Birthe Kjær) and power pop ballads (En dag by Tommy Nilsson and Nur ein Lied by Thomas Forstner). The song was arranged perfectly to match the Lausanne orchestra making the live version of the song much more effective than the lame studio version.
Mariana Efstratiou was like her song. A little shy, not trying to make an act and simply doing a perfect fresh performance making the greek entry unpretentious and enjoyable three minutes of the contest otherwise full of neon lights and drum machines. It was awarded by 56 points and well reserved 9th position among 22 entries.
Seven years later Mariana Efstratiou was back as a totally different artist with a totally different song. But that will be another entry in this blog sometime in the future. But I promise you, it will not receive as high point as I award her 1989 entry.
After 40 songs presented in this blog it is now the first time for me to come across a winning song in the Eurovision Song Contest. The victory of the 200th eurosong is overshadowed by the fact that it was one of the four songs to win in 1969. Still in my book it is one of the best winners and best Dutch songs in the Eurovision history ever.
Lenny Kuhr was only 19 years of age and in the beginning of her career when she represented the Netherlands in the contest held in Madrid. With her strong and appealing voice she managed to capture the moment and be one of the four winners that year.
De troubadour is not a typical pop tune of the late 1960's. It is more of a folk song with story of the past. The song tells a very simple story of man who sang his songs to all the people, to the knights, to commoners, to drunks and to priests, to people who missed him when his songs and his life ended. Not more complicated than that, but not more was needed as most of the viewers didn't understand the lyrics anyway.
To me, who have always loved the sound of the dutch language, De troubadour is a beautiful combination of lovely melody, strong arrangement (the live version has much more effective orchestra than the recorded version) and the dutch lyrics sung eloquently by the young singer. This song would have been worth more than just a shared first place.
My points 5/5.
p.s. I've tried to find the real songwriting credits to this song, but the information I've found has been contradicting. According to some sources De troubadour was composed by Kuhr herself and lyrics were written by David Hartsema, but in many places the credits are reversed. Can anyone confirm what were the real credits to this wonderful song?
In the early 1950's the singers representing their country were often experienced and classically trained professionals. They sang a song written for the occasion and rarely recorded the song or sung the song since. The eurosong 33 is apparently one of these.
The 1958 contest was only the third Eurovision Song Contest ever arranged. I find it therefore quite remarkable that the video recording of the contest from 55 years ago is such a good quality picturewise and specially soundwise.
With such a good and dynamic sound quality it is a joy to watch and listen to the contest, which gave us some of the first world wide Eurovision hits (Nel blu di pinto di blu from Italy and Dors mon amour from France).
The Austrian entry is not one of those. Liane Augustin, was a popular actress and singer from the last years of the 2nd world war until her untimely death in 1978 (at only 51 years of age). In Eurovision she sang beautifully the otherwise unremarkable ballad and received the unremarkable fifth position (among only 10 participants). Even with a good singer, the Austrian entry was overshadowed by other entries of this, rather good quality Eurovision Song Contest of 1958.
All the songs from the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest have been overshadowed by a Swedish group that won the contest that year and became one of the biggest music and show business phonomena in the world. However, the contest included many other notable entries, among the Eurosong 284 which the random number generator draw for me this time.
Jacques Hustin had been a household name in Belgium since the mid 1960's and was confident enough to present this pleasent song on the Eurovision stage in 1974. With his charming trembling voice and well planned stage act (including the very 1970's outfit) he managed to please many in the audience. The song was well arranged with prominent use of strings and the flute.
The 1974 was not, unfortunately, the year for single male performers. The top places in the result list were filled with groups (Abba, Mouth & McNeal) and established female artists (Gigliola Cinquetti, Olivia Newton-John and Ireen Sheer), and Belgium had to settle for ninth place.
Jacques Hustin continued his career until the late 1980's, when he concentrated on his other career as a painter.
Fleur de liberté is an eurosong that one does not hear often. But whenever I hear it it makes me smile and long for the 1970's Eurovision Song Contests.
Malta and me, we've had a very troubled relationship ever since they returned to Eurovision in the early 1990's. They tend to make professional but also sterile pop tracks with no human factor anywhere in sight. With the exception of the three entries sung by wonderful Chiara (1998, 2005 and 2009) and their fun entries from 1972 and 2000 I cannot really find anything I like in their entries. The Eurosong 730 is a good example of a Maltese entry that tries hard, but goes nowhere.
17 years old Miriam Christian Borg was one of the favourites in 1996 when the Eurovision Song Contest was held in Oslo Norway. Her entry was composed by Paul Abela, who had already written two eurovision entry for Malta (in 1991 and 1992). The song was a modern, well arranged pop track which, however, continued Malta's line of entries that played it safe and did nothing to break any barriers. Like it's predecessors, the song floated inside one ear and out of the other leaving no traces in my mind. The song would have needed something special to wake the sleepy listener up.
Despite of her young age and insecure singing perky Miriam Christine made a good impression on stage and Malta finally reached the 10th position (among 23 participants). This result can be considered a disappointment, since the recorded version of the song had come as high as to the fourth position in the semifinal. Since the 1996 contest I had almost forgotten about this song.
Miriam Christine Borg has continued to sing and she has apparently had a considerable career in Malta. To see and hear what she sounds like now, listen to her song Mystery Mama from 2011. I prefer her 21st century style and voice to her 1996 Eurovision entry.
Sometimes a small, tiny, almost unnoticable thing can make a firm favourite fall. Sometimes the expecations are so high that when the reality comes in, the disappointment is too hard to bare. This happened to my relation with the Eurosong 858.
Natasha St-Pier was to change the gloomy streak of French eurovision entries in 2001. The preceding five years had given the country only one top 5 song and the rest didn't even reach the top 15 in the final results. For France, one of the most succesful countries in the contest, this was disasterous and so an established canadien singer and succesful french songwriter were called to help.
Robert Goldman has written international hits for f.eg. Céline Dion, Florent Pagny and Patricia Kaas under the pseudonyme of Jean Kapler. The song he wrote for Natasha St-Pier was a well crafted ballad starting quietly and growing towards the end of the song. The arrangement is masterly and in the recorded version St-Pier is well up to the task. When I saw the preview video and heard the studio version of the song, I was sure this song was going to win. A sure five pointer from me.
In Copenhagen something changed, I don't know what. There is nothing really wrong in Natasha's performance, slight insecurity at some points and maybe a little tense presence on the stage, but that is only to be expected for a young singer on such a big stage. She sings well and manages to touch the audience enough to reach the fourth place in the final results.
Still, for me the magic of the studio version was gone. The song didn't gel like on record, and the small imperfections in the performance all but ruined the song for me. After high expectations I felt disappointed by the French entry and song fell from my favourite position to somewhere in the middle. To kill the song in my mind Natasha St-Pier decided to do what no other French representative had ever done before, sing the last verse in English for no apparent reason else than wanting to please as much audience as possible. Maybe it helped the song to gain more points, but this calculated change of language was the last straw.
Natasha St-Pier has continued her career succesfully for over 10 years in the francophone music business. Good for her, but her name reminds me for always of the disappointment of the 2001 Eurovision Song Contest.
Italy has always been one of my favourite countries in the Eurovision song contest. But they can't always do right. Their 1985 entry failed in almost all aspects to reach the high San Remo standards I was accustomed to. But what did it matter, it still fared rather well in the final results.
Al Bano & Romina Power were an established pop act and the song was crafted by professionals, so everything should have been perfect. Instead the song was dull, repetitive and laboriously arranged. Song starts promisingly but very soon it was evident that it didn't go nowhere.
But the melody or the arrangement were not the worst thing. It seemed, at least to me, that more work had been done to sew the glittering gown of Romina than had been done to rehearse her to sing properly. Maybe it was the excitement (which is unlikely, because the duo had taken part nine years earlier) or maybe she didn't hear the orchestra enough (some other artists seem to have the same problem). Whatever the reason, she barely sung a right note during her solo. To make matters worse, her singing was backed by one of the backing singers, who DID sing in tune making Romina's detuning stand out like a tomato in a vanilla sauce.
Al Bano being a charismatic and skillful singer manages to prevent the performance turn into disaster. His voice and presence is joy to the ear and eye. However, even he cannot save a mediocre tune and a poor performance of his wife.
If you think that I am too harsh on the song, you may be right. At least the juries didn't agree with me as the song was voted seventh among 19 entries. That does not change the fact, that I have never liked the Italian entry from 1985 and probably never will.
For over 30 years Yugoslavia was the only nation from behind the iron curtain to take part in the Eurovision Song Contest. Althought the success came never close until the late 1980's, Yugoslavia still gave the contest plenty of quality entries that had something not heard of other entries. The eurosong 145 represented the balkan ballad genre, which would come popular and successful in the beginning of the new millenium.
In 1966 the Slovenian branch of the Yugoslav broadcaster won the national selection and chose Berta Ambroz to sing song Brez Besed, written by Mojmir Sepe. The beautiful song has a appealing melody and nicely growing arrangement. Berta Ambroz gives a passionate, if somewhat shy performance also managing beautifully to use different nyances in her singing from delicate verse to a rousing refrain with a trembling vibrato in her voice. Song was definately one of the higlights of the 1966 contest.
The song fared rather well in the international final reaching the 7th place among 18 acts being one of the absolute best results for Yugoslavia until the victory 23 years later.
The 1966 Eurovision entry for Yugoslavia has a similar melody line than one of the most succesful entries, the famous Eres tu from Spain seven years later. For some reason this remained very much unnoticed at the time.
I could not find much information on the singer other than that she was only 21 years old when representing her country. Her entry is available in Spotify on a compilation album of her other hits (listen f.eg. her version of the James Bond tune Goldfinger) which gives an impression that she had before her death in 2003 some place in the Yugoslavian show business.
The composer-conductor Mojmir Sepe would, on the other hand, conduct the Eurovision orchestra four times in total, last time being as late as in 1998.
Choreography and other stage gimmicks started to steal the show in the Eurovision song contest since late 1970's. Before that it was the song that mattered the most. There were of course exceptions. Already the 23rd Eurosong is best remembered for the longest kiss ever on the Eurovision stage. So far, 56 years later it hasn't been equalled. This gimmick was, however, more a mistake than a deliberate attempt to catch the attention. And the song, the first one to represent Denmark, was very good even without the last 11 seconds.
Skibet skal sejle i nat was a first duet ever in the Eurovision and a very romantic one. Even though very few in the audience understood danish, the message of the song was easily understandable: A ship is going to sail soon and tear the sailor boy and his lover apart from each other for a very long time. Birthe Wilke and Gustav Winckler used their acting skills (in addition to their musical ones) to the full and gave a very convincing performance as a couple regretting the separation but bravely looking forward to the day when they shall be united again.
The great performance together with a lovely melody and arrangement enchanted the juries who gave the song third place among only ten participants. To me it is one of the best Danish entries ever and one of the best songs from the first years in the contest.
The kiss then? Wilke and Winckler were instructed to kiss until when the floor manager would show them to stop. Unfortunately (or not) the signal never came and the song would write Eurovision history already at the second contest ever arranged.
Switzerland has used all its four national languages in the Eurovision song contest. With couple of songs in english they hold the record of the number of different languages used in the contest. A Swiss trio Peter, Sue & Marc hold a similar record having taken part four times in the contest, each time using a different language.
Their last participation was in 1981 which also gave the group its best result. Io senza te was a passionate Italian ballad, which in Italy's absence and with a perfect place in the running order (19th song sung among 20 entries) struck the right chord among the audience loving the mediterranean ballad. After a very narrow voting Switzerland ended fourth just 16 points short of winning the contest altogether.
That was maybe a good thing. The song, composed by Peter Reber from the group, included a instrumental passage played, apparently, with a pan flute. According to some sources the sound of the flute came from the backing tape. As the acoustic instruments were not allowed (in 1981 that is) to be pre-recorded, the song would probably have been subject to protests if the it had won.
Year 1981 marked the end to the 10 year run of the group. After that the three singers have performed together only occasionally.
The Swiss entry remains one of the most enduring songs from the 1981 contest often dismissed for being full of second rate disco ditties. To me, Io senza te would have been a perfect winner.
A singer named Nina has taken part in the Eurovision Song Contest several times. We remember among others the Spanish Nina from 1989, Nina Radojčić who took part for Serbia in 2011, Finnish Nina Åström from 2000, the Italian Nina Zilli taking part in 2012 and Nina Badrić who represented Croatia the same year. More than once has Nina also been the subject of a love song that has been sung on the Eurovision stage. So it was also in 1991, when the Eurosong 608 took part for Iceland.
The Icelandic entry in 1991 was composed by Eyjólfur Kristjánsson who also sang the song with Stefán Hilmarsson, who had previously represented Iceland three years earlier. The 1991 song was a powerful ballad with a strong performance from the duo. Unfortunately it didn't catch the juries attention and finished only 16th among 22 participants.
Maybe it was the icelandic language that made the juries not to notice this perfect song (which to me sounds much better in it's original language than in english), it might also be due to the dreaded second position in the running order. Still, I'd put my blame on the mediocre performance of the RAI orchestra and the lousy sound acoustics of studio 15 of Cinecittá for the bad result of the Icelandic entry.
To me this song is one of the best songs from the small Scandinavian country ever in the Eurovision Song Contest. The best way to listen to the song is to find the studio versio at Spotify where you can hear the passion, the seamless cooperation between the two singers and the great string arrangement crowning the recording. A perfect Eurosong.
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.
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.
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.
After several two or three pointers I'm more than glad to have random number generator draw me a full pointer for a change. The 304th song to be sung on a Eurovision stage is on the surface a boringly normal schlager sung in a very traditional way. But if you listen to it more, you'll find that there is more to it than meets the ear.
As mentioned before, André Popp is one of my favourite Eurovision composers. I have already given the full 5 points to his classic L'amour est bleu from 1967, and he also wrote two excellent entries for France in 1964 and in 1960 when Tom Pillibi would win the whole contest. Should these songs be drawn or requested to my blog, I promise to attribute high points to them as well. Apart from his four Eurovision entries, Popp has written numerous hits for French artists and scores for about ten films.
For his last (so far) participation in the ESC Popp also acted as conductor. Song Une chanson c'est une lettre was sung by 30 year old French singer Sophie Hecquet. Before Eurovision her main achievement in the music business was to have accompanied Johnny Hallyday on his tours in the mid 1960's.
Sophie is a good a singer and shining performer and she looks stunning in her red dress on a brigh blue stage. However the real star of this show is the song itself. The melody is simple and the chorus is almost naively repetitive. What makes the song stand out is the distinctive time signature that the song is composed on. Most of the song is in 6/4 time and in the verse Popp alters between 6/4 time and 4/4 time. 6/4 time signature is quite rare in a pop song, which gives the song a totally different feel and combined with a most ordinary melody the result is quirky and mysterious. Additionally André Popp's arrangement is excellent and the Swedish orchestra is up to the task.
On top of it all the lyrics are a poetic masterpiece telling in different ways and metaphors how a message of love is so much easier to put in a song or a poem than to tell someone face to face. A song is a letter, that is never sent. You can openly tell "I love you" in a song, when you are not the one to sing it. When one speaks of love the words get stuck in your throat, but in a song or a poem love is always perfect and you are not afraid to feel silly.
The lyrical genious Boris Bergman had already written song for Monaco in 1973 and he would eventually write the French entry as late as in 2013.
The juries in 1975 did not see this detailed perfection and awarded the song only 22 points and 13th place in the final results (among 19 participants). Neither has this song become particularly popular among Eurovision fans. To me this song, from the typical schlager intro through the affective key change and until the charming finale, is one of the dearest memories from 1970's Eurovision Song Contest, certainly one of the best songs in 1975 contest, which was filled with premium quality entries anyway.
Sophie would not continue her career as a singer. Instead she made a career as a radio and television presenter and a producer in Monaco, Luxembourg and Belgium. She died in 2012 at the age of 68.
Telephone in its differents incarnations has inspired Eurovision song writers during the decades. Already in 1957 Margot Hilscher demonstrated with a phone in her hand how this apparatus is used. 40 years later Kølig Kaj had a long distance romance with a switchboard operator. The 595th Eurosong reminds us of two things that today's generation have never used or even hear of.
If you want to find a happy, jolly, uptempo Eurosong and want to avoid gloom and doom, Denmark is always a safe bet. Especially during the 15 years after their long absence in the Eurovision (during 1967-1977) it was very difficult find a non smiling face when Denmark's team was on stage. Coincidence or not, eight of those 15 songs (from 1978 to 1993) had lyrics by Keld Heick.
That was also the case in 1990, when 17 year old Lonnie Devantier was sent to represent Denmark with a song about telephone booth, answering machine and a boyfriend reluctant to answer the damn thing (To my younger readers check Wikipedia for Answering machine and Telephone booth to know what this song is about.)
The song is very much a prototype of all the Danish Eurovision entries from the 1980's with catchy refrain, overtly smiling singer (although her boyfriend stubbornly refuses to return her phone messages) and hysterically whirling backing dancers. And of course, the song being Danish, there is a happy ending as after throwing her last coins into the public telephone the boyfriend finally lifts the receiver.
I was a friend of the jolly Danish tunes in the mid 1980's but by the the change of decade even I thought that enough was enough. Hallo hallo was not one of the better songs from our Scandinavian neighbours and instead of being genuinly happy the smiles and the movements looked to me very forced even then.
Lonnie Devantier made couple of records after her Eurovision debut, but she is mostly known in Denmark as a songwriter using the name Lonnie Kjer. If you want to know what she sounds like today, check her 2008 single Dina/Det bli'r ikke bedre at Spotify. She has really gone far from the telephone booth in 18 years.
Latino pop charmers like Ricky Martin and Enrique Iglesias stormed the world charts in the late 1990's making the Spanish rhythms fashionable and a good product to sell. However in Eurovision it took couple of years before the Spanish television TVE caught on and tried to use the formula in the Eurovision Song Contest. The Eurosong 857 was first of several Spanish Eurovision entries trying to benefit the hype.
In the 1990's Spain had sent mainly ballads to the Eurovision song contest. These songs resulted both good placings (best being the 2nd place in 1995) and disasters (the last place in 1999). In the new millenium TVE tried to hit the jack pot sending a stereotypical latino charmer in tight trousers and white teeth to swing his hips on the Eurovision Stage.
22 year old David Civera delivered what he was commissioned to do. Looking comfortable on stage with his two backing dancers he did good job making the audience at the huge Parken stadium dance to the hot Spanish rhythms. The televoters, however, were not smitten as they were supposed to and awarded Civera and Spain enough points to climb to the 6th position in the final results, which must have been a disappointment for TVE. Spain tried to repeat the formula several times, but this sixth place remains the best position for a Spanish entry in Eurovision since 1998.
I have never been that keen on Ricky Martin or Enrique Iglesias and David Civera does not make me change my mind. Not his fault, but these Spanish swinging charmers are just not my cup of tea.
The Eurosong 399 was requested by my french friend Sebastien Berteaux. The song Amsterdam was performed by 30 year old Sjoukje van't Spijker under her stage name Maggie MacNeal. The song that represented the host country Netherlands came fifth after a very tight race.
Maggie MacNeal was known internationally as the other half of a "Beauty and a beast"-type of pop duo Mouth and MacNeal, which had had some big hits around Europe and their biggest hit How do you do made the charts even in the United States. The duo split up soon after their 1974 participation in the Eurovision song contest singing I see a star. Spiker has continued her solo career until the beginning of the 21st century.
Amsterdam was a big ballad very much different from the ditties sung by her former group. MacNeal took the stage wearing a glittering evening gown and singing a very traditional Eurovision ballad.
More than the song I remember the tight voting which gave the MacNeal and the Netherlands a convincing lead from the beginning and she was looked very much like the winner during the first third of the voting. After that, however, both Germany and Ireland stole the lead from the host country and Maggie MacNeal could later see herself driven over by Switzerland and the United Kindom as well.
Today I see the Dutch entry from 1980 an OK song, not a killer but certainly not one of the worst ballads ever sung in the contest. Not one of my current favourites anyway.
During the first decades of the Eurovision Song Contest the French artists had more exposure to the European audiences than others. Apart from the French television, the French artists were usually asked to represent also Monaco and Luxembourg, and sometimes even Switzerland and Belgium. Several upcoming and already established French stars tried to enhance their careers or prepare themselves for the forthcoming stardom by taking part. One of these artists was Michèle Torr, who took part in the Eurovision Song Contes twice representing both Monaco and Luxembourg.
Torr was part of the Yé-yé generation, a singer under 20 years of age singing mostly uptempo songs. Other famous yé-yé singers were France Gall, Françoise Hardy and Sylvie Vartan. A 19 year old Torr gave a confident performance in the 1966 edition of Eurovision Song Contest representing the host country Luxembourg.
I find her performance and the song one of the best in the 1966 contest, which was not of the highest quality contests in the 1960's. The result, 10th place among 18 participant was surprising and disappointing. I still like the song even though it hasn't aged as well as some other entries from the 1960's.
Michèle Torr was already a star and she returned to the Eurovision Stage in 1977 representing Monaco with a song Une petite française, which she preferred to her 1966 entry and which improved her result finishing fourth. She is still continuing her career performing regularly and releasing new material occasionally.
This time the random number generator picked me a singer who had started her international known career earlier than anyone else ever in the Eurovision Song Contest. The singer of the 66th Eurosong is none other than the singer who made Lili Marleen a hit on both sides of the frontier during the second world war.
Lale Andersen was 34 years old when she recorded this war time classic in 1939. At first the nazi officials banned the recording, but after the song had became immensely popular among the German troops it was allowed to be played again. The song made Lale Andersen popular also on the other side of the frontier, as the sad story about a soldier and his lover separated by the war was understood everywhere during those years.
After the war Andersen's career stopped for a while, but in the 1950's she continued her career. In 1961, at the age of 56, she was chosen to represent Germany in the Eurovision song contest with a very traditional German schlager Einmal sehen wir uns wieder.
The dark and enigmatic voice was still there and the song was an excellent vehicle for the experienced singer. With a perfect performance, beautiful tune and the international fame of the singer, the 13th place among 16 participants was rather disappointing. It is possible that the juries did not like the long passages of spoken text in the song. I, too, prefer the recorded version with more music and less talking.
With a long and succesfull career behind her the poor result in the Eurovision did not do her harm. She continued to tour Germany, Europe and even United States until her death in 1972.
It would take 47 years and a Croatian disc jockey and rapper of 75 years of age before anyone older than Andersen would perform on the Eurovision stage.
The first Eurovision Song Contest I remember watching from start to finish was in 1978 which was also the first contest I recorded on a compact cassette. One of the many performances I listened on this tape over and over again was done by a Spanish duo that had already become world famous for their songs Yes sir, I can boogie and Sorry I'm a lady. However, the Eurosong 362 they performed in Paris did not represent Spain, but Luxembourg.
Baccara is one of only few internationally famous artists that took part in the Eurovision to boost their career even further. Their entry Parlez-vous français was written by Rolf Soja and Frank Dostal, a german songwriting team that had written their earlier hits.
The performance of Baccara in Paris was flawless. One of the charming details of the duo was their pronounced accent when singing in English. This time Mayte Mateos and Maria Mendiola were forced to use their equally broken French to sing the Luxembourg entry. Their other trademark was their black (Mateos) and white (Mendiola) dresses. The duo seemed to be at home on the wide stage managing to both talk, sing and dance to the song very much similar to their earlier hits.
The late 1970's Eurovision Song Contests are close to my heart (apart from being the first I watched) because of the great orchestral arrangements with the prominent use of strings. Parlez-vous français is one of the songs in 1978 which sound much better live than on record. The live version is about a minute shorter than the recorded version, the strings are mixed much higher than on record and the ending of the live version is much more effective than the fade out of the studio version.
Because of their recent hits Baccara was one of the biggest favourites of the evening. So it is safe to assume that the Luxembourg delegation was disappointed when this perfect little package came only 7th (among 20 participants). Parlez-vous français was one of the biggest hits to come out of 1978 contest. However, the career of the original Baccara would soon end in the declining sales and the differences between the singers and the record company. After splitting up in 1982 Mateos and Mendiola continued their careers both re-creating their own Baccara groups.
Rolf Soja and Frank Dostal would return to the Eurovision Song Contest in 1986, again writing song for the Radio Télé Luxemburg.
Humor is difficult and in Eurovision almost impossible. Call me a Mr KillJoy, but so far I don't recall any good Eurovision entry that can be called funny. There have been of course numerous unintentionally ridiculous entries during the years, but if the song has been made intentionally to make the audience laugh, they seldom do, at least not me. The first German entry of the new millenium, the song number 835 managed to make some people smile, but I wasn't among them.
Stefan Raab got away with murder in 1998, when his song Guildo hat euch lieb, a pretentious comedy moment sung by "character" Guildo Horn managed to gather enough points for the 9th place. Two years later Raab decided to improve the result by singing himself his own entry, which was even more pretentious.
Raab and his team put on a great show, I don't deny that. Glittering clothes, suggestive choreography, lightning tricks, dashing girls (who would take off some superfluous clothing during the finale in a good Buck's Fizz fashion) and childish lyrics repeating the same phrase over and over again, managed to hide quite well the absence of any substance or even melody in this entry, that I can hardly call a song. The televoting audience seemed to have fun, they voted the song fifth in the final results (among 24 songs competing).
I disagreed violently, hating this "song" from the first time I heard it and after 13 years it hasn't come any better. Luckily this song and the 1998 German entry are not the only things to remember Stefan Raab by. In 2004 he wrote a decent ballad Can't wait until tonight for Germany playing guitar in the backing band. When Germany hosted the contest in 2011, he was one of the competent trio that served as hosts in the contest.
When thinking of Stefan Raab, these two moments are the ones I prefer to his 1998 and 2000 entries, which both deserve the lowest points on my scale.
The Eurosong 269 makes me think of the salty sea and the foggy and damp harbour. although the song does not talk about the sealife at all. With the help of translate.google.com I've found out that De oude muzikant, the Dutch entry from 1973 tells a story about an old grey musician going the streets of Paris and playing accordeon. That's all there is to it, the song itself has nothing much to remember it for.
To get you in the mood, the lights in the Eurovision stage of Luxembourg in 1973 were dimmed for the Dutch entry, sung by Ben Cramer. Unfortunately it didn't help much, as the song is one of the least memorable songs of the 1970's Eurovision song contest.
To make matters worse, the dreadful sound mix of the 1973 contest lost about two thirds of the elaborate string arrangement of the song, all one hear is the singing voice, the bass and the occasional percussion and horns. Even the accordeon, the instrument of de oude muzikant, is barely heard. The song is one of many completely ruined by the sound mixer of the Luxembourg television, who seems to have gone for a two hour long coffee break during the contest.
This song leaves me completely indifferent. The juries seemed to agree, as Ben Cramer reached only the 14 place (of 17 songs taking part).
As I've mentioned earlier, the portuguese entries are usually recognizeable by their national influences. Often this has meant a serious and passionate fado-ballad that shakes the heart and warms the mind. The Eurosong 786, requested by a reader of this blog Jukka Kangasjärvi, presents proudly the porgtuguese culture in a more up tempo manner.
Alma Lusa was a group that was put togeher by the composer José Cid to perform his composition first in the portuguese selection and then in the international final of the Eurovision Song Contest 1998. Cid had taken part in the contest already 18 earlier with a poppy Um grande grande amor receiving one of the best placings ever for his country, 7th place among 19 participants.
His 1998 entry is much different from the 1980 entry. Instead of a pop, Se eu te pudesse abraçar is a happy folk song about, as portugues entries often are, love and home country. Cid can been seen among the group as playing accordeon.
The song is breath of fresh mediterranean air in this, sometimes rather pompous contest. The singer Inês Santos, who since then has become a major actor in the portuguese music and theatre scene, is a delight to both watch and hear and the positive energy from the whole group gives smile to at least my face. This song (reaching 12th place among 25) was certainly the most positive entry from the 1998, a contest where the most attention was paid to more overblown entries like the winner Dana International and the german clown Guildo Horn.
The Dame Fortune draw me the Eurosong 439. A song, that not lot of people remember, but at least to me is a happy re-encounter. The Dutch entry from 1982 was jolly, well performed and good composition, that just failed to stand out from the crowd.
A brief visit to Wikipedia.org did not make me much wiser about Bill van Dijk, the singer that represented the Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1982. Apart from singing this entry, he has done some voice acting for childrens tv series, and portrayed Cyrano de Bergerac in the musical version of the legendary tale, both in Broadway and the Netherlands. Apparently he has been more active in theatre than in the music business.
The composer Dick Bakker is much more familiar to the Eurovision fans, as he had composed the 1975 winning entry Dinge dong and served his country as an arranger in 1978, 1980 and 1984 and a conductor from 1996 to 1998.
Jij en ik was no Dinge dong, however, and after receiving only eight points it ended 16th in the final results (among 18 participants). To me this song was better than I remembered, a good song with competent arrangement (apparently by the composer himself) which made the live performance much punchier than the recorded version. With his actor skills Bill van Dijk makes the song fun to watch and easy to listen to. This was not enough for the song to stand out from the other entries, so it was mainly forgotten.
The 1982 Dutch entry is like an old friend that you are happy to meet again with some guilt that you haven't been contact with him for a long time. I'm sure I will come across much more songs like this in the near future.
In Eurovision there have been plenty of classic entries, that the Eurovision fans still remember fondly. There has, however, been much less so called evergreens, songs that have expanded their success also outside the Eurovision circles. The Eurovision entry 160 is one of them.
Vicky Leandros is a Greek-born singer who moved to Germany when she was 9 years old. Her career as a singer began in mid 1960's and she still is major star in his adopted home country. However, so far she has taken part in the Eurovision Song Contest only twice representing Luxembourg. Both times with remarkable results.
In 1967 17 years old Vicky (as she was called) got to sing a song by veteran French composer André Popp, who had won the contest already in 1960 with Tom Pillibi. Popp is one of my favourite Eurovision composers creating also excellent entries for France in 1964 (Chant de Mallory by Rachel) and Monaco 1975 (Une chanson c'est une lettre by Sophie).
Vicky did her best for L'amour est bleu, but her recording never got the commercial success than it would have deserved. The song that reached 4th position in the 1967 results became huge world wide hit, when conductor Paul Mauriat released an instrumental version of the song ith the english title Love is blue. Since then the song has become one of the most covered, if not the most covered, Eurosong ever.
To me the best version is still the original one, even though I find the recorded version better than Vickys slightly shaky live performance. She got her act together five years later, when again representing Luxembourg she won the Eurovision Song Contest with Après toi.
The song itself is a love song with enduring quality. Very simple, even naively simplistic lyrics manage to convey all the colours of love, from the fresh start to the bitter end. André Popps eternal melody, good arrangement and Vicky Leandros's passionate delivery makes the whole work better than any cover version I have heard.
After a very controversial local selection procedure Finland chose one of the most loved actors, comedians and singers to represent it's colours in Hague in 1980. The 394th Eurosong was composed by the celebrated songwriter Aarno Raninen (who had composed the Finnish entry three years back) and on paper it looked very promising indeed. In reality the hopes were not that high.
Vesa-Matti Loiri was, and still is, one of the most popular actors in Finland. He became also famous as a singer of old poetry set to contemporary music. Apart from this he also is a competent jazz flutist. This versatility of talents was vey useful when he was asked to participate in the Finnish selection of the Eurovision Song Contest in 1980 with a song Huilumies (= The flute man), which combined schlager and jazz tunes with a hint of comedy added.
The two part selection in Finland caused loud outcry as the people's favourite artists and songs failed to proceed from the semifinal to the final. The lineup of the final consisted of more artsy and jazzy songs, none of which were worthy of the international final (according to the loudest protesters). When Vesa-Matti Loiri was chosen, the general public was unanimous, Finland was not to expect high points in the international final.
Despite of this Vesa-Matti Loiri and his backing team managed to put some fire on the final performance, which is much better than the version in the Finnish selection or on the record. The song is well arranged and the conductor Ossi Runne is clearly enjoying himself during the instrumental break (check the video above from 2:00 on). Hardly no-one was surprised, that Finland received its fourth last place.
To me time has healed the wounds and the performance by the team Finland is fun to watch and to listen to. The last place in Hague did nothing to Vesa-Matti Loiri's career, he continues to act and sing to this day to enthusiastic audience.
The 1988 Eurovision Song Contest is remembered for being one with the tightest and most exiting votings ever in the Eurovision history. Right until the last jury the UK and Switzerland were head to head, and even though the UK at some point seemed to run away with the victory, Switzerland came back from the behind. Before the last jury the UK were only five points ahead, and when the Yugoslav jury gave six points to Céline Dion and none to Scott Fitzgerald, the UK saw the victory flee from their hands by just one point.
Unfortunately the voting thriller of the 1988 has overshadowed both the songs in question. Céline Dion would become one of the best selling singers of all time, but few fans of hers even know the song Ne partez-pas sans moi. Scott Fitzgerald suffered crueller fate. Go reached only 52th place in the UK singles charts, and his career never recovered.
I've never really understood how such a unremarkable ballad ever got so high in the contest. It has been only recently that I have understood and started to like the song, which to me is not the kind of Euroballad to do well in the contest. Scott Fitzgerald delivers the song professionally and the string arrangement of the live version makes it much better than the blunt studio version. Definately not one of the best songs in 1988 and not worthy the second place, but still a pleasent ballad that should have been treated better.
The Eurosong 821 was requested by Asko Murtomäki, the former Eurovision expert of the Finnish broadcasting company YLE. Ping Pong was a israeli pop group that took part in the local selection as a joke. When chosen to represent Israel they made controversial changes to their act and made the israeli authorities withdrew all their support from the entry.
The opening song of the 2000 Eurovision Song Contest looked quite a haphazard entity. A group of strangely dressed young people jumping and running around, singing something that sounded vaguely like a tune and shouting the title Be happy among the otherwise hebrew lyrics. No wonder the song received only handful of points and 22th place (among 24 participants) in the final results list. The controversial lyrics (apparently, as very few of the audience understood hebrew) and the waving of Syrian flags caused some controversy, but mainly within the Israeli delegation. For others it was just a fun number easily forgotten.
The melody of the song is actually quite good and the bridge (where the soloists sings about her lover in Damascus) alters the mood nicely. The song has an interesting structure and works well as the opener of the contest. The group, however, manages to make a total mashs out of the performance so this is definately not one of the better songs from the 2000 contest. If interested, I'd suggest you find the recorded version of the song (with the hebrew title Sameach) which gives you better idea what the song actually is like.
My points 2/5
PS. is there a Eurovision entry that you would like me to write about? Comment on this blog or send me a tweet (to mikko_suhonen) and I'm sure to put your song in my list. The only condition is that the song has taken part in the Eurovision song contest between 1956 and 2003.
It is difficult to be funny. It is difficult to be funny in the Eurovision and even more difficult to make a song that sounds funny even after 26 years of the first performance. Israel failed in all accounts in 1987, at least if you ask me. The 521st Eurosong was, is and will be an irritating three minutes which I jump over every time I watch or listen to the Eurovision entries from Israel.
The duo singing the song Shir habatlanim were not really singers, but two actors who came to do what they were commissioned to do. To sing and act this piece, which hardly can be called a song. Datner & Kushnir are not to blame, they use their craft the way they can and even seem to have some fun on stage. The juries seemed to agree at least to some point, the song received a horredeous 73 points and totally undeserved 8th place in the final results.
Some people call me a dull and maybe I am. I cannot find anything remotely funny in this song and the performance irritates me to death to find any musical value in it whatsoever. Next song please, and quickly.
Italy has been a prolific participant of the Eurovision since the beginning of the contest. Even though the Italians still prefer their local San Remo competition, the country has sent quality entries from year to year with only few mediocre entries and almost none real stinkers. During the first decades Italy sent also their biggest stars to Eurovision. Such was Claudio Villa who represented his country twice. The first one, the Eurosong number 89 took part in 1962. The song might be a good way to explain why Italy has not won the contest more often their quality of songs should entitle.
The song Addio addio (composed by Domenico Modugno) could be called a prototype of an Italian entry of the 1960's. A song that starts slowly, does not capture you at first but if you are patient enough the song will reward you with a rousing finale. And of course, the singer is first class. There were lot of Italian songs like this in the Eurovision, songs that need patience and probably several listenings before they give you the goodies they have to offer.
Unfortunately Eurovision does not work well for entries like this, at least not in the 1960's with no preview shows not to mention YouTube to check the song beforehand. The juries liked the Italian entries to some extent, the songs fit usually within the top 10 or close to it. However they could not beat the easier entries that got to you instantly during the first listening and before the second half of the song. So far, Italy has won the contest only twice and placed in the top 5 only 14 times during their 40 year run.
Claudio Villa placed 9th in the 1962 contest. His song has stood the test of time much better than rest of the song from that rather dull Eurovision year. This goes to show, that often the Eurovision scoreboard has nothing to do with the quality of the music itself.
