173/917 Lado Leskovar: Vse roze sveta (Yugoslavia 1967)

Yugoslavia took part 27 times in the Eurovision Song Contest from 1961 on until its disintegration in the early 1990's. The later yugoslav entries are well known and appreciated among Eurovision community, but the country's first decade in Eurovision is almost completely ignored. This is unfortunate, because during those years Yugoslavia hardly ever presented a second rate entries to the contest. The 173th Eurosong is one of the forgotten pearls.

The Yugoslav entry for the 1967 contest held in Vienna was sung by 25 year old Slovenian singer and actor Lado Leskovar. This entry is one of those Yugoslav ballads that didn't make that much of an impact way back then, but which now sound appealing and poignant and bare similarities to the 21st centuries balkan ballads, that are so much appreciated today.

The melody, its structure and the performance of the singer remind me very much of the Yugoslav entry 1965 (which I gave 5 points couple of posts ago in this blog). The song starts with a simple instrumentation which is accompanied from the very start by the convincing vocals. Like Ceznja the song opens it's full bloom after the first verse. And, again, like Ceznja, the most magnificent part of the song is its instrumental break before the end. In this case the powerful yet thoughtful trumpet solo is the crown of this wonderful entry.

What is different in this song is the mood and lyrics. Whereas the 1965 entry is nostalgic song of longing and loving, the mood in Vze roze sveta is somber and in some places even sinister. This is apparent in both the string arrangement, the vocal interpretation and lyrics, which is like a Slovene version of Where have all the flowers gone. The song starts with a gunshot salute saying farewell to a hero to be buried. The protagonists wonders why the trumpet sound reminds him always of the soldiers that are buried under all the flowers in the field.

Unfortunately the audience, and more importantly the juries, did not understand the lyrics of this song for peace, and the spoken passage recited during the instrumental break sounds slightly out of place, even though it contributes to the sad overall feeling of the song.

Like the entry from 1965, I love the overall quality of this song and the gloomy mood it creates. The song gathered seven votes that resulted a respectable 8th place in the final results (out of 17 songs).

For a long time the only good recording available of the song was the live recording of the contest held in Vienna. I was, however, extremely happy when just couple of days ago I stumbled upon a crystal clear recording of the song included in a compilation album available in Spotify. Share and enjoy!

My points 4/5.

817/917 Times three: Believe in peace (Malta 1999)

I've already told about my troubled relationship with the Maltese Eurovision Song Contest entries. I have wondered where this trouble comes from. I've never been to Malta and I don't know anyone from Malta so I cannot find any other reason for this than that I just don't like their entries (well most of them). The 817th eurosong, which the Random Number Generator unfortunately has drawn me is one of the worst.

There are many things in the Maltese entry in 1999 that makes me search for forward button. The song Believe in peace (what an immaculate and imaginative title!) itself is dull and repetitive and offers no development or climax. The sparse, almost non existent arrangement sounds like no-one has cared to make any substantial effort on it. The three singers are left alone to make an impact with no real song or good backing to help them.

And the impact that Times three makes is hardly convincing. The glittering girls look lost on stage and their nervous smiles reveal that they themselves know that the song is not much to sing but still too difficult for them to keep in tune. Quite a horrendeous experience for the artists surely and the audience for certain.

Still for some reason the song managed to gather 32 points and on 15th position beat many, in my opinion, better songs in the final results. But I doubt that many people remember the song. I at least try hard to forget it again after writing this article.

My points 1/5.

311/917 Peter, Sue & Marc: Djambo Djambo (Switzerland 1976)

As I wrote in my article about the 422. eurosong, the Swiss trio Peter, Sue & Marc are one of five artists to have taken part in the Eurovision Song Contest for four times. To their credit, they hold the so far unbeaten record of singing their four entries in four different languages.

In 1976 Peter Reber, Marc Dietrich and American born Sue Schnell chose english as their singing language, even though their entry Djambo Djambo has also been recorded and released in german.

The song is about an old circus clown who reminices his past and pays barrel organ in the park for the kids and birds surrounding him. The melody and the syrupy text is written by Reber, who also penned the other three of groups Eurovision entries.

Whereas the groups entries from 1971, 1979 and 1981 feel earnest and entertaining, Djambo Djambo is irritatingly saccharine partly due to the lyrics and theatrical vocals of Schnell. I find the german version (to which I unfortunately could not find link to) slightly more tolerable, But the 311th Eurosong is not the one I want to remember Peter, Sue & Marc for. In addition to their four Eurovision participations the group took part four times in the Swiss and German Eurovision selections without success. Maybe one of these songs would have been better entries than this.

My points 2/5.

p.s. The other three artists that have took part in the contest for four times are Lys Assia (Switzerland, two songs in 1956, 1957 and 1958), Fud Leclerc (Belgium 1956, 1958, 1960 and 1962), Anita Skorgan (Norway 1977, 1979, 1982 and 1983) and Elisabeth Andreassen (Sweden 1982, Norway 1985, 1994 and 1996). Thanks Tobias for reminding me.

856/917 Gary O'Shaughnessy: Without your love (Ireland 2001)

During its Eurovision history (47 times since 1966) Ireland has been represented by a ballad sung by male singer or singers no less than 19 times (to compare the same number for Finland is five). Staggering 62% of Irish eurovision entries have been ballads. Many of these songs have resulted well and three of those did win the contest altogether. The 856th Eurosong is not one of those.

When the random number generator drew me the Irish entry of 2001, I had hard time remembering which of the many Irish ballads it was. This was one indication that the song was not one of my favourites that year.

After reminding me of the song this proved to be true. The song Without your love was a rather forgettable ballad that didn't stand a chance in the 2001 contest. Gary O'Shaughnessy gives his all, but in his over exited and/or nervous state he struggles to keep his voice in tune. All in all there is nothing much he can do with this unremarkable collection of love song clichés.

And the televoting juries very much agreed. It received only six points and for the first time Ireland was not allowed to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2002.

My points 1/5.