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?
The French entries of the first Eurovision decade can be divided roughly in two categories: atmospheric ballads and cheery ditties sung with an artificially wide smile. After winning the contest 1960 with the latter style France tried to repeat the success with another happy go lucky song about spring and birds singing.
I don't have much to say about this song. Although Jean-Paul Mauric sung his entry Printemps, avril carillonne to the respectable 4th place in the final results, the song is nowhere as timeless and succesful as its predecessor, the winner of the 1960 contest.
The song has a catchy hook but you grow tired of it already at second or third listen. In the end of his exhaustingly cheery performance Jean-Paul is so exited himself that he is having trouble in singing the song in tune.
Despite of the relatively good placement Jean-Paul Mauric remained a small star, popular live performer but hardly seen in the record charts. Nine years after his Eurovision performance he died of a heart failure at only 37 years of age.
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.
