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 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).
In a Twitter discussion I asked Jaana Pelkonen, the presenter of the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest and current member of the Finnish parliament to choose a song for my blog. She was kind to contribute with a Eurovision classic, the 263rd song to be sung in the contest. "The song needs no explanation. It touches me." Pelkonen reasons her choice. Eres tú became one of the biggest international hits ever from the contest even though the live performance left a lot to be desired.
The simple but effective lyrics lists things that the singer wants to compare her lover to. You are like a promise, fire in my heart, like a poem, a fresh rain, a guitar in the night and so on. With a beautiful melody by Juan Carlos Calderón no more is needed. The song became an instant classic, which went to be one of the rare Eurosong (or a song sung in spanish) to ever reach the top 10 of the American singles chart.
In the contest the song had many problems. The audio mix of the 1973 contest was horrible and the beautiful string arrangement was completely left out of the mix. We don't know if it was the bad sound or the wrecked nerves, but the lead singer Amaya Uranga had real problems keeping her act together especially with the higher notes. The singing group Mocedades (still active though with several line up changes during its 44 year career) did their best to support poor Uranga, but the overall performance was severly affected.
Even with these difficulties the result was still the second place (among 17 participants) with only four points less than the winner, so we can only guess what the result would have been like if the sound had been what it should and the soloist had kept her cool.
To hear the song in it is full glory I'd suggest you to go to Spotify to hear the recorded version of the song. That way you can hear the song as it is, one of the greatest classics ever to come from the Eurovision Song Contest.
