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.

327/917 Ambasadori: Ne mogu skriti svoju bol (Yugoslavia 1976)

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.

My points 2/5.

324/917 Carlos do Carmo: Uma flor de verde pinho (Portugal 1976)

Portugal has never been afraid to let its own national colours shine in their Eurovision entries. Already in the 1960's and 70's a portuguese entry was as easily recognized as a balkan ballad is today. Unfortunately despite of strong entries that still stand out, the juries seldom saw the qualities of the portuguese entries. The 324th Eurovision song, the entry representing Portugal in the 1976 contest, did relatively well.

Carlos do Carmo was 36 years old when he took part in the Eurovision. For some reason his looks and styling made him look much older, and the impression was strengthened by his fado way of singing.

That does not matter, however. Uma flor de verde pinho starts with striking orchestral opening, but soon the song settles down to a gentle and eloquent ballad. Do Carmo is on the top of his game interpreting a love song to his home country. The appealing melody grows from the beginning to the finish as, at least to me, the most effective song in the entire 1976 contest.

The song received points from only five different countries, but the top 12 points from France secured Portugal 12th place (out of 18 contestants). It would take 20 years before Portugal received 12 points from any country again.

My points 4/5.

320/917 Fredi & Friends: Pump pump (Finland 1976)

To fill a friends request, the second song in my blog is the 320th song to take part in the Eurovision Song Contest, a song that for us Finns represent the high expectations and the big disappointments that so often has plagued our entries. Apart from that it was a fun song with more good feeling and humour than all the other Finnish entries put together.

Fredi (real name Matti Siitonen) was a big singing star in Finland in the mid 1970's, famous for his beautiful love songs and well trained tenor voice. He had taken part in the Eurovision song contes already in 1967 as a new young artist in Vienna with a dramatic Varjoon suojaan.

In 1976 Fredi surprised the home audience presenting not a love song but a fast paced song of bumping the bottoms. This fun song, written by Mr Siitonen himself, was first supposed to be a duet between the composer and Marion Rung, but after the Finlands number one female singer declined, Fredi decided to form a group of "Friends" to sing the song with.

In the local selection Pump Pump was a runaway winner. After developing the stage show and translating the lyrics to English a success was almost given in the international final of Hague. With expectations like this, the resulting 11th place (of 18 countries taking part) was a big disappointment. 

However, Pump pump was certainly a song not easily forgotten by the audience. The good humour of the Finnish selections tranferred well to the Eurovision final and the show was as fun to look at as it was to listen to. Considering the overall success of Finlands entries, the final result was not bad at all.

Matti Siitonen returned once more to the Eurovision final by composing the Finnish entry of 1979, Katson sineen taivaan.

My points 3/5