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?
Ireland is famous for the high number of ballads sung by a male artist in Eurovision Song Contest (19 out of 48 between 1965 and 2015). Of these 19 four were sung during the first consecutive four years that the country took part in the contest. Looking back at those years it is hard for me to distinguish these four entries from another. The third Irish Eurovision entry is the best of these four.
The Irish entry from 1967 is a nice song. Not too slow and not too syrupy, but a positive love song dreaming of a home and a future that the protagonist wishes to build with his loved one. Nothing more. Sean Dunphy was a good singer and sympathetic enough to reach the romantic hearts watching the contest. If I could choose reached the glorious second place in the final results beating for example the more somber French ballads (like L'amour est bleue which later became a world wide best seller.)
I quite like the song. Among the staggering number of 33 different Eurovision ballads from the Green island this is among the best, but still not worth more than three points from me.
Four years prior to the preview videos (and during the era when music videos were a novelty) one was created for this song. See it here. Can't you sense the sparks flying between Sean and his sweetheart?
I have a difficult attitude to groups with three female singers and one male singer. Boney M. is maybe the only group that has used this formula successfully (although only half of the group actually sang on their records), but on other occasions I find this combination uneasy to follow. The Irish Eurovision representant of 1982 is a good example of a group that has a peculiar chemistry which all but ruins a plausible song in my opinion.
The Duskey sisters (consisting of two sisters Barbara Ellis and Sandy Kelly and their cousin Nina Duskey) had already participated in the Irish Eurovision selection one year earlier with a bouncy song Where does that love come from, and finished third in the results. Unfortunately the song that got the group finally to the Eurovision stage is much weaker.
Whereas the 1981 song is a charmingly old fashioned pop pearl with the threesome trading vocal lines and performing the song enthousiastically and inspiredly on stage, the 1982 song is very formulaic pseudo modern ditty with obvious lyrics and melody that stays the same after the first third is up. What makes the song interesting is a challenging orchestral arrangement which really gave the orchestra run for their money and the opportunity to spice up the otherwise rather tasteless soup. This wonderful orchestral backing is completely absent from a dull recorded version of the song.
To make the song more appealing the three Duskeys were joined by their Welsh cousin Danny Duskey, but this did very little to make the performance more interesting. Quite the contrary to me. The foursome sang together throughout the song without anyone (least of all poor Danny) having any moment to shine. Because the choreography of the four Duskey cousins was exactly the same and his voice was buried under the female voices, one wonders what the male member was doing in the group. Just like in the Belgian entry from five years prior, Danny seemed to be the silent boy who had been bossed around by the three female cousins to join them on stage to do exactly the same as they were doing. Well, that's the connotation I get from this song anyway.
Despite the mediocre result in the final results (11 among 18 participants) the group continued to be popular in their native Ireland. After a car accident the group broke up and the members continued their careers separately. Sandy Kelly found success in the country branch culminating with a recording done together with Johnny Cash. Danny Duskey would have his time to shine, when he participated in the Song for Europe contest in 1986 as a member of a group Palace. That song is also, in my opinion, better than the one he got to sing with his bossy cousins in Harrogate.
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.
If you are looking for a quintessential Eurovision pop song of the mid 1970's, the 328th Eurosong is a good candidate.
Tommy and Jimmy Swarbrigg had represented Ireland already in 1975 coming 9th in the overall results. Two years later the Swarbriggs were joined by Nicola Kerr and Alma Carroll and equipped with slightly better song they received only 17 points less than Marie Myriam and ended up at in the third position.
Thirty seven years later the whole package with banal choreography looks very old-fashioned and even comic, but in the latter half of the 1970's the good result was quite expected. The song It's nice to be in love again (written by the brothers themselves) was catchy, pleasent, and well sung (with some nice harmonies) and it was a perfect opener to the contest. No wonder the juries were pleased.
Nowadays I prefer listening to the song to actually seeing the performance. The 1970's was in my memories the golden era of Eurovision with catchy and melodic songs being in the majority. It's nice to be in love again is one of them, not one of my biggest favourites, but an ok song from Ireland.
