613/917 Sarah Bray: Un baiser volé (Luxembourg 1991)

The 1991 is not one of my fondest Eurovision memories. Finland was at the wrong end of the score board again, the winner was far from my favourite and the contest itself was a big mess. That may be the reason that I don't recall many good songs from that year. When the random nuber generator draw me the Luxembourg entry from 1991 I was almost ready to award the song the all too common two points out of five. Well let's just listen to the song once I thought. I was surprised.

Luxembourg was one of my favourite Eurovision countries right until it decided to withdraw from the contest in 1993. The 613th Eurosong was an attempt by the Luxembourg tv to repeat their former successes that had combined a traditional French ballad with a young female singer. Although they didn't succees this year (either), their 1991 entry was much better than I remembered.

Un baiser volé was very formulaic French Eurovision ballad. In first decades there were usually 2-4 of those taking part every year. So in 1991 I very much dismissed this song for being not among the best of those ballads. Nowadays when one has to wait sometimes couple of years to hear a decent French ballad on Eurovision stage this song feels not bad at all.

Also Sarah Bray was much better singer than I remembered and her performance is actually nice to hear and watch. And unlike most of the songs that year, the live version works much better than the studio version shown in the previews.

I tried but found almost no information at all of this young singer, who apparently vanished into oblivion after the contest. If anything, Sarah Bray (real name being Mick Wersant) at least was Luxembourg citizen unlike most of the others that had represented the grand duchy. Where are you and what are you doing, Sarah?

My points 4/5.

106/917 Nana Mouskouri: A force de prier (Luxembourg 1963)

Quite a few artists have managed to make a succesful international career after their participation in the Eurovision song contest. But still I can come up with only three Eurovision singers that have earned a international superstar status by selling hundreds of millions of records. They are Céline Dion, of course, and Julio Iglesias. The third one is Nana Mouskouri.

I have a more personal relationship with Nana Mouskouri than any other Eurovision artist. When I was only three years old, my father brought an album (called Une voix qui vient du coeur) by Mouskouri from Paris and I fell in love with the album and the singer immediately. Night after night I fell to sleep listening to that album clutching the album cover (with the picture of the dark sweet lady with distinguishable glasses) in my hands. The cover of course fell into pieces, but the album itself remained and I still find it an exquisite piece music combining tastefully French and Greek popular cultures.

I wasn't particularly surprised when about 20 later I found out that this Greek lady had also taken part in the Eurovision Song Contest. When I saw a bad quality VHS copy of the 1963 contest it was not difficult to recognize the singer with trembling voice and dark framed specs representing Luxembourg. Just couple of years previously a talent scout for a French record company had brought this promising singer to Paris to start an international career. Before the Luxembourg TV asked Mouskouri to sing for them in London, she had scored a big hit in Germany with Weiße Rosen aus Athen and recorded an album in New York under the direction of Quincy Jones. 

The 1963 Eurovision Song Contest was staged in a tv studio which made the visuals of that contest unique. For the Luxembourg entry the director Yvonne Littlewood decided to concentrate on the face of the singer and make no camera changes (and only minimal camera moves) during her performance. Mouskouri herself has pronounced dissatisfaction with her own performance stating, that she didn't sing that well and could not convey the meaning of the lyrics on a language that was still quite new to her.

I must disagree, her performance is top class and the minimalist approach by the director only enhances her stage presence. In the end she ended in the middle of the scoreboard (eighth among 16 participants), which was probably due more to the somber arrangement of the song than the melody or the performance itself. The song was recorded with two different arrangements, maybe this lighter version (recorded at the same time with the original version but released five years later) could have pleased the juries more? I love both.

Her participation in the Eurovision Song Contest opened even more international doors. She made friends with Littlewood which resulted her own tv series Presenting Nana Mouskouri in the BBC from 1968-1976.  During her career she recorded regularly in Greek, French, English and German and occasionally in other languages as well. Long career and success in different language regions made her one of the best selling artists of all time, at least according to her record company, which awarded her a plaque representing 350 million records sold in 2009. Nana Mouskouri continued to record and perform regularly until her retirement in 2008.

My points 5/5.

144/917 Michèle Torr: Ce soir je t'attendais (Luxembourg 1966)

During the first decades of the Eurovision Song Contest the French artists had more exposure to the European audiences than others. Apart from the French television, the French artists were usually asked to represent also Monaco and Luxembourg, and sometimes even Switzerland and Belgium. Several upcoming and already established French stars tried to enhance their careers or prepare themselves for the forthcoming stardom by taking part. One of these artists was  Michèle Torr, who took part in the Eurovision Song Contes twice representing both Monaco and Luxembourg.

Torr was part of the Yé-yé generation, a singer under 20 years of age singing mostly uptempo songs. Other famous yé-yé singers were France Gall, Françoise Hardy and Sylvie Vartan. A 19 year old Torr gave a confident performance in the 1966 edition of Eurovision Song Contest representing the host country Luxembourg.

I find her performance and the song one of the best in the 1966 contest, which was not of the highest quality contests in the 1960's. The result, 10th place among 18 participant was surprising and disappointing. I still like the song even though it hasn't aged as well as some other entries from the 1960's.

Michèle Torr was already a star and she returned to the Eurovision Stage in 1977 representing Monaco with a song Une petite française, which she preferred to her 1966 entry and which improved her result finishing fourth. She is still continuing her career performing regularly and releasing new material occasionally.

My points 3/5.

362/917 Baccara: Parlez-vous français (Luxembourg 1978)

The first Eurovision Song Contest I remember watching from start to finish was in 1978 which was also the first contest I recorded on a compact cassette. One of the many performances I listened on this tape over and over again was done by a Spanish duo that had already become world famous for their songs Yes sir, I can boogie and Sorry I'm a lady. However, the Eurosong 362 they performed in Paris did not represent Spain, but Luxembourg.

Baccara is one of only few internationally famous artists that took part in the Eurovision to boost their career even further. Their entry Parlez-vous français was written by Rolf Soja and Frank Dostal, a german songwriting team that had written their earlier hits. 

The performance of Baccara in Paris was flawless. One of the charming details of the duo was their pronounced accent when singing in English. This time Mayte Mateos and Maria Mendiola were forced to use their equally broken French to sing the Luxembourg entry. Their other trademark was their black (Mateos) and white (Mendiola) dresses. The duo seemed to be at home on the wide stage managing to both talk, sing and dance to the song very much similar to their earlier hits.

The late 1970's Eurovision Song Contests are close to my heart (apart from being the first I watched) because of the great orchestral arrangements with the prominent use of strings. Parlez-vous français is one of the songs in 1978 which sound much better live than on record. The live version is about a minute shorter than the recorded version, the strings are mixed much higher than on record and the ending of the live version is much more effective than the fade out of the studio version.

Because of their recent hits Baccara was one of the biggest favourites of the evening. So it is safe to assume that the Luxembourg delegation was disappointed when this perfect little package came only 7th (among 20 participants). Parlez-vous français was one of the biggest hits to come out of 1978 contest. However, the career of the original Baccara would soon end in the declining sales and the differences between the singers and the record company. After splitting up in 1982 Mateos and Mendiola continued their careers both re-creating their own Baccara groups. 

Rolf Soja and Frank Dostal would return to the Eurovision Song Contest in 1986, again writing song for the Radio Télé Luxemburg.

My points 4/5.

160/917 Vicky: L'amour est bleu (Luxembourg 1967)

In Eurovision there have been plenty of classic entries, that the Eurovision fans still remember fondly. There has, however, been much less so called evergreens, songs that have expanded their success also outside the Eurovision circles. The Eurovision entry 160 is one of them.

Vicky Leandros is a Greek-born singer who moved to Germany when she was 9 years old. Her career as a singer began in mid 1960's and she still is major star in his adopted home country. However, so far she has taken part in the Eurovision Song Contest only twice representing Luxembourg. Both times with remarkable results.

In 1967 17 years old Vicky (as she was called) got to sing a song by veteran French composer André Popp, who had won the contest already in 1960 with Tom Pillibi. Popp is one of my favourite Eurovision composers creating also excellent entries for France in 1964 (Chant de Mallory by Rachel) and Monaco 1975 (Une chanson c'est une lettre by Sophie).

Vicky did her best for L'amour est bleu, but her recording never got the commercial success than it would have deserved. The song that reached 4th position in the 1967 results became huge world wide hit, when conductor Paul Mauriat released an instrumental version of the song ith the english title Love is blue. Since then the song has become one of the most covered, if not the most covered, Eurosong ever.

To me the best version is still the original one, even though I find the recorded version better than Vickys slightly shaky live performance. She got her act together five years later, when again representing Luxembourg she won the Eurovision Song Contest with Après toi.

The song itself is a love song with enduring quality. Very simple, even naively simplistic lyrics manage to convey all the colours of love, from the fresh start to the bitter end. André Popps eternal melody, good arrangement and Vicky Leandros's passionate delivery makes the whole work better than any cover version I have heard.

My points 5/5