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?
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.
Hungary is one of those new Eurovision countries (well, they started their Eurovision career 20 years ago, so the word "new" may sound exaggerated) who'd never really got their act together. They started extremely well with fourth place in their first year 1994. After that, however, in spite of some great entries they have never really reached the same heights.
After the smash start by Friderika and her Kinek Mondjam El Vetkeimet expectations were high on the second Hungarian entry in 1995. Instead of a tender ballad sung by a beautiful girl we got a dark man hidden behind the dark glasses singing somber ballad with a title that no-one outside Hungary attempted to pronounce.
Therefore it was no surprise that the song received mere three points and came to next to last in the final scoreboard. Most people, including me, forgot this song and started to wait for another Hungarian success entry, which so far hasn't come.
When random number generator draw me this song I of course had to listen to it again. I had a vague memory of the song being better than it's result and I was right. The song is a fabulous piano ballad starting from nowhere and rising to the great hights with a gorgeous orchestral arrangement that makes the live version way better than the recorded one. Csaba Szigeti does a great job interpreting the song and using every nuances from whisper to shout to making every word count.
My only complaint to the song is that the three minute maximum length (dictated by the Eurovision rules) cuts the song short just when I was waiting for something new to happen. I would have wished the song to settle down a bit and finish with the same whisper like quality it started with. My points 4/5.
There are quite a few songwriters who have taken part in the Eurovision Song Contest several times during several decades. But there are only few composers who have done it with constant quality from the first song to the last. The composer of the Eurosong 79 is one of them, and one of my favourite Eurovision songwriters ever.
Hubert Giraud was already established songwriter before his participation to Eurovision Song Contest having written songs for films (f.eg. Sous le ciel de Paris made famous by Edith Piaf) and for the other major french artistst (Yves Montand and Dalida to name a few). Later his catalogue would include such a world hit as Mamy blue.
His Eurovision career started with a bang when his entry Dors mon amour won the contest in 1958 for France. He would participate in the international finals four years in a row when his songs represented France also in 1959 and Monaco in 1960 and 1961. Later his entries would be sung for France (1967 and 1979) and Luxembourg (1971). Each of his entries will get either 4 or 5 points from me should I stumble upon them in this blog later.
In 1960 the song Ce soir-là (with lyrics by Pierre Dorsey) was sung by 28 year old french singer François Deguelt. In the era of big French ballads, it was difficult to stand out of the rest, but this song (with a rhythm loosely based on Rumba) manages to do that. The song goes forward and is arranged perfectly. Although François Deguelt is not a very shining stage personality, he sings well and uses wisely the nyances of the song, from the quiet start to the loud ending. In 1960 this song got well deserved third place in the final results.
This song is not the best Hubert Giraud has done, but definately worth the promised four points.
After a very good run of high placings in the Eurovision (four victories and only four times outside of top 5) culminating to the victory in 1981, United Kingdom seemed to lose their interest in the Eurovision Song Contest in the 1980's. Good placings here and there, but the overall quality decreased dramatically. Most of their songs in the 1980's were either embarrassing or easily forgettable. The UK entry from 1985 is one of the latter ones.
Very bluntly titled love song Love is is as simple and forgettable as its title. 28 years ago it sounded modern disco ballad, but now it's synthetic and sparse arrangement is as outdated as Vikki Watson's hairdo. On recorded version the arrangement sounds slightly better but still very 1980'ish.
Watson herself gave a confident, if restrained, show on stage singing faultlessly but also without much passion. The song did reasonably well, the fourth position in the final result is no surprise when I think of the other sounds and songs you heard in Gothenburg 1985. Now almost 30 years later the song has nothing to give.
Ms Watson did not make a career out of radiofriendly europop. Instead after changing her stage name to Aeone she has become successful composer for film and television and recorded several albums of celtic folk music in a New Age style. For example her version of Scarborough fair could not be further away from the Eurovision stage.
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.
Eurovision Song Contes entry number 181 is an example of an arrangement gone wrong. A song that sounds ok on record but turns into a nothing on live stage when arranger tries to make the song better than it actually is.
The recorded version of the Swiss entry from 1968 Guardando il sole starts with a distinctive guitar, piano and orchestral riff and the piano is prominent throughout the whole recording where the orchestra is nicely restrained. The recording ends with the same riff that opens the song making the song a well structured piece of entertainment. The composition itself is rather dull Italian ballad, but the arrangement on record manages to make it to an ok track . Unfortunately the single release of the song is so rare, that no good quality rip is available anywhere in the Internet. This is the best I found.
On stage the song is completely restructured and rearranged. The conductor Mario Robbiani is a good and experienced arranger, but he does not succeed in making a mediocre song a good performance, quite the opposite. The live version of Guardando il sole is an orchestral cliché after cliché and as the melody is what it is (or it isn't what it isn't), the Swiss entry is just three minutes of sheer emptiness. The only thing you remember of it is the brave effort by the singer Gianni Mascolo trying to make something out of nothing. It is sad that such a good singer is not given a better song.
On paper an Italian ballad sung by a strong male singer sounds good. But if the song or the arrangement gives you nothing to base your performance on, there is nothing you can do.
What is a perfect Eurovision ballad like? It should start quietly, preferably with only a piano backing, which gives the singer (preferably a female singer) to show her tender side. More instruments should join in in about 30 seconds and by the middle of the song the full ochestra should be blasting from the stage. After a short return to the sparser instrumentation should follow the overblown finale where both the orchestra and the singer can give their all. If possible, the title of the song should include the words "I", "you" and "love". Here I give you a perfect Eurovision lovesong, the Eurosong numer 472.
The Dutch Eurovision entry from 1984 certainly stood out as a song you were expecting. The song was pompous, it was well arranged to suit the Eurovision orchestra and the melody was all one could except from a Eurovision love song. On top of it all stood 24 year old Marie Kwakman (renamed rather unispiredly as Maribelle), who could really belt out the highlights of the song as well as whisper the tender parts.
With a slight reminiscense of Carly Simon Maribelle, standing alone on stage, had a total control over the cameras and caught the eye both at the Grand Théare de Luxembourg and at home. With a title translated simply as "I love you" you could have thought it would have been a pefect performance of a perfect song.
However it didn't really go that way. In 1984 the juries preferred the bouncy pop-songs (Sweden, Ireland and Denmark in particular) and more somber ballads (Spain, Belgium and Italy) rather than a positive, heart winning love song. The Dutch entry ended in the disappointing 13th place in the results with mere 34 points.
A shame really, after watching again Maribelle's performance, I can see nothing wrong with it and she would have deserved a better place in the final results. If nothing too spectacular, the song was definately better than shaky performance by the host country (10. place), the screeching ladies from the UK (7. place) and the second rate love song from France (8. place). But the world, let alone the Eurovision Song Contest, is not fair.
