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?
As mentioned in my earlier article, during the last twenty years lots of new countries have introduced themselves in the Eurovision Song Contest presenting their first entry ever to the European ears. It is easy to forget that even the most established countries in this occasion also had their first song sung at some point in the mists of history. Even France.
France took part in the Eurovision Song Contest of course from the very beginning. The first French entry was the fifth song ever to be sung in this television series that next year celebrates its 60th episode. The honor was given to Mathé Altéry, a soprano that sung both chanson and classical music. Her entry leaned more to the classical side of her talent, a short ballad sung with the prominent accompaniment of piano, oboe and some nice strings.
The good arrangement of the song managed hardly to hide the fact that the composition had not much to talk about. It is not terrible but nothing really to remember it by. The operatic vocals by Altéry alienates the song further from its audience. Apparently no studio recording of this song was ever made and I can understand why.
But what did it matter, no final results (except for the winner) have ever been released from the 1956 contest, so both French entries (as all seven participating countries had two songs in the contest) shared the second place in the final results. I doubt that if the results had been revealed, this song would not have been in the upper half of the list.
During the last 20 years we've had new countries flooding to the Eurovision Song Contest, but in the 1980's it was a completely different story. During that decade only two new countries debuted in the Eurovision Song Contest, Cyprus and Iceland. It took a while for Iceland to establish themselves in the Eurovision family, but from the beginning they took part with ambition and, most importantly, with good artists and songs.
Iceland's second Eurovision entry ever was a tender ballad sung delicately by 23 years old Halla Margrét. I considered this song as a nice but forgettable piece of music, but since 1987 it has grown on me and I believe that the juries (or the televoting audience) would have treated the song better 10 or 20 years later.
In 1987, when the eurovision songs did not circulate in the Internet for months before the contest, the song was not given the chance to grow and it was awarded the 16th place in the final results (among the record busting total of 22 songs).
The song was more or less forgotten after the contest held in Brussels, but I remember having a surprising encounter with it 7 or 8 years later. While visiting London I heard the loudspeakers of a fast food restaurant blasting out the english version of this particular Eurovision entry. How a UK restaurant ended up playing an english version of an almost ten years old Icelandic eurovision entry remains a mystery to me. Maybe there was a eurovision geek working in the restaurant that day.
According to some information found in the Internet Halla Margrét moved from popular music to classical music and had an operatic career. Could someone confirm is the soprano in this video singing Puccini actually the same Halla Margrét that represented Iceland in the Eurovision Song Contest 22 years earlier? My points 3/5.
Yugoslavia took part 27 times in the Eurovision Song Contest from 1961 on until its disintegration in the early 1990's. The later yugoslav entries are well known and appreciated among Eurovision community, but the country's first decade in Eurovision is almost completely ignored. This is unfortunate, because during those years Yugoslavia hardly ever presented a second rate entries to the contest. The 173th Eurosong is one of the forgotten pearls.
The Yugoslav entry for the 1967 contest held in Vienna was sung by 25 year old Slovenian singer and actor Lado Leskovar. This entry is one of those Yugoslav ballads that didn't make that much of an impact way back then, but which now sound appealing and poignant and bare similarities to the 21st centuries balkan ballads, that are so much appreciated today.
The melody, its structure and the performance of the singer remind me very much of the Yugoslav entry 1965 (which I gave 5 points couple of posts ago in this blog). The song starts with a simple instrumentation which is accompanied from the very start by the convincing vocals. Like Ceznja the song opens it's full bloom after the first verse. And, again, like Ceznja, the most magnificent part of the song is its instrumental break before the end. In this case the powerful yet thoughtful trumpet solo is the crown of this wonderful entry.
What is different in this song is the mood and lyrics. Whereas the 1965 entry is nostalgic song of longing and loving, the mood in Vze roze sveta is somber and in some places even sinister. This is apparent in both the string arrangement, the vocal interpretation and lyrics, which is like a Slovene version of Where have all the flowers gone. The song starts with a gunshot salute saying farewell to a hero to be buried. The protagonists wonders why the trumpet sound reminds him always of the soldiers that are buried under all the flowers in the field.
Unfortunately the audience, and more importantly the juries, did not understand the lyrics of this song for peace, and the spoken passage recited during the instrumental break sounds slightly out of place, even though it contributes to the sad overall feeling of the song.
Like the entry from 1965, I love the overall quality of this song and the gloomy mood it creates. The song gathered seven votes that resulted a respectable 8th place in the final results (out of 17 songs).
For a long time the only good recording available of the song was the live recording of the contest held in Vienna. I was, however, extremely happy when just couple of days ago I stumbled upon a crystal clear recording of the song included in a compilation album available in Spotify. Share and enjoy!
I've already told about my troubled relationship with the Maltese Eurovision Song Contest entries. I have wondered where this trouble comes from. I've never been to Malta and I don't know anyone from Malta so I cannot find any other reason for this than that I just don't like their entries (well most of them). The 817th eurosong, which the Random Number Generator unfortunately has drawn me is one of the worst.
There are many things in the Maltese entry in 1999 that makes me search for forward button. The song Believe in peace (what an immaculate and imaginative title!) itself is dull and repetitive and offers no development or climax. The sparse, almost non existent arrangement sounds like no-one has cared to make any substantial effort on it. The three singers are left alone to make an impact with no real song or good backing to help them.
And the impact that Times three makes is hardly convincing. The glittering girls look lost on stage and their nervous smiles reveal that they themselves know that the song is not much to sing but still too difficult for them to keep in tune. Quite a horrendeous experience for the artists surely and the audience for certain.
Still for some reason the song managed to gather 32 points and on 15th position beat many, in my opinion, better songs in the final results. But I doubt that many people remember the song. I at least try hard to forget it again after writing this article.
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.
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.
As I've told couple of times earlier, André Popp is one of my favourite songwriters ever to take part in the Eurovision Song Contest. And his entry in 1964, the 113th song ever to take part in the contest was one of his great entries.
Chant de Mallory is a very traditional French love song that there was abundance of during the first decade of the Eurovision Song Contest. Somehow the song written by the same team (Popp and the lyricist Pierre Cour) as the 1961 winner Tom Pillibi and the 1967 evergreen L'amour est bleu manages to rise above the others.
I find the song touching and the arrangement makes it go forward even when the melody repeats the same verse. The song's success (4th in the final results) is partly due to the faultless and sincere delivery of the singer Rachel (no video recording of the 1964 contest exists, but she can be seen singing the song here). I think that this song is an example of a conventional French eurovision ballad at its best.
Chant de Mallory became the biggest hit of Rachel's career. She did record some other singles during the 1960's but apparently her singing career did not carry her to the 1970's. Pity.
