A Swede who lives in Finland and who is lost in Euroland - the wonderful world of Eurovision
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Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Song Of The Day: Cyprus 1999

It seemed to be written in the stars that an island nation was going to win the 1999 Eurovision Song Contest held in Jerusalem.

Most media predictions seemed to favour Iceland's Selma to win hands down (possibly facing some stiff competition from Marlayne of the Netherlands) while the loudest group of fans on the still rather new internet forums had their mind set on Cyprus.

Seldom has the voice of the fans spoken so unanimously about one specific song, and in quite an unpleasant way too. There was no room for speculation, no room for opinion. As soon as anyone articulated anything less than praise for the Cypriot song, that somebody was quickly taken down and ripped to shreds.

The Cypriot song seemed to be in with a chance, in all fairness. It did had a slightly confusing structure, starting out as a ballad before turning into a dance anthem, but once it got down to its real self it had a solid chorus and sounded modern enough. But not modern in a way to scare older viewers off.

Unfortunately, this was a battle lost in advance. Marlain proved to be over-styled, over-choreographed and severly over-excited, giving an almost frantic impression while trying to keep her song together. When she started to skid across the higher notes, it left the track in ruins.

In the end, Cyprus scored a mere two points and ended second last. A not too graceful exit for one of the top favourites.

And all the loud fans fell silent for a while...




Marlain - Tha'ne erotas (Cyprus 1999)

3 comments:

  1. There is one each year, a favourite who falls from high... As Gerry Goffin and Carole King put it "There's no easy way down".

    Mikko

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  2. She sang it perfectly at every rehearsal all week, but on the big night the nerves finally caught up with the poor girl. She lost at least a 100 points when she failed the rising note :(

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  3. Fandom was a singularly unpleasant place to be for a few months in 1999, wasn't it? Shame so little of it is still documented online, it'd be fascinating to sift through it all again.

    Anyway, I feel bad for Marlain as by all accounts she's a lovely person, but gosh, there was some schadenfreude enjoyed that night...

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