A Swede who lives in Finland and who is lost in Euroland - the wonderful world of Eurovision
There is always some matter to discuss or just a song I want to share
Very welcome - I hope you'll like it here!
Ireland made a relatively late debut at the Eurovision Song Contest and their 1967 entry was only their third participation. They had already proved popular with the juries, opting was simple and soft ballads, competently performed by male singers.
Sean Dunphy brought a deep and very pleasant voice that added quite a bit of personality to his ballad. So did the very nice orchestral arrangement with it's cute little piano bits.
It's all very nice and pleasant but a critical ear will still hear that beneath all the nice detail and the flawless vocal delivery, there isn't much excitement going on at all. A pretty standard ballad that in no way troubles or disturbs or leave any visible traces anywhere.
Ireland would make this something of their own thing at Eurovision: celebrating the simple and understated and scoring pretty well with songs that were clean-cut and pleasant but not particularly interesting.
A deserved 2nd place?
Let's see. The juries could have love bombed "L'amour est bleu". Or "Il doit faire beau là-bas". Or "Hablemos del amor". Or "Boum badaboum". Or "Anouschka". Instead they went for this one. A victory for the safe (and dull) ballad. Not what I would have wished for.
Amandine Bourgeois promises to give you all hell on that eurovision stage. I really hope she will. I really hope France will pull this one off.
Amandine Bourgeois - L'enfer et moi (France 2013)
France has been running against the wind for the last couple of years. Every year since 2008 has seen a brave French attempt at bringing something new, something fresh and something exciting to this old song contest without much success. Only Patricia Kaas managed a top ten finish with her chanson deluxe in Moscow.
Given the family viewing nature of this show, the 2013 French entry is almost shockingly dark - suggesting some rather kinky exercises in love as well as a palpable punishment for heartbreakers. In the clip, Amandine is providing her scariest look and crazy eyes as well as a poisoned sensuality of a most intriguing sort.
Personally, I think this is ace. It's lethal, it's hypnotic and it's addictive. But then I see a number of problems as well.
The song takes a while to fully unfold itself. The last minute - where the marching boots come on and Amandine truly howls her chorus - is very strong, but will the audience stick around long enough to notice? The people voting at eurovision are not exactly renowned for their patience.
What will this look like on stage? With the exception of Patricia Kaas, most French acts have been a mess on stage and puzzled the viewers enough to miss out on points aplenty. Will they manage to keep it clean and clever this time?
Is it too dark? I'm sure the juries will approve but what will the televoting masses make of this?
Potential winner:
No. It is too demanding and too gourmet to win, but hopefully it can at least improve the French statistics a bit.
My grade: 4/5
The French are no strangers to bringing a dark mood and an acerbic lyric to Eurovision - their 1967 entry is perhaps the most bitter reaction to a love story gone wrong through ESC history. Even darker than Amandine's attempt.
Noëlle Cordier - Il doit faire beau là-bas (France 1967)
In my 2012 review, I ask myself why Portugal keeps sending in songs in a style that Europe keeps rejecting time after time. But in all fairness, the Portuguese have tried very different sounds and styles through the years.
The fourth Portuguese entry was really something extravagant at Eurovision back in 1967 - a very deep, rough and interesting soul vibe that felt raw and unpolished in comparison to what other r'n'b reached the charts back in the day.
They have managed to beat quite some life and attack into the Austrian orchestra and Eduardo himself sings his heart out, investing all he's got into this song.
The earned him three little points in the end, but this is a musical eruption of a kind I wish Portugal would give us more often.
Eduardo Nascimento - O vento mudou (Portugal 1967)
Most of the time, when people cling to the past, I try to disencourage them to do so. You know, the past is the past. Let it go. There will be no orchestra. French ballads will never dominate again. Most people are completely satisfied with the broadcast being in colour. And so on.
But then there is this thing about the Dutch.
Throughout history, the Dutch seldom reached the placings they aspired for - in spite of winning no less than four times - but at least they used to be good. Entertaining. Quality.
For the last ten years or so, they lost their grip completely and have, in my humble opinion, not sent in a song worthy of their grand past a single time since 2000.
I have only heard short snippets of the songs on offer in this year's Nationaal Songfestival, so I'm not qualified to have an opinion, but judging from what little I heard there is no "Hemel en aarde" or "Amsterdam" hidden in there.
I hope I misjudged the situation and for the Dutch to knock out a terrific little number tonight. And while waiting to be proven wrong, I choose to celebrate the past.
During this period, the ESC gets what could be described as its greatest innovation of all time as the contest was broadcast in colour from 1968 and on.
A politically turbulent period of time in Europe and elsewhere, especially the mythical year of 1968, and pop culture began to take over also at Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson.
By now, the contest was a commercial hitmaker and big labels wanted to send their most interesting names into competition, in hopes of breaking the international market.
On the continent, the German market was by far the most important one to crack in terms of record sales and it was about as common to record German versions of eurosongs as making the English versions.
1966 - Luxembourg
Michèle Torr - Ce soir je t'attendais (Luxembourg 1966)
France Gall sent shivers through old Europe and her fresh faced appearance inspired no less than six countries to send more modern and upbeat entries, performed by young women, to see if the success could be repeated.
It couldn't - the young ladies most probably stole points off each other and a convincing victory was given to a male solo singer instead.
The best one of these six was, in my opinion, the best song on the night, competing for host nation Luxembourg, performed by Michèle Torr who was about to recieve star status in her native France a few years later.
For me, this is an irresistible piece of French pop: inspired, lightweight but not silly and, above all, very well performed. Strangely enough, it was heavily ignored by most juries with the exception of Sweden, giving it top marks.
Real winner: Udo Jürgens - Merci chérie (Austria)
1967 - France
Noëlle Cordier - Il doit faire beau là-bas (France 1967)
It would be absolutely impossible to rank all songs that ever took part in the ESC, but if I could, this one is very likely to be in the top ten.
A power ballad of a rare sort, complimented by a surprisingly raw lyric, not at all sticking to the usual voice of the modest heartbroken woman we often hear in song lyrics.
This woman is sweet at first, then scornful ("When you left it was to get happy / if it worked, then good for you") and then falls out into a bitter chorus about how much she hates all the people around her. "I hate them because they never talk to me about you."
A powerful, original and beautiful entry, but the juries wanted a happy pop tune instead. Not a bad choice, either.
Real winner: Sandie Shaw - Puppet On A String (United Kingdom)
1968 - France
Isabelle Aubret - La source (France 1968)
For the second year in succession, the French entered a good song with somewhat controversial and, this time, slightly disturbing lyrics, inspired by "The Virgin Spring" by Ingmar Bergman.
Isabelle Aubret was good already when she won in 1962, but now she is sensational, telling the story of the innocent girl who gets raped and killed by three men in the forest. Yes, all of this is there in the lyrics. So much for family viewing.
One would think that a classical piece like this would be perfectly suited for the grand orchestra, but the musicians let this song down as well.
Maybe that is why it was beaten by two pop songs instead? Or maybe the mood of this song wasn't quite the party starter people needed in these troubled times?
Real winner: Massiel - La la la (Spain)
1969 - Spain
Salomé - Vivo cantando (Spain 1969)
To be honest, I'm not sure about this one. Or, I'm sure I absolutely adore song, singer, performance and outfit. But I'm not sure it is my outright favourite.
1969 is a very strong and even year where several songs claim the title as my favourite: Italy, Ireland, Belgium, Portugal, Switzerland, France...
But the massive madness in Salomé's way of attacking this entire number casts makes this a winner. At least it is the best out of the four songs sharing the trophy this year.
Real winners: Salomé - Vivo cantando (Spain) Lulu - Boom Bang A Bang (UK) Lenny Kuhr - De troubadour (Netherlands) Frida Boccara - Un jour, un enfant (France)
1970 - Germany
Katja Ebstein - Wunder gibt es immer wieder (Germany 1970)
Watch out, modern times are coming. In more ways than one.
Television-wise, Dutch television (selected to host after a draw between the four winners of 1969) invented the postcards, partially to make up for the low number of participants. Only 12 countries took part after Sweden, Norway, Finland and Portugal dropped out after the split winner fiasco in Madrid.
But the German entry also signalled that new musical influences would, again, find their way into the ESC. Hippie-esque, with a touch of flower power, this song had a groove never before heard in the ESC.
Or it should have had, since this is yet another song the orchestra is unable to do justice. Also Katja is yet to compose that stage magic she would develop later in her career.
But in its recorded form, this song is stunning and a brilliant example of the creativity in the German market at this time.
Real winner: Dana - All Kinds Of Everything (Ireland)
The 1967 French Eurovision entry was, like most French entries in those days, subject of an internal selection at French television. Songwriters of varying fame and talent sent in their demos, with or without a suggested performer, and a jury had free hands to select the final entry.
For the 1967 selection, successful songwriting duo of Hubert Giraud and Pierre Delanoë had written two power ballads, both sung by the young and promising Noëlle Cordier: "Il doit faire beau là-bas" and "Il est mort le soleil". Most people involved were convinced the latter would be the one chosen by the jury.
According to an interview that Noëlle gave for CocoricoVision (the magazine of OGAE France), someone let fellow singer Nicoletta hear "Il est mort le soleil". As she was a bigger name, the entry was taken from Noëlle (who was pretty upset at this) and handed in with Nicoletta as suggested performer instead.
Nicoletta - Il est mort le soleil (France internal selection 1967)
But the jury got cold feet when hearing the song. According to OGAE's sources, they did not like the idea of sending a song mentioning death in its title to a light-hearted song contest like Eurovision. Several jaws must have dropped as the jury decided to nominate Noëlle anyway.
Nicoletta didn't have to stay disappointed for long: she had one of her biggest hits with this track, which was also translated into English and covered by Ray Charles and Tom Jones among others as "The Sun Died".
Noëlle Cordier, on the other hand, made quite an impression in Vienna and ended in third place with one of the most bitter and heartbroken lyrics of all time (read them in translation here ) and one of my personal favourites of all time.
Noëlle Cordier - Il doit faire beau là-bas (France 1967)
What would the juries have thought of Nicoletta and her song about the sun and the summer dying once the heart is broken? Most probably Sandie Shaw would have won anyway.
As for the effort of keeping death out of Eurovision. It worked fine until Monaco decided to enter a song about the world being blown to bits in a nuclear apocalypse. Read more about that here .
"You should never mix politics with Eurovision!" That is what many people say. Fine. But politics is an odd mixer, it works its way in anyhow. Big things will not go unnoticed even in the ESC.
The cold war was an ever-present influence on life in Europe during the 60's. It is more surprising than anything that not more songs bore some kind of influence from the international tension.
In 1967, however, former winner Serge Gainsbourg (writer of "Poupée de cire, poupée de son") decided to enter a protest song: noisy, shouty, relevant and bang-up-to-date at the time.
Minouche Barelli - Boum badaboum (Monaco 1967)
The lyrics were extremely straightforward: "before you decide to blow everything up, leave me some time to love, let me live a little bit before you decide to kill me." The translated lyrics can be read in full here .
Heavy stuff, indeed. No wonder the international juries preferred a happy, cheerful song about a certain puppet on a certain string instead.
At least it made an impression on some people. Ten jurors gave their vote to it, leaving it in an honourable fifth place.
Also, the Swedish delegation seems to have listened carefully. The same songwriting team entered Melodifestivalen the year after with "Låt mig få va' ifred" (sadly unavailable on YouTube) by Cecilia Stam - a raunchy, modern pop song with a certain amount of attitude, not unlike "Boum badaboum" at all.
But with a lot less menacing lyrics, dealing with love rather than the apocalypse. But then again, it didn't win either.
UPDATE I found this lovely clip with "Boum badaboum" in its studio version. Even more aggressive and very provocative indeed.
Minouche Barelli - Boum badaboum (Monaco 1967 studio version)
