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
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Sunday, April 10, 2011

Songs only I like: Switzerland 1998

As this song won the first national final organised by Swiss television for six years, I already doubted its winning potential. I thought it was nice, maybe a bit too plain, but saved by a pretty convincing delivery.

Come Birmingham, I had actually grown to like it quite a lot. Enough to accept the presence of Egon Egemann and his white violin. Enough to ignore the dress. Enough not to find the choreography of the backing group ridiculous.



Gunvor - Lass' ihn (Switzerland 1998)

I also thought you have to love somebody called Gunvor Guggisberg - what a fantastic name!

So you can safely say I didn't see that nul pointer coming. Last place when there were things like Greece and Turkey and Hungary on offer? Never! Mind you, I never thought France would come in second last either.

If you read Tim Moore's book "Nul points" (which I think you should) you will find that the nul points was the least humiliating thing Gunvor had to go through in connection to her ESC experience. A fate so painful I can't bear to tell the tale - check out the book and you will fully understand.

In short - this song is possibly not the ultimate epos, but it certainly did not deserve nul points. And Gunvor certainly didn't deserve the treatment she got in the Svizzerian press.

I really hope I'm not the only one to like this one. If you like it too, please leave a comment.

1 comment:

  1. I have to agree about this song. This was the first song of the 1998 contest that I heard and I thought already then, that it was a marvellous song. Poor Gunvor Guggisberg and the song didn't deserve the bad result.

    Which leads me to a question that has always irritated (and will always irritate) me in Eurovision. Why on earth personal names like Gunvor Guggisberg, Hanna Pakarinen, Lena Mayer-Landrut, Kaija Kärkinen, Pave Maijanen, Carola Häggvist (and so on and so on) are rejected and anonymous abbreviations like Hanna, Pave, Kaija, Gunvor are put in their place? Do people really believe that a personal name stops people from voting them? It didn't stop people like Marija Serifovic or Helena Paparizou to win the contest.

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