Runner-up: Spain 1971

You can say Spain played it safe in 1971 as they got a star to do the job for them and then fixed her up with a song sticking to the same formula as their 1969 winning entry "Vivo cantando".

But then again, entering something as crazy as this should never be considered playing safe.

It starts with a rather low key verse which is only there to warm up the audience for the big thing. It builds into a catchy chorus that gets repeated and repeated until nobody can escape it anymore before it spirals into almost uncontrollable bounciness.

"En un mundo nuevo" also has a fake ending, a finesse that had been very "in" during the late 60's. Some other entries had attempted it before, but never to this extent.

Right when you might think the song is over, the orchestra bursts into a perfectly bombastic rerun of the chorus in what sounds like a parody of a eurosong, only done so well you have to surrender to it.

Karina is also flawless, a real firecracker of a performer, and makes this overloaded package not only make it over the finishing line but feel like a loveable and slightly wacko gem of a song.

A deserved 2nd place?
Yes. There are better songs in the line-up of 1971 but Karina's determination wins me over every time. Nowhere near as good as the winner but then again not many songs are.



Karina - En un mundo nuevo (Spain 1971)

Nobody's favourite but mine, part 5

While making this series it seems one country pops up more often than most and that is Austria. I would perhaps not go as far as naming them my favourite country in Eurovision but few others have done so much for the diversity of the contest and few others have been so constantly ignored or misunderstood as the Austrians.

I often find myself liking Austrian entries more than most people do - at least judging from the not always too impressive scores they gather during the voting sequences - so because of that and in honour of their magnificent Conchita Wurst, who takes to the stage tonight, this is a special edition focusing fully on Austrian entries. And I had to make them ten instead of five…



The Milestones - Falter im Wind (Austria 1972)

So let's start from the top with my all time favourite Austrian entry. The Milestones were the second pop group ever to enter the eurovision stage and added an interesting touch to a contest formerly reserved for solo singers or love duets. The song is also highly personable with a long melodic build-up - and a hook that is played on a flute rather than sung - and when the chorus finally kicks in it is short and snappy and a surprisingly fulfilling climax. Douze points at any given time.



Karel Gott - Tausend Fenster (Austria 1968)

Austria was never afraid to speak their minds or make statements in this apolitical song contest and already in early 1968 they decided to lend their spotlight to neighbour country Czechoslovakia and the slowly nascent Prague spring. Winner Udo Jürgens composed an urban lament, about the loneliness of modern man, for Czechoslovakia's own Sinatra Karel Gott. For some reason, he only scored two points and Udo Jürgens famously stormed out of the green room mid-voting.



The Rounder Girls - All For You (Austria 2000)

ORF in Vienna were never afraid to make statements about Austrian matters either. At least that must have been one of the contributing factors that they chose - at the height of the controversies surrounding Jörg Haider, giving Austria a bad name around Europe - these soul babes to represent them in Stockholm. Unfortunately they didn't quite nail the live performance in the end but this is such a lively, happy and bouncy number all the same.



Westend - Hurricane (Austria 1983)

Austrians can't just yodel, they can also dress in red and yellow and dance in a group. Most of the Westend members - with the notable exception of Gary Lux - aren't really all that impressive singers but do parts nicely and with the aid of that dancing girl they manage to work up quite a storm before the song is over. This one was always one of my big favourites from 1983. Catchy and fun.



Marianne Mendt - Musik (Austria 1971)

If the host broadcaster went through all that trouble to assemble an orchestra for the occasion you could just as well use it to the fullest. I doubt there is a single instrument that isn't put to use in this massive arrangement and Marianne can't be accused of holding back her vocal abilities either. Extra plus for singing in dialect, that always goes down well at Eurovision. Well, it doesn't but it should.



Schmetterlinge - Boom Boom Boomerang (Austria 1977)

There just is no way around this one. Deeply political and deeply engaged and still devilishly entertaining. I doubt no protest song was ever as fun as this one, virtually mocking the record industry in general and the Eurovision Song Contest in particular. The group also scared the living daylights out of the BBC producers as they had interrupted a live show on Austrian television the week before the London final and made a political statement instead of singing. Being part of both this as well as The Milestones also qualifies Beatrix Neundlinger as a Eurovision Goddess in my book.



Wilfried - Lisa Mona Lisa (Austria 1988)

People I know, good friends of mine, would argue this is the archetype of a nul-pointer, that it has every ingredient of a perfect recipe for disaster. I see what they mean but I must disagree. Perhaps this one would have been better off performed by someone else, but I find a depth and an emotion here. Something the juries apparently didn't. Blaming the defeat on politics was not a brilliant move either, but Wilfried is hardly the only zero-scorer to mess up like that.



Bettina Soriat - One Step (Austria 1997)

At first I must admit to finding this pretty hopeless and doomed but at some point I took a long hard look at the live performance and realised what a professional that Soriat woman is. The amount of punch and energy she manages to squeeze into these three minutes is truly impressive.



Blue Danube - Du bist Musik (Austria 1980)

Austrian television was never afraid to be deadly serious and send in poignant entries that actually mean something. But then they could get really tired of that and go for something like this instead: a big fluffy piece of nonsense with five people randomly namedropping famous composers and musical terminology all over the place just to make sure that somebody somewhere understands something. It is perfectly ridiculous but also really rather catchy. Group member Marty Brem would be back again already the next year with the sweet but confusingly staged Wenn Du da bist, featured already in Part 3 of this series.



Anita - Einfach weg (Austria 1984)

This could be a crash course in how to take a perfectly good song, rip it to shreds and crush every single chance it might have had of impressing anyone. If you just listen to it with your eyes closed you'll hear what a good song it is. Then you open your eyes to find that the woman who sings about being strong and independent and gone before you know it is a polite little flower in a pink dress, a sweet hairdo and not a drop of attitude anywhere. Add the dance orchestra background musicians and the stiff backing vocalists - again Gary Lux, not at his finest hour - and your song is doomed. Despite a very clear last place - 21 points behind Yugoslavia placed second last - it was a big hit on home ground and is still seen as a bit of a classic. Made for radio, so to speak.

No polite points for the host

Back in the day, there was this idea that the host country automatically recieved a bucket full of complimentary points regardless of what their entry sounded like. Politeness points.

I'm not so sure about that, honestly. Wouldn't the host countries win a whole lot more often, then? In the 57 contests to date, only six occasions saw the host entry win.

In some years, the home ground entries have not exactly been drowned in points. Like in Bergen in 1986, where Norway didn't really make a splash.



Ketil Stokkan - Romeo (Norway 1986) - 12th place of 20

When Ireland first organised Eurovision back in 1971 - and went colour just for the occasion - the panel of expert jurors showed no excessive politeness anyway.



Angela Farrell - One Day Love (Ireland 1971) - 11th place of 18

Latvia had a very promising start at Eurovision and hosted the 2003 ESC in Riga, where their own act were red hot favourites to secure them a second consecutive victory. Those predictions proved a bit on the positive side and in the end, the Latvians only recieved a modest five points, all awarded by neighbour Estonia.



F.L.Y - Hello From Mars (Latvia 2003) - 24th place of 26

Swedish eurovision general was - as you all know - a contestant at the 1992 ESC in Malmö and was the opposite of a hit with the juries. Maybe he sees this year's event - hosted in his city of defeat - as a revenge for the second last place he got back then? Hopefully the 2013 Swedish entrant Robin Stjernberg will have more understanding from Europe this time around.



Christer Björkman - Imorgon är en annan dag (Sweden 1992) - 22nd place of 23

At least he should avoid the fate of the 1958 Dutch entry - the only time in history that the host country ended in the very last place.



Corry Brokken - Heel de wereld (Netherlands 1958) - Equal 9th place of 10

Semi 1: 08 Netherlands

"The Dutch entry is a wonderful little song with great potential to do well in the final." See there, a phrase I have not used for many years. But now the Dutch got their act together.



Anouk - Birds (Netherlands 2013)

Out of the long-time participants of eurovision, the Netherlands has one of the poorest showings since the semi finals were introduced. Only once did they manage to qualify and have not been in a final since 2004.

Not really surprising either as their entries have been far from convincing. They have often been pale, half-hearted, kitschy little songs with far too little heart and what seems like a fear of looking too serious.

What a good thing then that they finally got around to asking Anouk to do the job for them. Not only is she an experienced singer with a timbre of her own, she has also been around long enough to figure out that people who stay true to their own style tend to get rewarded for that.

So out goes the typical eurosongs and in comes an atmospheric number, sounding more like an inspired part of a 60's movie score rather than anything else. Rich, sophisticated and a little bit demanding. Not completely unlike last years Albanian entry.

The only thing that holds my grade down a tiny bit is the hope that this song will develop even a little bit further live. Anouk has said in interviews that she is thinking very much of the visual presentation, what colour this song should be. Sounds very promising to me.

Qualifier:
Yes. Perhaps not everybody's cup of tea but more than enough people will love this to make it sail safely into the final. First Dutch entry doing so in a long, long, long time.

My grade: 4/5

By the way, am I the only one who is reminded of this other Dutch entry - also an ambitious and demanding entry that happened to do quite well in the end?



Saskia & Serge - De tijd (Netherlands 1971)

Song of the Day: Belgium 1971

I could be wrong here - please correct me if I am - but I think there is only one case in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest where the performer of a song had to be replaced at such short notice that there are different singers in the preview clip than live on stage.

Nicole and Hugo had won the 1971 Belgian national final and made a breathtakingly charming video clip, when Nicole fell ill and found herself unable to go to Dublin.



Nicole & Hugo - Goeiemorgen morgen (Belgium 1971 preview)

Instead old-timers Lily Castel and Jacques Raymond stepped in at short notice, famously rehearsing their choreography on the plane for Ireland. When arriving at the Gaiety Theatre, they realised the stage was too small for their act anyway, resulting in a somewhat drier, stiffer version of the song. Despite having many supporters beforehand, the Belgian song found itself in a lucklustre fourteenth place.



Jacques Raymond & Lily Castel - Goeiemorgen morgen (Belgium 1971)

In all fairness, the stage would have been too small also for the flamboyant steps of the original couple but maybe Nicole and Hugo had been able to add that final punch and extra bite that the performance would have needed to convince the juries. It is a very fine song, in a brilliant arrangement, and a shame that it is somewhat forgotten in the eurovision archives.

Nicole & Hugo would get a second chance at Eurovision - two years later they represented their country with the true evergreen "Baby Baby", landing in a highly undeserved last place. I think these two were pioneers within Eurovision showbiz - talented, funny, good-looking and daring - and they would deserve so much more respect for their craft.

Hats off for both of them!



Nicole & Hugo - Baby Baby (Belgium 1973)

Tobson's winners: 1971 - 1975

After the fiasco in Madrid, where four countries shared the top spot, the EBU spent the following five years trying to figure out a system that would make such a situation easier to avoid in the future.

The introduction of expert jurors, two from each participating country, was maybe not the smartest of ideas in retrospect, for a multitude of reasons, but at least they managed to select the right winner, at least in my opinion, every year they were in function.

And since these three winners were also to be found in my favourite winners ever blog post , you won't be in for many surprises in this section.

1971 - Monaco



Séverine - Un banc, un arbre, une rue (Monaco 1971)

Also 1971 sees a fair share of good songs, but none that can compete with this epic bittersweet classic. Séverine gives the performance of a lifetime and got a pretty successful career in Germany in return.

This was a commercially successful entry all over the continent that everyone could be happy with. Everyone but the people at monegasque television, who (probably after some serious panicking) turned down the offer to host next year's competition.

Real winner:
Séverine - Un banc, un arbre, une rue (Monaco)


1972 - Luxembourg



Vicky Leandros - Après toi (Luxembourg 1972)

Another almost mythical Eurovision winner, who managed to beat the "unbeatable" New Seekers by rather a margin in the end.

Also 1972 has a couple of real gems (Germany's Mary Roos, Portugal's Carlos Mendes and Austria's Milestones - all fantastic songs), but there is no way around an entry like "Après toi".

Rumour had it at the time that German television had rejected it from its national final and only then was it translated into French and selected by Luxembourg, a rumour strongly denied by Vicky herself.

Germany would have looked a bit silly rejecting a song like this and - let's face it - it would never have won in its German version. It somehow needs the darkness in the French version for the drama to blossom like it should.

And blossom it does.

Real winner:
Vicky Leandros - Après toi (Luxembourg)


1973 - Luxembourg



Anne-Marie David - Tu te reconnaîtras (Luxembourg 1973)

For the third year running, I agree with the expert juries. Does that mean I am a snob, liking the same thing experts like? Perhaps.

But also, these three years have winners that are easy to identify. Because they are fantastic songs.

Israel's Ilanit is almost as good as this one. Almost, almost. But for me, this is the one winning song that blows all the others off the tree.

Anne-Marie David for president!

Real winner:
Anne-Marie David - Tu te reconnaîtras (Luxembourg)


1974 - Italy



Gigliola Cinquetti - Si (Italy 1974)

In all fairness, Non ho l'età is quite a good little song, but this is Gigliola's real moment in the sun. This is where she gets to shine and show just how good a performer she is.

This was also quite a risky choice for Eurovision as it really is too sophisticated, too soft, too slow. For Brighton, they had to shorten the first verse and they also performed the song at a slightly higher pace than on record.

This is an almost hypnotic little song, very classy and very engaging. Lucky break it didn't win, as that could have put Abba's career at risk, but this is clearly the moral winner of the year.

Real winner:
Abba - Waterloo (Sweden)


1975 - Italy



Wess & Dori Ghezzi - Era (Italy 1975)

It is a surprising fact that Italian television, who doesn't give a toss about the ESC, have come up with so many brilliant entries through the years.

It could even be that it is because of this fact, not in spite of it. Since ESC was never a big deal in Italy, their stars could go there without fear of wrecking their careers, and they never felt the pressure to fit in with typical eurosongs.

This is also a surprisingly juicy number, soulful and passionate, and not at all as well-mannered as most eurovision entries were at the time. Wess & Dori complement each other very well.

And even if the pace is - again - slightly faster compared to the record version, making the live version lack a bit in dynamic, the orchestra is up to scratch and carries this song nicely.

Real winner:
Teach-In - Ding A Dong (Netherlands)

The five best winners ever... according to Tobson

For the people who know me, it will come as no surprise that I am hopelessly down with old, bombastic and dramatic eurosongs in French. And when I compile my all-time top five of winners, that the French dominate completely.

The most surprising and unpredictable thing about my list is that it includes six songs, not five. Silly, I know. But these six songs are so clearly above the rest of the winners in my list, it would be blasphemous not to include them all.

Sixth place:



Corinne Hermès - Si la vie est cadeau (Luxembourg 1983)

Wonderfully breezy, airy big ballad - the last winner representing this genre - in a great vocal delivery by Corinne Hermès. It wasn't a huge commercial success at the time and is a bit forgotten among winners these days. Which is ridiculous. Fantastic stuff!

Fifth place:



Séverine - Un banc, un arbre, une rue (Monaco 1971)

This is such a fantastic evergreen - a mega hit at the time, translated into most languages. In Finland, for instance, I'm sure more people think of this as a Finnish song rather than an ESC winner because the domestic version was so popular. Classic but not dated.

Fourth place:



Marie Myriam - L'oiseau et l'enfant (France 1977)

This could be a bit old-fashioned in the sense that it keeps growing on me and the older we both get, the more I love it. In my eyes, it keep unfolding and growing intro something bigger, better and more beautiful every time. Also this one made it big in various versions around the continent, and maybe nothing can be better praise than people thinking your song is their own.

Third place:



France Gall - Poupée de cire, poupée de son (Luxembourg 1965)

It is beyond me how a song written in 1965 can still sound so modern and up-to-date as this one. Shockingly modern at its time and the first song with a pop sound ever to win the ESC. Do not think we are not grateful! France herself has had a bit of a problem accepting this older part of her career, but I hope she also recognises what a fantastic song this is. The ever-growing number of cover versions of it just underlines how indestructible this masterpiece is. If you want to see the performance from Naples (impossible to imbed for some reason) it can be found here .

Second place:



Vicky Leandros - Après toi (Luxembourg 1972)

When the sun sets in Euroland, it is never to rise again. When the heart is broken, no glue can put the pieces back together. The emotion of this song is strong enough to knock down an elephant, and the performance by Vicky is almost frighteningly spot on. Surprisingly, and disappointingly, it works very badly in its English and German versions, where some silly lyricist made happy, cheerful lyrics for it. How do you ever come up with such a bad idea, when it is so clearly a song about heartbreak?

Number one:



Anne-Marie David - Tu te reconnaîtras (Luxembourg 1973)

What can I say? Every time I hear it, I am surprised at just how good it is. The powerful intro, the fantastic verse, the explosive chorus... And then the marvel of the piano bridge between the chorus back to the verse. I am totally blown away. Both by the song and by Anne-Marie. The best winner ever in my book, and very likely to stay at that number one spot for a long time to come.

Out of these six, all but one is produced in France ("Après toi" is a German production), and all of them won before I became an active follower of Eurovision.

Maybe I am a bit hard on the newer songs - there are many brilliant winners after 1983 as well - but they don't have the same magic and shine about them.

What are your favourite winners? Let me know by leaving a comment!

40 years ago - Séverine

Yesterday, it was exactly forty years since teeny tiny Monaco scored their one and only Eurovision victory with the real evergreen "Un banc, un arbre, une rue". One of the best winners ever, if you ask me.



Séverine - Un banc, un arbre, une rue (Monaco 1971)

But then again, old dramatic eurosongs in French are unbeatable in my book. My six favourite all-time winners are sung in French. Four of them represented Luxembourg.

I'm not the only one madly in love with this one, though. This is one of those classic, big, breeze Eurovision numbers that went down a storm all over the continent and was recorded it local versions all over the place.

Given that the 1971 ESC was the first one preceeded by official previews, it was also the first winner to have a preview clip. Not a very advanced one, but still.



Séverine - Un banc, un arbre, une rue (Monaco 1971 preview)

Despite the massive success, Séverine remained a one-hit-wonder in her native France. According to an interview she gave to OGAE France, this was largely due to her getting offered better songs in Germany, where she kept recording all through the 1980's.

She even took part twice in German finals without ever getting close to winning.



Séverine - Dreh dich im Kreisel der Zeit (Germany NF 1975)



Séverine - Ich glaub' an meine Träume (Germany NF 1982)

According to the same interview, Séverine was never too keen on returning to the contest but was happy to get to sing these two songs without challening her fairytale victory of 1971.

I'm particularly fond of her 1982 effort, but I have to agree - sometimes it is better for winners not to return to the big stage. You can never be sure if the audience will love you a second time around.