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!
The first semi final of the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest is about to begin soon but whatever happens result-wise the best entry of the night is Belgium.
You already knew this, I've been praising this madly talented little Loïc ever since last winter. Of course he is my favourite.
But I also enjoy stating it since it's not quite every year that Belgium shows their better sides and enter something good or convincing. Very much like Austria, I tend to enjoy their entries but very rarely have them on my first place.
So just because I can, I'd like to share a couple of times when Belgium really got it right.
They had their moments already before the ESC went in colour. I don't know what kind of heartless creature you must be not to melt for Tonia and her fool-proof recipe for love. (She does get the guy in the end, you know.)
Tonia - Un peu de poivre, un peu de sel (Belgium 1966)
Louis Neefs is something of a monument to entertainment in his home country of Flanders. He competed twice at the ESC and while his first song turned into a real evergreen, it's the second one that is a minor masterpiece with it's wonderfully suggestive arrangement, complete with the kind of lazy trumpet that I love.
Louis Neefs - Jennifer Jennings (Belgium 1969)
Just like Louis Neefs, Ann Christy left the world far too early and with far too few commercial successes under her belt. This wonderfully breezy little song - according to the songwriter a tale of lesbian love - is one of my all-time favourites.
Ann Christy - Gelukkig zijn (Belgium 1975)
All hell broke loose at the Flemish final when Pas de Deux and their minimalist pop experiment beat all the pre-contest favourites and the debacle in Munich was possibly inevitable, but I wish more countries dared to this kind of thing. Think of this while you hear a number of pretty but mind-numbingly dull ballads in tonight's semi.
Pas de Deux - Rendez-vous (Belgium 1983)
There are more wonderful songs in Belgian song-book than this one, but if we talk favourites this jaunty yet aggressive plea for world peace must be included. A touch too much of everything and that's what I love the most about it. Liliane for president!
Liliane St-Pierre - Soldiers of Love (Belgium 1987)
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think many ESC fans would hold up Stockholm 1975 as their all-time favourite contest ever held. Mainly, I would guess, because of a slightly poor visual presentation.
Sveriges Radio were very careful not to pour too much glamour into the event, as they knew that would anger some pretty vocal parts of the audience, and forty years later that lack of extra effort shows. How long did it possibly take to design that stage set, for instance?
Nevertheless, for me as a child it was a magical year, one I longed to know more about and perhaps even see one day. (This was way before any video copies of older contests were available.)
Song-wise it's not a bad year at all, actually. And since I am that kind of nerd who likes to rank and put things (and songs) in order, I decided to share my ranking of every song of the 1975 ESC.
19. Ireland - The Swarbriggs / That's What Friends Are For
Not bad as in really bad, but too ingratiating and annoyingly sweet somehow. All the lyrics do is stating the obvious for three minutes without ever giving us any reasonable chorus. Grade: 1/5
18. Norway - Ellen Nikolaysen / Touch My Life
Beautifully sung, but also a perfect example of when verse and chorus won't gel and your entry fails to go anywhere. The most interesting thing in this entry is Ellen's dress, creating the illusion of her having deep craters in her body. Grade: 1/5
17. United Kingdom - The Shadows / Let Me Be The One
Not a bad song in its own right - I used to like this one quite a bit back in the day - but I can't stand the lazy performance. Close to somnambulant UK performers who don't give a toss and yet get showered in points are not my cup of tea. Grade: 1/5
16. Malta - Renato / Singing This Song
The reversed case from the UK: a very energetic and zealous performance of a pretty weak song. I prefer it that way around but before it's over I turn all grumpy Finn on everyone and wonder what on earth they are all so happy about. Grade: 2/5
15. Portugal - Duarte Mendes / Madrugada
The Portuguese were so pleased with their revolution, they decided to write a song about it. In fact, they would keep writing songs about it for a few years. This is nice and melodic and likeable, but never left much of an impression on me (while great friends of mine claim this is Portugal's best entry of all time.) Grade: 2/5
14. Spain - Sergio & Estíbaliz / Tú volverás
Every time this one starts, I like it but then it feels like it goes on for five or six minutes. They stand there and sing and sing and sing without anything much happening. Pleasant but forgettable and clearly the weakest song Juan Carlos Calderón ever wrote for the ESC. Grade: 2/5
13. Israel - Shlomo Artzi / At va' ani
Another one I'd like to like more than I do. Shlomo has an intriguing presence, shy but intense, and he sings with passion and conviction, but the song feels like a promising demo version in need of development but never quite finished. Grade: 2/5
12. Sweden - Lars Berghagen / Jennie Jennie
I like this one a great deal, really, but some songs should stay in their own language even if you're allowed to perform in English. The clumsy, direct translation takes every single emotion of the original and stomps on them with its trendy platform shoes. Grade: 2/5
11. Finland - Pihasoittajat / Old Man Fiddle
I like also this one more than you'd suspect from it's place in the ranking. I enjoy the true musicianship, the violin and the commitment of bringing less commercial music into this contest, otherwise hugged by greedy record companies. But this is also a tv show - your audience can actually see you - and the zero effort for presentation takes this one down a notch or two. Grade: 3/5
10. Switzerland - Simone Drexel / Mikado
Catchy, nice, pleasant. An impressing effort by a 17-year old songwriter, I must say. Maybe it didn't age terrifically well, but the chorus always gets me to sing along. Grade: 3/5
9. Yugoslavia - Pepel in Kri / Dan ljubezni
The last song in Slovenian to be heard at Eurovision before the country re-appeared as an independent state has grown into a real evergreen on home ground. Understandable with it's excellent singalong qualities, but I'm always missing a final je-ne-sais-quoi in this package. Grade: 3/5
8. Monaco - Sophie / Une chanson c'est une lettre
I'm so easy, as Juliana Pasha would say. Wave a dramatic ballad in French at me and I will surrender at once. Too bad that the chorus doesn't quite live up to the promise of the explosively emotional verses, but Sophie handles both of them with ease. Grade: 3/5
7. Luxembourg - Geraldine / Toi
If this was the Eurovision Overblown Accent Contest, Geraldine would win by a mile over other strong contenders like Ireen Sheer or even Baccara, but I just love her for it. Her song is also a weird mishmash that starts out as ballad before putting on its best boots and start marching off to Tipperary. Strange and confusing but most loveable all the same. Grade: 3/5
6. Turkey - Semiha Yankı / Seninle bir dakika
Turkey's debut was an emotional and heartfelt ballad that only the Monegasque jury bothered to award any points at all to. Semiha is really giving it her all and this is an altogether lovely song that would have deserved so much more. However, I like the preview version better. The new arrangement for the final makes the whole thing feel heavier and more overblown than it needs to be. Grade: 4/5
5. Germany - Joy Fleming / Ein Lied kann eine Brücke sein
Rainer Pietsch kick-starts the orchestra and Joy Fleming erupts like a tropical storm and the ESC never knew what hit it. One of the most soulful efforts of all time and one you're unlikely to forget. Had they toned down the volume just a bit, maybe there would have been more points. But then again, it would be less memorable. Grade: 4/5
4. Belgium - Ann Christy / Gelukkig zijn
Another stunning song that was totally overlooked by the juries. I loved this one from the word go, with it's lovely instrumental opening, through the soft verse and the big chorus. Ann Christy was also a magnificent performer and even if she was unhappy about the change of language midway through the song, it doesn't bother me much. A classic. Grade: 4/5
3. Netherlands - Teach-In / Ding-A-Dong
It takes skill and craftsmanship to write and short and snappy little song about nothing and still make it feel meaningful. The original lyrics actually mean something but unlike Sweden's Lars Berghagen, the Dutch threw it all overboard when translating the song into English. It means very little but sounds fantastic and is delivered in a most convincing way. Grade: 4/5
2. France - Nicole Rieu / Et bonjour à toi, l'artiste
See what I wrote about Monaco and guess what a song like this will push me into. This isn't even particularly dramatic, more understated and minimalist, perfectly performed by a very sensitive singer. One of the best French non-winners of all time. Grade: 4/5
1. Italy - Wess & Dori Ghezzi / Era
I heard this one on the radio when I was perhaps eleven or twelve and was almost literally knocked over and nothing has changed since. One of the most intriguing ESC entries I know, direct and enigmatic at the same time, too much and yet tasteful. My winner. Grade: 5/5
The 20th Eurovision Song Contest, held at the Stockholm Fair Centre in Älvsjö on March 22nd 1975 - forty years ago today - didn't only give the world Karin Falck and a number of immortal quotes, it also launched a big innovation. Arguably the most important innovation in the history of the contest.
The EBU had been thinking for years about how to improve the voting - more or less ever since the early 60's. The matter had become pressing after the 1969 contest had ended in a spectacular fiasco where four countries shared the victory and no rules were in place to break the tie.
The new voting system launched in 1971 - where every participating country provided two jurors that ranked each song except their own with a mark from one to five - proved complicated to follow and led to pretty arbitrary results. It was scrapped after only three years. Something else was needed.
Heikki Seppälä, working for Finnish tv, had a better idea. He suggested every jury should vote internally, then award points to their ten favourite songs. According to the original plan, the winner should receive fourteen points, in order to give it a leap ahead. For reasons best known to themselves, the EBU thought twelve points had a better ring to it.
The famous 12 points had been born. After the 1975 contest, the EBU were sure they had struck gold. The new system made the voting exciting, easy to follow and - best of all - it seemed able to ensure no song would be left with nul points.
That last thing didn't quite work out and not every voting has been exciting since 1975, but on the whole this new system has been a success. Ultimate proof is that it is still standing, forty years down the line.
Forty years can be a very long time. In my childhood, the second world war was vaguely forty years ago while the moon landing was only some twenty years away.
Exactly 40 years ago today, on March 22nd 1975, Sweden hosted its first ever Eurovision Song Contest and when you look back at the show forty years will indeed feel like an eternity. It's a completely different world. Television was almost like a different medium.
If you compare what Stockholm offered viewers worldwide compared to the contests held the year before and the year after, you might get an idea of the difficult position Swedish television (not yet the SVT we know today, still a sub-division of Swedish radio) found itself in: it must be good enough to meet international standards but still rigid enough not to give people the idea that huge amounts of money was wasted on something as ridiculous as entertainment.
However, one special effect makes this contest stand out in a very positive light: the sheer super power that is Karin Falck.
Copyright: SVT
Karin was a huge star in Swedish television - arguably the biggest female tv star in the history of Swedish broadcasting. She had a finger in every pie there was as a beloved host as well as a very nifty producer with an endless list of successes on her list.
She had also recently become a widow after her husband Åke Falck's untimely death in 1974 - also he was a top name in Swedish tv and the couple worked intensively together - and the top bosses thought an important task like hosting the ESC would keep Karin active and going.
Karin kept going alright. Perhaps languages skills were not her top asset, and possibly the opening of the show is a bit shaky - rumours had it her running entrance was due to colleagues literally having to push her onto stage - but once the professional in her woke up, she never lost control.
She lost her scripts, surely. Some of her quotes have become legendary and rightly so. During the voting she says fantastic things like "Seven? How much is that in France?" or "Could we have seven points on the Turkey?" but these are just glorious bi-products of a professional woman improvising her way through a language she isn't all that familiar with.
If you look at her determination instead: how steadily she makes her way through the show, how she always knows where she is going and how she never loses her temper or gets stressed. She keeps beaming like the sun throughout the entire voting - not something every host has managed to do through the years.
At the end of the show, she announces the Dutch team as winners and wraps the whole show up, still with the biggest of smiles, and ends with a few words in French: "Quelque part au fond de nous, nous serons toujours ensemble" - Somewhere inside of us, we will always be together - a greeting to her late husband Åke Falck.
Every year since 1964, the BBC had internally selected a star - often somebody who was flavour of the month - to do a personal Song for Europe and perform all the songs in the national final.
The stars in question were not seldom unhappy about the songs they ended up going to Eurovision with, but the system had resulted in two victories and four second places. Why change a winning concept?
However, for the formula to work you need somebody with star quality willing to take on the task. In 1975, that seems to have been quite a challenge.
Not that The Shadows were unknown; they had been 60's superstars as Cliff Richard's backing group and even scored the odd hit single by themselves as well. They just didn't seem very hot at the moment. Mary Hopkin or Lulu they were not.
Also the song - the first out of four UK entries written by Paul Curtis - was a disappointingly tame little ditty. OK but not much more. And yet it ended up scoring heavily, taking the silver slot in Stockholm.
A deserved 2nd place?
Absolutely not. If the song was plain and ordinary, the live performance was unfocused and lazy. Not very charming at all. How this could beat Italy into third place remains a mystery.
The Shadows - Let Me Be The One (United Kingdom 1975)
Recently, I posted Glenmarks' 1974 melodifestivalen entry, a lovely little song that stood out as very different in their standard repertoire.
One year later, they would be back again, but this time mainly as a backing group for young Hadar Kronberg - a fresh talent recently signed by Bruno Glenmark's record company.
The question here is how obviously you can steal someone else's idea without decomposing with shame.
This song is a catchy little number by singers in extravagant outfits and a pseudo-historical effective title gimmick with a vaguely French connection. I wonder what Abba were thinking when they saw this.
Abba's conductor had the Napoleon outfit, Bruno Glenmark conducts with toy guns in his hands. This links in with the lyrics about two men duelling about this woman they both love. Duel or possibly Russian roulette, the lyrics are a bit vague on which method is chosen in the end.
All in all, a rather dubious package from a copyright perspective. But it is a very jolly and upbeat schlager. Surprisingly much so for a song that deals with imminent death.
Hadar & Glenmarks -Lady Antoinette (Sweden 1975 national final)
This is a song I have very strong feelings for. Simple and sincere, heart-warming and tender, this is one of the best entries Flanders ever sent to the ESC.
Ann Christy had already scored a big hit after coming third in the 1971 Belgian final with "Dag vreemde man" and would now create a true evergreen on home ground. Highly appreciated already then, it was a hit again in a cover version some twenty years later (this time sung by the group Mama's Jasje).
Since the rules stipulated free choice of language, and BRT both wanted to show their language to the world as well as securing a respectable score, it was decided that "Gelukkig zijn" would be performed in a bilingual version. The singer was not too keen on this idea, but a contract is a contract, and BRT had the last word.
Despite the juggling with languages, the song didn't score more than a modest seventeen points and had to content itself with a fifteenth place among nineteen contestans. Clearly a disappointment, but the song lived on despite its eurovision failure.
I have heard people saying that the lyrics deal with the subject of lesbian love, but then these people know something that isn't stated clearly in the song. It could be, but it could just as well be about any couple, regardless of sexual orientation.
The vocal delivery of Ann Christy is pure beauty: her voice is tender, intense and powerful at the right moments, showing what a remarkable performer she was.
Ann Christy died in 1984, at the tender age of 38.
Ann Christy - Gelukkig zijn / Could It Be Happiness (Belgium 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.
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.
One must understand the Portuguese - after three successful years in a row it easily gets a bit tedious to always be in the final. It is easy to long for the bad old days when nobody understood what you were up to and you could enjoy feeling sorry for yourself as you failed to score.
I suppose that is what happened on Saturday night as Homens da Luta knocked out all competition and won the golden ticket to Düsseldorf.
Homens da Luta - Luta è alegria (Portugal 2011)
The title roughly means that the struggle will bring you joy. Good, because struggle they will.
This comedy group has made it their special thing to parody the special brand of culture that appeared following the 1974 revolution. Possibly a bit fun if you were around at that time. And very informed about the domestic matters of Portugal.
For the rest of us, this contains absolutely nothing. No much tune, no much fun. Even the singing is pretty flat.
The only tiny amusement I can find is that the lead singer looks a bit like this former Portuguese participant:
Duarte Mendes - Madrugada (Portugal 1975)
But in no way does that make up for the three minutes the Portuguese take off my life and that I will never get back.
Humour almost never works in Eurovision, since it is usually very local. What makes people laugh in Portugal will not make other people laugh.
Can everyone please take notes for future reference, please?
