Tobson takes on Melodifestivalen 1984

In most people's minds, 1983 stood out as a success due to the tremendous breakthrough of Carola and her sensational third place in Munich. Perhaps thanks to this, the Swedish final stayed out in the districts (as opposed to returning to Stockholm) and this time Gothenburg took on the task.

SVT Göteborg proved to be fast learners and presented a final that was much more solid than the one in 1982. It was colourful and most entertaining, given the standard of your regular entertainment shows back in the mid-1980's. The level of competing entries was much higher and everyone was eager to see if there was a new Carola-phenomenon in making.

What transpired later was that the selection process was a bit suspicious as Bert Karlsson - the head of the Mariann label - had debated with members of the jury before the final cut had been made and made sure they changed their minds to include his new act Herreys in the lineup.

Picture borrowed from oppetarkiv.se

10. Per-Erik Hallin / Labyrint
At the time he was almost more famous for providing the Swedish voice for Donald Duck than for his own singing, and Per-Erik wanted to use Melodifestivalen as a platform for himself. The song, with its religious theme, means well but makes no greater difference. Most probably chosen for the sake of diversity.
Grade: 1/5

9. John Ballard / Rendez-vous
Written as a schlager parody, stapling every conceivable musical and lyrical cliché in existence, before getting taken very seriously by performer John Ballard himself. Very popular at the time but I have no warmer feelings for this.
Grade: 1/5

8. Rosa Körberg / Schack och matt
Tommy's baby sister had been the front woman of a rock band before ending up with this surprisingly standard schlager. Not a bad song as such but the vocal performance leaves quite a lot to be desired.
Grade: 2/5

7. Janne Önnerud / Nu är jag tillbaks igen
Another case of when a pretty good little schlager is wasted on a complete mismatch of a performer. This guy was experienced and well-known at the time but takes his entry nowhere and especially misses the opportunity of doing anything with the pretty good lyrics of the verses.
Grade: 2/5

6. Thomas Lewing / Tjuvarnas natt
Another mismatch but the other way around. Young Lewing has the voice as well as the looks and squeezes as much as anyone ever could out of this song. An amusing bagatelle but nothing more than that.
Grade: 3/5

5. Göran Folkestad & Lotta Pedersen / Sankta Cecilia
It is endearing to think back, knowing he was supposed to be the big star and she was hired to be his cheerful but anonymous sidekick. Today Lotta Engberg is one of Sweden's major household names while nobody knows what happened to Göran Folkestad. Bouncy but nowhere near as outstanding as the juries thought is was.
Grade: 3/5

4. Herreys / Diggi-loo diggi-ley
Most professional. Sweden had never seen anyone perform like this on a melodifestivalen stage before. Effective in every way, but I never fully recovered from my 1984 Diggi-loo diggi-ley overdose and just can't place it higher than this in my list.
Grade: 3/5

3. Elisabeth Andreasson / Kärleksmagi
Chips broke up pretty quickly after the 1982 melodifestival and while Kikki's solo career took off like a rocket it never looked good for Bettan. Bert Karlsson had advised her not to take on this one, and during rehearsals she famously lost her nerves and started singing badly. Luckily some singing lessons and a certain career offer from Norway would come in handy later in the year, but this pretty suggestive little piece would deserve more appreciation too instead of just being remembered as the song that almost wrecked Bettan.
Grade: 3/5

2. Vicki Benckert / Livet är som ett träd
Borderline aggressive/cheerful, this little gem really stands out as the closing number of this lineup. Vicki had written the lyrics to three of the ten songs in the running and kept the best one for herself. She'd seen enough focus more on being a studio musician and would famously show up in Tommy Nilsson's backing group in Lausanne in 1989.
Grade: 3/5

1. Karin & Anders Glenmark / Kall som is
Clearly the best pop song on offer. Bert Karlsson (or possibly Bruno Glenmark, depending on who's telling the story) objected to this one not being cheerful enough and maybe that's why the juries kept their points down. After one solo attempt each, this brother/sister-act decided it was better to sing together and had notable success under the name Gemini, co-produced by Björn & Benny.
Grade: 4/5

Conclusion:
A strong and consistent lineup that was surprisingly hard to rank. Is "Kärleksmagi" really that good? Should "Schack och matt" come in so low? At the time, Herreys was the clear and deserved winner and the boys would have deserved a bit of a warmer reception from Swedish showbiz in general.

In a parallel universe:
Never argue with a winner. If the selected song goes on to win the ESC, it was the right choice. I would still have wanted to know what would have become of "Kall som is" on a Eurovision stage. The 1984 jury manifested a clear disinterest in anything bold or experimental, so probably the Glenmarks could have scraped in at a 7th place or so. Possibly.

Runner-up: Ireland 1984

Sometimes it's a good thing to have a tiny break. Ireland decided to sit out in 1983 - apparently due to RTÉ feeling the need to save some money and cut some budgets - and came back in excellent form indeed.

Linda Martin - former lead singer of the band Chips - had gone solo and was given a dramatic pop song written by Johnny Logan, who had made a splash winning the 1980 ESC but whose career subsequently had gone more or less down the toilet.

Apparently he scribbled down this song in a matter of minutes while killing time at Heathrow, never regarding it as one of his better songs. I couldn't disagree more.

I'm intrigued by the inner monologue of this song. How the response to an old lover's sudden comeback is superficially happy and careless while old memories seem very hard to dismiss. It is easy to say that things are forgiven and forgotten, but are they really?

"I told him nothing's changed and I still feel the same." So she told him. It doesn't mean it's true. It makes me wonder what happens once they are reunited and the song ends. Will they be all smiles or will there be a tense drama à la Bergman? I love not knowing, I love that not everything is said in the open. It's a great little story.

Johnny Logan would famously get a second chance and even if there was no grand international career in store for him, he will always remain Eurovision royalty. In 1992, he and Linda Martin scored Ireland's fourth victory together with "Why Me?" - another really good, but possibly slightly less intriguing, song.

A deserved 2nd place?
Indeed. There were better songs in the running in 1984, but this one is certainly ahead of the Swedish winner in my list.



Linda Martin - Terminal 3 (Ireland 1984)

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.

Songs of the Day: Portugal 1984 - 1985

Usually I content myself with just one Song of the Day, but since I haven't published any in a while I thought I could have two today. Are you with me on that? Splendid!

This year, I feel Portugal has selected rather a dull ballad for Eurovision which is a shame since Portuguese ballads often have been really good through the years.

In 1984, Maria Guinot sang her own poetic song about how, in the middle of the great silence, she suddenly finds the right words to say. Or how she, when being among so many people, can finally see who she truly is herself.

A touching and atmospheric entry, not quite as well recieved by the juries as it should have been.



Maria Guinot - Silencio e tanta gente (Portugal 1984)

The Portuguese grapes were, however, to turn even more sour the next year in Gothenburg. Their singer Adelaide, also co-writer of her song, recieved quite a lot of positive attention from the press - dubbed one of the classiest performers by one Swedish newspaper.

She belted out her dramatic ballad with gusto and conviction but completely failed to capture the hearts and votes of the jury. Only the Greek jury, voting last out of the nineteen participants, saved her the humiliation of a last place.

Adelaide, a contender for last place? I can't believe neither my ears nor my eyes, to be honest.



Adelaide - Penso em ti, eu sei (Portugal 1985)

Bad Draw Day: Luxembourg 1984

When Luxembourg hosted the 1973 ESC, they won on home ground and several people involved rated their chances quite highly of repeating the trick when hosting eleven years later.

Their song was seen as a fresh and modern piece of very catchy pop, more bang up to date than the very classical ballad they had won with the year before.

Unfortunately, they were drawn at the dreaded #2 spot, right after the sensation of the year - the synchronised singing and dancing boys from Sweden - and what was expected to be a candidate for victory had to content itself with a lacklustre tenth place.

In all fairness, maybe the draw wasn't the only thing pulling this one down. Model-turned-singer Sophie Carle apparently sang flawlessly in all rehearsals but lost her plot completely on the day of the final, not exactly standing out as the Maria Callas of Luxembourg.




Sophie Carle - 100 % d'amour (Luxembourg 1984)

Song Of The Day: Yugoslavia 1984

To celebrate the return of Montenegro, my song of the day highlights one of their finest moments. Depending on how you see it.

Reliable sources claim that TV Titograd won the 1984 Yugoslav final due to extensive cheating (including lots of online whispering), and the song hasn't even got a very strong montenegrin connection at all.

Vlado Kalember was the former singer of Srebrna Krila from Zagreb. Izolda Barudžija had been a member of Aska (representing TV Beograd) in 1982, and in 1983 she provided backing vocals for Yugoslavia together with her sister Eleonora.

Their duet had apparently been turned down by TV Zagreb for the 1984 national final, possibly even with the same song. "Ciao amore" was credited to Montenegrin songwriters (as the rules stipulated this), but the rest of the duo's subsequent album was mainly written by Sarajevo-born Đorđe Novković.

In Luxembourg, Izolda and Vlado (credited as Ida & Vlado) bombed completely and ended second last out of nineteen participants. I never understood why the judges had to be so harsh (or how they could prefer drivel like that song from Switzerland) but those are the rules of the game.



Izolda & Vlado - Ciao amore (Yugoslavia 1984)

The fun doesn't end there, though. You should also check out the duo's hot and revealing video clip - a bit too much so for mainstream taste. Turkish television deemed it improper and refused to broadcast it during their preview show.

What do you say, is this too much skin for your liking?



Izolda & Vlado - Ciao amore (Yugoslavia 1984 preview clip)

ESC reject: Norway 1984

In 1983, pop/rock/ska duo Monroes hit the Norweigan pop scene in a big way and sold more than 130,000 copies of their debut album before grabbing a Spellemann Award as best act. It was a real scoop for NRK to announce that this successful act would enter the 1984 Norweigan final for Eurovision.

Maybe it spoiled the fun a bit that they only agreed to write a song, not to perform it themselves, but several hopeful young talents auditioned to sing it. As a media stunt, it was a very successful one.

As young Beate Jacobsen entered the stage her inexperience shone through, but at least she nailed the cameras and her voice grew stronger throughout the song.

Unfortunately, "Strand Hotel" didn't sound like an immortal masterpiece on night. It is a somewhat shaky construction that sounds more diffuse than it would need to, given the orchestral arrangement.



Beate Jacobsen - Strand Hotel (Norway 1984 national final)

It is much easier to get a hang of the song in its recorded version. A snappier production and clearer arrangement clarifies the chorus that suddenly gets a lot easier to grasp.

It would have needed only three points to win - chances are that it would, had it sounded like this.



Beate Jacobsen - Strand Hotel (English studio version)

Monroes continued their career successfully for many years to come, while Beate recorded one album before slipping back into anonymity again.

You would hardly recognise the Turks

It is hardly an understatement to say that Turkey struggled during their first twenty-five years in Euroland. Whatever star performers or hit choruses they sent in kept coming back home largely ignored and with a minimum of points to their names.

In the 80's, Turkish television started to look for qualified help in order to make their own entries more appealing. The song that won the national final was sent off to some music company (often in Germany) that would add a helping touch here and there.

Some years, they did far more than just the odd fine tuning. Some years they added long segments, cut whole verses out and - in severe cases - added a hook or a whole chorus.

Watch and compare for yourself. How would the original versions have fared at Eurovision?

1984 - Luxembourg




Bes yil once, on yil sonra - Halay (Turkey 1984 national final)

Most of this song is fully recognisable from the national final, but recieved a somewhat softer arrangement and a less busy choreography. And - a chorus, including a handle for the juries to hold on to. Result - a 12th place, which was the best Turkish showing until then.



Bes yil once, on yil sonra - Halay (Turkey 1984 eurovision version)

1986 - Bergen



Klips ve Onlar - Halley (Turkey 1986 national final)

For some reason, I can only find a very short clip of the national final version of this one but I think you will get the big picture. This entry is, in short, a complete mess. A heap of good ideas thrown together with no structure and nothing in particular going for it.

The musical helpers slowed down the pace considerably and added a very contemporary sound to the final arrangement, which resulted in Turkey's first ever top ten showing.



Klips ve Onlar - Halley (Turkey 1986 eurovision version)

1988 - Dublin



MFÖ - Sufi (Turkey 1988 national final)

This is a schoolbook example of how little it takes to turn something promising into something really good. These two versions are not so far apart, really. What is added is - again - a more modern touch to the sound as well as a distinctly oriental flavour and an instrumental hook most europeans would understand as typically Turkish.

The final version also has a better flow and sounds more melodic and catchy. It was quite rightly mentioned as a dark horse and possible outside at Eurovision, before finishing in a most disappointing 15th place.



MFÖ - Sufi (Turkey 1988 eurovision version)

1990 - Zagreb



Kayahan - Gözlerinin hapsindeyim (Turkey 1990 national final)

The first minute is almost the same, only the arrangement is different - more pompous and old-fashioned than the final version - but then the original throws itself head first into a difficult, un-catchy chorus. The production company would have nothing of it and cut it all out, replacing it with a much simpler singalong, still with a slightly oriental feel.

This was not a huge success and ended in 17th place in Zagreb, but I suspect the original version would have fought it out in a battle for the very last places.

Not bad, but in no way user friendly.



Kayahan - Gözlerinin hapsindeyim (Turkey 1990 eurovision version)

Song Of The Day: Germany 1984

You can ask singers what would be the ideal way of warming up for an event like the Eurovision Song Contest and you would get very different answers. Some might want peace and quiet, some might like time with their vocal coach, some might need to sleep extra much, some might need to excercise to get the surplus energy out of the system.

However, I doubt very much that anyone's favourite way of spending the day leading up to Eurovision having your love life falling apart in a very public way, receiving very bad personal news in a matter of hours before the live show.

That is what happened to Mary Roos at her ESC comeback, twelve years after scoring a third place in 1972.

Suddenly, the well crafted lyrics - dealing with how to survive a painful separation with your dignity in tact - came a little bit too close and on the night Mary's voice came close to cracking a few times.

The juries probably thought it was a shame that she didn't sing as well as in rehearsals, leaving her in an insultingly pale shared 13th place. For me, the sudden emotion makes the performance even better, even braver, even more gripping.

Today, Mary is still a very loved singer in Germany. She deserves every single drop of love she can get.



Mary Roos - Aufrecht geh'n (Germany 1984)

Tobson's Winners: 1981 - 1985

Now we are quickly approching the times that formed my idea of what Eurovision was and what it was supposed to sound like.

The first ESC I know I saw at least fragments of is 1983. The night of ESC 1984 was spent at my uncle's and as he had no functioning tv set, I had to content myself with the radio broadcast. Then we came home in time for the voting, so I remember seeing my native Sweden win.

In 1985 and 1986, I was allowed to sit up until Sweden had performed, then it was time for bed. And 1987 was the first year I saw in full.

My ideas of these years and songs have been formed through cover versions on tape, the odd newspaper article I happened to come across and very fluid memories from here and there.

And then, when I finally saw the live versions, I had to change my mind. Again and again. My old ideas and likes and dislikes crashed into what I really saw and heard. And if I was the judge now, these are my winners.

1981 - Portugal



Carlos Paião - Playback (Portugal 1981)

I admit that this is a pretty odd choice. But 1981 is a pretty odd year. It contains a handful of real pearls mixed up with a whole bunch of mediocre songs that are not really bad (not a single song is outright bad in 1981) but that fail to make a difference.

This portuguese piece of plastic pop surely makes a difference. It is obnoxious, repetitive, pokes fun at showbiz in general and is performed in a very tongue-in-cheek fashion by Carlos and his strutting backing vocalists.

I love the entries that come to Eurovision not craving to be loved. A great portion of attitude and a distinct will to be different is more than enough for me.

Real winner:
Bucks Fizz - Making Your Mind Up (United Kingdom)


1982 - Spain



Lucia - El (Spain 1982)

Provocation seems to go down well in my list. At the time, this had a pretty distinct taste of politics, aimed at the host country.

But provocation alone is boring. The urge to do something different in a contest that was turning more and more streamlined is a far more interesting trait.

And this song may be political, but it is also furious, tempestuous, sexy and funny. Again, completely lacking a will to kiss up and be gentle and loveable.

The european juries wanted a little peace but I'd rather like a bit of tango.

Real winner:
Nicole - Ein bisschen Frieden (Germany)


1983 - Luxembourg



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

The last real outburst of The Classic French Ballad, up until this point crushingly superior to most genres in the ESC but now rapidly losing in strength.

Other winds were blowing, other tempos climbed the charts, other moods hit home better with the audience. But once Corinne Hermès stepped onto that stage in Munich, it was as if nothing had ever happened and that a big ballad in French would always beat everything else.

The French ballad wouldn't sink away over night, there would be more songs of this kind. In 1988 and 1993, Luxembourg and Switzerland would actually place rather high with this kind of song.

But the era was over. And what a worthy ending, with one of the strongest and most elegant winning songs ever.

Real winner:
Corinne Hermès - Si la vie est cadeau (Luxembourg)


1984 - Italy



Alice & Franco Battiato - I treni di Tozeur (Italy 1984)

One question will always haunt me. When there is a song like this one in the running, what kind of jury favours a ditty like "Diggi-loo diggi-ley" instead?

What do they look like? Do they have ears? What do they have for breakfast? And who decided that they, out of all people in the world, should be on the Eurovision jury?

This Italian entry was stylish, original and immensly beautiful, the kind of victory that could have injected some well-needed commercial interest at a point were just that started to ebb away from the ESC.

Shame on the juries.

Real winner:
Herreys - Diggi-loo diggi-ley (Sweden)


1985 - Finland



Sonja Lumme - Eläköön elämä (Finland 1985)

Gothenburg 1985 looked very exciting as two countries that had never fared well in the contest were tipped as likely winners: Norway and Finland.

We all know how the story goes as Norweigan Bobbysocks stormed to victory and Sonja Lumme from Finland somehow slid into oblivion and ended in a ninth place. If it had anything to do with being drawn at the dreaded second starting position or not, we will never know.

"Long Live Life" has anyhow turned into a eurovision evergreen, well loved by fans as well as the general audience in Finland. And rightly so. A powerful chorus and a powerful performer who squeezes every drop of schlager juice out of her song.

Eurovision in Bergen 1986 was a very attractive setting. But Helsinki would not have been out of place either.

Real winner:
Bobbysocks - La de swinge (Norway)

Notable lyrics: Ireland 1984

Linda Martin would come back with a vengeance in 1992 and win the whole shebang in Malmö with the classical ballad "Why Me?".

In Luxembourg 1984, she behaved a lot less like your typical Eurovision lady. She came in, dressed to kill in her white outfit and her screamingly red hair, offering a dramatic little pop symphony with a most non-Irish sound.



Linda Martin - Terminal 3 (Ireland 1984)

The lyrics seem plain and ordinary: a woman is about to reunite with her lost lover, and in accordance with the official Irish stance on relationships and divorce this should constitute a very happy ending.

But there is more drama than that in the picture.

It's not all that easy to forgive and forget once you have been stood up. "Another time and place / can never quite erase / the way he turned his back and walked away."

And what says she won't be stood up again? The lyrics end before the guy shows up. Will he be there? Or did he change his mind again?

And does it even matter? Is there any love to be saved? "I told him nothing's changed / and I still feel the same / he's been away too long." It doesn't mean that it's true, just because she told him so.

Maybe she is just trying to convince herself everything will be fine.

And I love lyrics like these, that will paint a tiny scene from somebody's life and leave more questions than answers. Just like real life.

Maybe Johnny Logan wrote better songs than this one, but never a better lyric.

Preview clip: Luxembourg 1984

After winning the ESC for a fifth time in 1983, Luxembourg decided to have Sophie Carle represent them on home ground in Theâtre Municipal.

Sophie was, unlike most singers representing the Grand Duchy, actually born in Luxembourg, and was more experienced as a model at the time of the contest.

RTL had provided pretty basic eurovision previews until this moment, but by 1984 a hit song needed a professional video clip in order to sell itself. Sophie was given a stylish, modern clip, showcasing quite a lot of the same technology later used in the postcards during the ESC final.



Sophie Carle - 100 % d'amour (Luxembourg 1984 preview)

RTL probably thought they had a potential hit on their hands, and it could have been one. The sound was very contemporary and the song had a catchy chorus, but unfortunately Sophie Carle's nerves got the better of her.

Apparently she could really sing, but on the night of the final not quite every note hit home. The host nation ended in 10th place and the song was never the hit it would have deserved to be.



Sophie Carle - 100 % d'amour (Luxembourg 1984)

Follow-up in Norway?

NRK has published the seven songs for the first semi final in MGP 2011. One of the songs is called "Not That Easy (Ah-Åh-Ah-Åh)" and the part within brackets caught my attention.

Is that a follow-up to this masterpiece from the 1984 Norweigan final? If so, can we hope for a victory this time? (If you look closely, the Silhouette girls are identical to Jahn Teigen's backing group in Munich 1983 - nice German connection there, very suitable for Düsseldorf.)