Tobson's Big ESC 2019 review, part 7

Being pre-qualified for the final is a high price to pay for the big five. At least many people have said - since the inauguration of the semi final in 2004 - that being heard just the once will be a huge disadvantage for the countries who pay the most to participate.

However, the overwhelming majority of the viewers see and hear all entries for the first time on Saturday night. Possibly they have watched the semi final with their own entry but many will give the other semi final - where they can't even vote - a miss.

The lack of success for the Big Five largely comes down to what we all knew anyway. Several of these broadcasters have shown a real lack of commitment to the contest. Some of them want to make a splash but seem to genuinely lack an understanding of what kind of entry would give a strong result.

In this last part of my review, let's have a look at the six pre-qualified countries. If you want to read about the semi finalists, you will find them here in part one, two, three, four, five and six.


FRANCE
Bilal Hassani / Roi

France taking the opportunity to send a young genderqueer and openly gay muslim to the final in Tel Aviv is close to a stroke of genius. The right to be yourself and identify the way you wish belongs to everyone, nicely underlined by the performer as well as the lyrics. The only thing that is a real shame is that the actual song isn't better. Madame Monsieur made an impression last year but now they just threw something together in a hurry and that is never a good idea. Also - who is going to break it to the French that this kind of blending languages only sounds half-cooked and doesn't work?

Potential winner:
No. I really want to like this but my interest is fading long before we even get to the chorus.

My grade: 1/5


GERMANY
S!sters / Sister

Read this followingsentence out loud to yourself: This song was rejected by Switzerland so Germany picked it up and entered it in their national final instead. Does that sound like a particularly good idea to you? This sounds just like the kind of songwriting exercise the Swiss have entered far too many times in the last decade. There is nothing really wrong with it but it is far from engaging and doesn't leave much of an impression once it is over. Something about the miaowing chorus also really annoys me.

Potential winner:
No, but another potential last place. Germany's third in five years, if so. It is clearly time for German tv to shake up the team in charge of their national finals. Again.

My grade: 1/5


ITALY
Mahmood / Soldi

Italy has done it again and enters yet another bold, original song that challenges the whole idea and concept of what a eurovision entry could be. Mahmood is another exquisite performer - tiptoeing the borderland between of arrogance and sensibility in his stage persona - and the song is a gripping piece of drama about young boys and absent fathers. The single best thing about Italy using the Sanremo festival to select their ESC entrants is that we keep getting contemporary and challenging state of the art material, designed to win a song contest - just not the ESC.

Potential winner:
Yes. It must be. But for some reason the so called expert juries have held Italy down recently. Last year the juries had Italy in a ridiculously low 17th place. If the juries shape up even a little, then Rome 2020 could be a real possibility.

My grade: 5/5


SPAIN
Miki / La venda

Using the most popular talent show your country has ever seen in order to select your ESC entrant could be a smart move but if you have no idea what kind of song your newly found talent should perform, no popularity on home ground will mean anything at all in the end. Spain has sent their Operación Triunfo stars off to Europe with pretty mediocre songs (with the obvious exception of Beth, who should have done a lot better) but young Miki has fared at least a bit better. Equipped with a mixture of ska and Catalonian rumba, at least "La venda" provides a bit of temper and speed for the final.

Potential winner:
No, far from. But on a very good day, Miki could have a chance to place close to the top ten.

My grade: 3/5


UNITED KINGDOM
Michael Rice / Bigger Than Us

If selecting a reject from Switzerland is an unusual move, opting for Swedish leftovers is a lot more common. (Did Germany just confuse Sweden and Switzerland? An easy mistake to make.) This is the song John Lundvik wanted to enter Melodifestivalen with before being persuaded into going for "Too Late For Love" instead. You can clearly tell these two songs grew on the same tree as they share a very similar gospel vibe, but where Sweden's entry is elegant and elaborated, this is just generic. Michael Rice can sing - if you like his vibrato or not comes down to personal taste, I suppose - but was totally lost on stage and came across as pretty inexperienced in the national final.

Potential winner:
No. But if someone instructs the singer where the cameras are and what they do, the UK should at least avoid the very bottom placings this time around.

My grade: 2/5


14 ISRAEL
Kobi Marimi / Home

Putting on a Eurovision Song Contest is hard work and you can sometimes tell in the approach of the host nation how they would prefer not to do it twice in a row. You already won, you already have everyone's attention. You can sit back and just enjoy the ride and content yourself with a dignified place mid-table. At first I thought Israel aimed a lot lower than that with this ballad. How can you even describe it? Pretentious, I think, is the best word. Sung by a very dramatic singing actor. I dismissed it completely until it started growing on me and now the hook in the chorus won't leave me alone. Like it or dislike, but this song sure has something.

Potential winner:
No, whatever it has it doesn't extend that far. But it could end up a bit higher than most people expect.

My grade: 2/5


If you want to agree or disagree with me, please leave a comment or send me a tweet. All the preview clips can be seen here.

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Tobson's Big ESC 2018 review, part 5

The fifth and last part of my Big Review will focus on the six songs that already made it all the way to Saturday night and the 2018 ESC final. If you want to know more about what goes on in the semis, then check out parts one, two, three and four.

Before 2008, ten countries were pre-qualified for the final in addition to the big spenders. Nice for them but clearly the current system is better. Just because you are good one year does not guarantee that you deserve a place in the final also the next year. Thanks to that system we had to sit through horrors like "Loca" and "Together We Are One" on a Saturday.

Another advantage of the current system is that no prediction made before Friday morning - the day before the final - is anything but advanced guessing. Not until then do we know what the competition really looks like. And that is so very exciting.

Since we don't have the running order for these songs as yet, here are the big five alphabetically and then Portugal last.

FRANCE
Madame Monsieur / Mercy

One of the many songs in this lineup that actually has something to say. The message can be seen as an accusing finger towards rich Europe refusing to lend a hand and help people in need. Beautifully understated and presenting its drama between the lines instead of using fireworks and pyro. Heavily dependent on its spot in the running order and what will come before and after but if everything turns out right, it could be France's best placing for many years.

Potential winner:
No, that would be a surprise if so. On a good day it could possibly make its way into top five and become an international radio hit.

My grade: 4/5

GERMANY
Michael Schulte / You Let Me Walk Alone

Another really emotional effort, this time about losing a parent. Is this the Sobral effect, that the ESC suddenly seems to attract singers and songs that sound more sincere after some years of more streamlined music designed for other purposes? Michael Schulte is likeable and has a good voice and knows how to pull on the heartstrings. Unbearable for some, wonderful for others.

Potential winner:
No, hardly. But Germany is maybe not in need of a victory as much as they need to steer clear of that dreaded last place they flirted with so massively for the last few years. That should be mission completed.

My grade: 3/5

ITALY
Ermal Meta & Fabrizio Moro / Non mi avete fatto niente

As I child I usually struggled to embrace the Italian entries and look at me now. For the third year in a row, Italy is my personal favourite with this very engaging duet about the violence surrounding us all and how everything must still be worthwhile. Meta and Moro deliver for dear life with aggressive conviction and the Sanremo winner illustrates that the Italian team are still very keen of showing how seriously they take their presence in the ESC these days.

Potential winner:
Yes, this one must be in with a chance. A favourable spot in the running order and the points could start ticking in.

My grade: 5/5

SPAIN
Amaia & Alfred / Tu canción

You know it must be a good year when even Spain shaped up. Seriously bitten by the Sobral bug, this updated equivalent of Sergio & Estíbaliz provide a hyper-romantic and soothing ballad about falling in love. Icky sweet and yet adorable unless you are completely immune to young love. A bit old-fashioned and maybe a bit too similar to last year's winner to go all the way but it sure is a great improvement on recent Spanish entries.

Potential winner:
No, unless all the planets and stars line up the right way. This year is so hard to predict anyway.

My grade: 3/5

UNITED KINGDOM
SuRie / Storm

Every time I hear this song my inner vision paints an image of a group of people sitting around a table. They have been told they must write a song together and nobody can eat or sleep or leave until it is ready. So they all put in bits and pieces until they have a melody and a lyric that doesn't mean anything to anyone but still it is a song, so they are free to go. Poor SuRie is a lovely performer and would have deserved something meaningful to sing instead of this bleak and poor songwriting exercise.

Potential winner:
No. Au contraire - this is the most likely candidate for last place in the final. Possible nul-pointer. Who on earth would vote for this? And why?

My grade: 1/5

08. PORTUGAL
Cláudia Pascoal / O jardim

Something clearly clicked into place last year, and Portugal is delivering another piece of something that is totally their own thing. The live vocals and sound mix need improvement from the Portuguese final - compare to the fabulous studio version - but this is a charming and introverted slice of pop. Let's hope Portugal stays on this more contemporary track forever.

Potential winner:
No. RTP can sleep easy. Maybe this song won't even break into the top 15, but who cares? It is a brave effort by a very likeable performer. On home ground you can do what you want - you already won.

My grade: 4/5

So who will be the winner of the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest? No idea. I am avoiding the rehearsal clips as I want as much of a surprise as only possible as the live shows go on air. Ask me again on May 11th, and I will give you my most educated guess.

But a tough battle between the likes of Israel, Czech republic, Italy and France would be nice. Throw in Finland and Sweden for the fun of it. Maybe I am right and Belgium is a dark horse waiting in the wings. And then Alexander Rybak comes in and wins it all?

I have a feeling this will be a very entertaining year. Fasten seatbelts.

Tobson's Big ESC 2017 Review, part 10

In less than a week from now, the first semi will be happening before our very eyes and it is time for me to wrap up this review of all entries taking part in Kyiv (plus Russia - you find my view on their non-participating entry in part 5).

Despite looking bleak at one point, this year's lineup has proven to be quite a good one and if the juries and the televoters do what they should in the semis we could look forward to a very strong final.

SPAIN
Manel Navarro / Do It For Your Lover

Manel is a charming young lad from Catalonia, armed with a very simple and rather effective song that oozes of carefree days in the sun. The kind of song most people should be able to like at least a bit, I reckon. That means he could collect quite a decent amount of points from the juries, but that is not going to be enough. I wouldn't be surprised if this is the song with the lowest score in the televote this year - it's a song most people can like a bit but at the same time it is nobody's favourite. Who will reach for the phone and actually vote for this?

A potential winner?
No way. Spain - another of those countries with the potential to make it into the top five every year if they only could make a tiny effort - runs a serious risk of ending in the very last place. When will they snap out of it and start sending in entries that could actually score instead? It has been 22 years since Spain last had a top five finish. Wouldn't it be about time to get back there soon?

My grade: 2/5



Manel Navarro / Do It For Your Lover (Spain 2017 preview)

UNITED KINGDOM
Lucie Jones / Never Give Up On You

The UK decided - for reasons best known to themselves - to put their trust into ESC winner Emmelie de Forest and her songwriting skills. After some major nip and tuck and a successful revamp it seems people are getting their hopes up for an unusually high UK placing. In fact, they are getting their hopes up far too much. This is a nice little ballad and Lucie sure can sing, but it wouldn't be fair to place too high expectations on this entry. It's a nice little ballad but not anything more than that.

A potential winner?
No. On a good day and with a fantastic performance, Lucie could possibly make it into the lower regions of the top ten. Which - admittedly - would be a fantastic result for the UK these days.

My grade: 2/5



Lucie Jones / Never Give Up On You (United Kingdom 2017 preview)

22. UKRAINE
O.Torvald / Time

Ukraine entered the ESC like a hurricane in 2003 and very soon they made themselves a place in my heart as one of my favourite countries in the contest. They usually have so much humour as well as really interesting songs and performers. But things tend to go out of hand every time they host the whole thing. They go all political and lose all of the things that usually make them stand out and this little rocker is far below their regular output. It wants to be a big and noisy headbanger but it nothing more than a soft kitten trying to look like a lethal tiger.

A potential winner?
Nowhere near that. Maybe we didn't really want Ukraine to win again under the current circumstances but something stronger than this would have been nice. There will be a certain amount of polite points and that will be it. 20th place?

My grade: 1/5



O.Torvald / Time (Ukraine 2017 preview)

ESC 2016: How do you solve a problem like Germany?

I got many things wrong in my prediction yesterday but I did foresee that Germany would end in last place for the second consecutive year. Jamie-Lee didn't deserve it, but it was understandable.

The German song was designed to live a long life in the charts, not to break through to people in three short minutes. It lacked intensity and was anything but instant. It won the German final because the audience was already familiar with it after several weeks of airplay.

Had Jamie-Lee been forced to enter the national final with a new song instead - one that would have had to impress people on a first listening - she would have had every chance to hit home better in Stockholm as well. This is something for ARD to ponder for years to come.

The UK had a pretty similar problem as they had selected a song that felt more fresh and likeable than what the audience expected. It was a good and energetic song and it was really good for being a recent UK entry. That's also the problem with it.

When you get 26 songs at once, you vote for the one that stands out and speaks to you. You don't give kind bonus points to any country just because they happen to be better than you'd expect them to be. You vote for your winner. And while the UK was good it was in no way a winner.

The UK has ended up in the well-known territory of Finland - you find a song you really believe in and think will impress people, but in the end they find it to be OK but average and nobody votes for you. "You're Not Alone" was the best song on offer in the UK final but all songs participating were very safe and inoffensive. Next year they would need to find some edge.

And then Spain. I must say the low placing of Barei was a great injustice. She gave a good and spirited performance but probably got overshadowed by Russia in the eye of the average viewer.

According to people in my Twitter feed there was a real good outcry on social media against TVE and their ESC attitude last night. I can understand that anger.

Spain is one of those countries that should be able to make top ten every year if they wanted to. There is so much quality music being made there, of every form and shape imaginable. If TVE would tap into the large pool of established professionals instead of using the people willing to go into an unestablished national final formula, maybe the results would improve?

Final: United Kingdom / You're Not Alone

To repair something as broken as the relationship between the United Kingdom and the Eurovision Song Contest is a difficult process and nothing that will be achieved overnight. This year's national final could possibly have been the first of several baby steps needed to push things in the right direction.

Out of a decent but not exactly thrilling selection, arguably the best song won. A pretty contemporary little bagatelle with a clear hook in its chorus and clearly the best UK entry for many years. The kind of entry the Irish song would like to think it is.

But.

The song is nice but doesn't grow on you. It won't take a lot for this one to get upstaged by anything coming before or after it in the running. And the boys would have to get more intense with each other to convince the audiences of their bubbly friendship. They would need to hug and sparkle and at least look they were keen on maybe even kissing each other.

Potential winner:
In no way, no. But on a good day this could be the positive surprise that collects decent points from all over the place and ends in a 12th place. Which would be like a victory for the UK given recent struggles.

My grade: 3/5



Joe & Jake / You're Not Alone (United Kingdom 2016 preview clip)

December 16: Rubic

The 1983 UK final almost saw something virtually unheard of: a former star participant returning for a second stab at Eurovision glory.

"When The Kissing Stops" was written and produced by the team behind Brotherhood of Man, the winners of the 1976 ESC and one of the best selling eurovision singles of all time. Having them return would have been a real scoop for the BBC.

At some point, the winners had cold feet and decided not to perform the entry themselves. Instead they appointed Rubic - another one of those groups made up for the sole purpose of performing in the Song for Europe final never to be heard of again.

They looked and sounded just like the studio musicians they really were and the live performance was nice but unspectacular and nobody even bothered uploading it to YouTube.

But the song wasn't bad at all and Brotherhood of Man decided to include it in their own album after all, using more or less exactly the same backing track as Rubic had. And once again we get a lesson in how much good vocals mean for a song.



Rubic / When The Kissing Stops (United Kingdom NF 1983)

December 10: Kim Clark

Maybe it's just me but I never thought much of the 1980 UK entry. Prima Donna was a weird collective to me and why would six people perform what was basically a love duet? Strange.

The 1980 Song for Europe had ended in a tie for first position where the juries had to be called back a second time before Prima Donna were appointed to do the job. Most unfortunately both songs in first place were pleasant but meek. The song in third place should have gone to The Hague instead.

I love a little bit of disco-tainted melodrama, sung by somebody performing like her actual life depended on it. Maybe a final touch, some sort of development towards the end or something, could have been what this one needed. But still. Wonderful stuff. (And Switzerland's Paola would never have slept easy again after meeting Kim Clarke, I can tell you as much.)



Kim Clarke / Surrender (United Kingdom NF 1980)

December 6: Liquid Gold

One of my rules in the world of Eurovision is never to argue with a winner. If a song goes on to win the international final, it was the right choice. Regardless if I like it or not.

Not only do I like Bucks Fizz. I love them. Their discography is very dear to me and I followed their career very closely. I am happy that they won and I am most aware that the rest of their success would never have happened hadn't they won first the UK final, then the ESC in Dublin.

But that knowledge doesn't stop me from loving the runner-up even more. Just like Waterloo is hardly Abba's best song, neither is Making Your Mind Up one of the strongest in the repertoire of Bucks Fizz.

Don't Panic is such a wonderful fluffy disco cake with too much of everything stuffed into the mix. Slightly frantic and totally over the top it would never have won in Dublin but I love it very dearly. Should have been a worldwide hit and that's my final word.



Liquid Gold / Don't Panic (United Kingdom NF 1981)

UK and the car crash entries

Up until now I managed to stay under the impression that Electro Velvet could turn out to be a bit of a positive surprise in Vienna. That they could add a bit of humour and cheek and perhaps even have a shot at top ten on a good day.

Today they had their first rehearsal and got the most uniformly negative reception of the year from people on location. So much for hoping, I guess.

The problem is - as usual - that the performance isn't good enough. In a parallel universe "Still In Love With You" could have been a modest radio hit if sold well but these singers are nowhere near good enough to deliver like they should.

Very much like Jemini back in the day. I remember calling it the niftiest little pop song the UK has entered in a while, but then came that outrageously amateurish performance that still makes me shiver. Where hardly a single note hit home correctly. Where the over-excited shouting of "Come on, Latvia!" was only the last of an impressive numbers of nails in the coffin. And then some people had the nerve to blame the final result on politics.

After Jemini, no UK entry has felt really professional. At least not as professional as we would have the right to expect. Some years there has been an absence of failure but not the huge amount of talent we would have the right to expect. UK is the King of Pop in Europe. We all know what they are capable of. We all wonder why we have to put up with sub-standard like this.

Honestly, the last time the UK really showed their muscles were in 1998 where Imaani really shone and made it look very easy to be better and classier than most. The rest of us wanted to cling to that illusion. We didn't want the dream to shatter. We wanted the UK to be superior, someone to look up to, someone to admire and be a bit jealous of.

After the nul points in Riga we just couldn't close our eyes anymore. We want pop perfection and we get Electro Velvet. And that surprise top ten placing feels way out of reach.



Jemini - Cry Baby (United Kingdom 2003)

Finalist: United Kingdom

When the mighty and powerful finally fall it won't be pretty. It will be merciless and brutal. And nobody had a higher fall than the UK.

They have the most impressive string of placings any country has ever had in the ESC. They have made top two on no less than twenty occasions. It means they have won or ended in second place in every third contest to date if we include Vienna.

The last time it happened was in 1998 - brace yourselves but it will soon be twenty years ago - and since then the BBC lost their path in the most spectacular way and placed among the ten best only twice in the last fifteen years.

This year's effort looked like a tremendous fiasco already from the word go. The initial public reaction was negative - to use a real under-statement - and the press ripped it to shreds, labelling it the worst UK entry to date.

Let's be honest about things. It's really quite far from the being the worst UK entry. It is however a novelty song, quite far removed from any musical trends going on now, performed by a new act nobody had heard of prior to their selection. Easy to rip to shreds in other words.

But it's also a fun, happy, uplifting, whimsical uptempo number among far too many slow songs that the audience won't be able to tell apart, and that alone could do it a big favour in the end.

A potential winner:
No, far from, but given the polished and convincing performance the little voices in my head keep suggesting it will lack, this could score surprisingly well in the end. First top ten since Jade Ewen? Not impossible.

My grade: 3/5



Electro Velvet - Still In Love With You (United Kingdom 2015)

Runner-up: United Kingdom 1977

To hit rock bottom is to go as low as you can go, and the BBC probably felt pretty close to that when they had to tell the EBU as well as the other participating countries that the 1977 Eurovision Song Contest had to be cancelled.

The final was supposed to be held on April 2 at Wembley, but at this time people going on strike were about as common as rain or fog or sunrises. The BBC technicians went on strike and only a matter of hours prior to the respective delegations travelling to London, the contest had to be put off.

A similar problem had occurred already at the national final, which in the end was never televised but only broadcast on radio. If the eternal striking had any influence on the result isn't clear (at least not to me) but the winning entry was a good-hearted, light-weight nod towards the state of British society. If it isn't working, then rub it out and start it again.

Or postpone it, at least. Europe had to wait five weeks until the contest was given its green light and went on air on May 7 instead. The delay probably meant that a few more modern entries had already peaked in the charts, and some juries may have grown tired of them before the final.

The UK delegation seemed to be forgiven for the long wait, and Europe generously voted the home team into second place and made the song a bigger hit on the continent than in the UK charts.

A deserved 2nd place?
Not really, no. I personally like it quite a lot and find it really pleasant, but it is more a fun performance than a really solid song. There were other songs that would have deserved these points better - Germany, Greece, Italy - but Lynsey de Paul's smile and the sight of Ronnie Hazlehurst conducting the orchestra with an umbrella puts me in a very forgiving mood.



Lynsey de Paul & Mike Moran - Rock Bottom (United Kingdom 1977)

The BBC can't win

What happened last night really was as predictable as a Helsinki snowstorm in early March: the UK revealed its internally selected entry for Vienna and the Eurovision fans went absolutely ballistic. And not in a good way.

There had been rumours flying around social media: first somebody knew it would be Alexandra Burke singing for the UK, then somebody else knew the chosen act to be from Scotland - perhaps Amy MacDonald.

And so the act is announced to be Electro Velvet. Electro Who, the audience asked. And then the chosen entry started to play.

I think the amount of public outrage during and after the song presentation is a bit harsh. The ditty in question is at least an attempt at being personable and quirky, even if the the song itself never quite lives up to the promise set by the clip and the soundscape presented. Had it been the entry of Iceland or Hungary or Georgia we would all find it quite enjoyable.

For Vienna it would need a very polished, energetic and convincing performance of the kind that Ukraine could hammer out in their sleep. Not too sure about these people pulling it off.

The big problem for the BBC is that they find themselves in a position where the audience will be negative by default to any song proposed to them. Had it been Alexandra Burke or Amy MacDonald, people would still have found things to be upset about. The BBC can't win. United Kingdom turned into Finland when it comes to ESC expectations.

Mind you, it's a position they've worked hard to achieve in these last few years.

I would often advise countries with dodgy national finals that consistently fail to find suitable entries to scrap the whole thing and select internally. The BBC did just that but didn't make much of it. The point of internal selections must be to do your best to manage to pull out something remarkable and professional from somebody who'd never enter a national final. Electro Velvet just can't live up to that expectation.

If it really is impossible to stage a decent televised national final, the BBC really should try harder. Is there - in the entire country - not a single established, reasonably relevant performer willing to do Eurovision for them? Really?



Electro Velvet - Still In Love (United Kingdom 2015)

Runner up: United Kingdom 1965

It had been less than two years since the Beatles had their worldwide breakthrough but suddenly England had transformed from a war-torn has-been into the Coolest Place on Earth.

It was where pop culture lived, thrived and multiplied. Where fashions and trends popped up like mushrooms in a forest. Everyone knew this and wanted to be associated with this new phenomenon.

Everyone but the BBC executives, it seems. Even though Matt Monro had been set up with a more modern entry the year before, 1965 saw a sharp turn back towards family entertainment.

"I Belong" still had a contemporary feel to it, but Kathy Kirby wasn't really the voice of the pop movement. She was a more mature choice and had they BBC wanted a pop entry performed by somebody the older audiences could embrace, it would have made more sense asking somebody like Alma Cogan.

Kathy still attacks her song bravely and really belts it out, yet it feels like it never reaches its full potential. It wants to be a pop hit, but isn't really.

Things were, however, going to get even worse. The next year, when the Beatles released their groundbreaking and phenomenal "Revolver" album, the UK was represented at the ESC by a middle-aged Scottish tenor wearing a kilt.

A deserved 2nd place?
Yes. The only song in the running that was more contemporary than this one won, and rightly so. In retrospect it also feels good that Kathy Kirby, whose career faded pretty rapidly and always seemed overshadowed by a turbulent and difficult private life, will at least be remembered for almost winning the Eurovision Song Contest.



Kathy Kirby - I Belong (United Kingdom 1965)

Runner-up: United Kingdom 1960

Swinging London still feels very remote as the second of the Johnson brothers takes to the Eurovision stage. As Teddy Johnson had represented his home country the previous year, now it was younger brother Bryan's turn to show off his vocal chords for all the world to see.

They are really rather impressive, his vocals. But still Eurovision keeps hanging on to a very old idea of entertainment.

This song could very well be taken from the soundtrack of an animated Disney short film in the early 1940's. Well groomed, extremely polished and almost unbearably cheerful. You just wait for a Mickey Mouse in black and white to enter the stage to do a jig.

Nobody had to feel challenged or disturbed or anything, which was probably just the point.

A deserved 2nd place?
Not really even though it is hard to judge fairly. In my mind several countries had more interesting entries on offer - Norway, Switzerland and Germany to name a few - while this one is pleasant, inoffensive and very easily forgotten.



Bryan Johnson - Looking High, High, High (United Kingdom 1960)

Runner-up: United Kingdom 1972

I mentioned it so many times already during this series of the runners-up of Eurovision but here goes again. Isn't it fascinating how the Home Country of european entertainment so often managed to send their starlets off to Eurovision with songs they dislike and normally would never want to associate themselves with?

Perhaps there was a clash between the pop status of the chosen performers and the family friendly air the BBC wanted their national final to have, what do I know?

What I do know is that few performers fared as well with the songs selected for their national final as did The New Seekers. They were a highly popular act whose usual output would fit right into the BBC's idea of a dream entry and they gladly sang their little hearts out in Edinburgh, offering a song they genuinely seemed to like and felt they could embrace.

Mary Hopkin did not feel the same way. Neither did Clodagh Rodgers. Nor Lulu. Nor Olivia Newton-John. And the list goes on.

A deserved 2nd place?
Yes. A given hit at the time and a timeless classic today, but nowhere near as massive as Vicky Leandros' winning song. Giving your performer a song they enjoy singing isn't such a daft idea after all, it seems.



The New Seekers - Beg, Steal or Borrow (United Kingdom 1972) 

Runner-up: United Kingdom 1961

The times they are a'changing and this song could possibly rank as the first proper pop song to take part in the Eurovision Song Contest. There had already been at least one attempt at rock'n'roll - Germany 1956 - but this is perhaps the first real trace of youth culture taking part.

Compared to what British pop and rock would be famous for in the years to come, these boys (marketed as brothers but in real life not related at all) come across as very tame. Obviously they have not been hanging with the Beatles down Reeperbahn much.

But at the same time it is a commercial hit song, clearly aimed at a much younger audience than previous UK entries, and the old-fashioned orchestra has obvious problems making it sound right.

The Allisons went on the sell a huge amount of copies after the contest but never managed to cut another big hit and split soon after. Which is also a very pop culture thing to do.

A deserved 2nd place?
Of course. Had the BBC stayed on this path and dared to be contemporary and youthful, the ESC could soon have sounded very different. For better or worse.



The Allisons - Are You Sure? (United Kingdom 1961)

Runner-up: United Kingdom 1992

For the first time since 1975, the BBC selected one performer to sing all the songs in the national final and Michael Ball wasn't a bad name at all. A shooting star in the world of musicals, he had landed a smash hit with "Love Changes Everything" from Lloyd Webber's "Aspects of Love".

Like so many other singers who took part in this one-singer-formula, Michael Ball seems to have been disappointed by the standard of songs he was set up with.

Rumour has it that people at the BBC insisted there must be up-tempo songs included in the line-up - not only big belters - and you can sort of touch Michael Ball's disappointment by the end of the national final as when of these little pop songs win overwhelmingly.

"One Step Out Of Time" made it to second place in Malmö and was a minor hit in the charts, but it's runner-up "As Dreams Go By" - co-written by ESC winner Andy Hill - could have won the whole shebang.

Michael Ball later said he'd rather put pins in his eyes than do Eurovision again.

A deserved 2nd place?
Not at all. Michael Ball and his energetic backing group do all they can to make this pretty sub-standard song take off and look attractive, but they don't have an easy task. Why the jury showered this one in points while ignoring far more interesting entries on the night remains a mystery, but maybe they'd seen Aspects of Love and liked it.



Michael Ball - One Step Out Of Time (United Kingdom 1992)

Runner-up: United Kingdom 1989

The Swedish saying says, roughly translated, that you should not throw rocks when you live in a glass house but here goes. Some music journalists are a really boring lot, I must say.

I must admit that Eurovision was perhaps not at its height in 1989 and most of the songs sounded very much like they were created for the ESC and wouldn't have much of a life outside the event.

Songs can still be good in spite of that but I understand that a serious music writer could get a bit stressed under these circumstances. But why so many journalists and music professionals embraced the UK entry so totally is still beyond me.

It has its moments and doesn't sound like your average ESC entry, I admit as much. It has a breezy, quality arrangement and Ray Caruana delivers a very good vocal. The lack of an obvious key change also makes it sound a bit different.

I understand all of this but still - nothing really happens throughout the entire song. It stands totally still for three minutes and yet it was frantically love bombed by critics and - so I would guess - the more "serious" music lovers in the juries.

A deserved 2nd place?
Not really. I see why it scored but I'd still say it got way more points than it deserved. If the jurors wanted songs that broke out of the typical eurovision formula, all the songs ending in the bottom three places did that too. Why didn't they leave any points for them, then?



Live Report - Why Do I Always Get It Wrong? (United Kingdom 1989)

Runner-up: United Kingdom 1959

This is more than just an entry - this is a big clue as to why BBC were so late at embracing the pop culture that made London the capital of cool and England the home of universal zeitgeist during the 1960's.

The first UK entry had been a failure - dated and unremarkable, not even recorded by its original performer - and BBC sat ut a year in 1958 trying to get their act together.

Their 1959 entry is the first ever UK entry to end in second place - until now no fewer than 15 of their entries did just that - and one that fully displays their ambitions for this contest.

Television was an important tool to celebrate family values and in post-war Britain, the family was considered very important indeed. This idea is still very strong within the BBC and made them protest vividly when Aqua used the f-word during the 2001 interval as well as when Poland showed the world a generous amount of cleavage in 2014.

"Sing Little Birdie" is so wholesome it is almost parodic: a married couple singing about falling in love and starting a family and having children that in turn can fall in love, marry and have children of their own. At the moment the performers bring out the tiny toy bird to whistle along with them, you reach some peak at what you could possibly get away with before the audience would start throwing things at you.

What totally saves the song and turns it into a loveable classic is the conviction of Teddy Johnson and Pearl Carr who are totally fearless and totally convincing. Rational thinking tells me I should hate this and yet I love it.

A deserved 2nd place?

Yes. Happy and sweet and very professional. Somebody should erect a statue of Teddy and Pearl (and that annoying little bird could very well be part of it too).

Teddy Johnson & Pearl Carr - Sing Little Birdie (United Kingdom 1959)

Runner-up: United Kingdom 1964

If you take a highly acclaimed and very popular performer - in this case even nicknamed UK's own Sinatra - and give him a song by a highly successful and beloved songwriter with lots of hit songs under his belt, then failure shouldn't be possible.

Matt Monro singing a song by Tony Hatch, that must be a given hit. At least so you would think.

"I Love The Little Things" even managed a second place - already the fourth time the UK ended in second place - way behind the runaway Italian winner but still. A second place is not to be sniffed at.

And yet the song bombed completely in the hit parades. Despite the star quality, the famous songwriter, the good placing in Copenhagen, despite all that the single was totally ignored by the record-buying audience.

Luckily, Matt Monro would find the trip to Copenhagen worthwhile since he recorded a cover version of the Austrian entry by Udo Jürgens. "Walk Away" became a smash hit that made #4 in the UK charts as well as #23 in the US.

Matt Monro would go on to release two more singles penned by Udo Jürgens: ESC winner "Merci chérie" as well as "The Music Played", both moderately successful.

A deserved 2nd place?
Yes! This is an irresistible piece of upbeat, positive 60's pop in a fun and sophisticated arrangement. No UK entry was ever closer to the Swinging London mentality than this. A great song, well worthy of the success it never had.



Matt Monro - I Love The Little Things (United Kingdom 1964)