Notable lyrics: Greece 1983

Just to be very precise... It took me years to figure this song out. I used to find it dull and difficult. I couldn't make head nor tails of it and thought it was one of the weakest entries ever sent in by Greece.



Christie Stassinopoulou - Mou les (Greece 1983)

It wasn't until I heard the cover version featured on the Euro-Revisions album (which I can heartly recommend - available on Spotify) that I was really blown away.

These days, this is one of my all-time favourite ESC tracks - delicate, tender and seriously melodic.

But one thing that always impressed me - long before I saw the light from a musical point of view - are the lyrics. A low-key lament from the insecure, a lullaby for everyone with low self esteem.

You tell me about the sea and the ships, about everything you have seen and experienced. And instead of feeling special when you decide to share this with me, I panic in fear that these wonderful memories will make you long back to old times and realise how dull and insignificant I really am.

So I will close all ports and all stations, and I will lock your heart in a cage, so you can't wander away from me.

Who can't relate to that feeling? The notion that as soon as our loved ones realise how unspectacular we really are, they won't love us anymore.

Christie sings for everyone who ever felt like that, and at least my heart melts.

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.