For those of you who are not familiar with the concept, the Eurovision Song Contest is held every year amongst nations who are considered part of Eurovision. That essentially means that they have a television broadcaster on the Eurovision network. Every nation chooses a song and performer, sends them to the host country, then representatives from every country vote on which songs they thought were the best.
So a large part of the world gets together and puts forth the best they have to offer. So why are these songs so bad? If this is the best Europe has to offer then I’m very sad for the people who live there and listen to this. With the exception of the 1965 and 2007 winners these songs are awful and not at all representative of what was happening in Pop music at the time.
People in Europe, can you enlighten me? Or anyone, really.
Basically, a one night contest like this is no way of judging how good a song or singer is. It’s always been a bit of a joke, and accordingly nobody with remotely serious ambitions as a recording artist has wanted to be associated with it. There have been a few exceptions, a few has-beens trying to revive their careers and one or two people who did later become successful. But the vast majority of Eurovision winners just do it for a shot at brief fame and are soon forgotten, and quite rightly so as your links so resoundingly demonstrate.
Oh God, that was one of the worst. Along with LA LA LA.
I forgot ABBA won in '76 with “Waterloo”, I like that song a lot. So I guess I’m actually rather fond of three winners. In 50 years. That’s not such a good record.
I’m rather impressed that in 2006, contestant eligibility was apparently stretched enough to include Klingons.
Seriously, WTF was with these entries? I gotta agree with the OP, this is some horrific stuff. Almost every song is like fifteen years out of date, with the possible exception of “Waterloo” and the one that Celine Dion sang. Fun seeing Lulu though.
And leaving out “Bing Tiddle Tiddle Bong” is a grievous oversight indeed.
Don’t be silly, Bing Tiddle Tiddle Bong only came second, the year that Ding-a-Dong won (1975, for those following at home). Or was it Boom Bang-a-Bang (1969)?
I’d like to see a compilation of Eurovision songs that came last. Mind you, artistic merit, what little there is on offer, never seems to be rewarded by the voters, so maybe it wouldn’t be any worse than what we have here.
Actually, on second listen, I like the 1995 and 1996 winners very much. I had always loved the Nocturne song, and just now found out it was the Eurovision winner for 1995. Hm.
Yes, I was trying to block most of it out the first time around.
Let’s have a vote for the WORST song to ever win. I vote 1968, LALALA. Terrible.
Actually, I am going to change mine. 1986, J’aime La Vie, from the land of my forefather, Belgium.
Eurovision is the epitome of high camp…really horrible songs, worse singers, terrible clothes and choreography by Elaine Von Seinfeld. It is truly a wonderful evening to sit around with friends, drink lots of alcohol and laugh and laugh until your stomach hurts. Then you get to watch the jingoistic voting…East Bloc votes for East Bloc, Scandinavian countries vote for Scandinavian countries and everybody hates France - and lately, hates the UK and Germany as well. Italy wisely just said, “Screw You!” and stopped competing years ago.
I never miss watching the show and have a friend in Germany tape it, put it on DVD and I watch it here. I have several years of shows in my DVD collection.
1994’s winner was the greatest song ever written, ever. Ireland has won it so many times it’s an embarrassment. We had a turkey puppet in it this year.
I actually really did watch Lordi win, in a bar in Athens. The next day Agent Foxtrot and I went to see the Parthenon, where we were approached by a reporter. She asked us our opinion of Eurovision. I told her I thought the Finns had it rigged. You could tell by the look on her face that wasn’t the reply that she was expecting.
Yeah, this is exactly it. Eurovision is a huge institution that gathers millions of viewers all over Europe, but it’s not an institution for good taste. It’s just fun. Sometimes you will have a worthy winner, though many times the actual talented contestants don’t even make it to the top (I think last year’s Sebastien Tellier who sang for France was one of the coolest entries in several years, but it seems the audience didn’t “get” him – or they simply do not like France).
1965’s Poupée de cire, poupée de son is the all-time best winning song. Of course, it was a Serge Gainsbourg pop production, so that’s half a win right there.
I have to wonder how Luxembourg won so many times, considering what a small country it is. Do they devote all the resources of the nation to this competition or something?
ETA: Oh, and troll costumes + sub Bon Jovi bubblegum metal + growly vocal = awesome
The contest is a blight on our society. I got suckered into watching it this year, and only survived thanks to copious amounts of alcohol and some deft maneuvering to acquire the blessed remote. Thank Lordi for mute buttons!
I do quite enjoy the hyping of each nation’s (in my case Sweden) contestant. Pretty much everyone the papers asked about it was sure we were going to win, or at least finish in the top ten. Yeah, the tabloids have a field day (actually, more like a couple of months) with this shit. Followed, of course, by the inevitable despair and anger aimed at those eastern countries, all ganging up against poor old us.
Have to say I enjoyed Lordi’s win though. If only for using the word Arockalypse.
It’s kind of like states’ representation in the US Senate - no matter how big or small you are, you get the same number of votes and have the same chance of winning. And back in the day that Luxembourg used to win it, there were only about 12 countries competing. Plus, they often use ringers. ISTR they even had a British singer once.
I think it was originally organised as some form of statement of European Unity, and indeed some contemporary talent of their times won, like Abba, and even the likes of Bucks Fizz weren’t that bad.
However, European isn’t really all that unified, and some countries putting in entries in their own language… Lets face it, not many german language tunes are going to top the French charts and vice versa, meaning few songs would succeed internationally… Making the entries a bit of a joke.
Theres lots of quirks. Ireland won a lot and it actually costs a lot to host it, so they reckon they were trying to lose it.
Theres massive bias in voting in some areas, and its not even hidden. The new Eastern Bloc states always vote for each other with lots of other geographical areas voting for each other. Thus it has nothing to do with the music…
And say what you will about the UK, it does punch above its weight on the international music market, and its been regarded as a total joke for so long its ignored or lampooned… They submit entries which wouldn’t fill a local pub, camp and garishly coloured, and wonder why they get zero points.
In essence, its a music competition where the music isn’t important and any real talent wouldn’t been seen dead near.
99.99% true. 1997 winners Katrina and the Waves were actually a real band, albeit a bit down on their luck by then. And their entry Love Shine a Light (which isn’t served well by torie’s link) was stella by Eurovision standards.
The traditional host here is Terrry Woganand last time it got so far beyond a joke that even he wouldn’t just shrug it off as a bit of camp fun and probably won’t do the next one, it was simply a political display.
The winner this year wasn’t too horrible. It’s a little corny, maybe. After watching that performance, I’ve decided I want an overenthusiastic violinist and ballet dancer following me everywhere.
