this is ilm calling: the track-a-day EUROVISION SONG CONTEST listening thread

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CFYgR_IWAAAxZ2q.png

bienvenue, willkommen, witamy, tervetuloa, welkom, velkomst etc to the ilm Eurovision listening thread! same format as the Eagles, Elton John + Rod Stewart threads- a new song each day, starting with the first contest in 1956 and I guess continuing until everybody gets sick of it (or at least wants to take a break)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6b/ESC_1956_logo.svg/300px-ESC_1956_logo.svg.png

The Eurovision Song Contest 1956 was held in Lugano, Switzerland on Thursday 24 May. Seven countries participated - the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, (West) Germany, France, Luxembourg and Italy. Each country performed two songs.

(the voting for the first contest took place in secret and only the winner was announced, afaict it's not known how the other songs placed. aside from the winner, there doesn't seem to be any extant footage of the performances from the 1956 contest, so the youtube links for everything else will be audio only)

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/u45UQVGRVPA/hqdefault.jpg

https://youtu.be/u45UQVGRVPA

Song #1 - De vogels van Holland ("The birds of Holland") Netherlands, 1956. Performed by Jetty Paerl. Lyrics by Annie M. G. Schmidt, Music by Cor Lemaire. English translation of lyrics: http://www.diggiloo.net/?1956nl1

I'd never heard of Annie M. G. Schmidt, but apparently she is very well know in the Netherlands as an author of children's books and a writer for radio and television?

http://heldenreis.nl/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/minoes.jpg

Minoes (1970) is the story of a cat who turns into a young lady, and by spreading gossip from the cat world helps a young journalist keep his job at the newspaper.

"Vogels" is a banger

And it would fit in with the present "3-minute songs" law, so that's nice.

Annie M.G. Schmidt sounds wonderful. It's about time someone kicked back against this constant Pillarisation.

I like De vogels van Holland as well, it's very charming. it seems to have a lightness of touch and slightly puckish, knowing quality that is not found in all of the "patriotic" eurovision entries

starting to think that I may have overestimated ilm's appetite for discussing 1950s Eurovision entries, but we'll press on anyway

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/80CE4DmidjU/hqdefault.jpg

https://youtu.be/AAWSHl7BEC4

Song #2 - Das alte Karussell ("The old Carousel") Switzerland, 1956.
Performed by Lys Assia. Lyrics and music by Georg Benz Stahl. English translation of lyrics: http://www.diggiloo.net/?1956ch1

there are a lot of songs about carousels coming up

I'm not as keen on this one tbh, it's a little cloying.

idk if people would prefer that, rather going forward in chronological order, we maybe do a song from the 50s one day, a song from the 60s the next day, 70s the next etc? here's the next one from 1956, anyway.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Gdbmv9BlzGM/hqdefault.jpg

https://youtu.be/qFgBJwyKSGg

Song #3 - Messieurs Les Noyés De La Seine ("The drowned men of the Seine") Belgium, 1956.
Performed by Fud Leclerc. Lyrics by Robert Montal. Music by Jean Miret & Jacques Say. English translation of lyrics: http://www.diggiloo.net/?1956be1

this is a bit of a change of pace from the first two 1956 songs in that it's about a man trapped in a loveless marriage contemplating drowning himself in the Seine. it's overwrought in exactly the way I was a francophone 1950s eurovision song to be overwrought.

it's overwrought in exactly the way I was

??

*want, maybe :-)

"Les noyés de la Seine" is nice, but then I'm a sucker for that era of monochrome French frowning. A couple of "thoughts":

- That's one of the only Youtube channels to give viewers an "Esc" button, v considerate

- Has Eurovision ever been won by a song in waltz time? (Like #2) If not, I hear Britain are hoping to do it next year

Doing a decade a day would give more the songs more variety *and* gay subtext (it's how I'd presumed the thread would be, jumping around the years), so I reckon go for it.

OK then, jumping ahead to 1966, and the 11th Eurovision song contest, held in Luxembourg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a3/ESC_1966_logo.png

(the modern day logos have never been as good since they introduced the standardised eurovison font in 2004)

http://streamd.hitparade.ch/cdimages/margot_eskens-die_zeiger_der_uhr_s.jpg

https://youtu.be/qdW0Fb5tKeg

Die Zeiger der Uhr ("The Hands of Time") Germany, 1966. 10th place (7 points)
Performed by Margot Eskens. Lyrics by Hans Bradtke. Music by Walter Dobschinski. English lyrics: http://www.diggiloo.net/?1966de

I like this, it's another melancholy, mopey, nostalgic thing. those elaborate mobile things appear behind all of the 1966 entries btw. fascinated by the two audience members wearing sunglasses indoors at the end of the clip.

the refrain translates as "Yet the hands of time only turn / Forwards, forwards and never backwards"

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/89/ESC_1976_logo.png

Eurovision 1976, held in The Hague, Netherlands

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/49/Save_your_kisses_me_me_-_BOM.jpg

https://youtu.be/fhq_Q1Ut8SQ

Save Your Kisses for Me - UK, 1976. First Place, 164 points
Performed by Brotherhood of Man. Writen by Tony Hiller, Lee Sheriden & Martin Lee

this is genuinely vile, surely the worst eurovision winner ever? the ingratiating performance is nearly unwatchable. I do quite like this album Brotherhood of Man did in 1983 though, a not entirely succesful attempt to update themselves for the 80s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning_Flash

Would have said "at least the rest of Europe only suffered Brotherhood of Man once, not every week via The Rolling "Top of the Pops" BBC4 Revival thread. " ... But this song sold 6 million and made them internationally famous, so scratch that.

Watching this, I dunno.. it could've been worse. At least they're not making any attempt to be cool in any way, although that was probably a cynical ploy to hook the mid-'70s ESC crowd. And a likely reason for the song's all-time high popularity - it's FAMILY FRIENDLY, just like all music should be :-S