Eurovision POX

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Yeah, most Eurovision entries throughout history do deserve pox. However, there are exceptions, and I guess it is no coicidence that about half of these ten ended up way down in the final listings that year.

Btw. this thread is for Europeans, it probably doesn't make any sense for you non-Europeans at all.

Eurovision (Belgium 1980)
My OPO choice. An early case of synthpop being brought into the ESC at a moment when it had yet to really make much of an impact on the charts (apart from Gary Numan that is). Telex are resonsible for the best Eurovision entry ever.

My Star (Latvia 2001)
Sort of an indie song, and actually a very good one, by Brainstorm. Became sort of the "alternative" favourite that year and remains one of the very best entries ever.

Video Video (Denmark 1982)
Another synthpop effort, ending up in the lower regions just like Telex did two years earlier. And yet another great song.

Alle Mine Tanker (Norway 1993)
Represents one of very few cases where Greece and Cyprus haven't given 12 points to each other. In 1993, both 12-pointers went to a Norwegian entry that sounded very Greek indead. An incredibly beautiful song, and the best Norwegian entry ever.

Reggae OK (Finland 1981)
Finland doesn't exactly have a glorious ESC history, but in the early 80s, I used to like the Finnish entry better than most other entries. This is kind of a reggae tune, really catchy and sounding probably too "modern" to make much of an impact back then.

Black And White Blues (France 1990)
While Finland was kind of cool in the early 80s, the early 90s in ESC belonged to France. This was kind of a World Music effort, and a really cool one too. And in the 90s, unlike the 80s, "different" entries often performed well in the final list too, thus the 2nd place for this one.

Waterloo (Sweden 1974)
Hard to argue against this being a great song. Catchy and totally different at the time. ABBA did considerably better stuff later on, but here we are speaking of Eurovision, and for a Eurovision entry, this is great stuff. I guess that is why Sweden has tried to copy the formula ever since....

C’est Le Dernier Qui a Parle (France 1991)
Another "World Music" French entry from the early 90s. Amina almost won with this one, only being beaten by an inferior Swedish entry because of fewer 12-pointers. Too bad, because ESC would have needed a different winner like this one.

Where Are You (UK 1998)
The best UK entry was actually a quite great pop song. While the famous entries from Brotherhood Of Man and Buck's Fizz were terribly banal, this is actually a great pop song. Ended up as #2 and would have deserved to go one higher (even though Dana International wasn't the worst winner either)

Nukkupummin (Finland 1982)
The only nil-pointer in my list, and actually the first non-Norwegian entry to manage to score nil points. I found this incredibly cool. A crazy Finn, Kojo, singing a great rock song about nuclear bombs while jumping around the stage and knocking himself in the head in a crazy way. Absolutely classic!

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 4 April 2003 08:59 (twenty-two years ago)

Eurovision! Hoorah

Love City Groove anyone?

My favourites were Belgium's 1986/7 winner Sanda Kim and "J'aime le Vie" and last year's Slovenian tranny air hostesses

Another one that particularly sticks in the mind was an early 1990s Norwegian entry called "Mrs Thompson". I can only remember it because we had a particularly awful dinner lady called Mrs Thompson at the time, leading to my sister and I jumping around the living room singing "she's fat, she mings, Mrs Thompson" to the tune

By the way, Tatu are representing Russia this year, and their entry can be heard here (right click and save). Unfortunately it's nowhere near as ace as their first two singles

― j0e (j0e), Friday, 4 April 2003 09:10 (twenty-two years ago)

dana international to thread!

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Friday, 4 April 2003 09:12 (twenty-two years ago)

TATU are SO gonna win it this year tho surely

i've hated every UK entry since Bucks Fizz i think

― stevem (blueski), Friday, 4 April 2003 09:36 (twenty-two years ago)

"Volare", motherfuckers.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Friday, 4 April 2003 09:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Paul Richards to thread...

Personally, I'd add L'Oiseau et l'Enfant, by Marie Miriam

― Jez (Jez), Friday, 4 April 2003 10:11 (twenty-two years ago)

I want to hear Tel's comments when Tatu lezz it up on stage.

Anybody remember that awful pair of hosts last year - who started SINGING to each other during half-time?

Steve all our entries are rubbish, it's proud tradition

Thankfully we're on 17th this year - if we hadn't drawn the straw of death by having to go on second in 2002 I think we could have won

― j0e (j0e), Friday, 4 April 2003 10:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes! Off the top of my head, with no research whatsoeve and in no particular order:

1. Selma - "All out of luck" representing Iceland a few years back, cruelly robbed by Sweden.
2. France Gall's "Poupee de cire, poupee de son" (Luxembourg), penned by the almighty Serge G.
3. Gina G - Ooh aah just a little bit
4. Telex - Eurovision (as mentioned above)
5. Severine - un banc, une arbre, une rue (I think), 197-something.
6. Baccara - Parlez-vous Francais?
7. Abba - Waterloo
8. The Latvian entry two years ago, it was shit but it did feature the line "I vote for beer" which struck a chord.
9. Let it swing and let it rock n'roll - Bobbysox (Norway)
10. I wanna be a Polar Bear (or whatever it was called), Israeli winner, early 80s.

I trust *everyone* will be attending a Eurovision party this year, even if this will undoubtedly be the UK's worst performance ever, thank you Tony Blair.

― Tag (Tag), Friday, 4 April 2003 10:40 (twenty-two years ago)

be sure to check out this years entry from Austria.

For the last two years, one of the Austrian entries has been a non-serious entry by comedians taking the piss out the whole eurovision thing.. Last years 'joke' entry was voted second place by the Austrian viewers (they actually came first, but were 'fiddled' out of winning because of their public anti-government stance )..

This year however, another alternative comic, Alf Poier WAS chosen to represent the Austrians at Eurovision with a blatent piss taking song about small animals...

should be a laugh......

― jack battery-pack (Jack Battery-Pack), Friday, 4 April 2003 11:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Disgusting. Eurovision isn't a laugh. It should be treated with reverence.

― Tag (Tag), Friday, 4 April 2003 11:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Hi Jez,here's some of my eurovision faves...
Ding a Dong-Teach in (Holland 75)
It's just a game-Bendik Singers(Norway 73)
You're Summer-The Nova(Sweden 73)
Bardo-One Step Further(UK 82)
The Duskeys-Here Today,Gone Tomorrow(Ireland 82)
Just 4 Fun-Mrs Thompson(Norway 91)
Marie Miriam-L'Oiseau Et L'Enfant(France 77)
Silver Convention-Telegram(Germany 77)
Paola-Bonjour,Bonjour(Switzerland 69)
Severine-Un Banc,un arbre,une rue(Monaco 71)

― Paul R (paul R), Friday, 4 April 2003 11:50 (twenty-two years ago)

basically, Eu'vision sucks through a straw and shouts over a pan-European PA. but it hasn't to be this way.
no,no, no - i'm not entirely against this, erm, event. but i happen to think that all the singing and performance stuff is what's superfluous about it:
all these countries certainly could, p'haps even should, regularly gather in a similarly glamorous setup once a year, cosily - to count their votes and give each other points. and - that'd be it.

(yeh, exactly: there's really no need to bother with this music) it)

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Friday, 4 April 2003 12:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Lonely Symphony by Frances Ruffelle which was the UK entry in 1994 was all grinding bleakness and pre-Dido-Didoisms, except it was really great and it didn't do very well at all.

― alexfack (alexfack), Friday, 4 April 2003 12:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Just 4 Fun-Mrs Thompson(Norway 91)

Just 4 Fun! Thank you thank you I have been trying to remember the name of the band all day...

They weren't much fun, unsurprisingly.

― j0e (j0e), Friday, 4 April 2003 12:51 (twenty-two years ago)

"Mrs. Thompson" sounded a lot better in its studio version, with guitars playing the instrumental theme and also with a great piano intro.

A great song it wasn't anyway though.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 4 April 2003 17:34 (twenty-two years ago)

one year passes...

Revive in the light of the current Swedish thread.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 12 March 2005 20:01 (twenty years ago)

Volare
9 other songs

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Saturday, 12 March 2005 20:19 (twenty years ago)

"One Step Further" - Bardo
"Love Games" - Belle and the Devotions
"Poupee De Cire, Poupee De Son" - France Gall
"Making Your Mind Up" - Bucks Fizz
"Waterloo" - Abba
"J'Aime La Vie" - Sandra Kim
"Puppet on a String" - Sandie Shaw
"I'm Never Giving Up" - Sweet Dreams
"Ooh, Ahh, Just A Little Bit" - Gina G
That Bobbysox one.

Honourable mention for "A Little Peace" by Nicole which still pops into my head from time to time despite not having heard it for about twenty years.

― ailsa (ailsa), Saturday, 12 March 2005 20:42 (twenty years ago)

What does "during halftime" mean? Is there a place to watch past shows online?

"Second Hand Company" - Switzerland ('81?) -- about making music out of garbage
"Socrates First Superstar" - Greece ('81?) -- "Alone in a cave / so thoughtful and brave"

― Ian Christe (Ian Christe), Saturday, 12 March 2005 21:19 (twenty years ago)

There's an interval between the songs and the results, where the hosts put on a show of some kind (it was here that Ireland inflicted Riverdance on the world for the first time in '94).

My favourite Eurovision song (of the past few years, at least) is "Eighties Coming Back" by Ruffus ("Everybody's wearing their hair the way you did 15 years ago/And it makes you want to cry").

The Eurovision room on slsk is a goldmine for this thread.

― Richard C (avoid80), Saturday, 12 March 2005 22:54 (twenty years ago)

The Superbowl halftime show is the closest thing the US has to Eurovision. Stevie Wonder driving a tiny car! Chubby Checker jumping out of a cake! ET eating stuff!

― Ian Christe (Ian Christe), Sunday, 13 March 2005 05:36 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, well, when Denmark were hosting it in, ooh... 2002? Well, when that happened, we got a medley by Aqua. All the hits. Or as many of them as they could fit in. Or possibly just 'Turn Back Time', I can't honestly remember it that well.

But yeah. Aqua. Chew on that.

― William Bloody Swygart (mrswygart), Sunday, 13 March 2005 05:43 (twenty years ago)

cliff richard was gr8

― eurotrasher, Sunday, 13 March 2005 07:01 (twenty years ago)

Is there a place to watch past shows online?

The Eurovision fans' community is very well-organised, with lots of websites, so it wouldn't surprise me much if there was.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 14 March 2005 12:11 (twenty years ago)

A good one worth tracking down from a few years back: "My Heart Goes Boom!" by Charmed. Was utterly robbed in 2000.

Ruffus had an album, you know. None of the other songs were as good as "Eighties Coming Back", more's the pity.

― edward o (edwardo), Monday, 14 March 2005 12:14 (twenty years ago)

The Charmed one was catchy, and it kind of surprised me that it didn't end up higher in the ranks. However, what Eurovision would really need is a winner that was considerably different from what people normally think about when they think about Eurovision, and in spite of the slight Motown-beats, I don't see how "My Heart Goes Boom" would fit with that.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 14 March 2005 14:12 (twenty years ago)

two months pass...

Revive (and in my selection, swap UK 1998 for Norway 2003 - "I'm Not Afraid To Move On" was a beautiful McCartney-esque ballad that I loved already back then, but felt it was a bit too early to include)

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 21 May 2005 16:02 (twenty years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.