Aug 26, 2013

858/917 Natasha St-Pier: Je n'ai que mon âme (France 2001)

Sometimes a small, tiny, almost unnoticable thing can make a firm favourite fall. Sometimes the expecations are so high that when the reality comes in, the disappointment is too hard to bare. This happened to my relation with the Eurosong 858.


Natasha St-Pier was to change the gloomy streak of French eurovision entries in 2001. The preceding five years had given the country only one top 5 song and the rest didn't even reach the top 15 in the final results. For France, one of the most succesful countries in the contest, this was disasterous and so an established canadien singer and succesful french songwriter were called to help.

Robert Goldman has written international hits for f.eg. Céline Dion, Florent Pagny and Patricia Kaas under the pseudonyme of Jean Kapler. The song he wrote for Natasha St-Pier was a well crafted ballad starting quietly and growing towards the end of the song. The arrangement is masterly and in the recorded version St-Pier is well up to the task. When I saw the preview video and heard the studio version of the song, I was sure this song was going to win. A sure five pointer from me.

In Copenhagen something changed, I don't know what. There is nothing really wrong in Natasha's performance, slight insecurity at some points and maybe a little tense presence on the stage, but that is only to be expected for a young singer on such a big stage. She sings well and manages to touch the audience enough to reach the fourth place in the final results.

Still, for me the magic of the studio version was gone. The song didn't gel like on record, and the small imperfections in the performance all but ruined the song for me. After high expectations I felt disappointed by the French entry and song fell from my favourite position to somewhere in the middle. To kill the song in my mind Natasha St-Pier decided to do what no other French representative had ever done before, sing the last verse in English for no apparent reason else than wanting to please as much audience as possible. Maybe it helped the song to gain more points, but this calculated change of language was the last straw.

Natasha St-Pier has continued her career succesfully for over 10 years in the francophone music business. Good for her, but her name reminds me for always of the disappointment of the 2001 Eurovision Song Contest.

My points 3/5.

Aug 14, 2013

492/917 Al Bano & Romina Power: Magic oh magic (Italy 1985)

Italy has always been one of my favourite countries in the Eurovision song contest. But they can't always do right. Their 1985 entry failed in almost all aspects to reach the high San Remo standards I was accustomed to. But what did it matter, it still fared rather well in the final results.


Al Bano & Romina Power were an established pop act and the song was crafted by professionals, so everything should have been perfect. Instead the song was dull, repetitive and laboriously arranged. Song starts promisingly but very soon it was evident that it didn't go nowhere.

But the melody or the arrangement were not the worst thing. It seemed, at least to me, that more work had been done to sew the glittering gown of Romina than had been done to rehearse her to sing properly. Maybe it was the excitement (which is unlikely, because the duo had taken part nine years earlier) or maybe she didn't hear the orchestra enough (some other artists seem to have the same problem). Whatever the reason, she barely sung a right note during her solo. To make matters worse, her singing was backed by one of the backing singers, who DID sing in tune making Romina's detuning stand out like a tomato in a vanilla sauce.

Al Bano being a charismatic and skillful singer manages to prevent the performance turn into disaster. His voice and presence is joy to the ear and eye. However, even he cannot save a mediocre tune and a poor performance of his wife.

If you think that I am too harsh on the song, you may be right. At least the juries didn't agree with me as the song was voted seventh among 19 entries. That does not change the fact, that I have never liked the Italian entry from 1985 and probably never will.

My points 1/5.

Aug 12, 2013

145/917 Berta Ambroz: Brez besed (Jugoslavia 1966)

For over 30 years Yugoslavia was the only nation from behind the iron curtain to take part in the Eurovision Song Contest. Althought the success came never close until the late 1980's, Yugoslavia still gave the contest plenty of quality entries that had something not heard of other entries. The eurosong 145 represented the balkan ballad genre, which would come popular and successful in the beginning of the new millenium.



In 1966 the Slovenian branch of the Yugoslav broadcaster won the national selection and chose Berta Ambroz to sing song Brez Besed, written by Mojmir Sepe. The beautiful song has a appealing melody and nicely growing arrangement. Berta Ambroz gives a passionate, if somewhat shy performance also managing beautifully to use different nyances in her singing from delicate verse to a rousing refrain with a trembling vibrato in her voice. Song was definately one of the higlights of the 1966 contest.

The song fared rather well in the international final reaching the 7th place among 18 acts being one of the absolute best results for Yugoslavia until the victory 23 years later.

The 1966 Eurovision entry for Yugoslavia has a similar melody line than one of the most succesful entries, the famous Eres tu from Spain seven years later. For some reason this remained very much unnoticed at the time.

I could not find much information on the singer other than that she was only 21 years old when representing her country. Her entry is available in Spotify on a compilation album of her other hits (listen f.eg. her version of the James Bond tune Goldfinger) which gives an impression that she had before her death in 2003 some place in the Yugoslavian show business.

The composer-conductor Mojmir Sepe would, on the other hand, conduct the Eurovision orchestra four times in total, last time being as late as in 1998.

My points 4/5.

Aug 5, 2013

23/917 Birthe Wilke & Gustav Winckler: Skibet skal sejle i nat (Denmark 1957)

Choreography and other stage gimmicks started to steal the show in the Eurovision song contest since late 1970's. Before that it was the song that mattered the most. There were of course exceptions. Already the 23rd Eurosong is best remembered for the longest kiss ever on the Eurovision stage. So far, 56 years later it hasn't been equalled. This gimmick was, however, more a mistake than a deliberate attempt to catch the attention. And the song, the first one to represent Denmark, was very good even without the last 11 seconds.


Skibet skal sejle i nat was a first duet ever in the Eurovision and a very romantic one. Even though very few in the audience understood danish, the message of the song was easily understandable: A ship is going to sail soon and tear the sailor boy and his lover apart from each other for a very long time. Birthe Wilke and Gustav Winckler used their acting skills (in addition to their musical ones) to the full and gave a very convincing performance as a couple regretting the separation but bravely looking forward to the day when they shall be united again.

The great performance together with a lovely melody and arrangement enchanted the juries who gave the song third place among only ten participants. To me it is one of the best Danish entries ever and one of the best songs from the first years in the contest.

The kiss then? Wilke and Winckler were instructed to kiss until when the floor manager would show them to stop. Unfortunately (or not) the signal never came and the song would write Eurovision history already at the second contest ever arranged.

My points 4/5.




Aug 4, 2013

422/917 Peter, Sue & Marc: Io senza te (Switzerland 1981)

Switzerland has used all its four national languages in the Eurovision song contest. With couple of songs in english they hold the record of the number of different languages used in the contest. A Swiss trio Peter, Sue & Marc hold a similar record having taken part four times in the contest, each time using a different language.


Their last participation was in 1981 which also gave the group its best result. Io senza te was a passionate Italian ballad, which in Italy's absence and with a perfect place in the running order (19th song sung among 20 entries) struck the right chord among the audience loving the mediterranean ballad. After a very narrow voting Switzerland ended fourth just 16 points short of winning the contest altogether.

That was maybe a good thing. The song, composed by Peter Reber from the group, included a instrumental passage played, apparently, with a pan flute. According to some sources the sound of the flute came from the backing tape. As the acoustic instruments were not allowed (in 1981 that is) to be pre-recorded, the song would probably have been subject to protests if the it had won.

Year 1981 marked the end to the 10 year run of the group. After that the three singers have performed together only occasionally.

The Swiss entry remains one of the most enduring songs from the 1981 contest often dismissed for being full of second rate disco ditties. To me, Io senza te would have been a perfect winner.

My points 4/5.


608/917 Stefan & Eyfi: Nina (Iceland 1991)

A singer named Nina has taken part in the Eurovision Song Contest several times. We remember among others the Spanish Nina from 1989, Nina Radojčić who took part for Serbia in 2011, Finnish Nina Åström from 2000, the Italian Nina Zilli taking part in 2012 and Nina Badrić who represented Croatia the same year. More than once has Nina also been the subject of a love song that has been sung on the Eurovision stage. So it was also in 1991, when the Eurosong 608 took part for Iceland.


The Icelandic entry in 1991 was composed by Eyjólfur Kristjánsson who also sang the song with Stefán Hilmarsson, who had previously represented Iceland three years earlier. The 1991 song was a powerful ballad with a strong performance from the duo. Unfortunately it didn't catch the juries attention and finished only 16th among 22 participants.

Maybe it was the icelandic language that made the juries not to notice this perfect song (which to me sounds much better in it's original language than in english), it might also be due to the dreaded second position in the running order. Still, I'd put my blame on the mediocre performance of the RAI orchestra and the lousy sound acoustics of studio 15 of Cinecittá for the bad result of the Icelandic entry.

To me this song is one of the best songs from the small Scandinavian country ever in the Eurovision Song Contest. The best way to listen to the song is to find the studio versio  at Spotify where you can hear the passion, the seamless cooperation between the two singers and the great string arrangement crowning the recording. A perfect Eurosong.

My points 4/5.