Long before it became one of the Big Five, The United Kingdom was part of the First Ten and started its long and varied Eurovision journey in 1957's Frankfurt Contest (debuting alongside Austria and Denmark) with Patricia Bredin's All, ending the night in seventh place that night. After skipping the 1958 Contest in Hilversum, the UK marched forward after their debut with three consecutive second-place finishes in 1959, 1960 and 1961, and followed up these initial successes with another two years of silvers in 1964 and 1965. Then in 1967, Sandie Shaw's Puppet On a String brought the UK's first winner's trophy to London, which hosted the 1968 Contest where Cliff Richard again scored a second-place finish on home turf. In 1969 Lulu hit the stage in Madrid with Boom Bang-a-Bang and brought the UK its second win, making the country a perennial favorite from that point forward. Among the earlier contestants for UK was a young Olivia Newton John, who long before her Grease fame represented the country at the Brighton Contest in 1974 with Long Live Love (UK hosted after Luxembourg's consecutive wins began to cause financial issues for the national broadcaster RTL), battling against ABBA's Waterloo (the latter won that night, scoring Sweden's first gold at the Contest and launching their own globally successful career).
Though the 70s, 80s and 90s, it was rare to see the UK anywhere near the bottom of the score board (the language restriction of singing in your country's official language(s) obviously did not impact the UK and Ireland much, as English continued its ascent to be a global language). In fact, the country took home the winner's trophy three more times (in 1976 with Brotherhood of Man's Save Your Kisses for Me in the Hague; in 1981 with Bucks Fizz's Making Your Mind Up in Dublin; and with Katrina and the Waves' Love Shine a Light in 1997 again in Dublin - the last winning UK song), garnered a total of fifteen second place finishes and three third placed entries (including the UK's last successful entry in the form of Jessica Garlick's Come Back in 2002's Talinn Contest). Here's a clip of Brotherhood of Man live from The Hague stage in 1976:
Then began the UK's great decline at Eurovision, starting with Jemini's Cry Baby, scoring the country's first and only nul point at the Riga Contest in 2003. In the decade that followed, the UK's early fortunes reversed and it became a rarity to see the country anywhere near the top of the scoreboard. The only exception to this was Jade Ewen's 2009 entry It's My Time (written and composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, who wanted to bring the UK back to its glory days) at the Moscow Contest, coming in fifth in a field of success dominated by Eastern European and Scandinavian acts. After years of sending sub-par entries to Eurovision, the UK has recently been playing on a nostalgia experiment that started with Engelbert Humperdinck's Love Will Set You Free at last year's Baku Contest, with the song finishing in last place (with only 12 points total). This year the vintage throw-back pattern continues with Bonnie Tyler's Believe In Me, which will be presented in the Final on May 18th in Malmo:
The first of the Big Five (the Western European countries that basically fund the European Broadcasting Union and whose success had diminished with the majority of acts coming from the Eastern spectrum of the European map) is Germany, one of the original seven who launched the Eurovision Song Contest. [The country participated as West Germany until the fall of the Berlin Wall.] Germany suffered under the language restrictions of the early years (English and French were the favored languages in the Contest then), logging two consecutive nul point along the way in 1964 and 1965, but often landing in the silver and bronze positions for decades. In fact, Germany's first win didn't come until 1982 with the uplifting folksy guitar number Ein Bißchen Frieden ("A little Bit of Peace") by an adorable Nicole:
This first win for Germany brought the Contest back to the country for the second time (Frankfurt played host to the festivities in 1957, before the new rule that the winner would host the Contest the following year was imposed on the participants) and the national broadcaster chose Munich as host city. The Munich Contest was mostly traditional, ending with Luxembourg's fifth (and last) win with Corinne Hermes' Si La Vie Est Cadeau ("If life is a gift"), and the first ever double nul point (Spain and Turkey tied for the dishonor). The most poignant moment of the evening, however, came when Ofrah Haza and her crew hit the stage with Israel's entry Chi ("Alive"). Her back up singers/dancers wearing yellow, a subtle tribute to Jews who had to wear the color during the Nazi regime (the political reign of the Nazi Party began in Munich and eventually led to the death of over six million people during the Holocaust), and the 11 Israeli athletes who were murdered a decade earlier by terrorists during the 1972 Olympics (known as the Munich Massacre). The costumes and the lyrics of the song (metaphorically referring to surviving against all odds as "enduring all despite the thorns thrown my way"), left their mark on the history of the Contest like no other (and finished the night in second place, just six points shy of the win), which is why I am including a clip here for you to see [Ofrah Haza became a household name for Eurovision viewers, and enjoyed a successful international career, which tragically came to an end, when the artist died at a very early age of 42.]
In the years following the memorable Munich Contest, Germany twice ended in second place with the group Wind (with Fur Alle in 1985 in Goteborg, Sweden and Lass Die Sonne In Dein Herz in 1987 in Brussels), twice placed third (with Mekado's Wir geben 'ne Party in 1994 in Dublin and with Surpriz's Reise Nach Jerusalem/Kudus'e Seyahat in 1999 in Jerusalem), once was shut out of the Contest (in 1996 in Oslo, unable to make it past the pre-qualification, the only time Germany was not in the Final since the beginning of Eurovision), and twice finished last (in 1995 in Dublin with Stone & Stone's Verliebt in Dich and again in 2005 in Kiev with Gracia's Run & Hide). Then comedian Stefan Raab's first go at Eurovision happened in 2000 in Stockholm, which won as Germany's national selection contest as a joke entry mocking what the Contest had become. Wadde Hadde Dudde Da finished fifth, hitting home the fact that the Contest had become a farce and needed some drastic increase in quality to return to its former glory. It took Stefan Raab a decade to bring the German public to view Eurovision seriously, by creating the commercially and critically successful national entry selection contest on German TV in 2010 called "Unser Song Fur..." That year little known Lena took the country (and eventually European pop charts) by storm with her song Satellite, and swept the Oslo Contest to bring Germany its second win.
In 2011, Dusseldorf played host to the Eurovision Song Contest, with Lena defending her title with Taken By A Stranger, and Stefan Raab taking over co-hosting duties as well singing with and accompanying on guitar the 43 "Lena"s (Lena and 42 Lena look-alikes, one from each of the participating countries that year) during an amazing jazz-infused opening-act performance of Satellite. [Note: I had the pleasure of watching that performance in person at the Arena two nights in a row in Dusseldorf...if you haven't already seen it, click here to experience the fun for yourself.] Lena finished tenth on home turf, and Germany followed up last year in Baku with Roman Loeb's beautiful Standing Still, which finished eighth. This year Unser Song Fur Malmo (the German national selection show), featured acts ranging from folk, farce drinking songs, ballads to pop and electronica. The winner came from the latter category in the form of popular group Cascada with their song Glorious, which is expected to do very well and keep Germany's recent success streak going. I completely agree with that expectation...I mean, just look:
Last, but not least, of the 33 Semi Final contestants vying for spots in the Finals, is Romania. Debuting at the 1994 Dublin show with Dan Bittman's Dincolo de Nori ("Beyond the Clouds"), the country had a rough start, finishing 21st with 14 points, which led to Romania unable to participate again until 1998 (where the country finished 22nd in Birmingham). In 2002, Romania achieved its first Top Ten finish in Talinn, which it matched in Riga the following year. Romania's first Top Three finish came in Kiev in 2005 with Luminita Anghel & Sistem's Let Me Try, automatically putting the country in the Final the following year in Athens with Mihai Traistariu's Italian/English rendition of Tornero ("I will Return") finishing solidy in fourth place:
Since the introduction of the Semi Finals, Romania has been one of the few Eastern European countries that has consistently made it to the Final stage (it also helps that the country has friendly relations with its Balkan neighbors, who shower the country with high points, including Moldova's annual almost-certain douze points). Last year, Romania kept up its streak with Mandinga's Zaleilah (sung in Spanish and English), coming in third in its Semi Final in Baku and finishing twelfth on Final night. This year in Malmo, another English song will compete for Romania. Cezar's It's My Life is reminiscent of Tornero (you can see what I mean by watching the two clips that accompany today's blog entry) and hopes to replicate (and even surpass) the success of the 2006 entry. I'm not particularly overwhelmed by It's My Life, but am fairly confident that it will make the Final for various reasons: It's Ethno-pop electronica (though high in schlock value, very popular with the viewing and voting public); it's sung in a globally recognized music language; and Romania is in a Semi Final with many Balkan and Eastern European neighbors who have given it high marks in the past. Take a look:
Once upon a time, 1956 to be specific, the Swiss city of Lugano was picked as the location to launch a song contest between seven European countries called the Eurovision Song Contest (inspired by the San Remo Music Festival). This debut Contest featured two acts each from Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Switzerland competing in the space of a little over 1.5 hours to be crowned the winner. In the first edition of the Contest, two jury members from each country voted by secret ballot for their favorites, and chose Lys Assia's Refrain as the first winner ever of Eurovision. [Her second song in the evening representing Switzerland was performed in German, coming in second, making her the only artist to place first and second in the same Contest]:
In the next two years Lys Assia continued to represent the country (coming in 8th in 1957 and 2nd in 1958), before stepping away from the competition. Switzerland fared fairly well in the first few decades of the Contest, being represented in every one of its four national languages (French, German, Italian and Romansh) and including artists in its roster not originally hailing from Switzerland, a tradition that Luxembourg and Monaco soon adapted to great success as well. Most prominent among these non-Swiss borns artists was Esther Ofraim, and Israeli citizen born to Syrian Jews, who in 1963 came close to taking the winner's trophy to Switzerland with her song T'en va Pas in London (with Denmark eking out its first victory by a mere two points that night). Switzerland also managed to score two nul point finishes (1964 and 1967) during that time, along with four second place finishes and two Swiss songs placing third. Then, during the 1988 Dublin Contest, a little known French Canadian powerhouse vocalist named Celine Dion hit the stage with Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi. The song was the result of a true multicultural collaboration (written by Turkish-Swiss Atilla Sereftug and composed by Italian-Swiss Nella Martinetti), and brought Switzerland its long awaited second victory (but not before a nail-biting awarding of the points, beating the UK by 2 points at the last minute).
That win became a turning point in Switzerland's Eurovision history. Though Celine Dion went on to launch a global career (and the writer and composer of the song achieved great success in Europe, often with their frequent collaborations), the country's Eurovision success sort of ended that night. It has become a rarity to see Swiss entries at the top of the scoreboard, with the exception of Annie Cotton placing third with Moi, Tout Simplement in 1993 and Sandra Simo placing fifth with Canzone per Te in 1991. In 1998's Birmingham show for example, Switzerland scored its third nul point, now putting the country into a 2nd place tie with Turkey for the worst-of honors. In its twelve appearances since Birmingham (the country was left out of the Contest in the qualifying rounds for several years as new countries joined the competition), Switzerland failed to make it to the Final six times, and in the years where it clawed its way into the Finals, the results have been dismal. This year Swizerland chose a group act in the form of Takasa who will be performing You and Me on the Malmo stage, with hopes of breaking its losing streak:
With its debut in Helsinki in 2007, Georgia became the second Caucasus region country to enter the Eurovision fold (sandwiched between Armenia's debut in 2006 and Azerbaijan's debut in 2008), with Sopho Khalvashi's Visionary Dream. The country has fared decently in the five years it has participated in the Contest (two Top Ten finishes ain't too shabby), but also suffered a forced withdrawal from 2009's Moscow show, because of that year's song We Don't Wanna Put In, included lyrics deemed to be condemning the host country's war with Georgia in the Russian-majority separatist region of South Ossetia and making references to Russian leader Vladimir Putin (I mean DUH...look at the title). EBU's policies on the Contest are clear that any lyrics with direct or indirect political messages will not be allowed to perform during competition, and as such EBU asked the country's public broadcaster to change the lyrics of the song. Georgian Public Broadcaster instead launched a counter-protest against, what it called, "political pressure exerted by Russia" to keep the country from competing in Moscow and was left out of the Contest that year. When the Contest moved to Oslo in 2010, Georgia returned to the Contest with Sopho Nizharadze's Shine, performing in red and white outfits meant to represent the country's flag (and its defiant attitude towards Russia):
Shine received a total of 136 points in the Final (including 10 points from Russia and two douze points from former Soviet republics of Armenia and Lithuania) and placed ninth, giving Georgia its first Top Ten finish. At the Dusseldorf Contest in 2011, the country was represented by hard-rock group Eldrine's One More Day (we had dubbed the lead singer of the group Gothic Blossom/Jennifer Love Hewitt Hybrid), again getting a ninth place finish on Final night. Last year Georgia was represented by Anri Jokhadze's I'm A Joker, but it turned out the joke was on him: Georgia got stuck at the Semi Final barrier for the first time in its short Eurovision history. After being shut out of the Finals in neighboring Azerbaijan last year (the Georgian entry placed fourteenth in its Semi Final), Georgia returns to the Eurovision stage with Sopho Gelovani and Nodiko Tatishvili's ballady duet Waterfall, making this the third time that the country is represented by an artist named Sopho. The song was chosen by GPB, will be performed in English and was composed by Thomas G:son, who composed last year's winning song Euphoria by Loreen. GPB publicly courted the Swede to write Georgia's 2013 entry, seen as a hint by Eurovision followers about how serious Georgia had become about winning the Contest. Will G:son's involvement get Georgia what it seeks?
Though initially planning to debut in 2003, Albania had to wait an additional year to send its first representative to the Eurovision Song Contest, because the number of applicant countries spiked suddenly in the early 2000s. As a result the country officially entered the Contest in Istanbul, with Anjeza Shahini's The Image of You, clearing the newly introduced Semi Final in fourth place and finishing the Final in 7th (with a total of 106 points, including the country's first douze points from neighboring FYR of Macedonia). The next few years were unkind to Albania, with the country floundering at the bottom of the scoreboard in the Finals (twice each in 16th and 17th places) or not making it out of the Semi Final (as was the case in 2006, 2007 and 2011), leaving the country's debut as its most successful entry.
Then came along Rona Nishliu, a singer with dreadlocks of questionable origin (there are still theories out there that the contraption on her head was old nautical rope), pushing out notes so high during her performance of Suus, that allegedly only dogs could hear:
Rona was born in what used to be Yugoslavia, in the now disputed territory of Kosovo (recognized as part of Serbia by half the world and seen as an independent nation with an Albanian majority by the other half), and became an Albanian citizen last year, in order to represent the country in Baku. Her family had left their hometown of Titova Mitrovica in northern Kosovo for the now capital of Pristina, because of the rising political tensions between the Serbs and Albanians living there (it's the only part of Kosovo where Albanians are the minority). Her song was dubbed a jazzy soul mix (though that designation is debatable) and did surprisingly well at the Contest last year, coming out of its Semi Final in second place and earning Albania its first Top Five finish (along with a record four douze points, including one from Italy).
This year, Albania comes back to the Contest with duo Adrian Lulgjuraj (singer) and Bledar Sejko (guitar player) and their song Identitet. As was the case last year, the singer of this year's entry was born outside of country (this time, FYR Macedonia), but is of Albanian ethnicity and will be part of a first: The country is being represented by a group at Eurovision and the second consecutive year that the country's entry will be sung in Albanian. Given the other countries in the Second Semi Final, and those countries' likelihood of giving points to this entry (based on past votes), Albania is highly likely to advance to the Final in Malmo. Here's the introductory video of this year's Albanian entry:
Following its Nordic neighbors Denmark and Sweden (who joined the Eurovision Song Contest in 1957 and 1958 respectively), Norway debuted at the 1960 London show with Nora Brockstedt's Voi Voi and coming in fourth in a field of thirteen competing countries. After its initial success, it didn't take too long for the country to earn its first nul point in 1963 in London (Norway holds the distinction for the most nul point, with four total and the last one in 1997, two years after the country's second victory). Three years later, the country scored its first Top Three spot and then ended up in last place again in 1969. Even though Norway's Eurovision patterns are a bit erratic, they include several wins (the country's first of three wins came in 1985's Goteborg Contest, after Sweden's second victory in Luxembourg the year before) and two more of those four nul point finishes. The first Norweigian victory was thanks to pop duo BobbySocks! and their now Eurovision classic song La det swinge ("Let it swing"):
After hosting the 1986 Contest in Bergen, Norway continued its roller coaster journey up and down the Eurovision score boards with each successive year and competition, still managing to place in the Top Ten four times in the decade between their first win and the second (the latter came in Dublin in 1995 with Secret Garden's ethereal Nocturne). While hosting in 1996 in Oslo, the country came close to pulling off a consecutive years win, but ultimately lost to Ireland, ending up in second place that year. The following year in Dublin, Norway scored its last (and record-setting) nul point with Tor Endressen's San Francisco, with the Norwegian public hoping that this would also be the end of their last place streak. That wish was not to be: The country has finished last three times since then (not including the times that Norway has not qualified for the Final). In 2009, the country scored its third win with Alexander Rybak's Fairytale (scoring a total of 387 points, the highest ever in Eurovision history). Last year a very popular Tooji entered the Baku Contest with high expectations for his song Stay, and was stunned (along with most commentators and viewers) with his 26th place finish (logging another last place, for a total of 11, for the country). This year, Norway enters the Malmo Contest with Margaret Berger's catchy electronica infused Feed You My Love. Margaret is well known in Scandinavia as the runner up of the 2004 version of Norwegian Idol, has since released three albums, and most recently has been working as the music director for one of the nation-wide public radio channels in her home country. Keep your eyes on this Trondheim native...if I had massive amounts of money to bet, I would put most of it down on her this year:
