My Top Ten Winning Songs

1.  Abba singing Waterloo for Sweden (1974 Brighton):
The only name induced by fans (usually when defending Eurovision to skeptics) is Abba.  It is generally followed by a long pause, letting the argument sink in, before the word Waterloo is uttered.  This is the ultimate of ultimate Eurovision songs (it won the Contest that year and launched Abba's global career).  I'm going to follow long-standing Eurovision defenders tradition and say no more:

2.  Gigliota Cinquetti singing Non Ho L'Eta for Italy (1964 Copenhagen):
I've mentioned this song in Italy's intro entry, but didn't get into the subtle raciness of the lyrics (suggesting the 16 year-old singer was turning down a love proposal from an older interested party...I mean, the song ends with "I'm not old enough...for you!")  This was the first of Gigliota's Eurovision entries, and quickly hit the top of the charts in several countries (including number in Italy, Belgium and France), launching Gigliola's career and becoming a Eurovision classic:

3.  Gali Atari & Milk and Honey singing Hallelujah for Israel (1979 Jerusalem):
Presented and winning on home-turf, Hallelujah made Israel the third country to win while hosting (Spain was the first with wins in 1968 and 1969 and Luxembourg accomplished the feat in 1972 and 1973).  Even with the boycott of the broadcast from Jerusalem by Israel's Arab neighbors, the song became an instant Eurovision classic in Israel and all over Europe:

4. Celine Dion singing Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi for Switzerland (1988 Dublin):
Long before becoming the world-wide sensation (and avid shoe-collector and frequent husband referencer..."ah, my husband Rene"), Celine Dion was a French-Canadian rising star, who qualified to represent Switzerland through her grandfather's Swiss heritage and won the Contest for the country for the second (and last) time.  The song is beloved by the chanson fraction of Eurovision and for good reason...it accurately represents the spirit of Eurovision (and the mood of French music of the late eighties):

5. Lena singing Satellite for Germany (2010 Oslo):
This song is the reason that Germany (and indeed most of Western Europe) started taking the Contest seriously again, after almost a decade of wins all over the Eastern part of the Contest's map that turned Eurovision into a farce in the minds of viewers.  Commentators called it catchy and cute (agreed!), this song also proved wrong my contention that good songs can and do not win the Contest ("That song is too good to win Eurovision.  If it wins, I'm coming to watch in Germany next year" were the exact words I wrote to a friend watching the show in Germany.  Needless to say I lost the bet, got to experience the show in person in Dusseldorf and have my faith somewhat restored):

6. Vicky Leandros singing Apres Toi for Luxembourg (1972 Edinburgh):
Scoring the third win for Luxembourg (whom she had also represented at the 1967 Vienna Contest), catapulted Greek-born Vicky Leandros' career into overdrive (she has hit songs and albums in eight languages all over the world).  Long before launching into politics (she was the deputy mayor of Piraeus, the port and twin city of Athens, until recently), and before competing in the national selection contest in Germany (coming in fourth) in 2006, Leandros left marks on Eurovision hearts with this timeless ballad commenting on life after ending a relationship with the love of your life:

7.  Johnny Logan singing Hold Me Now for Ireland (1987 Brussels):
The man is one of the legends of Eurovision, and this was his second win (his third would come in 1992 in Malmo as songwriter) and this was the song that solidified Ireland as a force to be reckoned with at Eurovision.  The country has lived up to the expectations (seven wins, anyone?  Oh yeah, the closest are still two wins behind), and Johnny Logan's ballad has proved that it is for all time:

8.  Secret Garden singing/performing Nocturne for Norway (1995 Dublin):
Beautiful in its simplicity and relying mostly on the sounds from the instruments, this song almost gives you a fresh breath of nostalgia, by making you forget the standard gymnastics and pyrotechnic background performances du jour.   Nocturne started a trend in Norway (and some other Nordic countries) to showcase the music from traditional instruments prominently (this tactic worked again for the country in 2009 in Moscow) and bring that flavor onto the Contest stage:

9.  Riva singing Rock Me for Yugoslavia (1989 Lausanne):
If this song does not represent the European pop scene of the late eighties, then I honestly don't know what does.  And the fact that it took a Croatian band from the then-Yugoslavia to point it out to Europe (and Eurovision) is delicious in an entirely otherwise satisfying way.  One of the last successful songs in the national language, though the former republics of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Croatia most prominent among them) continue the tradition, this is a catchy tune that we were faking our way through in elementary school in Turkey (I age myself, but it was a necessary reference):

10.  Loreen singing Euphoria for Sweden (2012 Baku):
This song (along with Lena's Satellite) is one of the best performances in recent Eurovision history and was the runaway winner in last year's Contest in Baku.  It is already mentioned as a classic, though it has only been around for a little more than a year, and it would be hard to imagine covers or variations of the song being performed by anyone other than Loreen.  Take a look:

[UPDATE:  To see the first piece of proof of just how incredible a different version can be, see the opening act performance from the First Semi Final on May 14th - now archived at www.eurovision.tv's Photo & Video section].

Spain

Last, but by all means, not least is Spain.  Debuting in Cannes in 1961, with Conchita Bautista's Estando Contigo, the country finished in the middle of the pack, and quickly found itself scoring its first nul point the next year in Luxembourg (a feat Spain repeated at the Naples Contest in 1965, with Conchita Bautista's Que Bueno, Que Bueno...the result of course was no bueno).  Spain somehow turned the tide on its rough start at Eurovision, and snagged its first win at the 1968 London Contest (held at the Royal Albert Hall and broadcast in color for the first time) with Massiel's La La La.

Thanks to Massiel's razor-slim win in London (she beat UK's Cliff Richard by one point), Madrid played host to the Contest in 1969, being represented by Salome's Vivo Cantando, which tied for first with three other countries (Lulu's Boom Bang-a-Bang from the UK, Lenny Kour's De Troubadour from the Netherlands, and Frida Boccara's Un Jour, Un Enfant from France), making Spain the first country to win two consecutive Contests (and the last time Spain took home the winners trophy).  [The next year the country was represented by a then unknown 27 year-old Julio Iglesias (YES, that one) and his soon to become hit song Gwendolyne, finishing the evening in Amsterdam in fourth place and launching Iglesias' international music career.]

Through the 70s, 80s and the early 90s, Spain fared well in the Contest, scoring a slew of 2nd finishes and one 3rd, but also suffering the indignity of another nul point in 1983 in Munich (bringing its total to three).  The rest of the time, the country mostly found itself in the Top Five or Top Ten of the Contest, though there were few occasions that the Spanish entry finished in the lower section of the scoreboard.  Spain also made history in the 1990 Zagreb Contest, as one of the three entries EVER to be allowed to perform their song again, when the live orchestra and recorded playback of Bandido did not sync correctly and made the singers of Azucar Moreno miss their cue (clip of whole performance below).

Two decades later, the Spanish entry was again granted a chance to redo their song in 2010 (the third and last time this exception was allowed), after Daniel Diges' performance of Algo pequenito was disrupted by notorious pitch invader Jimmy Jump on the Oslo stage.  Though the performers completed the song without being thrown by Jimmy Jump's intrusion (& subsequent removal from stage by security personnel), the Spanish entry was performed again before televoting began (finishing the night in 15th place).  Last year Spain bucked its last decade of floundering at the bottom of the scoreboard, to finally reach the Top Ten again with Pastora Soler's Quedate Conmigo.

This year's Spanish representatives comes in the form of El Sueno de Morfeo (or ESDM).  Hailing from the northern coast of Asturias, the band has been playing its mix of Celtic, folk rock and indie pop songs since 2002 and brings to Eurovision the hypnotic Contigo Hasta al Final ("With You Until the End"), highlighting their signature elements (including bagpipes and the almost required Spanish guitar).  [Full disclosure:  This is my favorite song this year and if this Contest did not suffer from its various skews, whether they be political or taste-related, I would be boldly declaring it as the impossible-to-beat & definitive 2013 winner.  Sadly, Dumbledore did not come back from the dead (*oh yeah, Harry Potter spoiler alert*) & make all those factors (dis)apparate into the depths of Hades, but I still think it is possible for this song to finish in the Top Five on Final night on May 18th.]  I mean...right?

Italy

Ahhhh, Italy.  My first Eurovision love (even though you abandoned the Contest you inspired when the going got tough for Western Europe).  I still love you, because yours were the first songs I loved and sang in my made up fauxItalian, until I actually took a year of Italian classes and realized just how ridiculously wrong my lyrics were.  Everything is OK now.  You're back (perhaps after predicting the turn of the Contest to come in the late 1990s and 2000s) and this is your history:

One of the Original Seven, Italy has too often played bridesmaid to many French chansons (from France, Monaco and Luxembourg) and English pop anthems (courtesy of the UK and Ireland) in the Contest.  Italy scored its first Third place finish in the third year of the Contest in Hilversum in 1958 (with Domenico Modugno's Nel Blu, Dipinto di blu, more popularly known as Volare), then got back into bronze position in 1963 in London, before scoring the big first win at the Copenhagen show with a sixteen year-old Gigliola Cinquetti's racy ballad Non ho l'eta ("I'm not old enough").  Gigliola would return to the Eurovision stage twice after her win: Once as performer at the Brighton Contest in 1974 with Si ("Yes") and finishing right below Abba's Waterloo; and the final time as co-host during the festivities in Rome in 1991.  [The Contest had returned to Rome thanks to Toto Cutugno's topical Insieme: 1992 ("Together: 1992) celebrating the imminent establishment of the European Community (now the European Union) at the 1990 Contest in Zagreb.]  Here's Ms. Cinquetti with Si in 1974 (which incidentally was banned in its home country, because the Italian broadcaster thought that the Si could be misinterpreted as a suggested Yes vote in the upcoming national referendum on divorce laws in the country):

Before Italy's second win in 1990, however, was its "big disappointment" in 1987 in Brussels with Umberto Tuzzi and Raf's touching ballad Gente di Mare ("People of the Sea") (clip below), which finished in third place behind Johnny Logan's Hold Me Now and Wind's Lass Die Sonne in dein Herz ("Let the Sunshine in your Heart"), despite coming into the Contest as the favorite.  [I still remember how the faces of the Italian performers sank when the points distribution began, as it became increasingly clear that this was a two way contest between Germany and Ireland, and later turned into a runaway sweep by the latter.]  Italy was shaken and it showed in its next two tries at Eurovision, placing 12th in 1988 and 9th in 1989.  Later, the country reclaimed the winner's trophy in 1990 and hosted in Rome in 1991 (also known as the year of the tie-break fiasco between France and Sweden).

After doing fairly well in the early nineties, the country withdrew from the Contest for three years, citing a lack of public interest in the Contest as the cause.  Italy returned from this short absence in 1997, with Janisse's Fiumi di Parole ("Rivers of Words") finishing a solid fourth.  This finish was apparently not enough to pique the Italian viewers' interest, leading to Italy's absence from 1998 until 2011.  Though several host countries tried to bring Italy back to Eurovision before then, it took Germany's win and iron will to get the only Initial Seven country not participating back into the Contest's fold.  The return came in the form of Raphael Gualazzi's Madness of Love (gasp! A song in English from the country that prided itself in representing Italian at the Contest) in Dusseldorf.  Raphael finished in a triumphant second place, with spokespersons distributing the points basically gushing their love of Italy's return (and some even singing snippets of their favorite Italian songs).  Italy followed up with another Top Ten finish during last year's Contest in Baku with Nina Zilli's L'amore e femmina (Out of Love) and this years returns to the Malmo stage with Marco Mengoni's delicious L'Essenziale.  No word necessary...just watch:

France

One of the Original Seven who debuted at the Lugano Contest in 1956, France is undoubtably one of the most successful participant countries at the Eurovision Song Contest with five wins (not counting the 1991 entry by Amina, which tied with Sweden for first place, but was relegated to second, because of the controversial and now-changed tie break system in place at the time - more on that next week).  [Had that song won, France would be right on Ireland's tail with six total wins to Ireland's record seven].  With its first three entries finishing second, it was no surprise that France took the win in 1958's Hilversum Contest with Andre Claveau's Dors, Mon Amour, establishing the chanson style as the gold standard for Eurovision on the whole through the end of the 80s (Luxembourg and Monaco used the same style to great advantage and success as well).  The last winning song from France was courtesy of Marie Myriam's L'Ouiseau et L'enfant ("The Bird and The Child") at the 1977 London Contest, which took home the gold with a total 136 points (in a field of only eighteen contesting countries and scoring a mere three douze points):

France's immediate follow up entries in 1978, 1979 and 1981 all placed third in the Contest (with Joel Prevost singing Il y aura Toujour des Violons on home turf in Paris; Anne-Marie David's Je Suis L'enfant Soleil competing in Jerusalem; and Jean Gabilou's Humanahum doing well in Dublin).  These successful entries were to be the last for the French for a decade, until the arrival of Joelle Ursull's inventive and amazing Caribbean drum flavored White and Black Blues (which despite its English title was performed in French) in 1990's Zagreb Contest.  That entry finished the Contest in a second place tie with Ireland that night, foreshadowing the problems with the then broken tie-break rules.  Despite highlighting these issues, White and Black Blues along with Amina's entry the next year were France's best entries in the Contest, in terms of quality and originality.  Here's a look:

Since 1991, France has not seen its contestants finish in the Top Three, though there have been eight Top Ten finishes for the country in those two decades, the most prominent of which came in the form of well-known Patricia Kaas and her 2009 entry Et S'il Fallait le Faire at the Moscow Contest.  [The 2009 Contest was the first time that two then Big Four countries finished in the Top Ten -UK in fifth and France in 8th place.]  Since then, the Eurovision audience has been treated to soccer-chantish Allez Ola Ole by Jessy Matador, opera-inspired Sognu by Amoury Vassili (sung in Corsican), and last year's entry by popular singer Anggun's Echo (You & I) sung in English and French with a background gymnastics/dance show.  Last year the country finished 22nd in Baku, a result France is hoping to avoid with its entry for Malmo.  The French entry this year is L'Enfer et Moi ("Hell and Me"), a jazzy/blusey song in French, will be performed on Final night by Amendine Bourgeois.  Bonne Chance from all of us, who want France to get back to its former Eurovision glory (& to have one of the Big Five prove that they indeed deserve to quality for the Final automatically):

United Kingdom

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:

Germany

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:

Romania

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: