Monthly Archives: June 2023

Cookie Fonster Picks Apart Eurovision 1971: The Rise of Vocal Harmonization

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< 1970 Review | 1971 Review | 1972 Review >

Introduction

Eurovision 1971 was the first of seven hosted in Ireland, and the first of six hosted in Dublin. It had a total of 18 countries, including all that had previously skipped except Denmark, plus a newcomer: the tiny Mediterranean island country of Malta, which wasn’t even independent until 1964. This time, Monaco won for the first and only time.

This contest completely redid the voting system, presumably to appease the countries that were mad about the four-way tie two years ago. This time, every country had a pair of jury members (older and younger than 25 years respectively), who each gave songs 1 to 5 points, and the points were all added up so that every country got no less than 34 points. I think that’s a cumbersome system with the obvious hole that a country could vote others low so that they’d comparatively score higher, but somehow it was in place for three years in a row. Plus, rating anything numerically is dumb because number ratings mean different things to different people.

I didn’t expect the Irish presenter to actually speak Irish at the start! Even though I couldn’t understand it, I could tell it was fluent Irish and not just an English speaker who took two semesters of an Irish class, so that made me smile. She introduced the contest in French as well, then English, then the event commenced.

I watched this contest with German commentary from Austria, and I think that’ll be my default choice. Almost all of the media I watch and conversations I have are in English, so why not use this project to immerse myself in some more German? I may choose commentary in other languages too, depending on my mood and what’s available.

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Cookie Fonster Dives into Eurovision 1970: A Decade’s Shaky Beginning

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Intro Post

< 1969 Review | 1970 Review | 1971 Review >

Introduction

Let me preface this post by saying 1970’s music is the fucking best and you don’t get anything like it these days. It was when people put heart and soul into composing popular music and cared about making those songs good and not totally dull and repetitive. As I go through this decade, be prepared for me to pop off about songs you probably think are boring, especially if you grew up during the 70’s and took this amazing style of music for granted.

Eurovision 1970 was hosted in Amsterdam, the second host city in the Netherlands, because they were the winning country that hadn’t hosted in the longest. Unfortunately, the four-way victory last year meant that Portugal, Norway, Sweden, and Finland skipped out due to protest, and Austria and Denmark continued to skip out. This brought the contest to a new low of 12 countries, the fewest since 1959, with no returning artists from prior years. There’s a silver lining to this decrease in participants: to increase the contest’s runtime, every song was preceded by a charming little postcard video, a Eurovision tradition to this day.

With Ireland’s first of seven victories, this contest began a streak from 1970 to 1977 where every winning song was in English or French, which included the four years without the language rule. The 80’s varied the winners’ languages more, but the 90’s had so much bias towards English that the language rule ended entirely. Some countries still voluntarily uphold the language rule, and I get sad whenever I remember Germany doesn’t.

This contest began with a four-minute video showcasing streets and buildings in the Netherlands, then a hilariously short introduction from the presenter. She basically just said “good evening and welcome to Eurovision 1970” in French, English, and Dutch. It was so brief that it felt jarring.

I watched this contest with Ireland’s commentary in English, done by Valerie McGovern. As far as I know, Eurovision has never been commentated in Irish.

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Cookie Fonster Investigates Eurovision 1969: The Notorious Quadruple Tie

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< 1968 Review | 1969 Review | 1970 Review >

Introduction

We’ve now reached the year my mother was born in! I can imagine her as a baby to get a feel for how long ago this contest was. Eurovision 1969 was the only contest hosted in Spain and the first hosted in a city I’ve been to: Madrid. The count of Eurovisions hosted in cities I’ve visited is anywhere from four to eight, depending on what you count. I’ve been to Madrid, Paris, Munich, and Lisbon; Brighton and Athens too, but only as a baby; and I’ve transferred at airports in Amsterdam and Düsseldorf. Counting all of these, I could increase the number to 14 if I ever visit Dublin.

This contest had 16 countries, since Austria skipped it this time. After a rapid increase in contestants in the first decade, it must have been disappointing when countries started skipping out. Except for people who hated Eurovision and thought it was the stupidest thing ever; they probably found it satisfying.

The most notable part about this contest is that four countries tied for the winner: the United Kingdom, Spain, France, and the Netherlands. I imagine that the people running Eurovision must have been embarrassed that they never made a tiebreaker rule, which they did next year. Luckily, there were just enough medals to give to the winners. Normally one medal went to the winning singer, and up to three medals went to the winning songwriters; this time, each medal went to a winning singer. The four-way win was so controversial that four more countries skipped out in 1970.

A few other facts: Madrid was the southernmost and westernmost host city at the time. It was the first Eurovision broadcast in the Americas; according to the presenter, Chile, Puerto Rico, and Brazil. The promotional material was designed by a name everyone knows: Salvador Dali. That sounds crazy to me, but is it any crazier than ABBA being from Eurovision?

Fittingly, I watched this contest with commentary in Spanish. This should be a fun way to test how well I know the language, after learning it on and off for a year.

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Cookie Fonster Scrutinizes Eurovision 1968: Finally Broadcast in Color!

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< 1967 Review | 1968 Review | 1969 Review >

Introduction

Eurovision 1968 was hosted in London, England, in their iconic building, the Royal Albert Hall. It featured the same 17 countries as last year, which was all countries that had ever previously participated except Denmark. Although it was the first Eurovision broadcast in color, most viewers watched it on grayscale TV anyway. This isn’t a problem for people watching the contest half a century later, like me.

Once again, the contest started with an orchestration of “Puppet on a String”, the previous winner. It’s notable for the United Kingdom losing to Spain by only one point, which fans were very salty about. This was Spain’s first of two victories; their second would be part of the joint four-way win next year. Spain has had bad luck with almost winning, but let’s be real: as far as members of the Big Five go, they aren’t doing too bad.

I watched this contest with Norwegian commentary. Surprisingly for a contest hosted in the UK, the English commentary doesn’t seem to be archived anywhere. I found a YouTube upload of the Norwegian commentary with English subtitles, but the subtitles don’t actually translate the commentary and instead talk about the contestants’ careers in retrospect, which I can easily read about online elsewhere. I’ll just make do with what I have.

(This contest’s Swedish commentary has been archived too. Unlike most Eurovision commentary, it was done by a woman.)

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Cookie Fonster Uncovers Eurovision 1967: Catching up with 60’s Pop

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< 1966 Review | 1967 Review | 1968 Review >

Introduction

The 1967 edition of Eurovision was hosted in Vienna, Austria, in a building that once was a palace for the Habsburg dynasty. Appropriately enough, I watched it with commentary in Austrian German. This contest began a decline in participating countries that lasted until 1970, after which countries started joining again. This time, only Denmark didn’t return from last year, not to rejoin Eurovision until 1978. Because of this, Eurovision 1966 was the last contest to feature every country that had ever previously participated. I wonder how fans felt when more and more countries started to leave? Maybe they were thinking this contest was soon to die, but they were completely wrong.

Normally in this era of Eurovision, the presenter mostly spoke the host country’s language, plus some obligatory introduction in French and English. However, Erica Vaal went the extra mile and announced the introduction in as many languages as she knew: German, French, English, Italian, Spanish, and Russian. Then she apologized in English to all the countries whose languages she didn’t have the time to learn. I found that incredibly cool.

This contest returned to the original voting system where each country had ten votes to distribute across each entry. I’m guessing this was done to mitigate bloc voting, and it worked! For this contest, at least. It also caused a bunch of clumsiness on the scoreboard operators’ part.

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Cookie Fonster Revisits Eurovision 1966: Lightening the Overall Mood

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< 1965 Review | 1966 Review | 1967 Review >

Just a warning: This post turned out a lot longer than I expected! It’s the most detail I’ve gone into about a Eurovision contest to date, and it’ll only get wilder from there.

Introduction

Eurovision 1966 was hosted in Luxembourg in the same building as 1962, the last time Luxembourg hosted. It had the same 18 participating countries as last time. Now that Ireland joined the contest, the interest in new countries had simmered down. Until the explosion of new participants in 1993, only seven more countries would debut; all either island countries or outside of Europe,* except Greece. There may not have been any new countries, but the list of countries it was broadcast in continued to grow. According to the contest’s Luxembourgish presenter, it was shown in the same Eastern Bloc countries as last year, plus Morocco and Romania. This makes it the first Eurovision to be broadcast outside of Europe.

The TV airing of this contest started with a lovely orchestrated arrangement of “Poupée de cire, poupée de son”, the winner last year, which began a common pattern of revisiting the contest’s prior hits at the start. It also began the controversial pattern of bloc voting—countries giving maximum points to their closest cultural neighbors. I’ll have lots to say about this topic when I analyze the voting results over the years. Lastly, it was the first year where the language rule was enforced. Aside from Sweden’s song in English last year, there had been a few songs with verses in English or French, but for the next seven years, non-native languages were limited to brief phrases.

I watched the contest with French commentary this time.

* Yes, I know a small part of Turkey is in Europe.

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Cookie Fonster Evaluates Eurovision 1965: The Victory of a Puppeteer

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< 1964 Review | 1965 Review | 1966 Review >

Introduction

We’ve reached the tenth Eurovision Song Contest, and the first of three Eurovisions hosted in Italy! Each one was hosted in a different Italian city, and this was in Naples. For the first time ever, this contest was broadcast outside the European Broadcasting Union: in Czechoslovakia,* Poland, Hungary, East Germany, and the Soviet Union.** This time, I watched it with English commentary, which should be a nice breather from all this Dutch.

Sweden returned after skipping last year, and Ireland entered the contest for the first time, making for 18 countries total. You probably already know Ireland was a highly successful participant in the 80’s and 90’s. They’re the only country to win three years in a row (1992-1994), they’re the first country to win six and seven times (1994, 1996), and they had the most wins of any Eurovision country from 1994 to 2022. However, Sweden has caught up since then, and since 2023, their win record is tied with Ireland. It’s generally accepted that since the language rule was lifted, Ireland and the UK lost their advantage and struggled to shine (with a few lucky exceptions).

The winner of this contest is a fun one: “Poupée de cire, poupée de son” from Luxembourg, probably the most famous Eurovision song of the 60’s. I first heard a portion of it when watching a compilation of all Eurovision winners around April 2022, and it was the first to wow me. I’ve already heard the song in full, but I expect it to be the highlight of this contest anyway.

* Amusingly, I know someone who talks about Czechoslovakia as though it still exists.

** Referred to by David Jacobs, the British commentator, as “Russia”. Now that I think of it, it’s analogous to calling the United Kingdom “England”.

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Cookie Fonster Assesses Eurovision 1964: The Second of Three Lost Years

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< 1963 Review | 1964 Review | 1965 Review >

Introduction

1956, 1964, and 2020 are the “lost years” of Eurovision because you can’t watch a full video recording of any of these contests. The first two because most of the video footage is lost media; the third because COVID-19 forced the contest’s cancellation. Fortunately, the audio of this contest is preserved entirely, and we know exactly who voted for who. This time, countries gave five, three, and one points to their top three songs. This led Italy to beat its nearest rival by almost three times, the most crushing victory in Eurovision history.

Sweden skipped this contest due to student protests, while Portugal made its debut, which kept the number of countries at 16. Since 2017, Portugal has been the most recent first-time winner of Eurovision. Many fans weren’t happy about including Portugal, since back then it was a dictatorship like Spain. Protests against these countries’ inclusion caused the first ever stage invasion in Eurovision history.

Anyway, this contest was hosted in Copenhagen, Denmark, the northernmost and easternmost host city thus far. The presenter spoke mostly in her own language, as was the norm back then. I understand Danish less than Dutch, but more than the other North Germanic languages.

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Cookie Fonster Examines Eurovision 1963: A Narrow Nordic Victory

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< 1962 Review | 1963 Review | 1964 Review >

Introduction

If you thought the whole point of music concerts was to see the singer in person, Eurovision 1963 would beg to differ. For some reason, the singers performed in one room, while the audience watched the shows on a screen in a different room. This apparently caused rumors that the performances were pre-recorded, even though with the technology of that time, that sounded like more trouble than just broadcasting them live.

For the second time, the United Kingdom substituted for a multi-time Eurovision winner: France, which had just celebrated its third victory and didn’t want to host again. Once again, the contest took place in London, specifically the BBC Television Centre. After the bare bones staging in the last two years, Eurovision 1963 returned to fanciful stage shenanigans. This is clear as soon as the singers are all introduced, where they’re backed by recursive mirrors. Too bad the audience didn’t get to see them in color!

The voting system of 1963 was adjusted from last year. This time, countries sent five to one points for their top five songs, which decreased bias towards the second half.

Oh yeah, I guess I’m watching with Dutch commentary again! I can’t speak Dutch, but it’s close enough to German that I can understand some of it. We’re now 60 years till we’ve caught up with the present, which means my grandparents were roughly as old back then as I am today. (I know their years of birth, and one was slightly older than me, the other three slightly younger.)

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Cookie Fonster Dissects Eurovision 1962: A Jury with the Memory of a Goldfish

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< 1961 Review | 1962 Review | 1963 Review >

Introduction

Hosted in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, this edition of Eurovision was remarkably similar to the last one. It had the same 16 countries, marking the first Eurovision with the exact same country lineup as last year, and the votes were again skewed towards late entries. The biggest difference is that the voting system was simplified. This time, the juries gave three, two, and one points to their top three favorite songs respectively. If I was a Eurovision fan back then, I would’ve been a little peeved at this change, but I would understand that it was probably done to speed up the process of tallying votes.

This contest had three singers return from 1960, one of whom also performed in 1958 and 1956. One singer returned from 1959 but for a different country. It looks like this contest will be a similar experience to 1961, except I’ll be listening to Dutch commentary this time.

One more amusing observation: The French-speaking presenter said early on, “Luxembourg, la cœur de l’Europe, va battre ce soir.” (Luxembourg, the heart of Europe, will beat this evening.) Poland’s national selection since 2022 would object to this designation, since its name claims that they’re the heart of Europe. The only explanation is that Europe had a disastrous heart transplant last year.

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