Intro Post

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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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Austria: Musik

Artist: Marianne Mendt

Language: German, but not just any German. Viennese German.

Key: E minor

If you read about all the different dialects of German, you’ll be surprised by how different they are from Standard German. Indeed, German-speaking countries have a generous definition of “dialect”. The general mindset is that the regional dialects are all equally valid forms of German, and it’s considered silly to treat them as separate languages. Swiss German is the most famous nonstandard version of German, but Switzerland has never sent a song in it. On the other hand, Austria has sent four songs in regional dialects, and this is their first.

I have to admit, listening to songs in dialectal German feels strange. It’s sort of like listening to songs in Dutch, except I’ve warmed up to the sound of Dutch from writing these posts. I still think Dutch is a goofy sounding language, but I also find it lowkey cute now. That’s how it is with foreign languages—the more you hear them, the more pleasant their sound becomes.

This is a minor-key pop song with a lot of dramatic brass parts, but it’s weighed down by the singer’s visible nervousness. A song in a German dialect would have to be REALLY good to score well, and this song seems unfocused to me. Plus, the lyrics are kind of just loosely about music.

Malta: Marija l-Maltija

Artist: Joe Grech

Language: Maltese, for the first of two times

Key: C major

If any language defines dialects more generously than German does, it has to be Arabic. Standard German unifies three major countries with a variety of dialects; standard Arabic unifies about 20 countries with an explosive variety of dialects. The definition is so extreme that some people even consider Maltese, which is written in the Latin alphabet and massively influenced by Romance languages, an Arabic dialect. Because of the different writing system, I don’t agree with this classification.

Malta has an interesting history in Eurovision, driven by its official languages: Maltese and English. They sang in Maltese only the first two years they participated, and neither song scored well. It’s exactly what I said when reviewing the last song: if you’ve hardly ever heard what a language sounds like, you’ll probably be averted to it at first. They skipped the next two years, sent a song in English in 1975, and didn’t participate again until 1991. After that point, they’ve never missed a single contest, and their ability to sing in English was a big advantage until the language rule was retired. Alas, it was never a big enough advantage for them to win the contest. Their highest ranking was second place, twice in the 2000’s. Malta is currently the oldest Eurovision competitor to never win the contest. If they’re the next country to win, the oldest zero-time Eurovision winner (other than Morocco) will be Cyprus.

I always get carried away with history when discussing a country’s first entry, so let’s move on. This is an upbeat 70’s pop song about a girl from Malta named Marija. I like the call-and-response section between the singer and the instrumental, but the rest sounds like an ordinary jazzy Christmas song. It’s good, but it doesn’t come close to blowing me away. It unfortunately got last place, which must have been demotivating for poor Malta.

Monaco: Un banc, un arbre, une rue (the winner)

Artist: Séverine (Josiane Grizeau)

Language: French

Key: E♭ major, F major

I’m not surprised that Monaco’s only Eurovision victory was this early on. Microstates had more of a chance in the early days of Eurovision, where they didn’t have as many competitors and there was no televoting. It’s also uncommon for fans to be excited for a microstate to win or rejoin the contest. Monaco first participated until 1979, rejoined in 2004-2006, then basically went “never mind”.

This is a blend of two genres prevalent in Eurovision: a 70’s pop ballad with French chanson style lyrics. I have heard snippets of the song but never the whole thing, and I was disappointed to find out the verses use the same chord progression as the chorus, because that’s an enormous pet peeve of mine in music. It almost entirely uses one chord progression looped across four measures, which is better than entirely. Still, it’s extremely rare for me to be wowed by songs with one chord progression the whole way through. The key change at the end is also strangely short. Credit where it’s due: it’s got one hell of a singable chorus.

The lyrics, on the other hand, are quite nice. The title means “a bench, a tree, a street”, and those three items are used to represent childhood nostalgia. They tell us that childhood never lasts forever and you always eventually have to say goodbye. This song feels like it could be the ending of a stage play, like a payoff after the protagonists achieved their goals; that’s a context where songs this repetitive would be more acceptable.

Switzerland: Les illusions de nos vingt ans

Artist: Peter, Sue, and Marc (Peter Reber, Sue Schell, Marc Dietrich)

Language: French

Key: D major, E♭ major

This trio of singers represented Switzerland in four Eurovision contests, and they used a different language each time: in order, French, English, German, and Italian. Clearly, they weren’t afraid to show themselves off. They’re also the first trio to sing for Eurovision, since this contest dropped the rule that only solo and duet singers were allowed. This change was long overdue and I’m happy about it, because 70’s Eurovision is full of gorgeous vocal harmonies. The limit of six total singers on stage was retained.

This song starts out slow and guitar-focused, but then picks up the pace and becomes a normal early 70’s pop song. It’s two and a half minutes long, but because of the 30-second guitar intro, it feels much shorter than that, like it’s a snippet of a bigger song. The key change is halfway through for some reason and it doesn’t add much to this song. My favorite thing about it is the harmonizing vocals.

Germany: Diese Welt

Artist: Katja Ebstein, returning from 1970

Language: German

Key: G major

This song alternates between moody verses, dominated by piano, and a catchy uplifting chorus dominated by brass. It fits for a song whose title means “this world”—it acknowledges that the world may seem gloomy, but it gave you a life that you should make the most out of. Something about this song’s theme feels very authentically German. It’s more subdued and down-to-earth than you’d get from, say, France or Spain or the Nordic countries. It’s not about a crazy fairytale or ludicrous fantasies; it’s just about appreciating the world you live in despite all its issues.

I wish Germany in Eurovision would go back to sending songs that feel German. If you watch a compilation of Germany’s entries, you can sense this decline from 2000 to the present. Despite its low score, “Blood & Glitter” this year was a step in the right direction since it paid homage to a genre of rock that Germany is known for. Surely Germany won’t revert to sending boring songs after this… right? Please? We’ll see what happens.

Spain: En un mundo nuevo

Artist: Karina (María Isabel Llaudes Santiago)

Language: Spanish

Key: D major, E major, F major, F♯ major, G major

Though it has a similar title (In a new world) and theme to Germany’s song, it’s executed in a more Spanish style. The lyrics say that when you’ve reached the end of the road, you’ll understand that joy is to be found in simple things.

I think this song was trying to imitate “Vivo cantando”, Spain’s winner two years prior, which gradually got more energetic as it went on, but that song did the buildup style much better. At the start and after the first key change, it holds back on going full-out Spanish pop. The instrumentation consists mainly of strings, but there are little bits of a Latin style bassline plus a Spanish lyrical cadence. After the second key change, the instrumentation gets more lively, and I don’t know why it wasn’t like that for the whole song. Then it has a third key change with another increase in energy, and a fourth key change to an unnecessary slow section, then the song ends.

One key change is charming, two key changes is tacky, three key changes is charming again, but four key changes returns to being tacky. This song did not need four key changes. Decrease the number of key changes and make the whole song more like the middle part, and I would’ve liked it a lot better. I guess the juries liked it enough to give it second place.

France: Un jardin sur la terre

Artist: Serge Lama

Language: French

Key: C minor, C major, back and forth

This song alternates between minor and major keys way too quickly. As soon as my ears get comfortable with one key, it flips back to the other. This technique can help make a song sound more intense, but it doesn’t suit a waltz like this titled “A garden on earth”. Instead, it makes this song seem unfocused. I don’t think his raspy voice works with the song either. I have pretty much no other thoughts.

Luxembourg: Pomme, pomme, pomme

Artist: Monique Melsen, an actual Luxembourger!

Language: French

Key: C major, D♭ major, D major

This song reminds me of “Puppet on a String” with its cuckoo clock sound, except more whimsical. As the song progresses, it starts sounding slightly like a rock song. I think the composition isn’t as good as “Puppet on a String”, but the instrumentation is more interesting, and the singer looks happier and more animated. I’m surprised it has only two key changes; the last chorus sounds like it was begging for a third.

I would say it’s nice to have something more playful from Luxembourg, but it’s weird to compare their entries against each other when most of the singers aren’t Luxembourgish. Thus, I would say it’s nice to have something more playful from France under Luxembourg’s name, but this singer is from Luxembourg. I’ll just say it’s nice to have a Luxembourg entry from Luxembourg for once.

United Kingdom: Jack in the Box

Artist: Clodagh Rogers

Language: English

Key: C major, D♭ major at the end

This time, the UK took a turn to send someone from Northern Ireland. They sent someone popular in both the UK and the Republic of Ireland due to political turmoil in Northern Ireland.

British entries at this point have developed a clear pattern: flashy composition, a memorable hook that goes with a musical gimmick, and flirty lyrics about romance. In this case, the gimmick is a “stop and go” sound, done by the orchestra pausing when she says several one-syllable words including “stop”. British entries have another pattern of analogizing women to toys, in this case a jack in the box. These types of songs are catchy, but their portrayal of women really hasn’t aged well. Contrast this against “Desfolhada portuguesa” two years prior, a song taking a stand for women’s rights.

Maybe you’re reading these reviews and thinking, “ugh, this guy is so woke, blabbering on about sexism instead of enjoying songs”. I really don’t want to come off this way. Trust me, I find it so fucking annoying when people make excuses to find any piece of media they can think of offensive. I’m just trying to provide an honest, unbiased perspective of how these songs come off today, and that includes analyzing how they treat gender roles.

Belgium: Goeiemorgen, morgen

Artist: Lily Castle and Jacques Raymond, the latter returning from 1963

Language: Dutch

Key: B♭ major, B major, C major

The vocal harmonies are pretty nice, and the duet-style staging is somewhat appealing, but the song is middling otherwise. It lacks much direction and the lyrics are basically just “good morning, this is how great the world is” with a lot of repeated lines. The double key changes try to mask the song’s lack of progression, but I can see right through it. I can understand why it scored so low.

In a way, this song is the opposite of “Nous vivrons d’amour” from 1968. This time, the woman sounds excited while singing, and the man flatter and more bored. Both were replacements for a duo that fell ill, and it seems Lily was joyed at the opportunity while Jacques thought “meh, why not”.

Italy: L’amore è un attimo

Artist: Massimo Ranieri

Language: Italian

Key: F major, F♯ major. I almost was expecting it not to change keys, but it did so right at the end.

How many Italian Eurovision singers have done the stereotypical Italian thing of pulling two fists close to their chest? Is this just a universal constant in Eurovision? That’s my main takeaway from this song. Otherwise, it’s an OK Italian ballad with heavy usage of guitars alternating with strings and a voice that’s decent but not particularly gripping.

Sweden: Vita vidder

Artist: Family Four

Language: Swedish

Key: G major, A♭ major

Back in this era of Eurovision, we didn’t get much emphasis on flags. In fact, the postcard for this song might be the first time we see any country’s flag (Sweden of course) since 1959, when we saw all the participants’ flags on a building at the start. Now we’re at a point where it’s controversial when participants don’t carry their flag (Lord of the Lost, from Germany 2023).

In the 1970’s, we’ll see several Nordic countries send a quartet of two men and two women—most famously ABBA, of course. This is the first one. Family Four originally consisted of four family members, but by the time they participated in Eurovision, this had long been an artifact title. I think it goes to show how iconic ABBA is that people see a quartet in Eurovision with the same gender composition and think, “oh shit, it’s just like ABBA!!!” because this song doesn’t feel like them at all. It’s a decent if unfocused half 70’s ballad, half 70’s pop song, and again, the most interesting thing about it is by far the vocal harmonies. Also, the key change is placed very awkwardly—in the middle of the last chorus, for some reason.

Ireland: One Day Love

Artist: Angela Farrell

Language: English

Key: E major

Ireland has returned to the ordinary Irish ballad formula—major key, 6/8 time signature, lots of piano, lyrics about a failed romantic relationship. The main difference from their prior ballads is that it’s sung by a woman, and it has a few minor key sections too. Unfortunately, she sings too close to the microphone and breathes into it many times, plus a few voice cracks. I sympathize with her, because I have a lot of old videos with that same microphone problem but worse. Still though, that makes the performance hard to enjoy.

Netherlands: Tijd

Artist: Saskia and Serge (Trudy van den Berg and Ruud Schaap)

Language: Dutch

Key: A minor, B♭ minor

Saskia and Serge were internally selected to represent the Netherlands this time, since they were the fan favorite in 1970 and fans were salty they lost to Hearts of Soul. For this contest, they brought us a folk song with some unusual instruments like harpsichords and recorders. I get loose Dansevise vibes from this song, since it’s a married duo where the man plays the guitar and only the woman sings at the start. However, for the rest of the song, both of them sing. It’s quite a lovely tune and I can see chemistry between the singers. This is exactly what I wish was done with the harpsichord in 1967!

This song is a perfect example of the overall quality making up for a glaring mistake. At the start, Saksia’s microphone wasn’t working at first, and when the microphone was fixed, it made a squealing noise. Despite this mishap, this song reached a respectable sixth place! As I’ve said in other blog posts, there’s a threshold where if people like a work of media enough overall, they completely forgive its flaws. If this song wasn’t as well-composed and creative, it would have become infamous for the microphone mishap.

Portugal: Menina do alto da serra

Artist: Tonicha (Antónia de Jesus Montes Tonicha)

Language: Portuguese

Key: B♭ minor

My main impression of this song is that it has a lot of quirks but is well-composed and fun regardless. The singer’s dress has a weird smattering of colors, and there’s a whole quartet of backing singers in varied outfits who mostly stay silent.

It’s dominantly traditional Portuguese sounding music, somewhat like “Desfolhada portuguesa”, but it switches at a few points to more modern 70’s pop with a slower drum rhythm and a funky bassline. The pop sections are so brief, but they give the song more charm! They feel like short breakdowns to give the chorus more punch, so they don’t feel out of place to me. The title means “girl from the high mountains” and the lyrics tell a story about exactly that with some impressive rhyming that you can appreciate without having to speak Portuguese. Overall, a charming and surprisingly good song.

Yugoslavia: Tvoj dječak je tužan (Твој дјечак је тужан)

Artist: Krunoslav Slabinac

Language: Serbo-Croatian (Croatian)

Key: E minor

The title means “Your friend is sad”, and “your friend” refers to the singer himself, whose life is in pain because his love interest abandoned him. I appreciate the attempt to sound different from the others, and the minor key rock-like instrumental has a lot of potential. Unfortunately, the old-timey opera style of singing doesn’t suit this song at all. It’s so important for the lyrics of a song to complement the instrumental, not just in textual content, but also in vocal style.

Finland: Tie uuteen päivään

Artist: Markku Aro and the Koivisto Sisters

Language: Finnish

Key: A♭ major

I don’t think this song knows what it wants to be. An upbeat pop song, a stage play song, or a cinematic song? The lyrics are basically about everyone finding a path to a new day, which doesn’t give me a clue about its intended identity. Also, having backing dancers on the side of the stage defeats the point of backup dancers—at least they join the center at the end. The slowdown sections are way overboard and totally break the momentum, like a traffic jam… no wait, I used that metaphor before. Let’s say it’s like my computer lagging because I accidentally opened a program five times.

And yet, this was one of the better scores for Finland in early Eurovision—eighth place, specifically. I’m guessing it’s partly because they performed second last, partly a buff from the new voting system.

Norway: Lykken er…

Artist: Hanne Krogh

Language: Norwegian

Key: E♭ major, F major

Despite scoring second last place in 1971, the then 15-year-old Hanne Krogh would become part of a winning duo in 1985: Bobbysocks, the first winner from Norway. The other member of Bobbysocks was part of a band representing Sweden in 1982, while Hanne Krogh also represented Norway as a member of Just 4 Fun in 1991. One member of Just 4 Fun represented Iceland alone in 1986 and 2007. That’s quite a tangled web of connections, don’t you think?

The lyrics are quite sentimental and tell us that happiness is what you want it to be, like breakfast in bed, playing in the sand, or catching the last bus, and I think there’s truth to that. It’s a very happy and cutesy song, the kind you might hear in a kids’ movie, and unlike many teenage contestants, Hanne stayed in character quite well, even as she played with her umbrella. Maybe it’s because the teenage joy of performing a happy song on stage matches with the song’s tone already.

I’m surprised it scored poorly, considering “J’aime la vie”, another cutesy song by a teenager, won in 1986. But I might just have an explanation. One mild annoyance about the song is that it keeps sounding like it’s about to end but continues quite a bit. For people who already found this song too childish, the fake endings must have been truly grating. Maybe that’s why it scored so low.

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Who’s my favorite?

There are three contenders this time, three songs I’d be more likely to listen to than any others: Germany, the Netherlands, and Portugal. All three have me apprehensive of seeming biased: my own country, the one I’ve awarded winner by far the most, and an underdog country I’d want to throw a bone to. Germany sent a nice uplifting song, but it’s not quite as musically interesting as the other two. This leaves me to choose between the Netherlands and Portugal—two songs that blend traditional and modern sound. The funky pop sounding sections in Portugal’s song, as brief as they are, bring so much life to the tune that it’s elevated above the Netherlands for me. This makes my winner of the year a surprising choice: Portugal, Menina do alta da serra.

• Denmark, 1
• Finland, 1
• Germany, 2
• Ireland, 1
• Luxembourg, 2
• Netherlands, 5
• Norway, 1
• Portugal, 1
• Sweden, 2
• (7 winners)

I’m surprised Portugal got on this list before France, Italy, Spain, and especially the UK! It’s the first country on the list that doesn’t officially speak any Germanic languages.

General thoughts:

As for music, this year is an improvement over 1970, but a lot of the songs still lack direction and focus. Many of them feel like they’re conflicted between sounding like old-timey Eurovision and sounding like 70’s pop music. I can see why Monaco won; their song may have been a little repetitive, but it had a clear direction throughout.

The weirdest thing about this contest has to be its voting system. I wondered how they were going to handle it, and here’s what they did. They put three pairs of jurors on stage at a time, and each of them held up numbers for every song that was called. It ticks me off that they added up numbers from 1 to 5, when they could have used numbers from 0 to 4 and that would have meant a minimum of zero points. One advantage is that viewers could see how each jury member rated each song. It allowed for much more transparency, which is probably what people from the countries that skipped in 1970 had desired. Still, I’m not a fan of rating songs (or any media) numerically. I should also note this was the first Eurovision scoreboard to use an electronic display.

I didn’t talk about the Austrian commentator while reviewing the songs, so let’s change that now. He kept a neutral tone throughout and helpfully summed up what the songs mean, but didn’t give thoughts on them himself. He saved his excitement for when Monaco won. Towards the end of voting, he said something amusing: “Spanien könnte natürlich noch aufholen, wenn es alle 36 Punkte bekommt… nein. Das geht eigentlich nicht mehr. Nein.” (Spain could of course still catch up, if it gets all 36 points… no. That’s no longer possible. No.) He briefly thought the six jury members could give up to 36 more points, but it was only 30. That moment shows that just like us, the commentators endlessly make calculations to determine who will win. It was only when he said he hoped his country wouldn’t finish second last that I realized this was an Austrian commentator, not German. Then I had to edit the introduction.

At the end, the top three performers were all awarded, for the only time in Eurovision history. The Austrian commentator was proud of their neighbor Germany for scoring third place, which I find heartwarming.

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See you next time as Eurovision comes to Scotland for the first time.

>> 1972: The Year of Romantic Duets