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This time of year, the only real Eurovision updates are countries gradually confirming they’ll join next year (including the ones that were pissed), plus the host city selection. Fans are already speculating on who will win 2024 based on whatever patterns they can scrounge up, a clear sign of this news drought. If you’re following these posts, I hope it’s helping lessen your post-Eurovision depression!
Introduction
Since tiny little Monaco didn’t have any buildings suitable to host Eurovision, the United Kingdom stepped in yet again and brought the 1972 contest to Edinburgh, Scotland. This is the only Eurovision hosted in Scotland, and the only one hosted in a part of the UK other than England. Also related to Celtic nations, it’s the only Eurovision with an entry sung in Irish. It had the same 18 countries as last time and the same “1-5 points per juror” voting system as last time, and this time Luxembourg won. I watched it with German commentary… well, mostly. The upload I found alternated between British and German commentary when the voting began, probably because parts of the German commentary were missing.
Unlike the last two contests, this didn’t have any postcards between songs, just pictures of the singers on the big screen. The cards in 1970 featured the singers in their respective countries, in 1971 tourist destinations in those countries, so maybe the Eurovision staff decided they weren’t doing this time. Clearly, they changed their minds in not too long.
I guess I could give a few additional facts, like “this was the first contest where no songs got the same score” or “this is the first time two winners in a row had the same songwriter” (both true), but then I’d sound like a trivia section on a fanmade wiki, especially on the website known as… shudder… Fandom. Let’s just begin!
Germany: Nur die Liebe lässt uns leben
Artist: Mary Ross
Language: German
Key: E major, F major
I could list this song as “Nur die Liebe läßt uns leben”, but I wasn’t born before 1996 so none of the before 1996 German spellings appeal to me.
I’ve noticed that in Eurovision contests, decades don’t begin with music that I associate with that decade. Contests in the early 1960’s had songs that I think of as “50’s”, the early 70’s had “60’s” songs, the early 80’s had “70’s” songs, and so on. I don’t feel this way about early 2010’s Eurovision, so this is probably a result of my distorted (and perhaps rose-tinted) perception of media before I was born. Indeed, when I hear this song I think “60’s”. It’s a pleasant, simple pop song with lots of brass and bongos, and the lyrics say that only love lets people live. Also, it proves my observation that the most common rhyme in German is “-ein”. I find it charming that the name of the country appears on screen the moment the song ends.
Random fact: The German commentator said that Paul Kuhn, the conductor of the song, isn’t as happy as he looks because he lost his coat in Edinburgh. I love little side remarks like this. My impression is that German-speaking Eurovision commentators have a more lowkey sense of humor than their English-speaking counterparts.
France: Comé-comédie
Artist: Betty Mars
Language: French
Key: F major, F♯ major
Before I begin, I’m obligated to mention something sad: Betty Mars committed suicide at the age of 44, seventeen years after this contest.
This song is an old-timey, traditionally French waltz about how life is a comedy. Its main hook is a pun between “comédie” (comedy) and “comme on dit” (as they say), which differ by only one sound because French loves its silent letters. Aside from the occasional electric guitar, it sounds like a song that I’d hear in a 1950’s Eurovision and quickly forget about.
Also, can I say that “on” is a really weird French word? The technical meaning is “one”, as in an impersonal pronoun, but it’s often used to mean “we” (in place of “nous”) and sometimes “they” (in place of “ils/elles”). So in practice, “on” in French is much like “you” in English: a pronoun whose precise meaning you infer… sorry, one infers, from context.
Ireland: Ceol an Ghrá
Artist: Sandie Jones
Language: Irish, for the only time in Eurovision history!
Key: G major, A♭ major
Now we have something interesting: the only Eurovision song ever to be sung in Irish! Well, at least in regular Eurovision. Ireland participated in Junior Eurovision since 2015, and all their entries for it have been in Irish, which shows that the country tries as hard as it can to teach children the language. That’s nice and all, but it would mean so much more if Ireland sent another song to adult Eurovision in Irish. It would tell the world that this language is still alive and more than just a requirement in Irish schools. I’m not going to say Ireland should send “absolutely anything in Irish”, because such a song should still be musically interesting. But if they sent a good, memorable song in Irish, especially if the singer has a backlog of Irish-language songs, that could boost interest in this language.
I can’t by any means speak Irish, although I did a school project on its grammar once—I picked the language because I knew almost nothing about it. That’s how I learned about the language’s decline in favor of English, as well as the extremely difficult task of keeping it alive. The problem with songs in Irish is that there’s a clear difference between fluently spoken Irish, and Irish spoken merely due to a school requirement. The latter category is far bigger and tends to have thickly Anglicized phonology, no matter how fluent the speaker claims to be.
Luckily, I can tell this song’s Irish is the real deal. It’s sung in an upbeat orchestral song in 12/8 time, with many syllables that match the triplet beats. It sounds like it’d fit well in an old children’s movie, perhaps one that adapts a fairy tale. This is further confirmed by the title, which means “the music of love”.
This song scored 15th place out of 18, much lower than Ireland usually scored back then. As with the case of Maltese, this probably discouraged them from singing in anything other than English. The bright side is, this is far from the last Eurovision song to be in an endangered language.
Spain: Amanece
Artist: Jaime Morey
Language: Spanish
Key: F♯ major and D major in alternation, then G major
This song has gloomy lyrics, but the instrumental sounds like it can’t decide whether to be melancholy or uplifting, and thus it’s not much of either. Plus, the guy just stands on stage for the most part wearing a generic gray suit, and I guess he does a few gestures too. But while it isn’t his time to sing, he just stands blankly, which ticks me off. The whole song basically fades into mush for me. Luckily, Spain will send a FAR more interesting song next time.
United Kingdom: Beg, Steal or Borrow
Artist: The New Seekers
Language: English
Key: G major
One of the most famous artists in this contest, the New Seekers were responsible for “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing”, which I learned today. Their extremely 70’s outfits stand out more than anything else. Back in that era, this style of fashion probably was a cool and badass way to make a splash on stage, but it just looks so goofy to me. Don’t get me wrong, it’s goofy in a charming way. In fact, pretty much everything about Eurovision is goofy in a charming way.
The song itself is a country-style tune with twangy guitar and simple chords, and its lyrical hooks are nowhere near as sticky as in prior British entries. Well OK, it’s really just one hook, which is the title. Also, the singer dressed in pink sings way too close to the microphone. The band’s existing popularity is probably why they got second place.
Norway: Småting
Artist: Grethe Kausland and Benny Borg
Language: Norwegian
Key: D major, E♭ major
This song has basically the same theme as Norway’s song last year: joy is to be found in the small things. In fact, the previous song’s title (Lykken er…) means “Happiness is…”, and this song’s title means “small things”. The names complement each other! It’s a small thing that makes me happy, which proves the point of both these songs.
I failed to mention when reviewing “Lykken er…” that its lyrics mention the happiness of getting tax money back. I’m pretty sure 15-year-olds in Norway don’t do their own taxes, but I could be wrong. Either way, the line is amusingly out of place among the rest.
Anyway, about this song. It feels like an adult counterpart to Norway’s previous entry. It’s more pop and guitar-oriented than the kids’ movie song we got last time, but it still has a nostalgic movie sound. Once again, it has a male-female duo where the man plays guitar. I think the line about taxes would fit this song better than in Hanne Krogh’s… or would it? The tax line would make this song seem comedic when it’s supposed to be more heartfelt in tone, so maybe it fits better in “Lykken er…” after all.
Portugal: A festa da vida
Artist: Carlos Mendes, returning from 1968
Language: Portuguese
Key: E minor
Do you ever see someone you haven’t met in years and get shocked to see they grew a beard? That’s how Eurovision fans must have felt about Carlos Mendes. This is certainly more interesting than his previous song, thanks to the backing singers and the Latin style chord progressions that flit into major key in the chorus. It would be a cooler song if they got more mileage out of backup singers. My favorite 70’s Eurovision songs do exactly that.
Switzerland: C’est la chanson de mon amour
Artist: Véronique Müller. Yes, a French first name and a German last name.
Language: French
Key: B♭ minor and B♭ major in alternation
“It’s the song of my love” is what the title translates to, and that sounds like a generic French love song. However, this song is actually quite interesting! I like the alternation between a mischievous minor key and a dreamy major key, and she has a charming stage presence. She sits on a chair, she plays guitar, and she’s quite expressive. This leaves me wondering, why does it have such a generic title? That really sells the song short. I find this tune surprisingly lovely. Many songs in the past half decade of contests I’ve reviewed have unnecessary changes between major and minor key, but this song pulls it off well. Maybe it’s because the minor and major key sections are both quite simple in themselves, so switching between them spices it up.
Malta: L-imħabba
Artist: Helen and Joseph (Helen Micallef and Joe Cutajar)
Language: Maltese, plus Italian, Spanish, German, and English words for “kiss”
Key: E♭ major, F major
A common strategy for songs in less-known languages is to incorporate little bits of more popular languages, and Malta tried just that. The lyrics tell us that the essence of love is above all else a kiss, and the multiple languages are used to indicate that’s true no matter what culture you’re from. The problem is that the other languages are hard to notice, because they aren’t highlighted that well in the lyrics, so the song would be basically the same without them.
It bugs me when romantic duet singers take moments to stare at each other instead of the audience, even though I get that it matches the lyrics. I do like their matching muted red outfits. Musically, it’s a cheesy 70’s pop song with lots of trumpets and a “waw waw” sounding guitar in the background. It scored last place and is still Malta’s last entry in Maltese; they didn’t participate again until 1975, then 1991 to the present. Even if it wasn’t in Maltese, I think it would’ve still scored low.
Finland: Muistathan
Artist: Päivi Paunu and Kim Floor
Language: Finnish
Key: B minor
Another romantic duet, this time it sounds like a stage play song. The diminished chords make it sound slightly villainous, or maybe just mischievous. The lyrics are about a one-time romantic experience that the singers barely remember, and it’s reflected in the staging. The singers are together at the start and separated for most of the rest, except when they rejoin and reminisce together. Then they dance together as the song speeds up like crazy.
It’s one of the better songs musically so far, but not quite my favorite. I admire the staging a lot because it complements the story perfectly. The dance break at the end is very silly but it does liven up the song.
Austria: Falter im Wind
Artist: Milestones
Language: German
Key: A major
Now this is a change of pace! Possibly the most contemporary song in the contest, this features a ton of guitars and harmonizing singers and snazzy chord progressions. It was quite successful for an unusual song and scored fifth place. Unlike most previous songs with guitar, this song truly puts the two guitarists in the spotlight. It also has piano throughout the song, plus a performer who alternates between vocals and flute. The lyrics follow the story of a butterfly out in nature, without being a metaphor for romance as far as I know.
The German word for butterfly, “Schmetterling”, is repeated in the song, and that brings me to a topic I’d like to rant about. I have seen many videos that perpetuate the stereotype that German is an angry-sounding language using exaggerated pronunciations of words like “Krankenhaus” (hospital), “Flugzeug” (airplane), and especially the memetic “Schmetterling”. This is just cherry picking, especially when these words are compared against their equivalents in other languages. You’re allowed to have your own perceptions of how languages sound, but it annoys me so much when Eurovision fans gush about the beauty of Italian or the classiness of French, then deride German as “the angry Rammstein language” and use that to excuse why we’ve gotten almost no songs in German since 2007. This song’s lyrics don’t sound aggressive at all, especially not the word “Schmetterling”. The same holds for most Eurovision songs in German.
I’ve noticed that most Eurovision winners either get a common formula down to the widest appeal (e.g., “Merci, Chérie”, “Euphoria”) or do something unusual that shifts the contest’s direction (e.g., “Waterloo”, “Hard Rock Hallelujah”). Waterloo gave the contest a rise in punchy pop bands, while Hard Rock Hallelujah prompted an increase in rock music. If this song had won instead of “Après toi”, 1970’s Eurovision might have looked very different.
I may have gotten sidetracked in this review. The point is, this is exactly the kind of song I was excited to see in 70’s Eurovision. I had never heard it before writing this review.
Italy: I giorni dell’arcobaleno
Artist: Nicola Di Bari
Language: Italian
Key: D major
This song is about a woman the singer knew, who ended her innocent childhood early by starting a romantic relationship at age 15. She thought it made her the coolest person ever, but it made her lose a valuable part of her life. The lyrics had to be toned down a lot for Eurovision; the woman’s age was originally 12, and it used to have a verse about her earlier love experiences.
Musically, this is an ordinary Italian ballad sung by some dude with glasses. As with other songs in this competition, it’s distinguished from prior years mostly by the use of country-style guitar. The lyrics are well-sung, but they’re exactly the kind that a lot of Eurovision fans assume are supremely artistic just because they’re in Italian. Don’t get me wrong, Italian is certainly a well-suited language for music. But the fans who put English, Italian, and French on a huge pedestal should stop and think about how speakers of other languages must feel, like German or Finnish or Polish—three languages that get memed on for being “aggressive”, “alien”, and “unpronounceable” respectively.
Yugoslavia: Muzika i ti (Музика и ти)
Artist: Tereza Ana Kesovija, who represented Monaco in 1966
Language: Serbo-Croatian (Croatian)
Key: F major, briefly F♯ major at the end
If the Italian singer this year had disappointingly few hand gestures, this entry makes up for it. Tereza goes full-out opera style in this song, both in her voice and in her gestures. And yet, the lyrics don’t sound like they should be in Italian this time! Quite impressive. It’s clearly meant to be a powerful, uplifting romantic song, especially considering the title means “music and you”, but it’s missing some of the punch. It comes close to sounding dramatic, but during the chorus when it sounds like a climax is approaching, it always scales back down.
Sweden: Härliga sommardag
Artist: Family Four, returning from 1971
Language: Swedish, for the last time until 1977
Key: B♭ major, B major
An improvement over Family Four’s last song, this tune has three sections in different styles: serene verses with strings, upbeat swing chorus, and a breakdown section returning to straight rhythm. It goes through the three styles in order, then the first two, then a key change, then a slowed down ending. In the competition, staging, and singers’ outfits, especially with the dominance of the two female singers, I get a proto-ABBA vibe from this song. However, proto-ABBA vibes is not the same as ABBA vibes. I just get the feeling the Family Four’s Eurovision entries inspired ABBA to make theirs.
This song could do with some trimming of the quiet verses and expanding on the lively parts—perhaps more parts like the breakdown I mentioned earlier. Still, it’s a fun song with moments of greatness, especially the word “sommardag” right at the end. The four singers harmonize the syllable “som” to make a delightful extended chord. By “extended chord”, I don’t mean a chord with extended length. It’s a chord whose notes extend beyond an octave, a key feature of funk music.
Monaco: Comme on s’aime
Artist: Anne-Marie Godart and Peter McLane
Language: French. It’s time for a x3 French combo!
Key: G major and G minor in alternation, then B♭ major at the end
I feel like someone just vomited sugar in my mouth. This is one of the tackiest love songs I’ve ever heard from Eurovision, but not the tackiest. It doesn’t surpass “Uh, jeg ville ønske jeg var deg” (Denmark 1959), whose diabetes transcend language barriers.
This isn’t that bad compositionally, but the problem is that it feels like two different songs in alternation: a major key romance waltz and a totally different minor key romance waltz. Plus, no matter how romantic a Eurovision duet is, the singers should look at the audience, NOT EACH OTHER. And especially not switch between each other and the audience. “Sing, Little Birdie”, the British entry from 1959, proves that singers can look at the audience through most of the song, and the romantic intent is PERFECTLY CLEAR.
Belgium: À la foile ou pas du tout
Artist: Serge and Christine Ghisoland, an actual married couple this time
Language: French
Key: D major, E♭ major, E major
There sure are a lot of romantic duets in this contest. The title means “madly or not at all”, which describes the singers’ love—they know they love each other excessively and won’t have it any other way. The lyrics are self-aware about their extravagant romance, unlike so many other romantic duets. As with “Sing, Little Birdie”, it only makes sense that the most earnest romantic duets are with actual couples. However, it’s still a sappy love waltz with too many key changes.
To prove French romantic waltzes don’t always score well, this song got second last place, and Monaco got third last.
Luxembourg: Après toi (the winner)
Artist: Vicky Leandros, returning from 1967
Language: French
Key: F major
Oh boy. A winning song by a returning artist whose prior song (L’amour est bleu) I analyzed extensively. Tons of alternate language versions. This is going to be a long review, isn’t it.
Watching its performance, I can see right away why this song won. It perfected the ballad formula with the right balance between rich, lively instrumentation and melancholic tone, with a singer who truly feels this song. Her good-looking hairstyle and long black dress certainly helped, and they both match the song. I can complain about sappy romance songs all I want, but with a chorus as well-composed as this, I’m hit straight in the gut. The lyrics are directed at her lover who just left her, and she tells her lover that once he’s found a new interest, she will effectively be dead to him—the shadow of his shadow. The title means “After you”.
This song wasn’t originally in French, but in German. It was sent to the German national final last year under the title “Dann kamst du” (Then you came) but didn’t get to compete, so it was rewritten in French the next year. The German lyrics mean “now that I met you, I’ll love you forever and forget the past”, which is so much more boring than the French lyrics. This is a case where rewriting the lyrics from scratch suits the instrumental better! The English version, “Come What May”, is based on the German lyrics, which is a shame because the French lyrics are way better. The Greek version also adapts the German lyrics, though I am happy she made one because I was disappointed “L’amour est bleu” didn’t have one.
The Spanish version is unsurprisingly based on its fellow Romance language, French. She pronounced the lyrics well, because Spanish and her native Greek have similar phonology. I expected the Italian version to adapt the French lyrics too, and I was right. I like the rhythmic liberties done to fit Italian better. This just leaves the Japanese version, whose lyrics are loosely based on the French version. Aside from the rolled R’s, which Japanese doesn’t have at all, her pronunciation seems pretty decent.
One more weird fact: Until 2005, Vicky Leandros’ victory was the closest thing to Greece winning Eurovision.
Netherlands: Als het om de liefde gaat
Artist: Sandra and Andres (Sandra Reemer, Dries Holten)
Language: Dutch
Key: D♭ major and B♭ major in alternation
The Netherlands brings us a surprisingly upbeat duet between a man and woman in flashy green outfits whose title means “when it’s about love”. It alternates between brassy bouncy sections and calm interludes, and it’s a nice lighthearted way to end this contest. These singers look at each other more often than not, but it’s more acceptable than other times they do it because they look animated doing so. It has playful lyrics mixed with some “na na na” about the challenge of making a romantic decision. It almost sounds like the credits theme to a kids’ movie, maybe because it’s the contest’s closer.
You’d think a song that follows something this flashy would score poorly, but it luckily got fourth place. Nice job, Netherlands!
Who’s my favorite?
This time, I can pick out four contenders: Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. A charming major/minor key guitar piece, a moody pop song ahead of its time, the emotional winning song, and the playful duet. Switzerland was a nice composition but had the least wow factor of the four, so I’ll eliminate it. I put the Netherlands as a contender because I wanted to give contests’ final songs a chance, but compared to other playful songs I’ve enjoyed, it sounds a little too bombastic. This leaves me choosing between Austria and Luxembourg. It’s debatable which has more wow factor, although the more innovative of them is my winner of this year: Austria, Falter im Wind. But “Après toi” is a great song too!
- Austria, 1
- Denmark, 1
- Finland, 1
- Germany, 2
- Ireland, 1
- Luxembourg, 2
- Netherlands, 5
- Norway, 1
- Portugal, 1
- Sweden, 2
- (7 winners)
This list has gotten three new countries in a row! Ireland, Portugal, and Austria.
General thoughts:
Since the contest took place in Scotland, it’s no surprise the interval act was a grandiose bagpipe show. A good and entertaining choice, I must say!
As I said in this post’s title, this contest had a lot of romantic duets for some reason. Pretty much every Eurovision contest has at least one overused trope, and it looks like romantic duets were this one’s. Still, it was a fun contest to review! We got some unusual entries like a folk song in Irish and a gripping guitar tune from Austria. The moving ballad from Luxembourg was a worthy winner. It was a mixed bag like any Eurovision contest, but the improvement from the past two contests is abundantly clear. We’ve now truly reached the rich, varied 70’s bangers that I was excited to analyze! The competition in the voting was tighter than last year, which speaks to the songs’ quality.
I’ve also noticed that since 1970, the orchestral reprise of last year’s winner was moved from the start to the end, when the previous winner themselves entered to give the current winner their prize. This time, it was slightly different: Séverine gave the prizes to Vicky’s father who composed the song, Leo Leandros. Vicky herself appeared right after, and the two latest winners hugged. What a sweet little tradition.
See you next time for a contest with two of my favorite Eurovision songs ever: “Eres tú” and “It’s Just a Game”.
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