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During this quiet season of Eurovision news, I have to admit I said a little “yesssss” when Serbia confirmed they’ll participate in 2024. Why are the former Yugoslav countries so much better at using their own languages than most others?
Introduction
We’ve reached the 20th year of Eurovision! The 1975 contest was the first of six (soon to be seven) Eurovisions hosted in Sweden, and the first of three hosted in its capital: Stockholm. This contest had 19 countries total: all returned from last year, France and Malta rejoined, and Turkey made its debut. Unfortunately, due to Greeks and Turks’ conflict over Cyprus, Greece skipped out this time. For the same reason, Turkey skipped out when Greece rejoined the next year. It took until 1978 for Greeks and Turks to participate in Eurovision together.
Turkey has a mixed history in Eurovision—they scored poorly at first, but their results gradually improved as fans started to enjoy their style of music. Turkey won in 2003 and scored second place in 2010, but their last time participating was in 2012. It’s generally accepted that Turkey’s absence is due to anti-LGBT sentiment in their government, which is a huge tragedy. Aside from this topic, this contest saw the Netherlands win with one of the most beloved 70’s Eurovision songs: Ding-a-Dong. It was the first opening entry to win a Eurovision contest, and the Netherlands’ last victory for 44 years. The UK scored second place, as you’d expect from them. Germany had one of the lowest scoring entries, but today their song is a fan favorite.
Speaking of Germany, I watched the contest with German commentary. The commentator called it the “Eurovision Schlager Wettbewerb” which is so much cooler of a name than what Germans normally call it: the Eurovision Song Contest. I’m now pissed that the name “Eurovision Schlager Wettbewerb” isn’t in common use. It sounds so badass!
The contest’s broadcast opened with a super cheesy wordless skit about the history of Sweden, with blatant green screen effects. Then we get to the show itself! It was the first Eurovision where the presenter dominantly spoke English over the host country’s native language. There was also the obligatory French, of course. The contest featured postcards where each contestant painted themselves holding their country’s flag, which is rather cute. One more thing: this was the first contest to feature the “12, 10, 8 to 1 points for each country’s top 10 songs” voting system that’s been consistently used (with some variation) to this day.
Netherlands: Ding-a-Dong (the winner)
Artist: Teach-In
Language: English
Key: A minor
This song holds a special place in my heart. Around April 2022, back when I didn’t know much about this contest, I watched a video compiling every Eurovision winner up to 2021. A few songs particularly made my face light up: “Poupée de cire, poupée de son” (1965), “In Your Eyes” (1993), and most of all, the song I’m reviewing right now: Ding-a-Dong! I knew I had to listen to that song in full, so I did and became hooked. As I gradually became acquainted with more Eurovision entries, I discovered a lot of gems, but none that spoke to me as much as Ding-a-Dong. It might be my favorite Eurovision song of all time.
Why do I love this song so much, you may ask? It has everything that could possibly make a song appealing to me: a catchy melody, superb vocal harmonies, a pumping energy that’s not overly produced, and most of all, a gorgeous bridge section that takes you through a surprising chord progression. If it weren’t for this delightful song, I might have never become obsessed with Eurovision. The staging is memorable too: it consists of a woman singing, and five men on various instruments who sing backup, each in colorful outfits. I feel bad for the xylophone player, since his instrument is only audible before each verse. He does get a moment to shine when he breaks a glass ball at the end.
The lyrics of this song vary between its three language versions: English, Dutch, and German. In English, the lyrics are about singing away your sorrows with a song that goes “ding-a-dong”. These lyrics are rather playful and goofy. The German lyrics have a similar theme to the English ones, but with slightly more focus on romantic troubles, and more encouragement to sing instead of crying. The lead singer, Getty Kaspers, was raised in Austria which explains her accent in the German version.
In Dutch, “Ding-a-Dong” is totally different: a scornful breakup song about a marriage that faded through time. The other two versions only have “ding-a-dong” as a lyrical hook, but the Dutch version has many more: “tikke-tak” and “bim bam bom” representing the singer waiting for her love to return, plus “is het lang geleden” (is it long ago), said four times per verse. It’s evident that the Dutch lyrics were made first, then were rewritten in English and German to be more positive. I adore this song no matter what language it’s in, but the Dutch version is definitely the best. I’ve listened to it enough times that I can understand its lyrics! It helps that so many words are recognizable from German and English.
I’ll analyze why this song won at the end of this post. Since I haven’t heard most other songs from this contest yet, it won’t make sense to do it now.
Ireland: That’s What Friends Are For
Artist: The Swarbriggs, a duo of brothers
Language: English
Key: E major, F major
The painting postcards are fun because they represent each contestant’s sense of humor. The Swarbriggs painted a two-headed creature representing themselves, plus some recognizable Irish symbols: clovers and harps. They drew their flag nice and wide, as it should be.
This is a cute song with heartfelt lyrics—the title is exactly what it’s about. It’s a 6/8 song with a bit of country twang, especially with that guitar. It doesn’t come anywhere close to speaking to me as much as Ding-a-Dong, but that’s a super high bar. It’s a charming piece of music either way.
France: Et bonjour à toi l’artiste
Artist: Nicole Rieu
Language: French
Key: D major, E♭ major
This song is about appreciating artists, composers, and creators of all kinds for what they bring to the world. It’s a well-composed ballad with a great buildup from pure piano to bass, drums, and even backing singers, plus strings after the key change. The voice gets a little too breathy at parts, but otherwise it’s a lovely song. So far, every song in this contest clearly has some soul put into it, and I like that a lot. It matches the high expectations I’ve had for this year.
One thing that anchors this song in 1975 is the lines about how exciting the year 2000 will be. A 70’s song is far more likely to be enjoyed 50 years later if its lyrics are applicable to any time period. It got fourth place back then, but today it’s one of France’s most forgotten early entries. This contrasts against the next song, which stood the test of time far better.
Germany: Ein Lied kann eine Brücke sein
Artist: Joy Fleming
Language: German, with some English at the end
Key: A major in the intro, G major otherwise
Although it scored third to last place in this contest with a measly 15 points (Ding-a-Dong scored 152), today it’s one of the most beloved 70’s Eurovision entries. Perhaps it’s because the song has a timeless message that could fit in any year of Eurovision: a song can be a bridge, which is exactly what the title means. Specifically, a bridge that allows anyone to understand each other no matter where they’re from. It’s a message that any Eurovision fan can agree is true, and the phrase sounds eloquent in German.
There’s something interesting about this song’s composition. The first verse alternates between D major and G major chords, so the listener is likely to parse the D major chords as the song’s root, like an alternating I-IV chord progression. However, the choruses are unambiguously in G major, which means the shorter second verse (same chords as the first one) is more likely to be parsed as V-I chords. If you don’t know how music theory works, basically the first verse feels like a standalone verse, while the second verse feels like a leadup to the rousing chorus. It’s a lovely song all around, and I can see why it became a cult classic decades later, especially among German-speaking fans.
If you’re wondering what I think of the English at the end, I’m totally fine with it. It adds wider appeal to the song without diluting its own language. It’s when Germany sends songs entirely in English year after year that lowkey breaks my heart. Maybe not that lowkey, since I’ve brought this up many times in my blog.
Luxembourg: Toi
Artist: Geraldine Brannigan, an Irish who adopted the stage name Géraldine presumably to sound more French
Language: French
Key: A♭ major
When it comes to Eurovision results, Germans and Brits are twins who suffer together. Much in the vein of a British commentator, the German commentator remarked that tiny Luxembourg has won four times but Germany never has. His tone sounded mostly neutral, but I could sense a tinge of hope in it.
The flag painted in the postcard looks identical to the Netherlands’ flag, because both are red, white, and blue tricolors—Luxembourg is just lighter blue. Russian speakers are less likely to confuse these two flags, because they have separate words for light blue and dark blue. This distinction is reflected in Russian train station maps, and I think that’s pretty neat.
I should probably talk about the song itself. The piano intro resembles Bach’s C major prelude from The Well-Tempered Clavier, which is neat. It starts as a piano ballad, then for the chorus, it switches genres into an upbeat pop song. Then it goes back to a ballad in the verses. I sort of wish it kept the quiet piano style throughout the song. But that isn’t the most salient thing about this song; rather, it’s her painful English accent. Why on earth did Luxembourg send a song that twice in a row??? Did the people in charge of selecting think, “hmm, we scored high last year with an English singer, so maybe we don’t need to hire native French speakers anymore”? Maybe they were right, because this song scored fifth place.
As I expected, this song has an English version, and as I expected, it’s titled “You”—the most boring name you could possibly give any song. In English, this is a typical “good verses, boring chorus” Eurovision song. At least it’s better than “boring verses, boring chorus”.
Norway: Touch My Life (With Summer)
Artist: Ellen Nikolaysen, the redhead of the Bendik Singers
Language: English
Key: E♭ major in the verses, E♭ minor in the chorus
You might think this was Ellen Nikolaysen’s third Eurovision year in a row, but that’s not quite true. She was part of a quartet in 1973, but she wasn’t there in 1974 alongside the other Bendik Singers. That explains a lot, because I was wondering why the female backing singer in “The First Day of Love” didn’t have red hair. It was a totally different person.
Ellen herself was busy preparing for the 1974 World International Song Festival in Tokyo, which she ended up winning. And yet, she couldn’t resist participating in another Eurovision. There have been many other song festivals between countries (or U.S. states) inspired by Eurovision, but none have been anywhere near as successful. The World International Song Festival, for one, only lasted from 1970 to 1987.
This song is a hybrid between 70’s pop, theater tunes, and classic orchestral music. I actually kind of dig it, since the genres mesh well. It’s also quite exotic to put the verses in major key and the choruses in minor key—the inverse is far more common. Sadly, this song got second last place. Maybe the juries felt she didn’t deserve to win after winning another song contest? It could also be that they preferred faster-paced songs.
Switzerland: Mikado
Artist: Simone Drexel, a 17-year-old who also wrote this song
Language: German
Key: A major in the verses, F♯ minor in the chorus, then G♯ major in the final chorus
Two songs in a row with major key verses and minor key choruses. That’s quite odd, isn’t it?
Here’s a song about an eccentric topic: a game called Mikado that if you’re American, you might know as “pick-up sticks”. I don’t think the verses fit that eccentric theme, but the choruses with their minor key string riffs and xylophone strongly fit it. Maybe it’s supposed to be a metaphor for romantic troubles, where you’re severely punished if you make one mistake? It’s a cute song, but it would have benefitted from sounding more like the chorus throughout.
Yugoslavia: Dan ljubezni
Artist: Pepel in Kri (called Ashes and Blood in this contest)
Language: Slovenian
Key: C major, D♭ major
According to the German commentator, this band was almost going to sing this song in English but then changed their mind. Reminds me of many of Slovenia’s contemporary contestants—they proudly cling to their modest little language.
From the band’s title, I was expecting an aggressive rock song, not a relaxed country-like piece. Well OK, the title does mean “the day of love”. After the first minute, it sounds less like a country song and more like just an ordinary happy pop song, perhaps because the guitar becomes less prominent. I have to give credit to the smooth key change though.
United Kingdom: Let Me Be the One
Artist: The Shadows
Language: English
Key: C major and/or A minor. It’s up to interpretation.
The UK has entered its decade-long band phase! We won’t get another British solo singer until 1985. This band era is a strong section of British Eurovision history, with two victories and two second places, one of which was this song. You can tell from all the paint gags that the Shadows were excited about this entry, so let’s see how it holds up!
Near the start, the lead singer fumbles over the word “really”, and he handles it quite well. He simply says “I knew it” and prods on with the song, owning up to this imperfection. It’s fortunate the error is near the start, since it means the juries will forget about it when the song ends.
I think this is the first ever Eurovision song to feature a guitar with distortion, the kind that’s associated with modern rock music. It’s easily the most rock sounding song in the contest’s history so far, but by today’s standards it’s restrained. I don’t mean this in a bad way—it’s an excellent and catchy song. Maybe the UK’s band addiction was inspired by ABBA’s win? The same could be said for any presence of bands in post-ABBA Eurovision.
Malta: Singing This Song
Artist: Renato Micallef
Language: English
Key: A major, B♭ major, B major
As I said before, Malta didn’t even need the language rule lifted to sing in English. It was always an option! And yet, Malta didn’t participate in Eurovision after this song until 1991.
The German composer remarked that despite having a Maltese singer and composer, it sounds very British. Aside from the singer’s voice, I can see why he thought that. It’s an upbeat and fairly cheesy pop tune, and the message is that if your life is facing hardships, you should just sing this song. “Ding-a-Dong” did this message much better.
In some ways, this song is the inverse of Ding-a-Dong. It has a male lead singer and (rather quiet) female backing singers, it progresses with two key changes instead of interesting composition, and it’s in major key.
Belgium: Gelukkig zijn / Could It Be Happiness
Artist: Ann Christy, who died at 38 years old in 1984
Language: First Dutch, then English
Key: D♭ major
This song is almost entirely the work of women. It has a female singer, and a female writer and composer. However, the conductor in this contest was a man.
Musically, this is an average pop song without much energy. The lyrics are the most interesting part of it, because the Dutch and English parts are about two different things. The Dutch part is about happiness in wandering and being carefree, whereas the English part has a far more boring theme: the happiness of being with your love interest. Instead of the verses’ lyrics matching each other, like “English + native language” songs typically do, this just feels like two unrelated sets of lyrics stitched together. People who speak both languages probably found the transition jarring. If the lyrics in two different languages don’t connect thematically, there’s no point in combining them. It should have been either all Dutch or all English.
I’ve never been sure how to feel about the abundance of half-English songs in 21st century Eurovision. Some songs of this type work splendidly—“Saudade, saudade” from 2022 needs both English and Portuguese to convey its message—but in most cases, it feels like a gimmick or middle ground. Plus, half-English songs don’t seem to perform much better than fully native language songs. I will say, it’s amusing to hear an entry half in English before it was cool.
Israel: At va Ani (את ואני)
Artist: Shlomo Artzi
Language: Hebrew
Key: F major
An upbeat pop song whose title means “you and me”, but unfortunately, the composition feels kind of shallow. It feels like the song needed a bit more to it. This style of song would perfectly fit backing singers, and it could have had a bridge section or minor key parts too.
Turkey: Seninle Bir Dakika
Artist: Semiha Yankı. I better watch out for those dotless I’s.
Language: Turkish. Finally a language that capitalizes song titles the English way!
Key: F♯ minor, G minor
Now we’ve reached something interesting: the first Turkic country to participate in Eurovision! Well, the first of two and a half. Azerbaijan has proudly participated with high viewership since 2008, even though the country has even worse LGBT rights than Turkey, which seems paradoxical to me. Kazakhstan has currently only gotten to participate in Junior Eurovision.
I’ve always found Turkish an intriguing language. The grammar and word structure seem otherworldly compared to any Indo-European languages, but at the same time, it seems very logical, capable of expressing topics in a totally different way from English. Thanks to a little something called vowel harmony, there’s an elegance to the sound of Turkish. Unfortunately, Turkey’s first entry got last place and they tried again three years later. Their results would slowly improve from then on. The highest a song in Turkish has ranked is third place.
I quite enjoy this song. It’s slow and laid back, but dramatic at the same time. The title means “A Minute with You”. It’s got a dreamy stage play feel to it, which blends well with a more modern pop style. Plus, she has a strong voice. I’m now even more certain that the juries for this contest favored fast-paced songs.
Monaco: Une chanson c’est une lettre
Artist: Sophie Hecquet
Language: French
Key: E major, F major
Another song about songs, the title means “a song is a letter”, but the theme is deeper than the other songs about songs. It says that songs are an easy way to express your love to someone, but they won’t get through to your love interest.
You might describe this song as a waltz, but it’s not exactly that. I would describe the time signature as not 3/4, but 6/4. It’s a varied tune with a mix of piano and accordions—yet another blend of traditional and modern. You’d think a song in French with a message about songs would score high, but it only got 13th place. Did the juries find it too esoteric?
Finland: Old Man Fiddle
Artist: Pihasoittajat
Language: English
Key: C major
As their name suggests, this band usually sang in Finnish but localized one of their songs to English for this contest, exactly like the last two Finnish representatives did. Their song is exactly what you’d expect from its title: a playful country song about an old man playing the fiddle. It’s a super fun song, easily one of the highlights of the contest. I wish I had more to say about it, but I don’t.
Portugal: Madrugada
Artist: Duarte Mendes
Language: Portuguese
Key: F minor in the verses, F major in the choruses
1975 was a big year in Portuguese history. It was when the country finally gave up its African colonies and East Timor, which they desperately hung onto until the dictatorship ended. Thus, it only makes sense we’d get a song reflecting on the turbulent revolution Portugal had been through. It represents readiness to begin a new, brighter chapter. I enjoy the verses more musically, but I understand that the major key choruses are necessary for the song’s message.
Fun fact: 12 of this song’s 16 points came from the absolute last country you’d expect—Turkey. This proves that some people simply have tastes you wouldn’t expect, and you can’t argue with that. If you’ve been following my reviews, there’s probably been plenty of songs whose reviews you didn’t agree with.
Side note: I’m impressed with how well Duarte drew himself and the Portuguese flag. His flag rendition has an orange circle in the center, simplified but easily recognizable.
Spain: Tú volverás
Artist: Sergio and Estíbaliz
Language: Spanish
Key: B♭ major
We’re at the third last song! This contest has felt super long, perhaps because I’ve had so much to say about the songs.
The cadence of the lyrics feels extremely Spanish, but the instrumental is more of a general pop style. Estíbaliz sings her lyrics splendidly, but Sergio sounds like he’s singing above his vocal range. This contrast weighs the song down for me, which is unfortunate because I enjoy the instrumental a lot.
Sweden: Jennie, Jennie
Artist: Lars Berghagen
Language: English
Key: G major, G♯ minor
I love the German commentator’s remark about Lars. “Er ist der größte Sänger dieses Wettbewerbes… wenn es nach Zentimetern geht.” (He is the biggest singer of this contest… in terms of centimeters.) This is proof that Germans do in fact have a sense of humor.
As for this song, ABBA was an extremely tough act to follow for Sweden. This time, they sent something less flashy. It’s a pop song telling a woman named Jenny to enjoy what life will offer rather than mourning the past. It’s a faithful adaptation of the song’s original Swedish version; the German version is faithful too. Lars Berghagen is yet another 70’s Nordic representative who normally sang in his country’s language, but used English in Eurovision.
Musically, this song is pretty interesting but far from my favorite. It starts with a dreary piano intro, but then transitions to a minor key pop song with occasional spicy guitars. I almost want to say it sounds villainous, but that wouldn’t match the lyrics’ theme.
Italy: Era
Artist: Wess, and Dori Ghezzi. An African-American and a blonde Italian respectively.
Language: Italian
Key: G major
An American-born musician singing in Italian. This should be interesting. And indeed it is! It sounds totally different from everything else—a funky pop song that puts the bass up front, unlike everything else in the contest. Since it sounds so different from the rest and is at the end, it’s inevitable it would score either very high or very low. Fortunately, it scored quite high at third place. I should probably say the lyrics are about an intimate, surprising romantic moment… or at least, in Italian.
My curiosity was piqued about the alternate language versions. The English version is titled “Falling”, as in falling in love. It’s about a new romantic relationship that the singers hope doesn’t collapse. Dori’s foreign accent is more noticeable in the English version than Wess’s is in the Italian version. The Spanish version is called “Era” too and faithfully adapts the Italian lyrics.
Who’s my favorite?
I badly want to make up for the obviousness of my winner for this year (spoiler: it’s Netherlands, Ding-a-Dong) by writing a lengthy paragraph where I whittle down songs to choose as my second favorite. Unfortunately, if the Netherlands skipped out on this competition, my winner would’ve been just as obvious: Germany. I’m happy that “Ein Lied kann eine Brücke sein” gets the attention today that it deserved back then. Anyway, here’s the list:
- Austria, 1
- Denmark, 1
- Finland, 1
- Germany, 2
- Ireland, 1
- Luxembourg, 2
- Netherlands, 6
- Norway, 2
- Portugal, 1
- Sweden, 3
- (9 winners)
Man, there’s just something special about the Netherlands’ early Eurovision entries.
General thoughts:
This contest was super rich in musical variety, but two songs stood far above the rest: the Netherlands and Germany, as you know. I’ll probably forget how most of the other entries sound. Still, even though I was slow writing this review, I had a lot of fun doing it! I was very excited to get to this year, and I admit it was solely because of Ding-a-Dong.
Some extra notes on the contest’s presentation: The interval act featured paintings of Swedish folklore, set to an orchestral arrangement of various Swedish folk tunes. I can tell this contest was focused on getting to know Sweden. Also, I feel so bad for the presenter whenever she had to speak French, because she sounded so nervous and stilted when she did.
Obligatory comments on the voting: Although this is the first time we hear the iconic phrase “douze points”, there’s a bit of early installment weirdness because the scores are given in performance order, not numerical order. There’s just something so satisfying about a country whose song you like getting twelve points, so I can see why this system has stuck (with some variation) to this day. Also, Belgium gave the wonderful country of Irelande the highly coveted score of Douze Pointe. The presenter briefly forgot how to say 7 in French in the voting, but the good news is that an embarrassing mishap means you’ll never forget the word again. There were plenty more voting mishaps, because it wouldn’t be Eurovision otherwise.
My main takeaway from this contest is that Ding-a-Dong is the fucking best.
My secondary takeaway is… oh god, there’s still 48 contests left to review, and they’ll just keep getting bigger. The longer it takes me to review all of them, the more that number will grow. Why the fuck do I do this to myself?
See you next time for the first Eurovision hosted by a former contestant, and one of very few without Sweden.
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