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Introduction
Hosted in Dublin, Ireland, Eurovision 1981 had quite a different lineup of countries from last time. First off, the Mediterranean island of Cyprus (aka Greece’s Girlfriend) joined for the first time. No one talks much about Cyprus’s early entries, but their best result (and most iconic entry) is a second place in 2018. Although the island is divided between Greeks and Turks, Cyprus’s entries have only ever come from the Greek half.
Israel returned after skipping last year, and Yugoslavia returned after skipping the last four years. On the other hand, Morocco left never to return again, and Italy skipped the contest for the first time. It wasn’t for political reasons or lack of money—Eurovision just wasn’t very popular in Italy. It was the first of Italy’s several absences in the 1980’s and 1990’s, culminating in a hiatus from 1998 to 2011.
This contest had one of the narrowest victories yet: with their famous band Bucks Fizz, the UK beat Germany by four points. This was the closest Germany had come to tasting victory, but they would take home the prize next time. With the narrow race between the UK and Germany and the many returning contestants, including the winner from 20 years prior, it seems this will be a very interesting year! Because of the winner, I watched the contest with Terry Wogan’s British commentary.
The postcards in this contest were notable because they didn’t just feature the singers of each song: also the composers and writers, exploring Dublin together.
Austria: Wenn du da bist
Artist: Marty Brem, from the band participating in 1980
Language: German
Key: C minor
From the title of this song (When you’re there), I expected an ordinary love ballad in major key. Only the “love ballad” part was correct. I feel like this song wants to sound complex and jazzy, but the composition is all over the place. It comes off pretentious, like it’s actively avoiding any semblance of a normal chord progression. I usually like it when a song avoids sounding too normal, but this just tries too hard. Is this why people hate jazz?
Speaking of trying too hard, what the hell are the backup dancers’ outfits? They look like characters put through a random outfit generator, in an attempt to make the song more memorable. A truly great Eurovision song doesn’t make you feel like it’s trying too hard, but has you immersed in the performance. I do enjoy some parts of this song (like the start of the verses), but as a whole it’s too unfocused.
Turkey: Dönme Dolap
Artist: Modern Folk Trio and Ayşegul Aldinç
Language: Turkish
Key: C minor in the verses, B♭ major in the chorus
This was a year of underdog countries being underdogs. Norway got zero points, and this song tied with Portugal for second last place.
How many songs have we had about life being a carousel? I feel like this theme keeps hitting me in a cycle, just like a carousel. This song isn’t carousel music at all, but full-out disco with funky basslines and sharp string notes. It’s decent but doesn’t wow me, and I’m sure it would have scored better if it was in English or French. However, if it was an exceptionally good disco song in Turkish, it could have scored highly.
Germany: Johnny Blue
Artist: Lena Valaitis. In 2010, another Lena would get her revenge.
Language: German
Key: D minor, E♭ minor. The key change is halfway through.
Now this song? Unlike the last two, it wows me, and wows me hard.
As a song so full of winner energy, I’m not surprised it came close to winning. It has a memorable hook that anyone can sing along to (Blue, Blue, Blue Johnny Blue), a composition that’s varied but consistent, and clear buildup from start to finish. It has a very similar vibe to “L’oiseau et l’enfant”: both songs have a similar melody, dramatic buildup at the key changes, and are moving pieces of music no matter which language you speak. Even if I couldn’t speak any German, I would still find it moving. Both songs are also examples of how to use key changes well: the change in key matches with the buildup, and isn’t just thrown in. The song adds a harmonica for extra flair, and does a good job using it without entirely relying on it.
The lyrics are about a blind musician named Johnny Blue who was an outcast as a kid, but then became a beloved musician whose tunes touch everyone’s hearts. The underlying message is a standard “music touches your heart without language”, but it’s expressed creatively without resorting to cliches. It’s like a movie that expresses a standard moral everyone’s heard in a new, original way, and thus you really feel the standard moral. The huge applause shows that the music really did touch their hearts!
Man, we really are in Germany’s glory years. First we had Dschinghis Khan, then Katja Ebstein reached second place, and next year is when Germany won by a landslide! I’m happy my country got at least one era of Eurovision where it put out a lot of beloved icons. These days in Eurovision, Germany and the UK are like a pair of cranky alcoholics who bond over how life isn’t as good as it used to be, and praise one another when something goes well.
Luxembourg: C’est peut-être pas l’Amerique
Artist: Jean-Claude Pascal, the winner of 1961
Language: French
Key: C major
Occasionally, a country will send a winner of theirs from over a decade ago to rejoin the contest, presumably hoping they’ll get another good result. The problem with doing this is that the returning winner usually sings a similar genre to their last entry, so the audience views it as dated and it doesn’t score well. This happened with Niamh Kavanagh (1993, 2010), Dana International (1998, 2011), and as we see here, Jean-Claude Pascal. Sweden is the only country whose winners returning after 10+ years avoid this pattern, as we saw with Carola (1991, 2006) and of course Loreen (2012, 2023). That’s because their returning entries were in a newer, fresher style.
Sung by a 53-year-old, this old-timey chanson would have scored highly in the 60’s, but here it tied with Denmark for 11th place. I don’t have a problem with this song being dated at all, but I can’t deny that the more modern songs stand out to me. The theme of the lyrics is interesting: they mean “it may not be America, but that’s not all there is to music, and our songs are dear to me too”. Only a French singer could make a song this sincere about the importance of his country’s culture, somewhat like “Parlez-vous français ?” three years prior (though the singers of that song were Spanish).
Israel: Halayla (הלילה)
Artist: Habibi Group
Language: Hebrew
Key: E♭ major, with a few instrumental parts in E♭ minor
In 1980’s Eurovision, Israel found a clear niche: upbeat ethnic songs usually in minor key. They tended to score highly, but Israel didn’t win again until 1998. This song is pretty much a typical 80’s Israeli entry, but mostly in major key. Unfortunately, it gets repetitive in the second half; perhaps a verse or two was cut for time? I wouldn’t have minded a key change at that part.
Denmark: Krøller eller ej
Artist: Tommy Seebach (returning from 1979) and Debbie Cameron (a backing singer from 1979)
Language: Danish
Key: D major, E♭ major
Danish language, your numbering system is ridiculous. It is completely unacceptable for a Germanic language, or really any Indo-European language, to call 60 “tres”.
Uh, anyway. The title means “curly or not”, and the message of the song is “curly or straight hair, we love our children”. It may seem like an inane subject, but if you consider the line about brown eyes and the ethnicities of the singers (European and Afro-Caribbean respectively), it’s clearly a message against racism. Musically, it’s a nice disco song with plenty of flourishes, but I feel the disco songs of this contest will blend together for me.
Yugoslavia: Lejla (Лејла)
Artist: Seid Memić Vajta
Language: Serbo-Croatian (Bosnian)
Key: A major
This is a romantic piano pop song with a tinge of country. It’s perfectly decent but hard to say much about. My only actual thoughts on it are that the raspy voice fits this song better than you’d expect it to.
Finland: Reggae OK
Artist: Riki Sorsa
Language: Finnish
Key: C major, plus an interlude in D major
Unrelated to this entry, I want to say “Tipi-tii” from 1962 has really grown on me. It’s such a cute song that makes great use of the Finnish language! It was truly designed around this language, which you can’t say about all of Finland’s entries in that era.
Here’s one of several Finnish entries from the 80’s and 90’s that tries to make up for the language’s obscurity by using a recognizable genre, and they generally didn’t score that well. Now, something interesting is that the British commentator said this didn’t sound like any reggae he’s ever heard. Instrumentally it’s quite a regular reggae song (though it uses an accordion during the key change), but maybe Terry Wogan said this because of the lyrical rhythm. Remember, the cadence of Finnish is very different from most Indo-European languages,* so you need to design the rhythm differently to sound natural in it. Surprisingly, this song does it well! It was originally in English, so when the lyrics were localized, the long notes in the melody were split apart to fit Finnish syllables. That was a very smart choice.
This song got a lot of cheering from the audience, but the juries gave it only 16th place. It would have likely scored higher if this contest had a televote.
* An exception is Latvian, which sounds to me like a cross between Finnish and Slavic.
France: Humanahum
Artist: Jean Gabilou
Language: French
Key: G minor, G♯ minor, A minor, B♭ minor
Jean Gabilou is the first French Eurovision contestant from one of its overseas territories: French Polynesia.
The third highest scorer this year, this almost feels like a male counterpart to “L’oiseau et l’enfant”. Three different keys, a lead singer aided but not overpowered by backing singers, multiple key changes that accompany the buildup, and a slightly modernized sound. Surprisingly, the three key changes don’t feel comical or cheesy this time. The lyrics tell a story of Earth in the year 3000, whose beauty has been destroyed by war. I also really enjoy the parts where backing singers alternate with the lead. Their harmonies are strong and on point.
After learning that this song has the same composer and songwriter as “L’oiseau et l’enfant”, I feel really smart for the male counterpart observation. It seems like this is a male counterpart to France’s iconic winner. Although it’s an excellent song, I’m glad it didn’t win 1981 because it would have felt redundant with Marie Myriam’s masterpiece. I like it better when the winner is a kind of song that hadn’t won before, which is why I wasn’t too thrilled with the winner of 2023.
Spain: Y solo tú
Artist: Bachelli (José María Bacchelli Ortega)
Language: Spanish
Key: D major, E♭ major, E major
There is so much disco in this contest, and this song combines every disco trope: funky basslines, bongo drums, string lines, and backing singers on and off. While some disco songs in Eurovision massively clicked with me, this one doesn’t. It’s not bad or anything, just very mediocre.
Netherlands: Het is een wonder
Artist: Linda Williams (real name Henriëtte Willems)
Language: Dutch
Key: E major
Although this singer is known for nothing besides her Eurovision entry, and although no jury gave this song more than fourth place, she made it to the top half at 9th place. I can see why: it’s quite different from the others. It’s a charming little country song with lots of organ and harmonica, about the miracle of finding love. Very honest and simple.
Also, Linda’s bob cut looks eerily singer to the Dutch presenter last year.
Ireland: Horoscopes
Artist: Sheeba, a girl trio (one of whom returned from 1973)
Language: English
Key: G major
I’m not sure which of these girls is Maxi (the singer from 1973)—maybe the tall one on the left—but all three look happier than Maxi did eight years prior.
This song has an interesting message: it says horoscopes are complete nonsense that you shouldn’t let dictate your life. Which is good, because horoscopes ARE complete nonsense that you shouldn’t let dictate your life. I imagine that someone listening to this song’s lyrics would either think “well duh, I already knew that” or “these people are full of shit, astrology is totally real”. However, you could argue it has a broader meaning: that you shouldn’t let others provide the answers for your life. The text almost reads like it implicitly tells listeners that God isn’t real either. It’s that same attitude, at least from the perspective of me, a lifelong atheist. If the lyrics were about religion instead of horoscopes, they’d be more controversial.
I should also talk about this song musically. It has a slow violin intro, then when the lyrics reveal that consulting horoscopes is “crazy, crazy”, it transitions to a poppy disco song heavy in piano. Maybe this is meant to symbolize that when you forget about the nonsense of horoscopes, you uncover the real joys of life? I’m probably overanalyzing, but that’s exactly why reviewing media is fun.
Norway: Aldri i livet
Artist: Finn Kalvik
Language: Norwegian
Key: C major
Oh my god, Terry Wogan made the best transition from Ireland to this song. He said, “I don’t know whether you believe in horoscopes, but let’s hope the Norwegians aren’t superstitious, because they’re number 13.” Elegant transitions like this are what I live for.
Maybe the commentator shouldn’t have said this, because the song finished last place with zero points. However, it became a big success in Norway anyway and got an English version featuring ABBA’s female members. This is unusual because “low score, success in home country” normally happens to countries with a more unfamiliar music scene to Europe, like Turkey.
If I was watching Eurovision in 1981, I would have been surprised that this song got last place, and if I was Norwegian, I would have been pissed about it. It’s a sweet romantic ballad with a good instrumental melody in the chorus. You’d think it would at least get points from Denmark and Sweden, but some Eurovision results just don’t make sense.
United Kingdom: Making Your Mind Up (the winner)
Artist: Bucks Fizz
Language: English
Key: G major, A♭ major, A major
I want to say Norway got zero points because it was right before the winner, but this more often happens to songs right after the winner. But I should really stop talking about Norway, because my GOD, this song is such a treat!!!! It’s even more British than “Save Your Kisses for Me”. The bassline, the vocal harmonies, the singing voices, the pumping energy, the guitar solo, just everything about the song is British. Every little detail in the song and choreography is crafted to be as catchy and smile-inducing as possible. The key changes are placed to increase the hype each time, and the structure gradually familiarizes listeners with the chorus until it’s repeated one last time, by which point they can happily sing or hum along.
It’s common for a song to be stuck in your head after you listen to it, but this song is special because when I watch the performance, the visuals get stuck in my head too. It features two men and two women in red, yellow, green, and blue doing all sorts of memorable, perky dance moves that I can tell were thoroughly rehearsed. You can think of it as an “eye worm”, like the phrase “ear worm” for a song that gets stuck in your head. Actually, we can do it with all five senses. Touch, “hand worm”. Smell, “nose worm”. Taste, “tongue worm”. Nose worms really do exist: once when I was sick as a teenager, I had a smell vaguely like rotten salad dressing stuck in my head, or at least it felt that way. Maybe something was clogging my nose, I don’t know.
Obviously I have to mention the iconic moment: the men rip off the women’s skirts to reveal shorter skirts underneath, right when they sing “but if you want to see some more”. It’s such a perfect way to add hype to the song, cleverly placed right after the last key change, and it’s widely considered responsible for this song’s victory. This interaction with the lyrics is interesting because the text doesn’t mean much otherwise. You could interpret it as telling the listener to make their mind up about a romantic relationship, but not all songs’ lyrics have to mean something. I’d argue that this song stands out for not using its lyrics to tell a story, but rather to make catchy phrases that anyone can sing along to. It’s the exact same reason fans love “Sanomi” or “Dancing Lasha Tumbai”. They’re the types of songs that transcend a need for meaningful lyrics.
There’s no denying that one of the singers drifted a bit out of key near the end. Additionally, I read that the women were accidentally placed on the lead microphones, which made them sing louder than intended. But much like “Poupée de cire, poupée de son” a decade and a half earlier, this is a case where the song’s general quality makes up for any slip-ups. I’d argue that the quirks of this song’s performance add to its playful, carefree feel.
Portugal: Playback
Artist: Carlos Paião, who died in a car accident at 30 years old
Language: Portuguese
Key: A minor
It seems like Portugal and the UK had the same idea with singers in red, yellow, green, and blue (in this case, plus a lead singer in light blue), but it didn’t pay off nearly as much for Portugal. This song tied with Turkey for second last place, and this time I’m sure it was due to post-winner curse.
I love the contrast between Spain and Portugal’s Eurovision entries since 1969. Spain pretty much always sang about romance, whereas their neighbor Portugal preferred to sing about motherhood, bullfighting, dictatorship, and now lip syncing. The entire lyrics are a jab at the music industry, and it’s glorious. It’s important for a society to allow satire, because it draws attention to the world’s issues, and trying to ban it means pretending those issues don’t exist. Compositionally, this song goes for the disco formula like so much else this year, but with more punch than the rest.
Belgium: Samson
Artist: Emly Starr
Language: Dutch, plus the English phrase “I love you” at the end
Key: C major
Out of the disco songs in this contest, this is the most energetic so far. The British commentator said this was Belgium’s strongest entry in quite a while, and I have to agree. It’s super funky and has a bit of a mythic vibe, helped by the lyrics which are about a romance compared to the Biblical story of Samson and Delilah. He also said Emly Starr had great legs, and, well… I can’t blame him for that either.
Greece: Fengári kalokerinó (Φεγγάρι καλοκαιρινό)
Artist: Yiannis Dimitras
Language: Greek
Key: B minor, C minor
This is a ballad about romance in the summer room with mostly great composition and a strong piano part, but it has two big problems. First, the drum beat is super generic in the verses; second, it could really do without those synths. They’re out of place amidst all the orchestral instruments. Maybe I can see this as an era where music composers were new to synths and hadn’t decided where they’d best fit. Still, it’s nice to see Greece send a song that doesn’t try too hard to appeal to non-Greek speakers.
Cyprus: Mónika (Μόνικα)
Artist: Island, a pop group created solely for this contest
Language: Greek, twice in a row
Key: F minor, G major
It’s gonna be weird hearing two songs in Greek per Eurovision contest for most of the next two decades. It’s also crazy that this small island has a more consistent Eurovision track record than big guys like Italy or Turkey: since 1981, Cyprus has participated in all but three contests.
Contrasting against Greece’s entry, this is more of a jazzy blues song, and a solid one at that. Although Terry Wogan claimed it was a potential winner, its 69 points were a far cry below the next lowest, 105 points. Still, it scored sixth place, which is way better than the last few countries’ debuts! It’s clear that Cyprus didn’t want their first entry to flop like Malta, Turkey, and Morocco. The infamous “Greece and Cyprus give each other twelve points” can only do so much, and this song did quite well aside from this. (Although this year, Cyprus didn’t give Greece twelve points.)
Switzerland: Io senza te
Artist: Peter, Sue, and Marc (for the fourth and last time)
Language: Italian
Key: C♯ minor in the verses, F♯ major in the chorus
After singing two lighthearted songs in 1976 and 1978, this Swiss trio is back to serious romantic music. And boy, what a romantic ballad it is! It starts with a pan flute solo, and although that instrument isn’t used much for the rest of the song, it’s still a quality ballad. I have to admit, I’m a sucker when ballads change the key between the verse and chorus.
From their four entries, I can tell Peter, Sue, and Marc loved to showcase their versatility, both in languages and genres. Of their four entries, this came closest to winning. Their 1976 entry got fourth place, with 73 fewer points than the winner. This song again got fourth place, but only 15 points behind the winner. It was such a close race this time!
Sweden: Fångad i en dröm
Artist: Björn Skifs, returning from 1978
Language: Swedish
Key: F minor in the verses, A♭ major in the chorus.
Just like last year, Sweden ended with the most 80’s sounding song of the contest. The lyrics are about being caught in a dream that holds you back from reality. I quite enjoy this song; it’s got a pumping beat with some good piano, guitar, and string riffs. Given what I’ve heard from mid-80’s Eurovision, it won’t be long till other countries catch on to this style.
Who’s my favorite?
My favorite and second favorite of this contest are both blindingly obvious because they completely outshine the rest. My favorite is United Kingdom, Making Your Mind Up (first time choosing the UK!) and my second favorite is Germany, Johnny Blue (the actual runner-up). One is more energetic than anything else, the other is more moving than anything else.
- Austria, 1
- Belgium, 1
- Denmark, 1
- Finland, 1
- France, 1
- Germany, 3
- Ireland, 2
- Luxembourg, 2
- Netherlands, 6
- Norway, 2
- Portugal, 1
- Sweden, 3
- Turkey, 1
- United Kingdom, 1
- (12 winners)
Wasn’t so hard for me to make my mind up, was it?
General thoughts:
The interval act this year was fucking awesome. It was a 6-minute instrumental piece called “Timepiece” designed to showcase the evolution of Irish folk music. While watching it, I was tempted to pause for a snack or go to the bathroom, but I just couldn’t. It was too captivating.
I almost wish the German and British entries in this contest weren’t so good, because then the rest of the contest wouldn’t fade into the background. There were a lot of other decent songs, but they’re forgettable compared to these two. This is exactly the same takeaway I had from 1975: back then, two entries (the Netherlands and Germany) outshined the rest too. Still, a year with two songs I absolutely love is a good year in my book. The other two top four songs were pretty good, but not on the level of these two.
Although two songs stood above the rest for me, the voting was a famously tight race between the UK, Germany, France, and Switzerland, which shows that the juries’ tastes were amazingly varied. This is exactly how Eurovision voting should go—full of surprises to keep viewers on their feet. I think this is accomplished not through a variety of genres, but hiring juries with varied tastes. After the controversy of the same songs sweeping most of the juries’ votes in 2023, I’m interested to see what will be changed for 2024.
If you’re curious: Terry Wogan’s favorite of the night was Switzerland, but he was unsurprisingly excited when the UK won. For the first time in almost a decade, an instrumental reprise of the previous winner played when Johnny Logan handed Bucks Fizz their prize. Maybe the EBU thought, “wait, why did we stop doing that?”
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