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Introduction
When Sweden gets the chance to host Eurovision, it always comes down to three cities: Stockholm, Gothenburg (Göteborg), and Malmö. Stockholm and Malmö got to host it three times each (including the upcoming 2024 contest), but Gothenburg only in 1985. Greece and Israel returned from last year, but the Netherlands and Yugoslavia skipped, which kept the number of participants at 19 and broke the Netherlands’ perfect attendance.
This contest was hosted by an interesting figure: Lill Lindfors, one of Sweden’s two singers of 1966. She performed one of the strangest Swedish entries in Eurovision, “Nygammal vals”. She also has quite a career in comedy, and we’ll see a lot of her sense of humor throughout this contest, including the most famous thing a Eurovision host ever did on stage. The contest began with way more pleasantries than any year prior: Lill Lindfors first sang a pop song, then introduced Lys Assia (the first winner) as the guest of honor, then went on a lot of tangents before the songs began. Eurovision is truly evolving into modernity!
The winners were also a pair of prior contestants: Hanne Krogh and Elisabeth Andreassen, who gave Norway their surprising first victory. The next two highest were Germany and Sweden, so this was a good year for Germanic countries.
I watched this contest with Austrian commentary by a name whose commentary I’ve watched before: Ernst Grissemann. One thing he does that Terry Wogan doesn’t is that he takes the time to explain the lyrics of every song. Terry Wogan usually just translated the song’s title and made quips about it.
Ireland: Wait Until the Weekend Comes
Artist: Maria Christian
Language: English
Key: D major, E♭ major
It’s interesting how much you can hear the singer’s Irish accent in this song; that normally doesn’t happen with Irish entries. It’s just a shame this distinctive voice is put on an overly safe ballad. Unlike what you might expect from a ballad entry, the only key change is right before the second verse. This song almost could have been called “Hold Me Now”, because that phrase is repeated in the lyrics, but considering the winner two years later, we’re lucky it wasn’t.
Finland: Eläköön elämä
Artist: Sonja Lumme
Language: Finnish
Key: D minor, E♭ minor
Oh hey, the Swedish presenter spoke a tiny bit of Finnish when introducing this song! How charming, paying homage to your country’s neighbor. Especially because people in Finland learn Swedish far more than vice versa. Lill Lindfors was born in Helsinki, so that checks out.
For some reason, Finland in the 1980’s keeps alternating between awesome songs and trashy songs. Thankfully we’re in an odd-numbered year, so Finland sent something good. It’s exactly the kind of song I wish 80’s Eurovision had more of: an energetic 80’s style pop song with a lot of rock elements. It even has some guitar solos before the verses, which is such an easy but effective way to add hype to a song. The most interesting part might be the little ballad bridge before the final verse. It’s so obviously leadup to a key change, so it’s satisfying when the key does indeed change. All around, this song gives me similar vibes to “Fantasiaa”, which I had chosen as my favorite of 1983.
The odd-numbered Finnish entries also sound a lot more suited to their language than the even-numbered ones. Maybe that’s just because I like the songs more, because I’ve never said things like “this song is forgettable but at least it fits the language well”. In any case, Finland is really good at 80’s style rock songs in Eurovision, so it’s no wonder that they won with one in 2006.
Cyprus: To katálava argá (Το κατάλαβα αργά)
Artist: Lia Vissi, sister of three-time representative Anna Vissi
Language: Greek
Key: A major, B♭ major
Turns out that Lill Lindfors spoke a little bit of most participating countries’ languages when introducing each song. I love the effort she puts into pronouncing the names right.
The Austrian commentator said that Cyprus has trouble standing out in Eurovision because they don’t have much of their own music scene, but rather share it with Greece or Turkey. Thinking about it, that’s probably why most of their entries don’t get much attention, but they’ve gained popularity since sending “Fuego” in 2018.
This is another ballad, but at least the Greek-style lyrical rhythm makes it a little more distinct. Knowing the song’s melancholy tone, it’s not surprising that the lyrics are about saying goodbye to a love interest who left her.
Denmark: Sku’ du spørg’ fra no’en?
Artist: Hot Eyes, returning from 1984, plus Søren’s 9-year-old daughter
Language: Danish
Key: C major, D♭ major, D major
I don’t like when songs’ titles include contracted words (not contractions, but single words shortened with apostrophes), but I don’t know what the uncontracted form of the title is, so this mess of apostrophes will have to do.
This song is extremely similar to Denmark’s entry last year. Same singers, same upbeat swing rhythm with a bit of Danish sappiness, same key change at the start of the second verse. Another song of this type won the contest, so this is in “La det swinge’s” shadow for me. Plus, kids on stage are annoying as hell and I have no idea why any Eurovision singers thought it was a good idea to put them on. Did the girl beg her dad to let her on stage until he said yes? God, I hope not. It’s very obvious that the kid made this song score much lower than last year: only 11th place.
Spain: La fiesta terminó
Artist: Paloma San Basilio
Language: Spanish
Key: B♭ major, C major
I love how Lill Lindfors introduced this song entirely in Spanish. She loves to show things off about herself, whether it’s her language skills (can’t blame her!) or her underwear (you do you, Lill).
The title of this song means “the party has ended”, and the lyrics are about a woman telling her romantic partner that their relationship has run dry and he should just move on. Knowing this, I was hoping this song would be more Spanish sounding and not just an 80’s/90’s ballad, but she does have a lovely voice. Plus, she’s expressive on stage and does lots of hand gestures, so at least that’s recognizably Spanish. Actually, if you ignore what I expected this song to be like, it’s actually pretty nice. It’s got a lot of great ballad chords and truly commits to the style.
I could easily imagine this song winning the contest, so I’m mystified that it got 14th place. Maybe it’s because it sounds more like a 1990’s winner than a 1980’s winner. Indeed, these types of rousing ballads scored very high in the 90’s, so I can even more easily imagine this song winning a decade later.
France: Femme dans ses rêves aussi
Artist: Roger Bens
Language: French
Key: F minor
This starts as a traditional French ballad, but in the chorus it picks up the pace to be something like a disco song. The chord progression is certainly the kind of thing you’d hear in disco, as are the sharp string notes. Though the transitions between the verse and chorus are smooth, I wish the whole song was as energetic as the chorus. I also wish it didn’t end so abruptly. Why is “good verses, bad chorus” so much more common than “bad verses, good chorus”?
Turkey: Diday Diday Day
Artist: MFÖ (Mazhar-Fuat-Özkan)
Language: Turkish
Key: D major, E major
Turkey’s niche throughout 80’s Eurovision is embracing the popular styles of music from then with their own Turkish spin. This is less of Turkish funk and more of Turkish 80’s synth pop, the kind you might hear in an old science video. It’s charming, but far from my favorite Turkish entry of this era.
The song spends too much time on the nonsense phrase that is the title, and I’d like to make something clear. Although having a nonsense title is a stupid reason to hate a song—especially if it’s my beloved “Ding-a-Dong”—it’s more understandable to be annoyed when a song spends this much time with a nonsense phrase. Well, except if nonsense lyrics are the whole point of the song, and that’s not the case here. The rest of the lyrics are about impatience to begin a romantic relationship. Not even anything like “my heart goes diday diday day”, at least as far as I can tell.
Belgium: Laat me nu gaan
Artist: Linda Lepomme
Language: Dutch
Key: F major
The Austrian commentator said this song didn’t seem like a potential winner, so he must not have been surprised that this song got last place. In an ideal Eurovision, every song should seem like it has a chance at winning, and so far, most of these have.
The lyrics are quite dramatic and aggressive: the message is basically “fuck off forever, you were an asshole to me and I want you out of my life” (minus the profanity). So why in the living fuck does the instrumental sound like a dreamy, dainty “here is how much I love you” song????? Even ignoring the unfitting lyrics, the composition is boring and her voice is struggling to hit the high notes. One might call this a “bathroom break song”, but here’s a pro tip: if you get as much pee out as you can before the contest starts, and don’t drink anything while watching it, you won’t need a bathroom break.
Portugal: Penso em tei, eu sei
Artist: Adelaide Ferreira
Language: Portuguese
Key: G major in the verses, B♭ major in the chorus
OK, enough talking about pee. Just like Spain, this is another 90’s ballad before 90’s ballads were cool, which is to say before the 90’s even happened. It only got nine points, but I’m sure it would have earned more a decade later. My thoughts on this are basically the same as Spain. I actually think this flavor of ballad is pretty great, but maybe I’ll grow sick of it when I review later contests.
It seems like this is a year where neighboring countries went for similar styles. We’ll also see this when comparing Norway and Sweden’s entries.
Germany: Für alle
Artist: Wind, a band whose name translates to English as “Wind”
Language: German
Key: D♭ major, E♭ major
Wow, Lill Lindfors speaks really good German! It doesn’t quite pass as native, but neither does her English, and that’s okay.
The Austrian commentator said something chilling. At this point, Germany was outside of the top 10 only 7 out of 30 times, so they were one of the most successful countries at the time. If Eurovision ended after 1987, it would have been a happy ending for Germany: only 7 out of 32 non-top-10s. Then again, you could say the same if 2010 was the final Eurovision contest.
This song was predicted as the winner before Norway swept the prize. It was the runner up by 18 points and remains one of Germany’s most famous entries. It’s a fairly 80’s sounding pop song whose lyrics are directed to people who see joy amidst the dark times of life. It’s got a rousing and German-sounding chorus, but the instrumental feels undeveloped and a bit too much like an 80’s ballad. Though it’s obviously satisfying when my own country scores well, I’m so glad Norway won instead. Sweden winning would have been equally satisfying, if they hadn’t just won last year.
Israel: Olé, Olé (עולה, עולה)
Artist: Izhar Cohen, the winner of 1978
Language: Hebrew
Key: E minor, F minor
I laughed a little when the Austrian commentator said “zumindestens”, because some German speakers hate that word with a burning passion. It’s a combination of “zumindest” and “mindestens”, two words that both mean “at least”, and although I hate redundant words as much as the next person, I find that it rolls off the tongue nicely. I’ve even said it unconsciously before.
Uh, anyway. The Austrian commentator also said this song was predicted to score high, but it didn’t end up as high as was probably expected—fifth place a bit behind the UK. Normally that’s a respectably high result, but this song should have ranked way higher!
This song is a huge upgrade to Izhar Cohen’s prior “A-Ba-Ni-Bi”, which seems like garbage in comparison. It’s very rare for a song to wow me immediately when it begins, but this one does. It starts strong and goes straight into the action with a banging Middle Eastern pop song with some electric piano riffs to get it extra flair. It’s also got some complex choreography, with Izhar dressed in white and five backing singers in colorful suits and dresses. This song doesn’t waste a second dilly-dallying in its allotted three minutes. Even the key change is cleverly placed about halfway through to add the maximum amount of hype.
Izhar Cohen also recorded this song in English and French, which is a good time to talk about the lyrics. The theme of the English lyrics is similar to “Ding-a-Dong”: if you’re feeling sorry about your life, sing this song and it’ll all be better. The French and Hebrew lyrics are somewhat similar, but more romantic and focused on the positives of life. I enjoy both these versions, although the song was clearly designed for Hebrew.
Songs like this are exactly what Israel does best in Eurovision! This one in particular nails the formula to create an absolute banger that I’ll be sure to keep listening to. I would have rooted for this song if I was watching in 1985, and I might have considered it as a potential winner. It’s common for a returning contestant’s second entry to blow their first out of the water, but much weirder when it’s a returning winner.
Italy: Magic, Oh Magic
Artist: Al Bano and Romina Power, returning from 1976
Language: Italian, plus one phrase in English, which is all they were allowed
Key: C major
The English phrase sounds out of place among the Italian lyrics, but this duo must have been insistent on including English in this song, just like their last entry. Otherwise, this is a decent enough 80’s ballad that feels like it could be in the credits of a movie, but it’s not the best ballad of the competition. That would probably be Spain.
Norway: La det swinge (the winner)
Artist: Bobbysocks! (Hanne Krogh and Elisabeth Andreassen)
Language: Norwegian
Key: F major, F♯ major
We’ve finally reached Norway’s first victory! It’s a satisfying payoff not just for Norwegian fans, but for both members of Bobbysocks, who each performed prior. Hanne represented Norway in 1971 and got second last place, while Elisabeth teamed up with Kikki Danielsson to represent Sweden in 1982, and got 8th place out of 18. When the two of them teamed up, they surprised viewers (and themselves) and smashed the competition.
I probably wouldn’t have expected this song to win. Norway, Sweden, and Denmark had all sent upbeat girly swing songs before, and none of them came close to winning. Even though there’s a first time for everything, I wouldn’t have thought another song of this type would have broken Norway’s streak of bad luck, let alone made them win.
But would I have been pleased with this song’s victory? Hell fucking yes, I would be! Which is to say, I am pleased with this song’s victory. Everything about this song just makes me so happy! The girls are super cute together and have great chemistry on stage, it’s got catchy melodies in the verse, chorus, and bridge, it’s easy to sing along to, and it’s a wonderful combination of pop music of the 1980’s and rock and roll of the 1950’s. The lyrics suit this style well: they’re about the joy of swing music and rock and roll.
This song is very cleverly structured. It starts with the intro hook, verse, and chorus, then strategically places a key change at the start of the second verse. There are no more key changes for the rest of the song because there doesn’t need to be. The early key change adds hype to the song, and the hype continues after the second chorus through separate means. The chorus is repeated on harmonizing saxophones, then we go straight to the bridge, which asks a question both in lyrics and in chord progression, then the question is answered in the final chorus. Finally, it ends with a snazzy sixth chord, the same type of chord that played before each chorus.
Why did this song score so much better than other dansband songs of prior years? I have two potential answers: the juries increasingly warmed up to this type of music, or the song is just that catchy, or both. Its success leaves an important takeaway for Eurovision fans. No matter how poor a country performs in Eurovision, and no matter how long the unlucky streak lasts, their fortunes will eventually turn around. Chances are, the turn of luck won’t take nearly as long as it took Norway to win the contest.
United Kingdom: Love Is…
Artist: Vikki Watson
Language: English
Key: A major, B major
The Austrian commentator remarked that the British entry sounded like the authors had run out of steam, perhaps because the UK was tired of winning so much. I think the same happened to the Netherlands after 1975—they were satisfied with four wins, so their entries went downhill too. That’s OK because it means other countries get a chance.
I have to agree with the commentator. It’s an alright 80’s pop song with some fairly catchy melodies, but if it wasn’t in English, it wouldn’t have come anywhere near fourth place.
Switzerland: Piano, piano
Artist: Mariella Farré (returning from 1983) and Pino Gasparini
Language: German
Key: D major
The German word for “piano” is not “Piano”, but “Klavier”. “Piano” is used in its original Italian meaning of “softly”.
The verses of this romantic duet make it seem like the whole thing is a ballad, but it picks up the pace in the chorus and becomes more of a pop style. It’s better than a full sappy ballad, but I’m not a huge fan of this half-ballad style (much like France). Why not make the whole thing not a romantic ballad?
Sweden: Bra vibrationer
Artist: Kikki Danielsson, returning from 1982
Language: Swedish
Key: C major, D major
“Now it’s time for Sweden.”
crowd explodes in applause
This should tell you how much of a beloved icon Eurovision has become.
Kikki Danielsson had previously teamed up with Elisabeth Andreassen in 1982, but now they’re competing against each other with songs of the same genre. If you like Norway’s entry this year, you’ll probably like this too. This song got third place but came close to being second, just two points behind Germany.
Songs like this are why I miss the Swedish language in Eurovision. It’s so full of personality and suited to many genres of music, especially upbeat dance songs. It sounds very singsongy and usually a little sassy, but it’s sincere when it wants to be. I mean seriously, everything about this song screams Sweden, and I’m all for it. As the Swedish presenter points out, this song’s title doesn’t mean “(mumble mumble) what you think it means”, but “good vibrations”. I find it funny that she caught herself before she said something not family-friendly, but later in the contest did the infamous underwear incident.
This song and “La det swinge” aren’t exactly the same style, but they’re very similar in structure. This song is faster and even more upbeat, one of the happiest sounding songs in Eurovision history. It immediately blasts you in the face with bouncy dance music and keeps the energy all the way through. Most of it is in swing rhythm, but the bridge takes some time in straight rhythm and changes key midway through to build up hype for the final chorus. It’s so catchy and bouncy and joyful and I love it very much, so it’s hard to decide if I prefer it over Norway. Some fans might have been salty that this song didn’t win, but Sweden would send an extremely similar song in 1991 and win by a margin of zero points.
The English version of this song is called “Right Night for Loving”, and the lyrics are a little more uncertain and worrisome than the Swedish lyrics, which are more about the joy and good vibrations she gets from her love interest, but they’re just as expressive of love.
Austria: Kinder dieser Welt
Artist: Gary Lux, a band member from 1983
Language: German, with a bunch of barely audible phrases in other languages
Key: A major, B major
In the Eurovision performance, this song’s chorus has the phrase “the children” sung in a bunch of mainstay European languages by backing singers, except it’s almost impossible to hear which is which, and all lyrical transcriptions of this song I can find are incomplete. Therefore, the list of languages in this song is an “if a tree falls in a forest” argument, except the English right at the end. I was hoping the studio version had the languages sung clearer, but it’s entirely in German, so no luck.
That’s the most interesting thing about this song. Otherwise, it’s a decent enough pop band song wishing joy to children of the world.
Luxembourg: Children, Kinder, Enfants
Artist: Six singers who don’t have a collective name and only banded together to represent Luxembourg as far as I know
Language: French, English, and German
Key: C major. Do the short sections in E♭ major count as key changes?
OK, fine. The full list of singers in this song is Margo, Franck Olivier, Chris Roberts, Malcolm Roberts,* Ireen Sheer,** and Diane Solomon.
This is the second song about children in a row, and one of the gimmickiest entries of this contest. The first half is entirely French lyrics in 12/8 time (a fun time signature, I’d say), and the second half has the singers in a canon mixing in German and English lyrics. I’m sorry, but the canon section is impossible to follow and sounds like multiple songs playing at once, or passengers on a flight from Paris to Singapore. It’s perfectly possible to sing in multiple languages at once well; just look at “It’s Just a Game” from 1973. Much of that song is in simultaneous English and French, and both languages are understandable because when one language is sung fast, the other is sung slow, and when the men sing one language, the women sing the other. This group had three men and three women, so it could have done something similar: different genders (or vocal ranges) sing in different languages. But instead, the lyrics are split by nationality into male/female pairs.
The melodies are catchy and pleasant, and though I appreciate the skill needed to pull it off, the multilingual gimmick didn’t work that well in practice.
* Chris and Malcolm Roberts aren’t related. Chris Roberts is a stage name, Malcolm Roberts is his real name.
** She sang for Luxembourg in 1974, and for Germany in 1978.
Greece: Miázoume (Μοιάζουμε)
Artist: Takis Biniaris
Language: Greek
Key: A major
I don’t know what inspired Lill Lindfors to learn modern Greek, but she’s clearly proud to show it off… and then clarify what she meant in English, since most of her audience doesn’t speak a lick of it. She’s clearly a lover of languages, and as another lover of languages, I give hats off to her. I don’t understand why it’s more popular to learn ancient Greek than modern Greek, which is spoken by millions of living people. It’s not like the language is exclusive to Greece and Cyprus. For example, in the region of Germany where my mother grew up, Greek-speaking immigrants are abundant.
Greece is at their best when their entries sound Greek, and this is extremely un-Greek. It tries to shoehorn a Greek lyrical rhythm onto a generic ballad, which doesn’t work well at all. Greece’s first few entries sounded very Greek, so why did they abandon that sound in the 1980’s? Israel proves that a Mediterranean country can score highly without compromising their musical style.
I will say, this contest got lucky not having one of its best songs at the end. If Sweden or Israel was the final entry, they would have won by a landslide, but instead we have a good and fair competition between the biggest highlights.
Who’s my favorite?
Ouch, this one really hurts. I can only choose one of three absolutely wonderful songs: Norway and Sweden’s upbeat swing songs, and Israel’s thoroughly Israeli banger. Norway gives me the biggest burst of joy of them, but I’m unsure if it still would if someone else won. “Olé, Olé” is by far my favorite Israeli entry till this point, and it would hurt me more to not choose them than to not choose Norway. I love “La det swinge” with all my heart, but I’ve made up my mind: Israel, Olé, Olé wins my prize.
- Austria, 1
- Belgium, 1
- Denmark, 1
- Finland, 2
- France, 1
- Germany, 4
- Ireland, 2
- Israel, 1
- Luxembourg, 2
- Netherlands, 6
- Norway, 2
- Portugal, 2
- Sweden, 3
- Turkey, 1
- United Kingdom, 1
- (13 winners)
Now that Israel made it onto my list, I feel like I made the right choice. Well, I say that, and then a thought creeps into my head begging me to switch back to Norway. I faced this exact dilemma when choosing between Norway and Spain for 1973. The benefit of choosing Israel is that it adds more variety to my list of yearly winners, and “La det swinge” is still one of my favorite Eurovision songs ever. God dammit, why couldn’t Norway and Sweden’s songs be in 1984 instead?
General thoughts:
After the interval act, which was two men on guitars playing famous Swedish songs (including the Pippi Longstocking theme), Lill Lindfors grabbed the audience’s attention in the most Swedish way possible. She “accidentally” tripped over the stairs and her dress fell off, revealing her bare legs and underwear for a few seconds. Then came the cool part: she unfolded the top part of her dress to reveal a second dress underneath. Then she said “I just wanted you to wake up a little”, like nothing happened. I don’t care what anyone says, the second dress was a move of pure genius and Lill Lindfors is a legend for doing this. She’s easily my favorite Eurovision host so far, and it’ll take a lot to top her. She might be the only contestant-turned-host better known for her hosting than her entry. I’d say Måns Zelmerlöw is equally known for both.
The voting was fun to watch, because it first seemed like Germany would win until Norway crept up. Plus, the girls representing Norway were so adorably excited every time they got 12 points! They were even more delighted when they won, especially Hanne Krogh (the one in the skirt), who got one of the lowest scores 14 years prior. This contest was her redemption arc. The Austrian commentator kept a positive attitude and was happy enough with Gary Lux’s eighth place.
About the year overall: After 1981 to 1984, where I only particularly cared for one or two songs each, it’s nice to reach the best year of the 1980’s so far. This year had exactly the rich variety of bangers that I was hoping to see in 80’s Eurovision. In particular, Finland, Israel, Norway, and Sweden all sent their A game while staying true to what they do best. Even the songs I didn’t say much about, I can happily listen to most of them. But the hosting and the winners’ reaction are what truly makes Eurovision 1985 a classic.
See you next time as Iceland debuts, Belgium wins, and Norway celebrates their change of fortune. I’m quite excited about this next contest.
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