Intro Post

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Introduction

Hosted in Belgium for the first and only time, Eurovision 1987 had quite a lot of drama behind its production. Two broadcasters had agreed to organize Eurovision together in the event Belgium won: the Dutch-speaking BRT (now called VRT), and the French-speaking RTBF. However, when the time came for them to team up, they were as good at cooperation as a nerd and a jock assigned to do a high school chemistry project. When the French-speaking broadcaster chose Brussels as the host city, the Dutch-speaking broadcaster threw their hands up and left RTBF to organize it alone, while BRT chose the Belgian entry. If you want to see two broadcasters successfully collaborating, you’d have to wait until 2023.

This contest had the largest lineup of countries so far: Greece and Italy returned after skipping last year, making for 22 countries total. All countries that had ever participated in Eurovision were present this year, except Monaco, Malta, and Morocco. This is an intimidatingly long contest, almost as big as a Eurovision final in the current era. The winner was the first person to win Eurovision twice: Johnny Logan, representing Ireland. The postcards are themed upon what comes to most people’s minds when they think of Belgium: Belgian comic strips.

Annoyingly, this is another year where due to one particular song (glares intensively at Spain), you can’t find many commentary uploads on YouTube, and most of them are of terrible quality. So, um, I guess I’m watching it with Swedish commentary this time. The video description contains a link to the full unabridged Swedish commentary in good quality, so I’ll use that. I won’t be able to understand the commentary, but I’ve at least picked up on a few words from Scandinavian languages by reading translations of their Eurovision entries.

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Norway: Mitt liv

Artist: Kate Gulbrandsen

Language: Norwegian

Key: D♭ major in the verses, G♭ (F♯ major) in the chorus, then A♭ major in the last chorus

This contest starts with an average power ballad with generic lyrics, saying something like “this is my life and my future, no one can take it away from me”. It sounds like the kind of self-motivational song that a 10-year-old might sing. A ballad of this type can grab my attention, but it takes a passionate voice, a truly stellar performance, and preferably a less tacky hairstyle.

Israel: Shir Habatlanim (שיר הבטלנים)

Artist: Lazy Bums (Nathan Dattner and Avi Kushnir)

Language: Hebrew

Key: G major, A♭ major, A major, B♭ major. When was the last song with three key changes?

This, on the other hand, is a true Eurovision hidden gem. After something like six years in a row of minor key dance songs (which are a great genre too), I was not expecting this from Israel! It’s a comedic jazzy tune whose title means “The Bums’ Song”. The verses are sung from the perspective of a lazy bum who slacks off all day and knows no other way to live life; the chorus consists of nonsense phrases like “hupa hule hule hule”. I’m surprised the song wasn’t named after the nonsense phrase, but I can see why it wasn’t. A nonsense title won’t tell anyone what the song is about, whereas a title in Hebrew will tell Hebrew speakers what it’s about.

Small tangent on this topic: I think “Ding-a-Dong” isn’t actually a nonsense title, contrary to popular belief. The title evokes a bell ringing, particularly a wedding bell as is clear from the Dutch lyrics. I’d argue “Boom Bang-a-Bang” isn’t a nonsense title either, because the phrase represents the sound that the singer’s heart makes, and “boom” and “bang” are both common English words. They’re even used in academic contexts, like “economic boom” or “Big Bang”. A true nonsense title is a phrase that means nothing, like “Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley” or “Diday Diday Day”.

Speaking of songs with (debatably) nonsense titles, if you remember my review of “Ring-dinge-ding” back in 1967, I said that three was the ideal number of key changes for a playful Eurovision song. And how many key changes does “Shir Habatlanim” have? That’s right, three! Not too different from that old Dutch entry, this song has a key change at the second verse, a second key change at the third chorus,* and a final key change when the last chorus repeats. It’s the perfect formula for a song that’s meant to be lighthearted.

The song’s humor transcends language barriers so perfectly. It starts as a dainty orchestral song, but gets more and more jazzy as it progresses. The singers, two men in black suits, do all sorts of amazingly goofy dance moves and even put sunglasses on halfway through. They also seep into spoken word at a few points, so that no matter which language you speak, you can tell how silly this song is meant to be. Watching this performance, it’s no surprise these two guys are a comedy duo.

* “Ring-dinge-ding” does it at the third verse instead.

Austria: Nur noch Gefühl

Artist: Gary Lux, returning from 1985

Language: German

Key: D♭ major

Another power ballad that again doesn’t hit the criteria to click with me. Gary Lux attempts singing dramatically in the chorus, but he doesn’t deliver as much as he could. If you’re wondering what kind of standard I judge Eurovision power ballads against, think Johnny Logan or Niamh Kavanagh. It’s more about the singing than the composition for me.

Iceland: Hægt og hljótt

Artist: Halla Margrét Árnadóttir

Language: Icelandic

Key: C major

This is another ballad, but it’s not a power ballad, nor is it trying to be. Instead, it’s more of a classic ballad, which is much less cliched in this era of Eurovision. It’s extremely true to its title, which means “slowly and quietly”. The composition and singing are both very gentle, and I actually kind of like it. It’s a refreshing change of pace from the other type of ballad, where the singer wails their heart out.

Belgium: Soldiers of Love

Artist: Liliane Saint-Pierre

Language: Dutch, with the title repeated and one other phrase in English

Key: C minor, C♯ minor

This song comes off like the Dutch-speaking Belgian broadcaster wanted to apologize for butting heads with the French-speaking broadcaster. Most of the time, when it was the Dutch speakers’ turn to send a Belgian entry, they barely tried at all, but this time they really made a good pick. It’s an energetic rock song with anthemic lyrics that plead for peace. It is 1980’s, but the regular good kind of 80’s, not exaggerated over-the-top 80’s. It also shows that the Dutch language can sound badass when it wants to.

The guitarists on stage are funny because they’re very obviously faking it and not even playing half the time. It’s exactly the sort of cheesiness that every Eurovision fan grows to love. I wish I had to say more about this entry, but you can’t expect me to write a huge wall of text about a regular good song.

Sweden: Boogaloo

Artist: Lotta Engberg

Language: Swedish

Key: E♭ major, E major

In my review of the last Swedish entry, I said that the blues rock instrumental would be better suited for a song about dancing rock and roll, or something similarly silly—exactly like the lyrics of this song, which has a Caribbean reggae vibe. A relaxed drum beat, brass riffs, lots of percussion, lively backing singers, it’s got the full package. However, the screams of excitement throughout the song annoy the shit out of me. That’s one of the most annoying Eurovision tropes in general—a good song should speak for itself, without anyone in it having to scream or tell the audience to make some noise. The worst is when the singer screams “WOO! THANK YOU EUROPE!!!” at the end of a song that annoys me, or after a crappy performance.

I’m getting ahead of myself. The point is, it seems that we’re now in Sweden’s lighthearted Eurovision era, where they threw crazy ideas at the wall and saw what worked.

Italy: Gente di mare

Artist: Umberto Tozzi and Raffaele Riefoli

Language: Italian

Key: E♭ major, E major

Contrasting against Sweden’s song, this is one of the most serious songs of the competition and was a major hit throughout Europe. It scored third place behind Ireland and Germany. This may seem like a regular ballad in 6/8 time, but it has a lot of little compositional flourishes to give it life, and some very good dramatic buildup. I especially love the series of chords that play at the end of each verse; it gives me slight Queen vibes. The lyrics are interesting too: they describe the (hypothetical) people of the sea, who are free to explore the world unlike those stuck in the city. It doesn’t all the way wow me, but it’s a very solid song and I can see why it scored high.

Portugal: Neste barco à vela

Artist: Nevada (Jorge Mendes and Alfredo Anzinheira)

Language: Portuguese

Key: C♯ minor

This song is an interesting blend of traditional Portuguese fado music with 80’s rock. It puts a Portuguese-sounding chord progression and melody, with extremely Portuguese lyrics about gloomily sailing a boat, onto contemporary 80’s instrumentation. This genre combination didn’t seem to pay off because this song scored 18th place out of 22 and the singers remained obscure, but I still think it’s neat. I just wish the Portuguese guitars heard at the start were more prominent.

Spain: No estás solo

Artist: Patricia Kraus

Language: Spanish

Key: F major

I have no idea how to describe this song. I can only say it’s an unfocused mess that has absolutely no idea what it wants to be, and that the singer isn’t very good. I can see why it scored low, but the song’s distribution of points is surprising: it got ten points, all of which were from Greece. Don’t ask me why.

And to think that this, of all songs, is why it’s so hard to find this contest commentated on YouTube.

Turkey: Şarkım Sevgi Üstüne

Artist: Seyyal Taner and Grup Lokomotif

Language: Turkish

Key: C♯ minor

This song sounds like it could be an anime opening. It’s got a bombastic intro, then it delves into an extravagant tune with brass riffs and dramatic melodies and alternating drum rhythms, which seeps into different keys a few times. The song has a lot of potential, especially considering that it embraces the Turkish funk genre, but unfortunately, the performance is a trainwreck. The singers are so caught up in extravagant dancing that some of them forget to sing. Those slip-ups are clearly why this song got zero points. Seriously, why is the lead singer so shaky? Also, the lyrics are very inane: they basically say “I’m singing a song to you about love” with way too much repetition.

If nothing else, the Swedish commentator seemed amused by this song, considering he sang a bit of it after it ended. I hope I parsed his attitude correctly.

Greece: Stop

Artist: Bang (Thanos Calliris and Vassilis Dertilis), who went by English-sounding stage names

Language: Greek, unlike the rest of their discography

Key: B♭ major

It’s nice to hear an upbeat jazzy song in the competition, but yet again, it sounds so completely un-Greek! It sounds like a Greek cover of a song originally in English, which I’m 99% sure it is. The song has an English version that clearly sounds like the original version. I love native language songs as much as the next person, but it’s so much better when they’re designed the language they’re performed in. Several of Finland’s entries from this era have the same problem.

I should note that in this era of Eurovision, most non-English songs had an official English version and no others. “J’aime la vie” additionally has an Italian version, because of Sandra Kim’s descent. We’re reaching the era where alternate language covers of songs are done out of novelty, not necessity.

Netherlands: Rechtop in de wind

Artist: Marcha (Margaretha Hendrika Maria Groeneveld)

Language: Dutch

Key: F minor in the verses, F major in the chorus

I’m going to pick apart this song’s structure in depth, since I think it’s really interesting. It starts with a gloomy, mysterious verse in minor key, then it slams you in the face with a major key chorus that is so ultra-1980’s, it transcends words. The chorus uses the title (upright in the wind) as a hook, which works well and makes the song memorable. In case you thought the minor key section was just an intro, we get another minor key verse to solidify that the extreme push and pull is what defines the song. Then the chorus returns, longer than the first chorus but of the same essence.

Many “major key verse, minor key chorus” songs, I’ve derided because the transitions between them are jarring, like two different songs stitched together. This song is a little different, because when you read the lyrics, you’ll know that the abrupt transitions are exactly the point. The verses describe a horrendous breakup that almost destroyed the singer’s life. The chorus, on the other hand, says that she will persevere no matter what happens next, upright in the wind. The verses’ extreme 80’s-ness is a little tacky, but I appreciate the song’s composition and the singer presents it well. After a whole bunch of entries that I had very little to say about, the Netherlands really got back on their feet.

Luxembourg: Amour, amour

Artist: Plastic Bertrand (Roger François Jouret)

Language: French

Key: B♭ major, C major

There are two ways you can tell all the instruments are performed live. One way is that the volumes, particularly the electric piano chords, are very inconsistent and sometimes overpower the vocals. The second is a bit less obvious: At the time, the rules of Eurovision stipulated* that all instruments in the backing track must be seen on stage. This counterintuitively means that if no one is playing instruments on stage, the entire instrumental is performed live. This also means that when instruments are played on stage, it’s hard to know whether they’re live or playback.

As for the song itself, it’s again over-the-top 80’s. The singer has plenty of enthusiasm but otherwise isn’t the greatest. If you consider all this plus his garish pink jacket, it should be clear why I named this post “An 80’s Fever Dream”.

* There are so many great synonyms for “require”. Mandate, order, enforce, stipulate, to name a few. Not all English words have this luxury.

United Kingdom: Only the Light

Artist: Rikki (Richard Winters Peebles)

Language: English

Key: E major

This was the lowest ranked British entry in the 20th century, at 13th place out of 22. Considering the jury’s bias towards songs in English, that likely means the song is really bad.

Well OK, it’s not that bad. It’s just a very average 80’s pop song that sounds the same as the two preceding. This is exactly the problem with randomized song order. We had a big clump of ballads near the start, and now we have a clump of pumpy 80’s pop songs. It would have done wonders to space out the similar songs. I’ve made this point plenty of times by now.

France: Les mots d’amour n’ont pas de dimanche

Artist: Christine Minier

Language: French

Key: D major

I’ve read that despite scoring in the bottom half and not feeling like herself when performing this romantic 80’s ballad, Christine Minier loved participating in Eurovision anyway. You can see she’s excited to perform on stage, which is good. The melody of the lyrics is clearly designed around the French language, which is also good! It feels like a combination of chanson and ballad. Considering this and the dramatic buildup in the bridge, including what you could argue is a brief key change (to F major), it’s one of the better ballads of 80’s Eurovision.

I’m surprised this song only got 14th place out of 22. I thought juries adored these kinds of ballads, considering who won this year.

Germany: Lass die Sonne in dein Herz

Artist: Wind, the band returning from 1985

Language: German

Key: B major, C major, D♭ major, D major, E♭ major

Just like when Wind performed two years prior, and just like last time Johnny Logan won, Germany scored second place. They sent a decent reggae song with feel-good lyrics and good vocal harmonies, but you cannot tell me it needed four key changes. The changes in key disguise the song’s repetitive structure, which is chorus, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, chorus. Couldn’t they have fit in a bridge section?

Weirdly enough, this song would have been the last time Germany made it to the top two, if they hadn’t won in 2010. Reviewing Germany’s entries after their last victory is really going to hurt. Both because of their poor scores, and because they quit singing in German. At least 2018 was a bright spot.

Cyprus: Áspro mávro (Άσπρο μαύρο)

Artist: Alexia Vasiliou, returning from 1981 but as a soloist

Language: Greek

Key: B♭ major, B major, and then E♭ major. Wait, what?

The song’s title means “white and black”, which happens to be the colors in which the performers are dressed.

The lyrics say that the singer constantly dreams that a love interest who she briefly encountered will return one day. You might expect it to be a gloomy song, and you might expect from the phrase “you might expect it to be a gloomy song” that it’s instead a super-upbeat song, but it’s actually somewhere in between. It’s a pop song in swing rhythm that’s not quite upbeat and not quite gloomy, but a mix of both. I think that suits the song’s lyrics perfectly! It represents a mix of hope and despair that you can sense no matter which language you speak. If you’re wondering why this song is called “white and black”, a translation of the lyrics suggests that it’s meant to evoke piano keys.

I’d also like to talk about this song’s key changes. It starts in B♭ major, then in the second verse, it steps up to B major akin to “La det swinge”. Then comes the bridge, which you could argue is in D major, but I prefer thinking of it as a transition between keys. This section could easily transition back to B major, since D major has the same signature as B minor. However, it instead transitions to a surprising final key, E♭ major—a perfect fourth above the song’s initial key. It’s not common for key changes to be this big of a leap, especially because it requires the singer to shift their range, but this song pulls it off with an elegant transition.

You might not know what all this means, but the point is: unusual key changes always make a song more interesting.

Finland: Sata salamaa

Artist: Vicky Rosti, who’s best known for covering pop hits in Finnish

Language: Finnish

Key: E minor in the intro, G minor in the verses, G major in the chorus and bridge, A♭ major in the final chorus

My thoughts on this song are largely similar to the Netherlands. Dramatic minor key verse, rousing major key chorus, tied together in a way that fits the song’s theme. The title means “a hundred lightning bolts”, and the lyrics are about a romance that can’t be stopped by even the worst disasters.

If you’ve been following my Eurovision reviews, you’ll know that I tend to have two problems with “major key verse, minor key chorus” songs. This song avoids the first problem, which is that the verse and chorus don’t properly flow into each other. Unfortunately, it falls straight into the second problem, which is the unnecessary key change that acts as if the verses never happened. I’m really not a fan of the key change after the bridge, which is a shame because it’s otherwise one of Finland’s best entries so far. The Swedish commentator burst in excitement when the song ended, which I found sweet. It’s not my favorite of the contest, but 15th place was too low.

Denmark: En lille melodi

Artist: Bandjo with Anne-Catherine Herdorf

Language: Danish

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

How the hell did this tie with the Netherlands for fifth place??? It’s just an empty sappy pop song with too many key changes about singing melodies to unite the world. The Swedish commentator mentioned “Ein bisschen Frieden” during the postcard, I’m guessing because he thought the songs were similar. Going by the lyrics I can see the comparison, except Germany’s winner is way better.

Ireland: Hold Me Now (the winner)

Artist: Johnny Logan, the winner of 1980

Language: English

Key: F major, G major

We’re at the third last song! It felt like it took forever to get to this point, because this contest has been—like most Eurovision contests—a mixed bag. Better that than a contest where all but one or two songs are shit.

Johnny Logan is back for the third time out of four, with the second Eurovision entry that he sang, and the only Eurovision entry that he both sang and composed. Pretty much every Eurovision fan knows this song. It’s probably the most iconic entry of the 1980’s, rivaled only by “Ein bisschen Frieden”, as well as the most iconic entry from Ireland. The lyrics are about a man who wants his lover to spend some final precious moments (to hold him now) before leaving him for another man, a similar theme to his previous “What’s Another Year”.

80’s and 90’s Eurovision have a huge amount of power ballads, especially from Ireland, so you may ask: what makes this song stand out? The main reason is Johnny Logan’s vocal performance, which sounds smooth, slick, and passionate; you can tell that he feels every word of his song. The moment he begins singing, you can sense that he’s going to win. Its structure is befitting of a winner too. After a brief orchestral intro, Johnny kicks right into the first verse and chorus, and only briefly pauses singing when leading to the second verse. The really effective part is when the second chorus is interrupted by the bridge (“I hope at last you’ve found what you’ve been searching for”). This keeps the listener on their toes as they anticipate the inevitable final chorus, which is introduced by a brief slowdown and key change.

Since this is the first of two double victories in Eurovision history, there are two questions worth asking. First, would I have expected Johnny Logan to win a second time? Second, would I have wanted him to win again? My answer to the first question is “yes, absolutely”. The second question is tougher. This is without question one of the best songs of the night, but I would have most likely hoped someone else would win, since Johnny Logan already had his moment of triumph. As for who I would have wanted to win… I’ll answer that after the next two songs.

Yugoslavia: Ja sam za ples (Ја сам за плес)

Artist: Novi Fosili, a long-running band

Language: Serbo-Croatian (Croatian), with a few phrases in English

Key: G major, A♭ major

During the last few years of its existence, Yugoslavia stepped up their game and found a genre that would appeal to listeners more than before: upbeat Yugoslav rock. It almost feels like winning Eurovision was on Yugoslavia’s bucket list, which they would accomplish in 1989. This is the first of four years in a row where Yugoslavia reached the top 10, although their results would plummet in the last two years before the country collapsed.

This didn’t get quite as many points as “Džuli” from 1983, which also scored fourth place, but it’s still one of Yugoslavia’s best results. It’s perky and cheerful and tells a love story in a bar, interspersed by a few English phrases: “I wanna dance” (a translation of the title) and “this is OK”. These are the types of songs Yugoslavia would most often send in their final years. I’m also obligated to mention that the lead singer and only woman on stage, Sanja Doležal, had her birthday on the contest.

Switzerland: Moitié-moitié

Artist: Carol Rich

Language: French

Key: F♯ major

And so, the contest ends with a song and performance that’s stereotypically 1980’s in every way. The singers look like characters in some 80’s movie about high school students, and the song sounds like it belongs in that type of movie. Especially due to the weird cheesy lyrics, which mean something like “love is half and half”. For all I know, maybe that was their intention? In any case, the singers are too jumpy and waily for me to get much into the song.

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Who’s my favorite?

This time, I have two strong candidates: Israel’s zany comedic song, and Ireland’s iconic power ballad. As tempting as it is to choose Johnny Logan twice, there are so many other Irish ballads like it throughout Eurovision history. On the other hand, I can’t think of anywhere else you can find a song like Israel, Shir Habatlanim, so I’m choosing that as my winner. It totally caught me by surprise! It has an English version too, if you’re into that.

• Austria, 1
• Belgium, 1
• Denmark, 1
• Finland, 2
• France, 1
• Germany, 4
• Ireland, 2
• Israel, 2
• Luxembourg, 2
• Netherlands, 6
• Norway, 2
• Portugal, 2
• Sweden, 3
• Switzerland, 1
• Turkey, 1
• United Kingdom, 1
• (13 winners)

Every year since 1983, I wound up choosing a song I didn’t know existed before watching the contest in full! This shows that to discover the best hidden gems of Eurovision, you need to binge it on your own. And yes, that requires trudging through garbage songs sometimes.

General thoughts:

This contest is best known for the first double victory in Eurovision, which was until 2023 the only double victory. It felt extremely obvious that Johnny Logan would win—nothing else was close to viable competition. Most were samey ballads or standard 80’s pop. If there’s any other entry I could have imagined winning, it would be Italy, which got third place. From what I know, Ireland’s victory in this contest was hardly controversial at all, in contrast to Loreen’s double win in 2023, which I think will remain one of the most divisive victories in Eurovision history. Overall, 1987 is a good example of a Eurovision year where only the winner is iconic today.

The Belgian presenter had a fairly similar style to Norway’s last year, but with a little less warmth, and I found the performance of her latest single at the start self-indulgent. The interval act was a somewhat cheesy celebration of unity in Europe, with various renditions of the European Union flag set to a flute arrangement of “Ode to Joy”. I suspect that if the Dutch-speaking broadcaster organized the contest, the interval act would be more focused on Belgium itself.

During the voting, the Dutch jury accidentally awarded both two and ten points to Cyprus. Thankfully, the French guy in charge of tallying noticed this, because I sure didn’t! This made me realize that during the past few years, we’ve had almost no voting mishaps, which is a relief. I think the voting mishaps in 1983 made the Eurovision staff more careful about who to hire as presenters.

Just like last time he won, Johnny Logan ran out of breath at the end of the reprise, which shows how much he sang his heart out. You can’t forget about his “I still love you, Ireland”, this time spoken at the start of the song.

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See you next time for the year with two household names: Celine Dion and Lara Fabian.

>> 1988: The Year of Francophone Superstars