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Introduction
We’re back to Dublin, Ireland for Eurovision 1988, in the same building as 1981 (the year after last time Johnny Logan won). However, it doesn’t look like the same building at all! It’s dark inside and the stage is surrounded by walls displaying a computer screen, much like 21st century Eurovision. This contest had almost the same lineup as last time, except Cyprus withdrew because their entry broke the rules. If Cyprus hadn’t skipped, we would’ve had the same 22 countries participate four years in a row.
Another way this contest resembles modern Eurovision is that it has multiple presenters. From 1957 to 1987, most contests had one female presenter; from 1988 to 2008, the norm was instead one man and one woman; and from 2009 onwards, most contests had three or four presenters. From this year on, the only solo presenters were in 1993, 1995, and 2013. As for this contest, the presenters introduced it in Irish, French, and English in order. The female presenter’s French has the weirdest Irish accent I’ve ever heard. She overenunciates the R’s and pronounces “bienvenue” as “pianvenue”, with a heavily aspirated P. After the introductions, the presenters made a lot of jokes throughout the show, with a much heavier saturation than the subtle humor of the last few years.
This contest had Switzerland’s second and latest victory, performed by perhaps the second most famous name to come from Eurovision: Celine Dion. Another famous French-speaking singer represented Luxembourg, the legendary Lara Fabian. No French-language song has ever won Eurovision since then. Switzerland beat the UK by only one point, in one of the tensest voting sequences in Eurovision history.
Just like last year, it was very hard to find commentary on this contest because all the uploads on YouTube were blocked. Through extensive research, the only two languages I could find were Greek and Dutch, so I’m gonna settle for Dutch.
Iceland: Sókrates
Artist: Beathoven (Stefán Hilmarsson and Sverrir Stormsker)
Language: Icelandic, but it really doesn’t want to be
Key: F major, F♯ major, G major
I get it, Iceland, you’re upset that you have to sing in a language that almost no one else speaks or understands. It’s not at all mutually intelligible with Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish, and I get it, that’s a big disadvantage. But there are better ways to transcend language barriers than inane lyrics that consist of name-dropping famous people. Like, I don’t know, MAKING A SONG THAT IS ACTUALLY GOOD.
Every person binging Eurovision from the beginning develops a pet peeve or two along the way. For some people it’s ballads, for others it might be spoken-word music, and I think I know my biggest one: lyrics that name-drop tons of places and people. I sometimes complain about multiple key changes, or minor key verses and major key choruses, but there are good ways to do both those things, whereas the name-dropping gimmick annoys the shit out of me every time. It’s such a lazy way to bypass the language rule and I’m convinced that’s the only reason people do it.
OK, I don’t think this song was meant to take itself seriously. But a silly Eurovision song can also be good! How about “Dschinghis Khan” from 1979, or “Shir Habatlanim” from the previous contest? This song, on the other hand, is not very good. It’s just a generic schlager song with an annoying slowdown after the first key change, and an even more annoying slowdown after the second key change.
Sweden: Stad i ljus
Artist: Tommy Körberg, returning from 1969
Language: Swedish
Key: G major
Oh hey, I didn’t expect to see Tommy Körberg again! I remember his 1969 entry “Judy min vän” sounding ahead of its time. On the other hand, this is a very traditional 80’s Eurovision ballad. It’s sung well, and the instrumentation fits the lyrics about imagining a world where nothing exists but his love interest. It’s one of the best composed ballads I’ve seen yet, but it doesn’t hit the threshold where it’ll stand out to me beyond other ballads. Apparently he was sick when performing his song, but he gave it his all anyway.
Finland: Nauravat silmät muistetaan
Artist: Boulevard
Language: Finnish
Key: B♭ major in the verses, A♭ major in the chorus
From what I can tell, the Dutch commentator is mostly just talking about every country’s prior results before each song. For instance, he mentions Marion Rung gave Finland their best result, if I’m understanding him correctly. I’ve never formally learned Dutch, I just guess what words mean based on my German knowledge.
The third Nordic country in a row gave us a swing rock song whose lyrics probably sound more profound in Finnish than a translation I found online. It’s got nice harmonies, but otherwise it’s repetitive and doesn’t progress beyond the alternating verses and chorus. I can see why it landed second last with only three points; there’s really nothing special about it.
United Kingdom: Go
Artist: Scott Fitzgerald
Language: English
Key: B minor in the verses, D major in the chorus, E♭ major in the final chorus
Ah, here’s the song that almost won! It scored 136 points whereas Switzerland scored 137. The Yugoslav jury gave six points to Switzerland and, after lengthy suspense, turned out to give none to the UK, which continued their tradition of scoring second place.
I think the UK’s poor result in 1987 was a wake-up call for them to take Eurovision more seriously, since this song resumed their pattern of getting second place. After a bunch of muddy performances and forgettable songs, they gave us a moody ballad about two former lovers meeting, sung with a moderately raspy voice. The singer wants his ex to go away before his heartbreak that he thought had long healed resurfaces. It uses the “major key verse, minor key chorus” trope to good effect. Since the verses and chorus are in the same key signature, they flow naturally into each other, and they represent a combination of bitterness and longing. I’m not the biggest fan of the key change, but the ending is lovely and somewhat makes up for it.
Turkey: Sufi
Artist: MFÖ, the band returning from 1985
Language: Turkish
Key: A minor, D minor
Another Turkish funk song, because what else did you expect from Turkey? It’s too bad the singers sound so faint, because otherwise this could be a real classic ethnic entry. Instead, it sadly sounds like background noise. Also, like MFÖ’s last entry, the lyrics have too many nonsense phrases for my liking.
Spain: La chica que yo quiero (Made in Spain)
Artist: La Década
Language: Spanish, with a repeated English phrase
Key: D major
Why do I get the feeling most songs in this contest will be either tacky disco or tacky ballads? This stands firmly in the tacky disco category, with some guy singing about how the sexiest woman in the world is made in Spain. The repeated “Made in Espain” in the chorus is so incredibly distracting. Not just that, the incorrect four syllables are worked into the melody, suggesting that the songwriters have no idea how English works.
Netherlands: Shangri-La
Artist: Gerard Joling
Language: Dutch
Key: C♯ minor
Now this is a dramatic 80’s pop song done well. It’s got a pumping rhythm and alternates between fast and slow drum beats without changing the tempo, but it’s again missing that extra spark of greatness. I think a stronger presence of vocal harmonies would improve this song. The lyrics are about a man in search of Shangri-La, where he supposedly could live without love.
Israel: Ben Adam (בן אדם)
Artist: Yardena Arazi, who we’ve seen twice before
Language: Hebrew
Key: C major
Yardena Arazi previously participated as part of a trio in 1976, then was part of the duo of hosts in 1979. In 1988, she became the first person to compete in Eurovision after hosting it. The next two were Sakis Rouvas in 2009 and Željko Joksimović in 2012. Yardena’s entry has four backing singers, two of whom were from the group that won when she hosted: Milk and Honey, the singers of “Hallelujah”. That song has actually grown on me since I wrote my 1979 review. I probably would’ve judged it more positively if it hadn’t followed the glory that is “Dschinghis Khan”.
Enough about other Israeli entries, let’s talk about this song. Yardena got a new look since she last hosted, opting for fancy curly hair. She sings a traditional Israeli dance song that’s slow for most of its duration, but speeds up near the end, which is easily the best part. You might think the song is about someone named Ben Adam, but the title actually means “human being”. The lyrics, both in Hebrew and in the English version called “Son of Man”, basically say that all humans are imperfect and mortal, so you shouldn’t judge any of them too much. I like that Israel kept a clear general style throughout the 80’s, but wasn’t afraid to vary that style like this song does.
Switzerland: Ne partez pas sans moi (the winner)
Artist: Celine Dion, probably the most famous contestant behind ABBA
Language: French
Key: F major, F♯ major
Celine Dion needs no introduction—I’m sure you already know who she is. In case you didn’t know, she’s Canadian and has no actual connection to Switzerland, besides growing up in a partly French-speaking country.
I’m surprised this song beat the UK by only one point, because this has so much more winner energy. It’s in French (always a marketable language), the lyrics are easy to understand even if your French isn’t great, and most crucially, the singer gives it her all. A large portion of the early winners are like this. Unlike many other winning entries, which perfect an existing song formula, this song takes the best parts of two common formulas of this era—ballads and rousing pop songs—and rolls them together into one song. The verses follow the ballad formula, while the chorus follows the rousing pop formula.
This song is cleverly composed, because the tempo effectively doubles when the chorus begins (technically two measures before). Which is to say, the song’s inner pulse becomes twice as fast in the chorus. This means that you could write sheet music of this song where the verses and chorus are at the same tempo, so it’s kind of a tempo change but also kind of not. Either way, the doubling of pace makes the chorus rousing without breaking the song’s flow.
One more fact: This is the last of 14 Eurovision winners in French, which was originally Eurovision’s most powerful language. The 1990’s storm of winners in English proved this was no longer the case, and that was cemented when the language rule was rescinded. Since this entry, only three songs in French attained second place: in 1990, 1991, and 2021 (whose third place was also in French). Fortunately, the success of recent non-English entries like “Tout l’univers”,* “Stefania”, and “Cha Cha Cha” shows that Eurovision is experiencing a rebirth of linguistic diversity, and I really hope it continues.
* I listened to that song in full for the first time just now, and it blew me away. I’d say more, but I shouldn’t get ahead of myself.
Ireland: Take Him Home
Artist: Jump the Gun
Language: English
Key: C major, D major
I don’t know what I think of this song. It explores a variety of ideas including power ballads, power rock, and some interesting guitar solos, but its overall structure is too unfocused to stick with me. The best part has to be the solos right before the key change, which come with some lovely chords found nowhere else in the song. Also, when the singing bassist takes his fingers off the bass and the bassline continues, the illusion of live instrumentation is ruined.
Germany: Lied für einen Freund
Artist: Maxi and Chris Garden. Chris is the mother, just to be clear.
Language: German
Key: B♭ major
It’s cute that a mother and daughter are singing together while playing on two separate pianos, but I can’t understand what they’re singing very well. Looking at the lyrics, they seem to say that this is a “song for a friend” (the title), but we don’t know anything about the friend himself (except that he’s male; female would be “Freundin”), what he’s like, or why they’re writing a song for him. They kind of just say that their friend is a very nice guy. Couldn’t they have sung about a friend who is about to move away, or a friend who’s about to have a baby, or if you want to be more depressing, a friend who just died?
As for the song itself, it’s an alright ballad with some nice piano riffs, but it’s as void of substance as the lyrics are. It doesn’t evoke anything other than “this is a song for my nice friend”, so if nothing else, it fits the lyrics well. I’ve read that Germany will send a lot of songs like this in the next few years, but hey, I’d rather have Germany send drivel in German than drivel in English.
Austria: Lisa Mona Lisa
Artist: Wilfried Scheutz
Language: German
Key: A major
This is an attempt at a super-serious ballad about a woman who the singer is madly in love with, a genre that’s never clicked with me that much, with a subpar vocal performance that gets off key at parts. The vocal performance is clearly why it got zero points. However, my biggest annoyance with this song is that when the instrumental pauses, the song is absolutely BEGGING for a final chord, and it doesn’t do one. Instead, it abruptly cuts off in the middle. Why would anyone compose a song this way? I mean, if they’re not purposely pausing for comedic effect.
Denmark: Ka’ du se hva’ jeg sa’
Artist: Hot Eyes, returning from 1984 and 1985
Language: Danish
Key: D major, E♭ major, E major
I’m still not a fan of these apostrophe-heavy titles, but at least they’re accurate to how Danish sounds. Also, it turns out Hot Eyes aren’t actually a married couple and the kid who performed with them in 1985 was Søren’s daughter, not Kirsten’s. I had to edit my reviews of their prior entries accordingly. You can see how much worse they performed with a kid on stage: in 1984 they got fourth place, 1985 11th place, and this time was their best result: third place. The two times Hot Eyes didn’t perform with a child on stage, Kirsten was pregnant with a boy—this time, by eight months.
Despite not being married, Hot Eyes sure liked making romantic songs. This song’s title means “didn’t I tell you so?” and from what I can tell, it’s about a woman who just won a man’s heart over someone else. Like their other two entries, it’s mostly Kirsten who sings, but Søren gets a turn to sing solo in the bridge. It’s also got an English version (Who Is Wrong and Who’s Right?) and a German version (Hab ich’s dir nicht gesagt?), which makes sense because German and Danish have most of their sounds in common.
As for the song itself, it’s exactly what I expected it to be: a swing pop song with multiple key changes. It’s fun and bouncy, but very predictable knowing their prior entries. A truly great Eurovision song will surprise me in some way.
Greece: Clown (Κλόουν)
Artist: Afroditi Frida
Language: Greek
Key: A minor
I expected this to be another playful jazzy un-Greek song, because that was what Greece usually sent in the 80’s for some reason. Instead, it’s a pumping 80’s pop song with a few circus elements in the chorus, which goes “clown, clown, I am the clown, hahaha” (translated). I almost would have preferred a full-out circus song in Greek, because this is just unfocused, sorry.
Norway: For vår jord
Artist: Karoline Krüger
Language: Norwegian
Key: D major, E major
The female Irish presenter points out that this was composed by Eurovision veteran Anita Skorgan, which is nice because otherwise I would’ve missed that. As I expected from the title (for our earth), it’s a piano ballad. Just like Sweden, it’s a very solid composition with some interesting chords (particularly diminished ones), and it would be in the top half if I ranked all this contest’s songs, but I don’t see it standing out beyond other ballads. The most interesting part of this song might be that it changes key midway through the last chorus. It sounds like it would fit in the credits of a romantic movie.
Belgium: Laissez briller le soliel
Artist: Reynaert (Joseph Reynaerts)
Language: French
Key: G major and C major in alternation
I think this song was meant to sound mysterious and atmospheric, like a dramatic scene in the middle of a movie. But instead, it sounds like an incomplete power ballad with half the instruments muted. It’s too eccentric for me.
Luxembourg: Croire
Artist: Lara Fabian
Language: French
Key: B major, D♭ major
I have to admit, it feels weird seeing Luxembourg in a year with a dark stage filled with special effects. I associate Luxembourg with the old days of Eurovision, and indeed, this is only five years before their last participation.
We’ve now made it to Lara Fabian, the other big name of this contest, who once again is not from the country she’s representing. Instead, she hails from Belgium. This was at the very beginning of her career, when she was only 18 years old—she would have many successful years ahead of her.
This is the kind of ballad that does stand out from other ballads to me, and there’s many reasons why. The first is the 3/4 time signature, unusual for ballads. The time signature lets the listener relax as the song begins, then get taken aback as it builds up, especially in the key change halfway through. The instrumentation is thoroughly 80’s but not in an annoying way: it perfectly uses FM pianos, heavy drums, and a bit of guitar to sound soothing. At the very end, the instruments calm down and the song slows, which lets the listener process what a trip this song has been.
But what really makes this song shine is Lara Fabian’s performance, which is imbued with sincerity. Her voice starts off gentle but gets more dramatic in every verse. You can sense from her expressions and hand gestures that she means every word of her song. The song’s title means “to believe”, and it’s about believing in a world where people love and trust each other. The melody is clearly designed around French, so in the song’s English and German versions (“Trust” and “Glaub” respectively), Lara Fabian takes a lot of liberties in her rhythm. She sings surprisingly well in both these languages.
This song scored fourth place, behind Switzerland, the UK, and surprisingly Denmark. I’m sure some viewers were mad it didn’t win, but Lara Fabian didn’t need to win Eurovision to be successful. Despite being a Eurovision powerhouse, Luxembourg never scored in the top 10 after this year. From 1989 to 1993, all their results were in the bottom half. Let’s hope Luxembourg brings back some of their glory in 2024!
Italy: Ti scrivo
Artist: Luca Barbarossa
Language: Italian
Key: E major
This is a blues rock song with a few ballad elements mixed in, one of the better songs of this contest. It has some interesting guitar solos, but unfortunately the guitarist is blatantly faking it. The lyrics would fit a ballad a bit more, since they’re about a man who keeps writing to his old love interest because he can’t get over her, but blues rock works too. I’m just confused at the song’s fadeout ending; was it originally meant to be longer?
After the song ended, the female presenter spoke quite a bit of Italian, again with an Irish accent. She comes off like someone overenthusiastic to show off her foreign language skills, but she’s of Italian descent so I shouldn’t be too harsh.
France: Chanteur de charme
Artist: Gérard Lenorman
Language: French
Key: D major, F major
The 80’s weren’t a great decade for France in Eurovision. Except for their third place in 1981, they usually scored around the middle (like this year) or well into the bottom half. I’m guessing they just didn’t try very hard.
This song is strange because it’s sung like a traditional chanson over a sugary 80’s pop instrumental. His singing and the instrumental are both good in themselves, but they really do not fit together.
Portugal: Voltarei
Artist: Dora, returning from 1986
Language: Portuguese
Key: D major
Is this any better than Dora’s previous entry? Quite a bit, even if it got only five points. Her singing voice is miles better, for one. This entry alternates between a bombastic pop song and a ballad, where Dora sings her heart out. Unfortunately, the backing singers aren’t great. I’m told they’re from Ireland and can’t actually speak Portuguese, which is why they mispronounce the lyrics. Despite this, it’s actually one of the best entries of the year.
Yugoslavia: Mangup (Мангуп)
Artist: Silver Wings, known locally as Srebrna Krila
Language: Serbo-Croatian (Croatian)
Key: D major and/or G major. I don’t know, I just want to be done with this year.
Yugoslavia has continued the genre into which they’ve settled, which is good! It’s another round of upbeat Yugoslav rock, and although the singer is a little too waily, it’s still better than most of their prior entries. I’m happy that Yugoslavia went with a genre that works well in their own language, so that I don’t keep expecting it to be in a different language. I guess I can mention that the lyrics are about a woman obsessed with a rascal of a man who wants him to give her the slightest bit of attention.
Cyprus: Thymame (Θυμάμαι) (withdrawn)
Artist: Yiannis Dimitrou
Language: Greek
Key: A minor in the verses, A major in the chorus
This song has the funniest story behind its rejection. It was submitted to Cyprus’s 1984 national selection and got third place, then the exact same song won the 1988 selection. The Cypriot broadcaster didn’t realize that was against the rules until after the songs’ order was selected. It was going to be the second song in the contest. This ties into an interesting anecdote about Israel’s entry which you can read about on Yardena Arazi’s Wikipedia article.
What is it with rejected entries in Greek and being better than the accepted ones? This is a very fun 80’s rock song about the singer’s fondness for rock and roll, and again I can’t imagine the orchestra would have butchered it.
Who’s my favorite?
Most of this contest’s entries had something about them that got on my nerves, whether it’s unfocused structure, inane lyrics, or bad singing. The only ones with real wow factor are the French-speaking superstars: Switzerland and Luxembourg. I wouldn’t say Luxembourg, Croire is one of my favorite Eurovision songs of all time, but there’s still something about it that edges out the rest of the year, even Celine Dion.
- Austria, 1
- Belgium, 1
- Denmark, 1
- Finland, 2
- France, 1
- Germany, 4
- Ireland, 2
- Israel, 2
- Luxembourg, 3
- Netherlands, 6
- Norway, 2
- Portugal, 2
- Sweden, 3
- Switzerland, 1
- Turkey, 1
- United Kingdom, 1
- (13 winners)
I feel so weird choosing an ultra-slow ballad where the singer wails her heart out, but there aren’t that many other options. This also breaks my streak of choosing songs I didn’t already know.
General thoughts:
I feel conflicted about this year because the presentation was professional and modern, the hosts kept a good and not overstated sense of humor, and the fully digital scoreboard is lovely, but the selection of songs is mostly rubbish. I suppose I should be glad it was hosted this well, because otherwise it would have been hell to review.
But this contest isn’t all bad! Aside from Celine Dion, somehow most of the songs that didn’t annoy me in some way were the ballads. Norway, Sweden, the UK, and especially Luxembourg gave the contest some of its best ballads yet, even though I won’t remember how most of them sound. I’ll just have to accept ballad overload for the next decade or so.
For real, I can’t overstate how well this contest was presented. The scoreboard design has some goofy 80’s flair with all the italic text and drop shadows, but it does its job fantastically and even switches to the top five at a few points. The postcards stick to the trusty formula of “contestants exploring the host country with folk music in the background”. And as with many other years in the 80’s, the interval act was a better song than most of the contest’s entries.
In a weird twisted way, I’m relieved the digital scoreboard didn’t prevent voting mishaps. The Israeli jury moved to the next score before the female presenter said “Finlande, trois points” and the hosts skipped Israel’s four points, so they had to backtrack. It’s not Eurovision without voting mishaps.
I love the audience’s shocked reaction to the final twelve points: to France from Yugoslavia, which proved Switzerland as the winner. The Dutch commentator was every bit as flabbergasted, as you can sense from his tone of voice. After a minute or two of cheering, the presenters remembered the obligatory “France twelve points, France douze points”, and THEN the winner was officially announced. That is a legendary final result, but the tiebreaker in 1991 will be even better.
See you next time as a country that no longer exists takes the crown.
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