Monthly Archives: November 2023

Cookie Fonster’s Eurovision 1996 Dissertation: An Atmospheric Top Three

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Intro Post

< 1995 Review | 1996 Review | 1997 Review >

Last week, I booked flights to Copenhagen in May for ẗhe Eurovision Song Contest 2024! I plan to visit both Copenhagen and Malmö (two very close cities) for the contest, and that’ll be my big trip of 2024. I have no idea whether I’ll get tickets for the contest, but I’ve told it’s worth visiting the host city either way. This will be my first time in both Denmark and Sweden!

Introduction

Eurovision 1996 was Norway’s second time hosting Eurovision, and this time they chose their capital, Oslo. It graciously gave Ireland a one-year break from hosting. This was the second contest to have a semifinal, but it again didn’t have the format we know today. Norway automatically got a slot in the final, but 29 countries—all but one of whom had participated before—competed for the other 22 slots. Their qualifying round was not a televised event, but an audio-only jury selection.

Seven countries were eliminated in the semifinal: Denmark, Hungary, Israel, Romania, Russia, and two that especially hurt: North Macedonia and Germany. North Macedonia wanted to debut this year, but they had to wait till 1998. Germany was eliminated despite sending a fan favorite song, which caused a lot of controversy that I’ll discuss very soon. It also meant there were no more countries with perfect attendance, since Germany was the last. Five countries returned after skipping 1995: Estonia, Finland, the Netherlands, Slovakia, and Switzerland. Ireland won for the seventh and most recent time, and Norway and Sweden were the next highest.

I feel like I should be more surprised that one of the hosts (Morten Harket) is the lead singer of a-ha, the band known for “Take on Me”, but Flo Rida once competed in this contest so anything is possible. The other host (Ingvid Byrn) is a regular old Norwegian TV presenter. The EBU must have realized that hiring two singers as presenters in 1991 wasn’t a great idea.

The postcards had a three-part format: first the singer introduces themselves and sings a song of their choice, then the usual good old Norwegian scenery, and finally a politician from each country wishes the contestant luck in their own language. I’m guessing the organizers had three different ideas for postcards and combined them into one.

This blog post will cover 30 songs: the seven non-qualifiers, then the entries in the contest itself. It’s gonna be a doozy, so you better buckle up. I watched this contest with British commentary.

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Cookie Fonster Reviews Every MLP Episode Part 80: Parental Glideance

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Introduction / Navigation

< Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 >

Season 7, Episode 7

Season 7 Episode 7: Parental Glideance

In five words: Scootaloo meets Rainbow Dash’s parents.

Premise: While doing a school report on a pony she admires, Scootaloo encounters Rainbow Dash’s parents who discover their daughter is a Wonderbolt. They cheer Rainbow Dash on for this feat so loudly it starts getting on her nerves. But could they be in the right for doing so?

Detailed run-through:

Who doesn’t love cartoon physics?

Compared to the last two episodes, this one has a very efficient cold opening. First, the Cutie Mark Crusaders set up a crazy scooter slingshot to send Scootaloo to Cloudsdale, but right as she’s about to be launched, she realizes she could have used something safer like a hot air balloon. Doing something overly ambitious when they could have used a quick and safe alternative is the essence of the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

When she arrives in Cloudsdale, the first pony Scootaloo sees is none other than Rainbow Dash’s father, Bow Hothoof. Technically, this isn’t our first time seeing Rainbow Dash’s family: that would be the flashback in Games Ponies Play, which had a stallion that viewers thought was her father. But it’s still interesting that the show took so long to introduce us to her parents. Maybe it’s because the earlier seasons portrayed her as on the move and rarely showed inside her house, or because it’s common for shows like this to introduce the main cast’s parents after doing all the obvious episode premises.

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Cookie Fonster Muses Over Eurovision 1995: A Surprising Amount of Jazzy Songs

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Intro Post

< 1994 Review | 1995 Review | 1996 Review >

A few days ago, Eurovision confirmed that “United by Music”, the slogan of the 2023 contest, would now be the contest’s permanent slogan. If you think that takes away the heart and soul of the contest, then I’m sorry, that’s completely ridiculous. The slogans are one of the least interesting parts of the contest’s planning anyway.

Introduction

Man, I really miss when Eurovision started with the host broadcaster logo surrounded by “Eurovision” in a circle. The contest stopped doing that in 1994 and instead emphasized the Eurovision network logo. In my personal opinion, that is so much less cool.

After hosting the last contest in the Point Theatre in Dublin, Ireland, RTÉ saw no reason to change the location in 1995. They took an approach of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, though they did revamp the stage design so that the contest would feel fresh. I actually kind of hate the phrase “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, because people usually use it to complain about change, but the saying applies in this case.

For this contest, the EBU decided 25 countries was too many and changed the limit to 23. This meant five countries returned (Belgium, Denmark, Israel, Slovenia, Turkey) and seven were relegated (Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Netherlands, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland). For now, Germany was the last remaining country with perfect attendance. The most famous entry is easily the winner, “Nocturne” from Norway, notable for being mostly an instrumental piece. It gave Ireland a year-long break from hosting Eurovision.

Hosted by Mary Kennedy, this was the last contest with a solo presenter until 2013 with the legendary Petra Mede. I watched the contest with German commentary by Horst Senker.

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Cookie Fonster’s Eurovision 1994 Rundown: The Interval Act Steals the Show

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Intro Post

< 1993 Review | 1994 Review | 1995 Review >

We got the first confirmed Eurovision entry early this time, before even the list of participating countries: “Mon amour” for France. It’s a nice song that blends classic and modern styles, but its score will come down to how well it’s staged.

Also, I’m telling you in advance: the contests from 2004 onwards will get two posts each. One for the semifinals, where I review the non-qualifiers and the presentation of the semifinals, and one for the final.

Introduction

I was originally going to call this post “ireland op plz nerf” before I settled on something less ridiculous. After being the fourth country to win Eurovision twice in a row, Ireland became the first to host twice in a row and put on Eurovision 1994 in Dublin. When the contest ended, Ireland became the only country to win three times in a row and the first to win six times.

Despite the repetition in the contest’s winners, the lineup of countries was way different from last time. This was the first Eurovision to use a relegation system to limit the number of participants: the seven lowest-scoring countries from last year were locked out to make way for newcomers, at least in theory. Cyprus, the seventh lowest-scoring country, got lucky because Italy willfully quit the contest. This means that seven countries didn’t return from 1993 (Belgium, Denmark, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Turkey) and seven joined for the first time (Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia).

The relegation system doesn’t seem fair to me and I’m guessing it’s what drove Italy and Luxembourg away from Eurovision. It also broke Belgium’s perfect attendance, leaving only Switzerland and Germany as having attended every year… for now. The newcomers were a lot more successful than last year; Poland even got second place, by far their best result to date. On the other hand, Lithuania’s first entry got zero points and they didn’t return until 1999.

An interesting fact about one of the hosts: Cynthia Ní Mhurchú originally worked as an Irish language teacher. It shows with how confidently she spoke Irish on stage, and because she looks like a teacher. A sad fact about the other host: Gerry Ryan died in 2010, at only 53 years old, to the shock of his entire country.

The most famous thing part of this contest was actually the interval act. It was a folk dance performance called “Riverdance” and it’s perhaps the best known Eurovision interval act, rivaled only by “Love Love Peace Peace” in 2016. I’m quite excited for it! Oh yeah, I watched the contest with British commentary.

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Cookie Fonster Reviews Every MLP Episode Part 79: Fluttershy Leans In + Forever Filly

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Introduction / Navigation

< Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 >

Season 7, Episodes 5-6

Sorry this post is a day late! I finished writing it yesterday, but then I got distracted late at night and forgot to finish uploading all the images to WordPress. I guess my MLP post schedule is de facto every two weeks now, because I’m so preoccupied with my Eurovision reviews. The good news is, my Eurovision post series is a much shorter project than this one. After less than six months, I’ve already covered 38 out of 68 years!

Season 7 Episode 5: Fluttershy Leans In

In five words: Attempt at showcasing Character Development™.

Premise: Fluttershy sets out to realize her years-old dream of building an animal sanctuary, but she picks the wrong ponies for the job because otherwise the episode would be too short.

Detailed run-through:

To start the episode, Angel Bunny practices for a parkour contest and injures his paw with one misstep. She’s out of foot braces, so apparently instead of buying new foot braces, she has to take Angel to the vet. We never hear about this parkour contest for the entire rest of the episode, which makes it really transparent this was just an excuse to lead into the episode’s premise.

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Cookie Fonster Gazes into Eurovision 1993 + KzM: Accommodating the Eager Newbies

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Intro Post

< 1992 Review | 1993 Review | 1994 Review >

Just warning you: this is by far my longest Eurovision review so far. It would still be my longest if I didn’t review Preselection for Millstreet. Read at your own risk!

Introduction

Eurovision 1993 was an unusual year for two major reasons. First off, it was the first year to have a semifinal, but it wasn’t the kind of semifinal we know today. The EBU had raised the maximum number of Eurovision participants to 25, and since Yugoslavia was banned from the competition, three slots were open for newcoming countries. Seven countries, all former communist regimes or parts of one, were interested in joining the contest, so a semifinal was hosted in Ljubljana, Slovenia to narrow them down to three. That event was called Preselection for Millstreet (known in Slovenian as Kvalifikacija za Millstreet, KzM for short). When you think about it, it’s a bit like Eurovision 1956: seven countries participated in it and the competition had an unconventional format by today’s standards.

Three countries made it through the preselection: Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina. The other four got to debut in 1994. As the semifinal’s name suggests, the contest would not be held in Dublin like all other times Ireland got to host, but in the miniscule 1,500-person village of Millstreet. It’s all thanks to an entrepreneur who offered to host Eurovision in the Green Glens Arena for free. He believed that the contest would boost tourism in Millstreet, and he was right! Because Millstreet is so tiny, the nearby cities of Killarney and Cork hosted additional events promoting Eurovision. This means that in a sense, Eurovision 1993 took place in four cities: three in Ireland, one in Slovenia.

The 1993 contest was once again dominated by Anglophones, with Ireland on top and the UK second. In third place was Switzerland, with the last entry in French to reach the top three until 2021. It was also the last time Luxembourg participated until 2024—the longest Eurovision hiatus a country has ever taken.

I watched the semifinal with Slovenian commentary. Even though I can’t understand a word of it (barring loanwords), Slovenia’s last two Eurovision entries (Disko, Carpe Diem) have given me a soft spot for their language. The semifinal was broadcast in all seven participating countries plus five others, but most of their commentary is nowhere to be found. As for the final, I went for German commentary by Jan Hofer—I figured I’d give his commentary a chance.

I’ll start by reviewing the entries eliminated in KzM, then give overall thoughts on the semifinal, and finally review the 25 songs from the contest proper. This should be an interesting year, so let’s begin!

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Cookie Fonster’s Eurovision 1992 Commentary: Anglophone Bias to the Extreme

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Intro Post

< 1991 Review | 1992 Review | 1993 Review >

Introduction

Eurovision 1992 completed the trio of major cities in Sweden by taking place in Malmö, the same city that hosted in 2013 and will host in 2024. It had more participating countries than ever before, at a whopping 23. This included every country that had ever participated, except for Monaco and Morocco… though Yugoslavia wasn’t quite the same country as last year. Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and (North) Macedonia had all seceded, and the next year, what remained of Yugoslavia was banned from the competition until 2004.

This contest is best known for Johnny Logan’s third victory for Ireland, but this time only as a composer. Just like 1984, Linda Martin sang a composition of Johnny Logan’s, but this time, she won with a power ballad called “Why Me?” Power ballads are going to score highly throughout the 1990’s, so be warned. As the post’s title suggests, this is the first contest where the top three songs were all in English, and that sets another recurring theme of 90’s Eurovision. As more new countries poured into the contest, the juries became more and more biased towards English until the language rule was abolished.

YES, they brought back the orchestral arrangements of last year’s winners at the start! I missed that so much!!! The opening orchestral music transitioned into a jazzy arrangement of “Fångad av en stormvind”, which made me smile. I was expecting the contest to be presented dominantly in English with a bit of French, so I was surprised the hosts spoke this much Swedish. Though if I didn’t know better, I might have mistaken it for Danish because of those guttural R’s.

I wanted a break from Terry Wogan, so I watched the contest with Austrian commentary this time. Ernst Grissemann is by far my favorite of the German-speaking commentators I have heard.

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