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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!

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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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Estonia: Muretut meelt ja südametuld (eliminated)

Artist: Janika Sillamaa

Language: Estonian, whose Eurovision representation I’ll discuss in my next post

Key: B major (verse), D major (chorus), E major (final chorus)

The Slovenian presenter speaks French quite well, but I caught an error. She uses “conducteur” to mean “conductor”, even though the French word for an orchestral conductor is “chef d’orchestre” (which I learned from Eurovision).

After Bosnia and Croatia’s entries, which both made it to the final, we have the first ever Eurovision non-qualifier. Among the participants in Preselection for Millstreet, Estonia is the geographic outlier. Six of them border each other in the center and southeast of Europe, and then you have Estonia all the way up north. If Preselection for Millstreet is like a meetup between friends who mostly live near the city they’re meeting in, Estonia is the one who excitedly flew in from a different continent. (Believe me, in Internet friend meetups, there is inevitably at least one person who flies in from another continent. Sometimes I am that person.)

To me, the biggest difference between Finnish and Estonian is that the Finns roll their R’s very often, whereas Estonians prefer to tap them or even pronounce them the English way (like in this song). The second biggest difference is that Estonian uses the logical letter “ü” to denote the fronted “u”, unlike Finnish which foolishly chose “y”. I am totally not biased because of my familiarity with German, not one bit. Why are you giving me that look?

I got sidetracked by language talk, as usual. This is a cute little waltz with romantic lyrics that seem really flowery, going by a translation. It’s a pleasant song and a decent effort from the little Baltic country, but I can see why it didn’t stand a chance against the dramatic first two songs, which are both about the Yugoslav wars.

Hungary: Árva reggel (eliminated)

Artist: Andrea Szulák

Language: Hungarian

Key: G major, B♭ major

This is an early example of why Eurovision benefits from semifinals: to eliminate the most run-of-the-mill ballads, like this one. Eliminating a country from the current year for sending a weak entry is far more sensible than eliminating them from the next year. This is a decent song with lyrics about romantic despair, but it’s so similar to all the other ballads we’ve heard before.

Romania: Nu pleca (eliminated)

Artist: Dida Drăgan

Language: Romanian

Key: F major

The conductor for this song has one of the most unfortunate last names I have ever heard: Natsis. I briefly got thrown off when I heard it.

If you look at the results for the semifinal, you’ll find all the point numbers are quite close: 38 to 54. The numbers are a bit misleading: since every country could get 5 to 12 points from another, the lowest possible score is 30, so it’ll give you a better picture to subtract 30 from each score. With this adjustment, the top four entries earned 20 to 24 points, Estonia got 17, Hungary got 14, and Romania was by far the lowest with just 8 points (in reality, 38).

This is another ballad about romantic despair, but more dramatic than Hungary’s. The singer, who was possibly the oldest in the semifinal at 47 years old, gives it her all and performs extravagant hand gestures. We’ve got an interesting little guitar solo in the middle too. Four of the juries gave this song last place and one gave it second last, but then Croatia was contrarian and gave it twelve points. Maybe most of them found the ballad too annoying and shouty, or they were bothered by the microphone feedback. I have no idea if the latter is the singer’s fault.

Slovakia: Amnestia na neveru (eliminated)

Artist: Elán, a long-lived band founded 1968

Language: Slovak

Key: A minor

After Slovenia’s entry, which was the final qualifier, we arrive at what could have been the first entry from one of Eurovision’s most forgotten countries. This song missed out on qualifying by just one point: Slovakia scored 50 points and Croatia scored 51. The two highest were narrow as well, Bosnia with 52 and Slovenia with 54. I’m sure it was a little controversial that only the former Yugoslav countries made it to the final, but it really seemed like a matter of luck, not bloc voting or rigging or anything.

If there’s any non-qualifier that I think deserved a chance in the final, it would probably be this. It’s a very nice mellow rock song by a well-established band famous throughout Czechoslovakia. It gets more dramatic as it progresses, especially in the bridge with the unusual chords. But I’m not gutted this didn’t make it.

Semifinal thoughts:

Preselection for Millstreet was a nice little semifinal, but the problem is that the competing songs are so safe and restrained! This is proven by the interval act, where each competitor performed another hit song of theirs, often a more interesting one than their Eurovision entry. I particularly wish Romania’s haunting piano ballad and Slovenia’s funky pop song had competed in the contest. The reason for such a long interval act was probably because 14 countries were originally going to compete, but then a bunch dropped out, leaving lots of empty space to fill.

The final results of the preselection are agreeable enough: there are no non-qualifiers that I strongly wish qualified. These countries were new to Eurovision and they played it safe at first. I find it funny that every jury awarded their twelve points to a different entry—that couldn’t have been intentional, right?

You might think that the three former Yugoslav countries qualified to the final because they voted for each other, but that’s not true at all. None of the former Yugoslav countries gave twelve points to another, and only one gave another ten points. It’s a very close coincidence, though I’m sure some people from the non-Yugoslav countries were salty they didn’t get a chance.

Fun fact: If Slovakia and Slovenia were swapped, the participants in Preselection for Millstreet would have been in alphabetical order in both English and French. Not in Slovenian, because “Hrvaška” came before “Estonija”.

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Notes on the opening:

First off, WOW, that was an incredible opening film! I had to chuckle a little at the aerial picture of tiny little Millstreet. RTÉ has really become good at hosting Eurovision, probably because they won so many times. They also picked a charismatic solo presenter in a lovely black dress who beams with confidence.

Second, the German commentator claimed that English is an easier language than Irish while the presenter spoke Irish, which I think is only half-true. No language is inherently easier than any other, I keep saying this. It depends on three factors regarding the person learning it: the languages they’re already familiar with, their access to resources and native speakers, and most importantly, their own motivation to learn it. I think that the popularity of learning English and the ease for people around the world to find resources are why people consider it an “easy” language.

Now let’s finally begin with Eurovision 1993 proper!

Italy: Sole d’Europa

Artist: Enrico Ruggeri

Language: Italian

Key: E minor, F♯ minor

After the last few contests began with very average entries, I was not expecting this contest to have such a strong start! Since the title means “sun of Europe”, you might expect this to be a “let’s all hold hands and smile” peace ballad, but it’s not that at all. Instead, it’s a waltz that gradually progresses from a piano tune to power rock. The way this song starts is really clever: it begins seeming like it’s in G major, but the first few measures end firmly in E minor (same key signature). This transition from major to minor is a very similar trope to “De troubadour” from 1969. Eventually the song gains strings and drums and builds up in a really cool way near the end: first with vocals over a dramatic snare roll and minimal orchestration, then with a sick-ass guitar solo to lead to the key change. It almost feels like it could be a Queen song.

The whole song is all around really good, which is weird to say about an opening entry. It makes perfect use of the orchestra plus the instruments on stage (which may or may not be playback), and also great use of the Italian language. Hold on, let me look at the results… this only got twelfth place?! Well OK, that means it’s in the top half, but barely. Are the other songs in this contest really good too, or were the juries biased against anything not in English?

If you’re wondering about the lyrics, the singer pleads for the “sun of Europe” that everyone believes in to come out and warm up the continent. I’m guessing the lyrics mean that the new era of a unified Europe hasn’t gone as peacefully as hoped, especially in former Yugoslavia.

Turkey: Esmer Yarim

Artist: Burak Aydos

Language: Turkish

Key: B major

Yet again, Turkey is trying every genre you can think of in the hopes they’d score well. Their lucky year wasn’t 1993, but it would come eventually. This time, they sent an upbeat funk-pop song with guitars and saxophones, which is fun but too amateurish for me to love. At least I appreciate that Turkey wasn’t afraid to try new genres.

Germany: Viel zu weit

Artist: Münchener Freiheit

Language: German

Key: F♯ minor

According to the German commentator, Germany went for an internal selection this year, which explains why they went for a big-name band who’s famed for both German and English songs. This time, they gave us a rock ballad whose title means “way too far”.

I’m relieved that this isn’t yet another choral peace ballad, because I was so sick of those. But as with most entries from Preselection for Millstreet, this is way too restrained! It’s a regular rock ballad without anything elevating it to greatness—where are the guitar solos or epic breakdowns? OK, there is a guitar solo, but it’s way too short. Plus, the lead singer’s voice sounds kind of mumbly, which is never a positive with me. I prefer when lyrics sound crisp and clear, so that I can effortlessly understand what they’re singing. Still, this is a hell of a lot better than their 5-10 years of peace ballads.

Switzerland: Moi, tout simplement

Artist: Annie Cotton

Language: French

Key: B♭ major

I’m guessing Switzerland wanted to replicate Celine Dion’s success by sending yet another young Canadian who wails her heart out. Annie Cotton earned a respectable third place, but unlike Celine Dion, her career never took off afterwards.

I would not have expected this song to score so high at all. She sings well for sure, but to me, it’s just another power ballad with a boring progression. Not even a power ballad, just a regular ballad. I particularly think the final chorus repeats too many times. Plus, I know she was only 17, but I’m bugged by how much she swings her arm on stage.

Denmark: Under stjernerne på himlen

Artist: Tommy Seebach, returning from 1979 and 1981

Language: Danish

Key: F major, A♭ major, A major

I really, really do not want to say anything bad about this song. I know that Tommy Seebach wrote it as a lullaby to his daughter and that he was very proud of this song. I know about the heartbreaking story of what happened to Tommy after he scored third last place. The media blamed him personally for the low score and he became an alcoholic, then he died of a heart attack in 2003.

Now with all that said, it’s really not hard for me to see why this song scored low in Eurovision, despite winning Dansk Melodi Grand Prix. It’s because it does not transcend language barriers. If it weren’t for a translation of the incredibly heartwarming lyrics, I would have thought of this as a simple children’s ditty with whistling—a nice composition with a great melody, but not a competitive entry. Only by knowing the lyrics are about Tommy promising to accompany his daughter on all her adventures and protect her at all costs does the heartwarming factor come to light for me. It’s a very sweet song, but Tommy had no way of knowing it relies too much on the lyrics.

Despite all this, it would have been possible to adjust the song so that speakers of all languages could understand it. This is proven by his son Rasmus Seebach’s cover, recorded after Tommy died. His cover simplifies the instrumentation to a guitar and piano and it transcends language barriers beautifully.

I am not saying that Tommy Seebach is at fault for his result at all. He just wasn’t prepared for the possibility that speakers of other languages wouldn’t understand his song, and I can’t blame him for that. And he definitely wasn’t prepared for the possibility of scoring low, which meant Denmark couldn’t participate in the next contest. Regardless, the media’s treatment of him was inexcusable and it’s a tragedy that his reputation in Denmark only recovered after his death. This song was even played at his funeral.

This was not an easy review for me to write, and I really hope I wasn’t disrespectful to Tommy Seebach. Maybe you do think this song transcends language barriers or otherwise disagree with me, and that’s perfectly fine.

Greece: Elláda, hóra tou fotós (Ελλάδα, χώρα του φωτός)

Artist: Katy Garbi

Language: Greek

Key: D minor

Jan Hofer (the German commentator) provided a bit of additional story behind this song: the song’s composer was originally going to sing it, but the Greek broadcaster decided that it’d be better if a woman sang it. I like when commentators provide history behind songs that you may not know of.

This is another one of those songs most famed for the singer’s sexy outfit. It’s also known for having the longest camera close-up of any Eurovision performance, at 43 seconds. The fact that someone went through every Eurovision performance in history and measured the length of all close-ups to arrive at this number scares the shit out of me, but I’m probably not one to talk.

The nice thing about this song is, it doesn’t just rely on the singer’s attractiveness. It’s also an awesome song in itself! After so many years where Greece avoided sounding Greek, this is the country’s time to finally embrace their ethnic music. With all those traditional Greek instruments mixed in with funky chords, the strong amount of percussion, the rhymes ending in syllables like “os” or “eli”, this song screams Greece as loudly as possible. This is exactly what Eurovision should be about: every country showing off what makes its music special! I especially like the part after the second chorus, where the melody is repeated by those ethnic synth instruments alternating in octaves.

The lyrics themselves perfectly match Greece being true to itself. The title means “Greece, the land of light” and the lyrics, which are filled with references to Greek history and mythology, say that regardless of whatever hardships Greece may be facing, it’s a great country that its people should be proud of. The song ends with a musical cliffhanger, which you could interpret to mean Greece’s story isn’t complete and they still have more to offer the world. You could even argue the ending ties in with Greece’s Eurovision history. It’s the beginning of an era where Greece would show Eurovision what they’re made of and put out tons of fan favorites, even winning in 2005.

Belgium: Iemand als jij

Artist: Barbara Dex. Yes, she’s a real person.

Language: Dutch

Key: C major, D major

This song, which earned last place with only three points, is best known for the singer’s infamously bad outfit, which she designed herself. Her dress is so infamous that it spawned the Barbara Dex Award, a fanmade award for the worst Eurovision outfit that ran from 1997 to 2021. Its successor is the You’re a Vision Award, which is intended to be more positive but similar in spirit. That doesn’t stop fans from giving their own Barbara Dex Award to whichever outfit they think is the weirdest.

Musically, this is a very average ballad whose lyrics I can understand well enough to tell they mean “I’ve never before loved someone as great as you”, but I suspect that the ballad’s mediocrity helped make her outfit memorable. While wearing some sort of semi-transparent double potato sack over a tank top, plus a stereotypical housewife haircut that’s half a century out of date, Barbara Dex sings this ballad with full sincerity which is utterly hilarious. She has absolutely no clue how ridiculous she looks. Dutch-speaking Belgium in Eurovision is an enigma, I’m telling you.

Malta: This Time

Artist: William Mangion

Language: English

Key: E♭ major in the verses, C major in the chorus

This isn’t technically a minor key verse, major key chorus song, but because E♭ major has the same key signature as C minor, it’s similar in spirit to one. Otherwise, as I expected, it’s another jury bait pop ballad. I can’t blame Malta for wanting to win so badly. It’s a small country that most people don’t know much about, so winning Eurovision would do wonders for their attention.

Iceland: Þá veistu svarið

Artist: Inga (Ingibjörg Stefánsdóttir)

Language: Icelandic

Key: F major

Another extremely 1990’s ballad, this has a lot of eccentric percussion like you’d hear in 90’s and 2000’s pop plus a few saxophone solos. It seems like it’s intended to sound more mystical than other ballads. This has an interesting instrumentation style for sure, but the composition is a bit too dull for me.

Austria: Maria Magdalena (not to be confused with Croatia 1999)

Artist: Tony Wegas, returning from 1992

Language: German

Key: B minor, D minor

I wish it didn’t feel so weird to hear a fast-paced song in German at Eurovision. This goes to show how much Germany and Austria kept clinging to the same damned inspirational ballad style, but I’m thankful they’re now trying something different.

After a choir intro, this becomes a pumping 80’s style pop-rock song full of good old 2-5-1 chord progressions. Though it’s a bit standard as far as this style goes, this is easily one of the best songs so far. Let’s hope we hear more energetic songs like this!

Portugal: A cidade até ser dia

Artist: Anabela Braz Pires

Language: Portuguese

Key: D major

I forgot to mention that the postcards feature each contestant performing an activity in Ireland. In Portugal’s case, we see Anabela learning to say something in Irish, although the German commentator said she was learning English, probably because the instructor spoke a bit of English to her.

Somehow I like this a little more than the last few ballads. Maybe it’s because the instrumentation sounds simple and hopeful at the same time, or because of the 16-year-old singer has a strong voice and is good at expressing herself on stage. It crosses the good ballad threshold but doesn’t reach the memorable ballad threshold for me.

France: Mama Corsica

Artist: Partick Fiori

Language: French, plus two repeated lines in Corsican

Key: C major

I like that France continued sending entries that celebrate its minority cultures this year (this time their island of Corsica), and I’m happy that they reached as high as fourth place, but I don’t enjoy this one as much as I had hoped. The problem is that compared to France’s last three entries, which were each thoroughly ethnic, this only feels superficially ethnic.  It’s mostly an ordinary swing pop song with some mandolins mixed in.

Another thing about this song that feels superficial is the use of the Corsican language. I really wish the song at least one full verse in Corsican, instead of being dominantly in French. The Corsican lines don’t get any special emphasis, so they’re easy to miss. 1992 proved that a song can be dominantly in an exotic language and score reasonably high, so I’m not sure why they were shy to use the language this time. Luckily, we’d get a song entirely in Corsican in 2011.

Sweden: Eloise

Artist: Arvingarna

Language: Swedish

Key: E minor in the verses, G major in the chorus. You could argue it’s entirely in G major too.

I’ve noticed an uptick of swing songs in early 90’s Eurovision. Perhaps this relates to the rise in electronic music and backing tracks? The boyband sings this song well and its structure is quite familiar at this point: the lyrics are about the singer questioning whether a girl named Eloise likes him back, and the minor key verses and major key chorus symbolize his doubt and hope respectively.

Yet again, I find this more interesting than most entries in prior years, but a little safe and restrained. It sounds like the kind of song you’d hear in a grocery store in the days approaching Christmas (by which I mean all of December). I’m mostly saying this because the chorus has a similar rhythm to “All I Want for Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey.

Ireland: In Your Eyes (the winner)

Artist: Niamh Kavanagh

Language: English

Key: E major, F major

Here’s the second of the trilogy of Irish winners, and my favorite of the three. As with “Ding-a-Dong” 18 years prior, I have a lot of personal bias towards this song because it’s one of the first Eurovision entries I fell in love with. I discovered both these songs from a compilation of Eurovision winners a year and a half ago: these and “Poupée de cire, poupée de son” piqued my interest the most. This is still one of my favorite Eurovision songs of all time!

But wait, I hear you say. Isn’t this yet another Irish ballad? What makes this so much greater than all the other Irish ballads? That’s a totally fair question. If you remember my review of 1989, I said the famous karaoke video game song “Baka Mitai” was the standard by which I judge all Eurovision ballads. There is no ballad in the contest’s history that reminds me of Baka Mitai as much as this does. It’s the first thing I thought when I saw it in the compilation video I mentioned. Like Baka Mitai, this song has the perfect transitions between the minor key verses and major key chorus, a huge selection of interesting chords to keep the listener on their toes, and a rousing bridge section to increase the hype.

There are also some great things that “In Your Eyes” does on its own. First off, Niamh Kavanagh’s vocal performance is complete perfection. She controls her voice so perfectly in every note and brims with genuine passion. She feels every word of this song, both in the verses which are about her seemingly endless solitude, and the chorus which is about the shining light in her love interest’s eyes. The backing singers in the final chorus aren’t as powerful as her, but they’re decent enough and keep her in the center.

The composition of this song is utterly beautiful, the perfect mix of romantic and snazzy. The one thing I like the most is the high orchestral notes G♯ B F♯ B E, repeated in the chorus. These notes interact with the backing in so many interesting ways and create a delightful series of extended chords: first some major 7ths, then a minor 9th, and then E over “my love” creates a dominant 11th. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, you can hear samples of these chords on these Wikipedia pages. I also love the series of jazzy chords at the very end. They’re snazzy but not too bombastic.

Unlike the last two Irish ballads that won, if I was watching this contest in 1993, I probably would have rooted for this song because it’s just that good. Maybe I would have slightly hoped a non-ballad would win, but at the same time, this spectacular performance deserves the first prize.

Wow, this is one of the longest (and most positive) Eurovision reviews I’ve ever written! It’s beaten only by “It’s Just a Game”, “Ein bisschen Frieden”, and “Waterloo”. I was worried that when I got to this song in my Eurovision reviews, I’d have realized it wasn’t actually that great, but I was wrong. It still is that great.

Luxembourg: Donne-moi une chance

Artist: Modern Times

Language: French, plus part of a verse in Luxembourgish

Key: C major, D major

Well, this is it: the final Eurovision entry from Luxembourg. It won’t be Luxembourg’s final entry for much longer, since they’ll choose their entry for 2024 on January 27. After being a superstar of Eurovision for so long, who from 1983 to 1992 were the only country with five outright victories, Luxembourg’s results dipped in their last few years for some reason. I think it’s not because they switched to only selecting local artists, but because they stopped trying as hard. Malta and Iceland have similar populations to Luxembourg and that’s never stopped them from putting in the effort. Luckily, Luxembourg’s broadcaster seems intent on sending the best song to Eurovision 2024 that they possibly can.

I’ll do what this song’s title says and give it a chance. As a composition, it’s a decent enough rock ballad with a few faster sections. Unfortunately, the vocal performance is super amateurish. Actually, the whole song is amateurish. The little portion sung in Luxembourgish feels thrown-in and out of place. As with “Mama Corsica”, this wasn’t a great way to incorporate a lesser-known language. They might as well have written the whole song in French.

The German commentator didn’t even realize there was any Luxembourgish in it. After the song ended, he said the band decided to sing only in French after all. I can’t blame him, because the Luxembourgish is easy to miss.

Slovenia: Tih deževen dan

Artist: 1X Band

Language: Slovenian, for the first time since 1975

Key: D minor

Finally, the first newcomer in Eurovision 1993! I find it weird that the newcomers are so close together: 16th, 18th, and 21st in the running order. I wish they were spaced further apart, which they probably would be if the order wasn’t randomized.

This is the only newcomer entry whose lyrics aren’t about war, which makes sense because Slovenia’s ten-day independence war took place almost two years ago. The country had moved on and was stable enough to host a Eurovision semifinal. The other two newcomers are a very different story.

Even though I preferred their interval act song in Preselection for Millstreet, the larger Eurovision orchestra brought this song to life. And even though they earned only 9 points, this is actually a very lovely song with great guitar parts. It’s laid back and a little melancholy, but also a little groovy, befitting the title which means “a quiet rainy day”. The chorus is a little more dramatic and more major, representing hope and despair at the same time. There’s something so charming about people singing their heart out in front of a huge audience in Slovenian, a language that almost no one outside Slovenia speaks (although some people say it’s mutually intelligible with Serbo-Croatian).

It’s worth noting that the verses have almost the same chord progression as most of “Fairytale” from 2009. This means you can sing “Fairytale” over them if you desire!

Finland: Tule luo

Artist: Katri Helena, returning from 1979

Language: Finnish

Key: G minor

This song ends Finland’s pattern of sending dramatic female singers in odd-numbered years, since they’d be relegated in every odd-numbered year afterwards up to 2004. This has a similar vibe to “Katson sineen taivaan” from 1979, but slower and with some accordion added in. It’s decent and sung well, but far from my favorite Finnish entry of this type. As returning singers tend to be, she looks professional on stage and gives it her all.

Bosnia and Herzegovina: Sva bol svijeta

Artist: Fazla (Muhamed Fazlagić)

Language: Serbo-Croatian (Bosnian)

Key: D minor

When countries in Eurovision are at war, you can often tell which ones are most affected by looking at their Eurovision entries. The one that sends songs about war and historical events is always the one most affected. Some good examples of this are Armenia and Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Russia, and in this contest, the former Yugoslav countries. When Yugoslavia was falling apart in 1991 and 1992, their entries (both sung by Serbians) didn’t have anything to do with the war, and neither does Slovenia’s this year. On the other hand, Croatia and Bosnia’s songs this year are both explicitly about the Yugoslav wars. This should make it clear which countries were hurt most by the conflict in former Yugoslavia.

As with Slovenia’s song, the orchestra really bought this song to life! The lyrics are very explicitly about war: the title means “all the world’s pain” and among other war-related lines, the chorus begins with “all the world’s pain is in Bosnia tonight”. It’s sung from the perspective of a Bosnian soldier sending a letter to his lover. The composition manages to sound bitter and pained without being openly melodramatic, and it’s got a tinge of Balkan sound which is always a plus. It perfectly captures the feeling of a soldier going through hell to fight for his country and refusing to give up.

United Kingdom: Better the Devil You Know

Artist: Sonia Evans

Language: English

Key: B♭ major

We’ve now reached British runner-up number 14 out of 16! In many ways, this is peak 90’s and peak UK: a fun, bouncy pop song in swing rhythm with an easy to remember melody, about an obsessive romantic relationship. Maybe it’s because the UK finished in second place so many times, but I think this has runner-up energy instead of winner energy. The singer is a bit too shouty, the verses go by a little too fast and feel like a rush to reach the chorus, and the orchestra makes the arrangement sound a little cluttered. On the bright side, this is very fresh and modern, destined to score highly but not destined to win.

Netherlands: Vrede

Artist: Ruth Jacott

Language: Dutch

Key: C minor

Everything about this song screams the Netherlands. Singer from a former Dutch colony, soulful voice with a bit of attitude, and a backing track in an unusual genre: this time, funky hip-hop.

The lyrics to this song are very interesting. From the title that means “peace”, you might expect it to be a regular peace anthem, but it’s a bit different. She sings about all the crazy developments of modern technology in the past century—houses to withstand hurricanes, ships to sail in the harshest storms—and reminds us that even those have limitations and aren’t what’s needed to achieve world peace.

As with the UK, I have a few problems with how this song is orchestrated. The verses are perfect hip-hop spiced up with a bit of strings, but in the chorus, the orchestra really doesn’t fit with the electronic drums of the backing track. The piano section where the drums disappear would make a perfect bridge to lead to the final chorus, so I’m a bit disappointed that it ends the song instead. Despite these little problems, this is peak Netherlands and one of the most interesting songs in this contest.

Croatia: Don’t Ever Cry

Artist: Put, a band whose name means “Road”

Language: Serbo-Croatian (Croatian) and English

Key: D major, G major

It’s not even a question: out of the three newcomers in this contest, Croatia had the most memorable debut. They scored the highest of the newcomers, but not by much: 15th place, one ranking above Bosnia. Don’t worry, the 1994 contest will have more newcomers and they’ll make a much bigger splash.

Croatia’s first Eurovision entry is still one of their most famous. It’s a slow funeral song with choir vocals, even more blatantly about the Yugoslav wars than Bosnia’s. I don’t think the song needed English lyrics at all. I know this because the melody of the chorus is sung twice in English and once in Croatian, and both sound equally moving. “Don’t ever cry, my Croatian sky” at the end can be kept, but I’m surprised the EBU didn’t make them axe the rest of the English lyrics. You don’t need to speak English or Serbo-Croatian to understand the song’s message.

There are some Eurovision songs that work well being in a mix of English and the country’s native language. This is especially true if different parts of the song are designed for different languages; good recent examples are “Saudade, saudade” and “My Sister’s Crown”. However, in most cases, I’d rather have one or the other. It would have suited this song better to be fully in Croatian, because that would make it sound more personal. But it’s not a dealbreaker and I think this is a very strong semi-debut for Croatia. I say semi-debut because a large portion of Yugoslavia’s entries came from what is now Croatia.

Spain: Hombres

Artist: Eva Santamaría

Language: Spanish

Key: A♭ major

Another upbeat funky pop song, this one has quite some interesting lyrics. It starts as saying “all men are selfish greedy assholes who never grow up” then transitions into “but that’s why men and women need each other, their unity makes the world go round”. It’s quirky and playful, especially shown when the singer alternates between rapping and singing, yet it’s got a tinge of seriousness and is utterly Spanish. The most Spanish thing about it is the speed of the lyrics. It’s got some of the most densely packed lyrics in any Eurovision song.

Cyprus: Mi stamatás (Μη σταματάς)

Artist: Kyriakos Zymboulakis and Demos Van Beke. Thanks to the German commentator for revealing their first names!

Language: Greek

Key: G minor (verses), B♭ major (chorus), B major (final chorus)

This is a 6/8 duet ballad between two men whose voices sound identical, plus backing women in the chorus. It’s not bad or anything, but it definitely fails to stand out. I won’t say more because this post is way too long already and I have two songs left.

Israel: Shiru (שירו)

Artist: The Shiru Group

Language: Hebrew and English

Key: G major, A♭ major

I always liked that Israel avoided sending standard power ballads in this era of Eurovision, but this time that’s exactly what they sent. It’s dull as far as these types of ballads go, certainly no “In Your Eyes”. I can’t put my finger on what makes this ballad so dull, but I just know that it puts me to sleep. The only slightly interesting part is the choir section over the bongo drums, and even that is way too short.

As with Croatia, I’m both surprised the EBU let them sing part of the chorus in English, and befuddled that the singers thought it was necessary. I’ve heard that this song began Israel’s peace ballad phase, so let’s hope their others are better than this.

Norway: Alle mine tankar

Artist: Silje Vige

Language: Norwegian

Key: F minor

On the other hand, the final song of this contest is lovely. It scored fifth place, which is very respectable, but it definitely deserved to score higher than France (4th) and Switzerland (3rd). Maybe the UK (2nd), but that’s subjective. Something about this song feels very Norwegian: it’s delicate and mysterious, but very romantic at heart. The title means “all my thoughts” and the lyrics say that whenever she sees her love interest, everything else disappears and all her thoughts turn to him.

The song starts with a beautiful guitar and cello, then the singer comes in over the guitar and an accordion comes in. The song doesn’t have much other instrumentation, nor does it need to: besides what I already mentioned, the chorus adds a bass and minimal orchestration. The singer’s soft voice fits this song perfectly too. She sang beautifully at 16 years old, but her musical career sadly never seemed to take off. Her song isn’t flashy at all, and you can tell the audience loved that. I love how a few audience members clapped along when the chorus began, then it snowballed into a full crowd.

While randomized order often causes annoyances like too many ballads in a row, sometimes it works in the show’s favor. This beautiful, understated song is exactly the palate cleanser I needed after Israel’s drivel.

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Who’s my favorite?

Before I started this post, I thought for sure this would be a difficult decision. Italy and Greece both screamed “pick me!” when I reviewed them, but then Ireland grabbed me by the throat and hollered straight into my ears, “PICK ME!” So that’s exactly what I’m gonna do: pick the winner of the contest, Ireland, In Your Eyes. I love the song just as much as when I first heard it a year and a half ago. It’s a truly beautiful piece of music and will always be one of my all-time Eurovision favorites.

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

This is my first time choosing the actual winner since 1982, if you can believe that. I’ll probably agree with several other winners of the 1990’s.

General thoughts:

This review is fucking huge already, so I’ll try my best to be brief. Interval act: a reprise of “Why Me?”, then Johnny Logan singing another new song accompanied by a choir. Not the wildest one we’ve seen, but it entertains the audience. The presenter was confident and professional with no overboard hijinks. She makes me wish Eurovision stuck to solo hosts. I disagree with some of the voting results, but the winner was exactly who it should have been. The audience is the most enthusiastic of any year so far, especially in the voting.

I need to give special mention to the Bosnian jury. The static noises and muffled voice would be embarrassing under any other circumstance, but here they were evidence that the country was amidst a devastating war. Bosnia’s telephone lines were shut down, so their jury had to communicate by satellite. I love that the audience applauded all the way through the static noises. They knew it was a miracle that Bosnia got to participate at all.

I like that so many countries were true to their musical identities this year. Some examples are the UK, the Netherlands, Greece, Italy, and of course Ireland’s wonderful ballad. I can happily say that I enjoyed most entries this year, even the ones I have issues with. The presentation was top notch too, with engaging postcards and a good-looking scoreboard that occasionally showed clips of the song in the lead.

It is absolutely insane that Ireland’s victory came down to the very last vote. When Niamh Kavanagh won, I got such a huge burst of joy that it felt like I was watching real-time in 1993. Then when the reprise came, I sang along to every word. I can safely say that this is my favorite Eurovision year I’ve reviewed so far.

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Wow, I can’t believe I actually wrote all that! I poured a lot of energy into writing this post and now I need to recharge. I’ll pause for at least a few days before I begin writing my next Eurovision review.

See you next time as even more newcomers join the contest, only for Ireland to sweep the prize yet again.

>> 1994: The Interval Act Steals the Show