Intro Post

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Today, Slovenia confirmed that their Eurovision entry in 2024 will be sung in Slovenian for the third year in the row. France already released their entry, which is entirely in French, and I’d be very surprised if Marina Satti doesn’t sing in Greek. Why, in the name of all things holy, can’t Germany be like this???

Right after I published this post, the full list of participating countries for 2024 was released, even though Romania is still up in the air. I suppose the EBU decided that once they reached 37 participants, the same number as 2023, they’d go “screw it, let’s release the list already”.

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Introduction

“The Irish pretend they don’t want to win this. Ahh, it’s too expensive! Ahh, we’re fed up with it! I’m Irish too, and don’t believe a word of it. The Irish love winning this, they love having it here.” As shown by the dramatic opening film, Terry Wogan’s words ring truer than ever.

Eurovision 1997 took place in Dublin, Ireland at the Point Theatre for one last time. This time, they went for a smaller stage, presumably so it wouldn’t seem like the same building. The contest featured two major changes to the rules. First, entries were now allowed to be sung entirely over a backing track without needing mimed instruments on stage, which was the biggest and last blow to the orchestra before it was abolished entirely. Second, five countries got their points from televoting for the first time: Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Sweden, and the UK. This was a trial round before almost all countries adopted televoting in 1998.

This time, the relegation system worked a bit differently: countries were allowed in based on their average scores from 1993 to 1996, which is still kind of a dumb system. It would take until 2004 for Eurovision to stop punishing countries for their previous low scores. Fortunately, the number of participants was bumped up to 25, which meant five countries returned (Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Russia) and only three were relegated (Belgium, Finland, Slovakia). This was Italy’s first appearance in Eurovision since 1993, and their last until 2011.

Fun fact: This was the first year where Peter Urban commentated for Germany, which he did up to 2023 (except in 2009). Unfortunately, I don’t like his commentary style. He sounds very monotone, like he’s reading from a script. So instead, I watched it with British commentary—fitting because the UK won for the most recent time. Buckle up, my dear readers: we’re almost done with the native language era of Eurovision.

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Cyprus: Mána mou (Μάνα μου)

Artist: Hara and Andreas Konstantinou

Language: Greek

Key: D minor

Haha, I remember those old pipe network Windows screensavers on the postcard. I remember turning on these screensavers on the school computers as a kid and staring at them endlessly. I didn’t know those already existed in 1997!

This song gave Cyprus fifth place, which was their best result so far. It’s their second best result ever tied with 2004, surpassed only by their second-place finish in 2018. I can see why this song scored highly: it follows the formula of balancing ethnic music with accessible pop, which tended to score highly or even win in the 2000’s. It’s a good opener for this contest, but we’ve seen better Greek-sounding songs before. The best part is easily the “tam tabadabadam tabadabadam” near the end. It’s got a catchier melody than the whole rest of the song.

Turkey: Dinle

Artist: Şebnem Paker, returning from 1996, and Grup Etnik

Language: Turkish

Key: C minor

After so many years of scoring in the bottom half and only one year ever with a top 10 finish, can you imagine how surprised Turkish fans were when they got third place in 1997? I wouldn’t have expected this at all, but I would have burst with joy at this result. This is Turkey’s equivalent to “Space Man” and “SloMo”: after many years of poor results, the country had a miraculous turn of fortune by embracing the kind of music they’re best at—Middle Eastern ethno-bops.

Why, you may ask, did this song score so much better than all the other Turkish-sounding songs of the 80’s and 90’s? It’s not immediately obvious, but when you watch the performance, the main reason becomes clear: Şebnem Paker is an incredible singer. She also sang the entry in 1996, but that was a simple and modest song, whereas this one goes full ethnic. This song begins with a Turkish guitar, then adds an enchanting flute, then a bassline and some groovy drums. The lead singer starts off by performing some drawn-out notes with full confidence and expression, then the verse builds up until you’re slammed with an iconic and utterly Turkish chorus. Then we get another verse and another chorus, whose melody is elaborated upon in the final section.

Israel knew from the start that the best way for a country in this region to score highly in Eurovision was using catchy ethnic music with the right degree of accessibility. It took Greece and Cyprus until the early 90’s to figure this out, and Turkey not until 1997. This song was a huge turning point for Turkey’s results at Eurovision. Even though they didn’t score in the top five again until they won in 2003, from this point onwards, the country’s entries would get a lot more attention and the reputation of Eurovision in Turkey greatly improved.

I’d argue this entry planted the seed for not just Turkey’s victory in 2003, but the common Balkan and Middle Eastern formula of ethno-pop bangers. I’m excited to review all the songs of this type we’d get in the next decade. Even Germany sent a song like this in 1999!

Fun fact: This song got 12 points from German televoters, which was the very first instance of diaspora voting in Eurovision.

Norway: San Francisco

Artist: Tor Endresen

Language: Norwegian, plus a few English phrases

Key: G major, A major

This year, the juries and televoters treated Norway this year like they did before 1985 and gave them zero points. I was expecting to be baffled that this song got zero points, but in fact, I can see why people wouldn’t vote for this song. It’s a cheesy stereotypically American-sounding rock song that’s two decades out of date, and the namedropping of American musicians and place names sticks out too much. It’s not bad or anything, but mediocre enough that scoring low is understandable. But I’d say zero points was too harsh. I feel bad for the audience members holding a sign that says “Victory for Norway”.

Also, random observation: I genuinely thought they were singing “Charlie and Steve in San Francisco”, until I looked at the lyrics and saw “Kjærlighetstid i San Francisco”.

Austria: One Step

Artist: Bettina Soriat

Language: German, plus a few English phrases (again)

Key: D minor

This is the first ever Eurovision entry to be performed with zero live instruments: none on stage, no orchestra. The production quality on the backing track is surprisingly high for this era of Eurovision.

As with Norway’s song, this is littered with English words and I’m guessing it was originally written in English. It’s a funky 90’s pop song with groovy basslines and lots of saxophone. Terry Wogan said this song had choreography to die for, which I suppose is true by 90’s Eurovision standards. It’s a fun song and performance, but it doesn’t all the way wow me. Maybe that’s why it got only 21st place out of 25.

Ireland: Mysterious Woman

Artist: Marc Roberts

Language: English

Key: E minor

This contest is the last time Ireland scored second place, a placing they haven’t even come close to surpassing since then. After 1997, the highest rank Ireland achieved was sixth place in 2000. Their scores have continued to plummet since then because their broadcaster doesn’t take Eurovision seriously anymore.

Ireland’s last runner-up is yet another ballad that starts with a lovely piano but then becomes more and more ballady. Despite this, it’s actually pretty good especially in the verses, thanks to Marc Roberts’ expressive voice. However, I am prepared to be annoyed that other songs didn’t score quite as high.

Slovenia: Zbudi se

Artist: Tanja Ribič

Language: Slovenian

Key: C minor

I’ve noticed that Slavic countries send dreary-sounding songs to Eurovision more often than any other countries. The title means “wake up” and the lyrics tell the story of a girl from a fairytale who wishes her sweet prince would wake up. As with Poland’s entry last year, it sounds like the kind of sad song you’d hear in a movie, but not an anime movie this time. Tanja performs this song very well and the guitars and dreary strings keep me hooked. Then the bass drops and it gets quite interesting; this might be the first proper Balkan ballad in Eurovision, but I’m not that familiar with the genre.

However, again like Poland’s song last year, this is too gloomy for me to regularly revisit it. Slovenia itself sent an example of a moody song that I do like to revisit: “Tih deževen dan” from 1993. As I previously said, I like moody songs best when they have a tinge of hope.

Near the end of the song, the audience applauds about 30 seconds too soon. Normally this only happens when songs have fakeout endings, but in this case it shows a small problem with the song’s structure. When the bass-heavy part ends, it sounds too much like an end to the entire song. It would’ve been better if the end of that section sounded like a leadup to the outro. This could have been done by ending the bass-heavy section with a V chord (G major in this case) instead of a root chord (C minor). If you’re confused by the phrase “V chord”, V is just Roman numerals for 5. I know how distracting it is when people applaud before you’ve finished playing a song, so I appreciate the performers for carrying on.

Switzerland: Dentro di me

Artist: Barbara Berta

Language: Italian

Key: D major

This is an average ballad that Barbara doesn’t sing very well. She’s overly breathy, her mouth is too close to the microphone, and the trumpet keeps overpowering her. With a more experienced singer, this song would’ve been a lot better, but probably still not my cup of tea.

Netherlands: Niemand heeft nog tijd

Artist: Mrs. Einstein, a female vocal quintet

Language: Dutch

Key: A minor, B♭ minor, B minor

I’m surprised this scored the same as Switzerland, which is only five points. This is a fun dramatic rock song which sounds like the final boss theme of a video game, or perhaps an anime opening. I love the singers’ vocal harmonies, especially in the kitchen timer section in the middle where they have no other accompaniment. The kitchen timer sound effects are a little silly, but they help tell viewers who don’t speak Dutch the song’s message, which is that no one has time to slack off anymore.

This song’s biggest weakness is its structure. Instead of having a clear verse, chorus, and bridge, it flits between various musical ideas, the most memorable of which are the video game music-like riff at the start and the chorus with the title, and intersperses them with key changes. This makes the song a little dizzying and incoherent, despite the awesome orchestration. Still, 22nd place is too harsh.

Italy: Fiumi di parole

Artist: Jalisse (Alessandra Drusian and Fabio Ricci)

Language: Italian

Key: E minor, F♯ minor

Oddly enough, Italy returned to this contest after three years of absence and achieved fourth place, only to not return again until 2011. From what I’ve gathered, this long hiatus was because Eurovision was never all that popular in Italy and thus RAI was reluctant to participate. The EBU had to work long and hard to convince Italy to rejoin the contest, and since then they’ve become a Eurovision powerhouse once again.

If Eurovision countries are like an online group of musicians, then Italy is the one who’s insanely musically talented but doesn’t find the projects they work on to be all that fun. This metaphor does not mean that Italians are inherently better at music than other countries, just that their broadcaster knows how to send quality acts. And I’m not saying I love all Italian entries in Eurovision—the country has sent plenty of drivel and songs that just don’t click with me. But the Italian entries I do like are professional works of art. Måneskin in particular are absolute geniuses with tons of amazing songs, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

This song is pure Italian drama and I enjoy it greatly. Alessandra caries the duo with her dramatic voice, but Fabio’s gentler singing style fits the song too. It’s got a rousing chorus with an extremely memorable chord progression. I also like the brief pause before the key change—it works so much better than a dragged slowdown.

Spain: Sin rencor

Artist: Marcos Llunas

Language: Spanish

Key: E♭ major, F major, G major, A major

Marcos sings the lyrics very clearly—I can understand most of them with my basic Spanish knowledge, which I can’t say about most music in Spanish. As I’ve said multiple times before, I like songs best when the lyrics are sung clearly. His hand gestures help convey the lyrics, which are about hoping his ex doesn’t hold a grudge against him, and that’s also good.

Unfortunately, this song is musically uninteresting. It’s just a ballad with too many key changes. We’re not in the 70’s anymore, you don’t need three key changes in your Eurovision song. Not that I enjoyed these excessive key changes to begin with, unless they’re in purposely goofy songs like my beloved “Shir Habatlanim”. That is by far my favorite Israeli entry I’ve reviewed so far and I doubt anything will surpass it.

Germany: Zeit

Artist: Bianca Shomburg

Language: German

Key: F major, plus brief sections in A♭ major and D♭ major

Hey, for a German ballad this isn’t actually too bad. It sounds more classical and uneasy than others of its type, and I like the little touches of dramatic percussion in the second verse. The lyrics aren’t about world peace or empty positive drivel, but instead about the passage of time, which the singer desperately wishes would slow down. Among German entries, this song is in a gray area where I don’t feel an instinct to root for it, but I don’t feel ashamed of it either.

Poland: Ale jestem

Artist: Anna Maria Jopek

Language: Polish

Key: E major

I’m glad Edyta Górniak with her rousing ballad gave Poland the confidence boost needed to go out of the box. Perhaps inspired by Ireland’s winner last year, they sent a slightly Celtic-sounding folk song in 6/8 time. It has a mysterious tone in the verses, and a great rousing melody in the chorus. I love the strong use of guitars and the tinges of minor key throughout the song.

The one thing preventing me from being head over heels for this song is that I don’t think the Polish language is the best fit for it. This might be because Polish doesn’t interest me very much, as far as European languages go. If you think Polish is the most beautiful language in the world and love listening to Polish-language songs, or even have learned it as a hobby, then that’s great and I’m happy you found interest in this language. But when I hear songs in Polish, I’m usually distracted by all the consonant clusters and the excess of “sh” and “zh” sounds. I’d love to hear this song covered in another European language, particularly French because it sounds like the kind of song France would have sent in the 1990’s, and because the melody’s rhythm has the kind of push and pull that would fit French like a glove.

I hope you don’t interpret the above paragraph as saying “Polish is a shit language and this song would be better if it was in a good language like French”. I never want to present my opinions as objectively correct, not even about the songs I hold closest to my heart. But all I’m saying is, if I was fluent in French and Polish and knew how to adapt songs into other languages, I would rush to make a French cover of this song. Regardless of my personal tastes in languages, this is by far Poland’s best entry yet.

EDIT (Mar 1, 2025): Now that I know more about Polish-language music than I used to, I really don’t agree with what I said in this review, except that it still has the absolute most lovely melodies. Perhaps I’ll give this song a do-over someday.

Estonia: Keelatud maa

Artist: Maarja-Liis Ilus, returning from 1996

Language: Estonian

Key: D♭ major, E♭ major

This song made me realize that this year hasn’t been as heavy in power ballads as the past few. It’s a full-out power ballad and I’m surprised it didn’t score higher, though eighth place is pretty good. Seriously, even Terry Wogan thought this song had the potential to win. Could it be that Europe was getting tired of power ballads? Maarja has a nice singing voice like last time, but she’s a bit too breathy for this kind of ballad.

Bosnia and Herzegovina: Goodbye

Artist: Alma Čardžić, returning from 1994

Language: Serbo-Croatian (Bosnian), plus a repeated English word

Key: F major, F♯ major

This starts strong with a memorable bassline accompanied by finger snapping, which the audience claps along with. But the rest of the song can’t decide if it wants to be melancholy or lighthearted. I’m not sure how much of that is the orchestra’s fault. It’s an alright song regardless, I don’t have strong feelings.

Portugal: Antes do adeus

Artist: Célia Lawson

Language: Portuguese

Key: F major

After scoring sixth place in 1996, Portugal went back to being unlucky and scored zero points this year. We’ve begun Portugal’s dark age in Eurovision: for 20 years, they never scored in the top 10 and usually didn’t reach the finals, until they won in 2017. Let’s hope some of their entries from that era are worth listening to!

It’s another ballad and it isn’t the greatest, but I have no idea why it scored so much worse than the other ballads. The singer expresses herself well, both with her gestures and singing. Did the juries hate the call-and-response part of the verses, where the backing singers would respond to her with spoken word? I think their presence is a bit weird, but also kind of funny. It’s not any weirder than so many other things in Eurovision.

Sweden: Bara hon älskar mig

Artist: Blond, a boyband of three

Language: Swedish

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

Terry Wogan said that the spirit of “Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley” lives on in this song, and he’s right. Three guys with memorable choreography and good vocal harmonies in the chorus, but their song isn’t that remarkable otherwise. It’s an inoffensive 90’s pop song that I’ll forget the moment it ends.

Greece: Hórepse (Χόρεψε)

Artist: Marianna Zorba

Language: Greek

Key: E minor

I’m not surprised that Greece continued their ethnic music streak this year. This is less ethno-pop and more pure ethnic, particularly heavy in Mediterranean percussion and good old bouzoukis. As much as I love that Greece kept sounding Greek in the 1990’s, I wish this song had more of a progression and didn’t keep the same laid back mood throughout. Drama and progression are how you make an ethnic entry that I truly love.

Malta: Let Me Fly

Artist: Debbie Scerri

Language: English

Key: E minor

After their good scores starting in 1991, I can tell Malta gained the confidence to vary their style, which I really appreciate. As with Poland, I have a hunch that this was inspired by last year’s winner. It’s got a mysterious, vaguely Celtic vibe with some very nice harps and guitars. Debbie’s accent is slightly distracting, but her rich and expressive voice makes up for it.

The most interesting part about this song is the time signature changes. The verses are in the usual 4/4 time, but the rhythm of the choruses makes me think, “wow, that must be an exotic time signature!” Then when I counted the beats, I found out the chorus is in 6/4, which doesn’t seem quite as unusual—certainly no quintuple or septuple meter. However, the beats of the chorus are partitioned in an unusual way: not into 3 and 3, but into 4 and 2.

While it’s always been common for Eurovision entries to imitate the winner of last year, all the songs reminding me of “The Voice” and “Nocturne” are especially interesting because they show the ripples of influence Ireland had on 1990’s Eurovision. In the first half of the decade, everyone imitated Ireland’s style of power ballads. In the second half, everyone imitated their style of folk music, and I like that a lot better. In recent years of Eurovision, given the abundance of Swedish songwriters and performers with Scandinavian roots, it’s fair to say the influential role has been passed on to Sweden.

Hungary: Miért kell, hogy elmenj?

Artist: V.I.P., a boyband of four

Language: Hungarian

Key: C major

God dammit, that electronic drum beat is so distracting and out of place among the orchestra. The good news is that unlike 1996, there’s no poor soul who has to uphold the illusion that this cheap-ass drum beat is coming from physical instruments. When the drum beat pauses for a few measures, the song sounds kind of nice, but the bulk of it is a forewarning of the kind of annoying dance music that would permeate 2000’s Eurovision.

In contrast to Poland who also scored high in 1994, I think Hungary decided that since Europe likes the sound of their language after all, they could just send average pop songs and ballads in Hungarian and score high. They weren’t right at all. This song’s ranking wasn’t too bad, 12th place out of 25, but they only got 39 points since the UK won by a landslide. Hungary quit Eurovision after 1998, then they took a few years to rethink their approach until they returned in 2005.

Russia: Primadonna (Примадонна)

Artist: Alla Pugacheva

Language: Russian, for the last time until 2003

Key: C major (verses), F major (chorus), G major (final chorus)

When I look back on Russia’s Eurovision history, it’s abundantly clear that in every year they participated, their broadcaster’s goal was to win the contest. Well, except in 2017 when their goal was to make Ukraine look bad and then waste the next year on a performance designed to flop. But otherwise, Russia in Eurovision kept their eyes on the prize, as shown by all the Russian big names they sent. This year, they sent one of the most popular Soviet singers of all time: Alla Pugacheva. At the time, she was married to Philipp Kirkorov, a controversial figure we’ve encountered before.

This song continues the style we’ve known from Russia so far: theatrical ballads with dramatic, expressive singers. That was Russia’s idea of how to score high in the 90’s. Alla is a great singer who expresses herself perfectly. The Russian language sounds very heavy in her voice and I enjoy that too. But while I like some parts of this composition like the dramatic movie-sounding chords, it’s overall too slow and stompy to truly click with me.

This song didn’t score as high as Russia hoped: 15th place out of 25. Their averaged results the past few years meant the country was relegated from Eurovision 1998. Their broadcaster was so upset about this that they did not broadcast the contest that year and didn’t return in 1999 either. This gave Russia a few years to rethink their Eurovision strategy, and then 2000 began their new, more successful era. Despite all this, Alla Pugacheva is fondly remembered among Eurovision fans, especially after she spoke out against the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Denmark: Stemmen i mit liv

Artist: Kølig Kaj (Thomas Læggard Sørensen)

Language: Danish, for the last time until 2021 (or arguably 2019)

Key: F♯ minor

I almost forgot this year contains this hilariously strange song. It’s widely considered the weirdest song Denmark has sent to Eurovision and I can see why. Nothing else I’ve reviewed so far comes close. It’s also the most polarizing entry Denmark has sent—fans either adore it or despise it. I read that this song narrowly won Dansk Melodi Grand Prix over a song called “Utopia”, so I was curious what it sounded like. Turns out it’s just a boring ballad.

This, on the other hand, is anything but a boring ballad. It’s a rap song by some dude wearing red glasses, a business suit, and leopard pants. The lyrics tell a story of a man who calls his ex-wife again and again, hoping to hear her voice one last time to no avail. He gets increasingly depressed and drunk, loses his job, and runs into debt with his phone bills, yet he keeps calling anyway because she is, as the title says, the voice of this life. I’m sure you get why some people hate this song with a passion. And yet, as weird as it feels to admit, I actually like this song.

The weird thing about “Stemmen i mit liv” is that despite the ridiculous premise and lyrics, its performance does a great job delivering the song’s message. Viewers who don’t speak Danish can still identify what the song is about, because it starts and ends with a phone call between the singer and a woman on stage who does a scarily good automated phone voice. She sits on a desk with a phone on it and holds a magazine, but she also joins in on the song which I find charming. I also love the two girls in yellow in the back, who are both dancing their heart out.

But the main reason I enjoy this song is because the orchestra does a great job adapting the instrumental. I would have never guessed an orchestra could play an 80’s style rap instrumental this well. While the orchestra is still around, this is much preferable to a cheap-sounding backing track.

I’ve said that one of my favorite things about Eurovision is hearing familiar genres in languages I’ve never heard them in before, and this song is a great example. Until I heard this song for the first time, the thought of rap music in Danish never once crossed my mind. I’m only moderately interested in rap, but there’s probably some Eurovision fan out there who became obsessed with Danish rap after discovering this song. That’s the coolest thing about Eurovision to me: it introduces people to music from countries they aren’t familiar with. Even though this song is undeniably bizarre, the very same principle applies here.

France: Sentiments songes

Artist: Fanny Biascamano

Language: French

Key: A minor

This song seals the deal: the motif of Eurovision 1997 is mysterious-sounding songs. I quite like it myself. It’s got a good rhythm and sounds elusive and contemporary at the same time. Fanny at 17 years old has a great voice. Though she’s a little shaky on stage, you could also interpret that as expressiveness.

We’re still at the era where France took Eurovision seriously and sent tons of interesting songs. However, next year France scored only three points. Perhaps that was the turning point that ended France’s experimental era? We’ll find out in my next post.

Croatia: Probudi me

Artist: E.N.I., who Terry Wogan called the Croatian Spice Girls

Language: Serbo-Croatian (Croatian)

Key: E♭ major

How in the living fuck did Malta win the Barbara Dex Award this year?! Seriously, these four Croatian girls are PERFECT Barbara Dex Award material. Their outfits look like they were made by clicking the randomizer button on a character generator. I feel like I could click a randomizer button on screen and their clothes would instantly look different. Their outfits don’t have any cohesion either; they look like four random singers banded together as a one-off. And yet, the Maltese girl with her slightly weird purple and teal dress won instead. Croatia not winning the Barbara Dex Award is as baffling as “Nel blu, dipinto di blu” not winning Eurovision 1958. In all fairness, this was the first ever Barbara Dex Award, so maybe its criteria hadn’t been solidified just yet.

From least to most Barbara Dex Award worthy, I’d rank the outfits as follows: purple crop top and gym shorts, purple dress, blue crop top and pants, green leprechaun suit. The first of these ensembles looks kind of cute, but the rest are increasingly ridiculous. It’s the discordant combination of outfits that truly makes them deserve this award.

As a song, this is another forewarning of the style that would dominate the 2000’s. It has no orchestra and sounds like one of those cheesy early 2000’s pop songs I heard a lot as a kid. It’s very out of character for 1990’s Croatia, but it’s not actually that bad as a song. It has some decent melodies, which is usually that type of pop song’s biggest strength.

United Kingdom: Love Shine a Light (the winner)

Artist: Katrina and the Waves

Language: English

Key: C major

And now, we’ve finally reached it: the very last time the United Kingdom won Eurovision. As with Ireland, their most recent victory was followed by a second place, but a few years later, their extremely long dark age began. But let’s not talk about that just yet—let’s review this song!

Most people know Katrina and the Waves for “Walking on Sunshine”, a song that reminds me of a friend of mine who died in 2019. It feels weird that they not only participated in Eurovision with a totally different song, but also won the contest. But it’s extremely easy to see why this song won. It’s got an anthemic melody that I can’t help but sing along to and is exactly the kind of song you’d hear at the credits of the movie. If I was watching the contest in 1997, as soon as the first verse began, I would have known this would win. It’s got winner energy written all over it.

I consider this the second most obvious winner in Eurovision history. No winner in the contest’s history is more blindingly obvious than “Poupée de cire, poupée de son” from 1965, although this song comes close. You see, in Eurovision 1997, there are many strong and interesting entries other than “Love Shine a Light”. On the other hand, pretty much every entry in 1965 is total garbage except for the amazing winner.

Compared to my other reviews of winning entries, this was rather brief. It’s a great song, but I don’t have much else to say about it.

Iceland: Minn hinsti dans

Artist: Paul Oscar (Páll Óskar Hjálmtýsson)

Language: Icelandic, for the last time until 2013

Key: B♭ minor, E♭ minor

During the postcard for this song, we hear a bit of techno music in the background. Back then we hadn’t heard that genre in any Eurovision entries, but we could have if “Planet of Blue” qualified last year. This reminds us that in 1997, Eurovision still hadn’t caught up to the actual popular music scene.

What do you know, this song actually IS techno! I’m not sure if it’s the first ever Eurovision entry in techno style—maybe “Ooh Aah… Just a Little Bit” counts too. But there’s one way this song is definitely a first: it’s the first Eurovision song whose staging is truly bonkers. Paul Oscar sits on a couch surrounded by a bunch of women in weird kinky outfits, because apparently Iceland was tired of being normal. I wish “Planet of Blue” was the first techno song performed in Eurovision, because this is alright but nowhere near as good.

Out of the 18 points this song scored, 16 of them came from countries that enabled televoting: Austria, Sweden, and the UK. This is an early hint that Eurovision fans love these kinds of bonkers performances. Some people argue this song is influential to Eurovision history because of its eccentric staging, but since it didn’t score very high, I view it as foreshadowing instead.

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Who’s my favorite?

This year has two candidates for my favorite entry: Turkey and the United Kingdom. Which one would be my better addition to my list of winners? I had to think about it for quite a while. Turkey’s song is more musically varied, but the UK has one of the best, most rousing melodies Eurovision has ever seen. If the Turkish singer didn’t give such a stellar vocal performance, I might have chosen the British entry over Turkey, Dinle. It’s a miracle that Turkey scored this high—they totally deserved it!

• Belgium, 1 (1976)
• Denmark, 1 (1963)
• Finland, 3 (1968, 1983, 1989)
• France, 3 (1977, 1990, 1991)
• Germany, 3 (1956, 1979, 1982)
• Iceland, 1 (1992)
• Ireland, 4 (1970, 1980, 1993, 1994)
• Israel, 1 (1987)
• Italy, 1 (1958)
• Luxembourg, 4 (1961, 1965, 1972, 1988)
• Netherlands, 6 (1957, 1959, 1964, 1967, 1969, 1975)
• Norway, 4 (1960, 1966, 1973, 1995)
• Portugal, 2 (1971, 1984)
• Sweden, 3 (1974, 1985, 1996)
• Switzerland, 1 (1986)
• Turkey, 2 (1978, 1997)
• United Kingdom, 2 (1962, 1981)
• (17 winners)

I’ve made a few retroactive changes to this list of winners, colored red for your convenience. 1958 used to be Sweden, now it’s Italy, Nel blu, dipinto di blu.* 1962 is no longer Germany, but United Kingdom, Ring-a-Ding Girl.** For 1966, it was a grave mistake to choose Sweden over Norway, Intet er nytt under solen.*** In 1972, instead of Austria, I now prefer the winner, Luxembourg, Après toi. And as for 1985, I’ve decided the most addictive song is not Israel, but Sweden, Bra vibrationer. I wanted to keep this list static, but there’s no denying that I regret some of my choices.

* Note that 1958 has no songs that I really, truly love. I think Italy’s song is just OK.

** This makes three songs on my list of winners with “ding” in their titles! Again, nothing I truly love that year.

*** I know someone who will be extremely happy to hear this.

General thoughts:

I’m obligated to mention that some postcards began with a video of a previous Eurovision contestant wishing this year’s competitors luck. It was a nice idea in theory, but most of them had an air of “wait, why am I here again?” followed by “OK, um, good luck I think?” Also, it ticks me off when people unknowingly sing their own songs in the wrong key, but I’m sure those who don’t have perfect pitch never notice. I have no idea which Eurovision contestants have perfect pitch, but when I go to Malmö in May, if I encounter any of them in person I could just ask. But it would be more reliable for me to sing a note and ask if they can name it, because some people misunderstand what perfect pitch means. It means you can immediately identify the pitch of a note when hearing it, not that you can name it if you stop for ten seconds and try to remember the pitch of the first note in your favorite song.

This was the first contest where all the songs were followed by a recap for the sake of televoters. The recap makes me feel bittersweet because it shows us a bit of every country’s language, but the language rule will be gone soon. Unlike other contests hosted in Ireland, the interval act was focused on modern Irish music. It was a performance by Boyzone, a boyband that one of the hosts was a member of, alongside a crowd of backing dancers.

As you’d expect from an Irish contest, the hosts were affable and excited to be there, though as with most 90’s contests, the female host did most of the work. She kept her cool even with the more annoying spokespersons. I like how the hosts spoke at least a little Irish every time the contest went to Ireland. If Ireland ever wins in the 21st century, I hope they don’t break this pattern!

As for the songs, it’s safe to say this year began the downfall of power ballads. I think that after the last two winners, most countries decided that power ballads aren’t cool anymore, which means that they started trying new genres like ethnic bops (yay!), cinematic songs (sure why not), and cheesy 90’s pop tunes (bleh). Overall, this was an incredibly fun year to review. It made me feel young, since the presentation felt so modern but it was still two years before I was born!

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See you next time as every country sings in their own language for one last time.

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