Intro Post

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Introduction

My original review of 1966 was titled “Cookie Fonster Revisits Eurovision 1966”, which wasn’t entirely accurate because I was watching the year for the first time. Now that I am watching it for the second time, the old title is accurate, hence the title “Cookie Fonster Actually Revisits Eurovision 1966”.

We’re back in Luxembourg City, once again in the tiny Villa Louvigny, but this time the place is decorated much better. There’s a cute spiral staircase to the right of the stage and an elaborate chandelier behind the stage that looks nice in black and white. The presenter is different too: this time, her name is Josiane Shen, and she seemed to have a slightly bigger career than the last Luxembourgish host.

The lineup of countries was exactly the same as 1965, so once again we have 18 participant countries. Only two got zero points, and both are surprising ones: Monaco and Italy. In third place came a beautiful guitar tune from Norway, in second came a fun but bizarro jazzy waltz from Sweden, and in first place came Austria with an Udo Jürgens ballad. For him, third time was the charm! I should also mention that this was the first year where the EBU enforced a language rule, so it’s rather amusing that the winner had a few phrases in a different language thrown in.

I can’t find British commentary for this year, so I’ll watch with French commentary. François Deguelt commentated for France this year—he’s the singer of the wonderful “Ce soir-là”. He said at the start that he had to fill in for Pierre Tchernia who was unavailable and that he hoped he could comment the show in the same fashion.

I absolutely love the orchestral reprise of “Poupée de cire, poupée de son” at the start of the show and I’m pissed that rearranging the winner at the start of the show wasn’t done every year. Josiane gives us a short, no-nonsense introduction, then the first song begins.

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Germany: Die Zeiger der Uhr

Artist: Margot Eskens

Language: German

Key: G major, A♭ major

My ranking: 16th

No one talks about this song much positively or negatively, but I think it’s one of my country’s worst entries. It’s a super-dull 6/8 ballad that makes me want to sleep. I can’t explain why it sounds so lifeless to me, it just does. In round 1 I remember being thrown off by parts where it seemed like the song was going to rhyme but didn’t, though reading the lyrics in advance solves that problem at least. The song does have rhymes, they’re just spread thinly throughout the lyrics. The real problem with the song is that it’s so slow and depressing.

I should also say, I’m not a fan of when lyrics in German try to rhyme using words with two different vowels, such as the e-sound with the ö-sound, or the ei-diphthong with the eu-diphthong. This song has a good example of the latter: “heut” has a pseudo-rhyme with “befreit”. Maybe other people feel differently, but I think if the vowels sound clearly different, it’s not a true rhyme. I know German is a tough language to rhyme in, but these inexact rhymes still feel like cheating.

Denmark: Stop – Mens legen er go’

Artist: Ulla Pia

Language: Danish

Key: E♭ major, F major

My ranking: 11th

We’re over halfway through the decade, yet we’ve still hardly heard anything that actually sounds like 1960’s pop in Eurovision. Instead, we’ve got yet another twee kids’ movie song as if 1956 never ended. I’ll take these over depressing ballads any day, and the freeform section is at least early on and not too freeform. But still, we’ve heard many kids’ movie songs like this in early contests and this doesn’t do anything those didn’t.

I will say, the two backing dancers are a lot of fun to watch and are clearly trained performers. But they also feel disjointed from the rest of the song. Why couldn’t Ulla dance a little bit, instead of swaying her head so much? And while we’re here, why do we still have so many facial close-ups?

Oh yeah, we won’t see Denmark again until 1978. Luckily, once they return, it won’t take long till they provide us some fabulous entries, such as my beloved “Disco Tango”.

Belgium: Un peu de poivre, un peu de sel

Artist: Tonia (Arlette Antoine Dominicus)

Language: French

Key: A major, B♭ major

My ranking: 4th

Did I say Denmark’s song was twee? Nowhere near as much as this one. Un peu de poivre, un peu de sel… more like un peu de sucre! Actually, it’s not a little sugar, but a lot of sugar, so beaucoup de sucre. Are you guys taking notes on this French lesson? You better be.

All that said, this is actually twee in a good way, because the song has a fun and whimsical feel to it, and it has some excellent melodies. Yes, her voice sounds childish, but look at her having fun on stage! And the lyrics about a woman cooking a love potion for her crush are charmingly silly too. In round 1 I simply thought it was an absurd fairytale where she forced a boy to fall in love with her and got rewarded for it, but now I have a different interpretation. The song could just as well be about a girl winning a guy’s heart by making him a delicious drink, no surrealism involved. Now, pepper, salt, honey, and brandy don’t seem like a great combination to me, but I’ve never tried combining the four, so for all I know it could turn out to taste delicious.

I wouldn’t want to listen to this song too often because it’s so sugary, but maybe the fact that I’ve never overdosed on it is why I’m still positive about it. Knowing what would happen if I listened to something like this too much, 6/10 seems like the appropriate score for this.

Luxembourg: Ce soir je t’attendais

Artist: Michèle Torr

Language: French

Key: B♭ major

My ranking: 7th

The title (tonight I was waiting for you) interests me because I’d have thought it was a ballad, but no, it’s an upbeat pop song about a relationship that had gone wrong in the past, but now is blooming once again. The music and vocals both have a distinctively hopeful sound. The chorus repeats too much and the song is nothing exceptional, but likable enough for what it is.

I swear I’ve seen this in some personal winner compilations (Norway is RIGHT THERE you philistines), which is probably why the chorus sounds so familiar. And I think people choose this as the winner simply because it’s a competent, upbeat song.

Yugoslavia: Brez besed

Artist: Berta Ambrož

Language: Slovenian, for the first time

Key: B♭ major

My ranking: 10th

It always feels weird to remember we got a few Eurovision songs in Slovenian long before Yugoslavia broke up. Most of Yugoslavia’s entries are in Serbo-Croatian, and unfortunately none are in Macedonian or Albanian (Kosovo), which means not all former Yugoslav nations are represented in this country’s backlog.

Anyway, this is another Yugoslav ballad, but of a more pleasant flavor than their last few, sort of like theirs from 1962. It’s not too outstanding, but it has a nice enough melody and the singer does a good job controlling her voice. It has a sort of hopeful romantic sound, but in a more subdued way than the last song. In round 1, I already gave thoughts on the plagiarism accusation related to this song, so no need to repeat that.

Norway: Intet er nytt under solen

Artist: Åse Kleveland, the first female Eurovision singer to wear pants instead of a dress

Language: Norwegian

Key: F minor

My ranking: 1st

Ah, and now we have this absolute piece of beauty. I’ve gone back and forth for quite a while on whether this song deserves a score of 10/10. I had to think about it, but now I can say that yes, it deserves a ten. The song just grabs me by the heart every time I listen to it.

It’s crazy that Åse Kleveland was only a few weeks away from 17 years old when singing this. She looks and sounds like she’s well into her twenties. You can sense a bit of nervousness, as the French commentator points out at the end (he said she was scared but sang very well), but she pulled through and delivered an amazing performance. You know when you know a song so well that you can perform the whole thing (on vocals or an instrument) without even thinking about it? I’m like that with a few piano pieces (such as “Maple Leaf Rag” by Scott Joplin or “The Code” by Nemo), and I can tell Åse was the same with this song. She delivers the vocals and guitar lines effortlessly and god, I love it. I think I love the sound of deep-voiced women in general—both when they sing and talk. I also have to appreciate her fashion choices for this song. A dress would’ve looked too dainty for a song as dark and mysterious as this. In this song, she portrays a young girl who meets a gloomy old man who feels as though he’s already experienced all you can get from life, and wonders what her life will be like when she becomes this old. An unusual outfit for the time suits an unusual song well.

The most notable thing about this song is its 5/4 time signature, a beat that shows up occasionally in Eurovision, most recently in the verses of “Aijā” from 2023. The song takes this unusual time signature and a starting guitar riff, then builds from it beautifully. It has lovely melodies, interesting brass and string lines, and a great push and pull thanks to the subtle tempo changes. Instruments enter and leave whenever the composition deems it appropriate, and her voice is included among the instruments. The song ends the way it began, with her voice and the guitar, then has a mysterious little chord on strings to close it off.

All these flourishes in the composition mean this was one of the toughest 8-bit covers I’ve ever done. It was so hard to make that when relistening to it, I think “holy shit, did I actually do that?!” Speaking of tough songs to cover, you guys are not ready for my Eurovision 1994 8-bit cover. Remember, I’m doing one (or occasionally two) songs from each year.

I’d like to give hats off to Arne Bendiksen for composing such a beautiful song. This is my favorite of the four he composed for Eurovision, and it’s not the only one where he makes creative use of the 5/4 time signature. He uses the same rhythm in “It’s Just a Game” from 1973, but I already analyzed that song so thoroughly in round 1 that I have no idea what I’ll say about it in round 2.

Third place is good and all, but personally I think this should have won Eurovision 1966. Not just because it’s by far the best song of the night, but also because if it had won the contest, it wouldn’t be so damn obscure. It might be famous among the Norwegians, but it doesn’t seem to be well-known anywhere else. I know this because when people set out to review every Eurovision year, they usually recognize at least a few songs from the grayscale years, and this is never one of them. See, people, this is why if you’re a Eurovision fan, you should totally try listening to every year sometime. You will discover some songs that will become your new best friends, that’s a guarantee. I don’t know about you, but I like to view my favorite songs as friends that I can turn to in times of need. And “Intet er nytt under solen” is a particularly loyal friend.

Finland: Playboy

Artist: Ann-Christine Nyström

Language: Finnish

Key: B major, C major

My ranking: 5th

I have to give props to this song for having such a catchy melody. It sticks in your head extremely easily, both in the verses and chorus, and that puts it above most of the other upbeat pop songs. It’s a little mischievous and groovy, and has a bit more of a 1960’s sound than the last few we’ve saw. I like the even rhythm of the lyrics because it fits the Finnish language perfectly and it’s got some good catchy melodies, but the repetitions of “playboy” are fairly annoying. The song is not groundbreaking enough to get more than a 6/10, but it’s pretty close to getting a 7.

Portugal: Ele e ela

Artist: Madalena Iglésias

Language: Portuguese

Key: D major, E♭ major

My ranking: 9th

France Gall must have inspired a lot of countries to send upbeat songs, which is great because even if they’re mediocre, I far prefer them over most ballads. This is a case in point: it’s not too great, but it has some things to like about it. I’m mostly referring to the funky guitar that appears throughout the song, and the quiet sections (só pensa nela a toda a hora). Unfortunately the singer’s shaking bugs me a bit and the song isn’t too special overall. The melody is nowhere near as easy to remember as Finland’s song either. It’s fine enough, is what I’m saying.

Austria: Merci, Chérie (the winner)

Artist: Udo Jürgens, for the third year in a row

Language: German, with a few repeated phrases in French

Key: F major

My ranking: 8th

I feel conflicted about this song’s victory, because on the one hand it’s cool that Udo Jürgens got rewarded for perfecting his 6/8 piano ballad formula with victory. I like the theme of the lyrics, which is that he must break up with his girlfriend for whatever reason, even though it absolutely breaks his heart. So he closes the relationship by talking about how great his times with her were. As I said in round 1, the instrumental strikes the right balance between sweet and melancholy. And of course I’m happy we got the first winner sung in German, even if he cheated a little with those French words (merci, chérie, adieu).

On the other hand, this should not have won 1966 because NORWAY’S SONG IS SO MUCH BETTER! I think this is the first winner I feel salty about, because I can’t stop thinking about how it beat “Intet er nytt under solen”.

Basically, this song is a victim of the Carola effect.* What’s the Carola effect, you ask? It’s when the winner of a song contest, whether it be Eurovision or a national final, is a good song in itself, but I can’t listen to it without thinking about a far better song that didn’t win. It’s called the Carola effect because I can’t listen to her song “Fångad av en stormvind” without thinking about the much better entry that got second place, “C’est le dernier qui a parlé qui a raison”. This effect most often occurs when I heard the winner first, but later heard the much better song that didn’t win, but sometimes it can occur when the second song grows on me far beyond the first one. As is the case with 1966, because for some fucking reason the song I originally chose as my winner was…

* So is the other Austrian winner, “Rise Like a Phoenix”.

Sweden: Nygammal vals

Artist: Lill Lindfors (who would later host 1985) and Svante Thuresson

Language: Swedish

Key: G major

My ranking: 2nd

… this bizarro song. It’s hard to decide if this is Sweden’s weirdest entry or “Absent Friend”. It’s a jazzy waltz duet that tells some kind of crazy fairytale and is full of archaic words that even the Swedes have trouble understanding. Vlad did the favor of summarizing the lyrics like so: “They’re about a princess meeting a pig breeder, insulting him at first and then being so enchanted by him playing on some saucepans that she trades places with him and he becomes a princess instead.” The weirdness gets through no matter which language you speak because of the wild flute solos and crazy melodies.

Now, don’t be misled by me ranking this second. I didn’t want to rank this second, because I’ve now come to my senses and realized Norway’s song is far, far superior, but I can’t help still having a soft spot for this. There’s just something charming about how bizarre it is. Erica would beg to differ and ranked this last place, due to her repulsion to jazz.

Even though I have this ranked second, I find it weird as fuck that it got second place. It turns out it achieved this place because of bloc voting: out of the 16 points it scored, Denmark, Finland, and Norway gave it five each, and the remaining point came from Switzerland. I bet viewers outside the Nordic countries weren’t happy with all this neighborly bias, which must be why the voting system was changed back to “each country distributes ten votes” next year.

Spain: Yo soy aquél

Artist: Raphael (Miguel Rafael Martos Sánchez)

Language: Spanish

Key: D minor

My ranking: 6th

Ah, here’s another song I tend to see in winner compilations. The reason why is probably because his performance has immediate impact, unlike so many other grayscale entries which are gradual growers.

Spain opted for a 6/8 ballad this year, but it’s better than most due to the buildup and Raphael’s dramatic performance. He came on stage prepared and sang with exactly the fierce conviction a song like this demands. He’s not distracted or thinking about anything else, he’s focused entirely on this song, and for that I have to give him respect. I think it might go the highest among the ballads in my rankings, above even Austria.

Switzerland: Ne vois-tu pas ?

Artist: Madeleine Pascal

Language: French

Key: F major

My ranking: 15th

Switzerland has sent a 6/8 ballad too, but while Spain made the formula work, there’s nothing about this that works for me.  In fact, the more times I listen to this, the more I dislike it. Madeleine is an alright enough singer, but her shaking drives me crazy and her vocals sound way too stiff and rehearsed. Not to mention that the instrumental is clichéd and sounds like every other 6/8 piano ballad.

In round 1 I found the lyrics of this way too sappy, but now that I think of it, those are the song’s main redeeming quality. Don’t get me wrong, I still think the lyrics are way too sappy, but they’re also pretty interesting. The song is about her telling her childhood friend she’s not a kid anymore, and trying to clue him in that she likes him that way. She’s not the right singer to deliver this song, but I think a more convincing performer could have made it work. If someone like Anne-Marie David sang this, then I’d easily feel what she’s singing, and hope that the boy she likes would get the hint.

I thought last time that she sang she wanted her and her childhood friend to be like a brother and sister, but upon closer inspection of the lyrics, she actually sings that she’s afraid others would mistake them for siblings. She very much wants to marry this boy.

Fun fact: a Brazilian singer named Wanderly Regina made a Portuguese cover of this song, for whatever reason. I wonder how this song made it all the way to Brazil? Did she discover it on a trip to Europe, or did Brazil just import records of this?

Monaco: Bien plus fort

Artist: Tereza Kesovija, a Yugoslavian this time

Language: French

Key: F major, A♭ major, F major, F♯ major

My ranking: 17th

Another 6/8 ballad, this is even worse than the previous song. She attempts to sing with vocal drama, but it comes off as forced and unearned. She sings too loud from start to finish and just has to put vibrato into every single long note. The melody doesn’t even sync up with the instrumental well and sounds as if she’s in a hurry. And while Switzerland’s singer had clear diction and told a cute little story about falling in love with her childhood best friend, I can hardly make out a word that Tereza is singing. Oh wait, apparently she’s singing about how strong her love is, generic stuff like that. I don’t like this at all and it deserved zero points.

Italy: Dio, come ti amo

Artist: Domenico Modugno, returning from 1958 and 1959

Language: Italian

Key: A minor

My ranking: 3rd

Now the next nul-pointer is more of a shocker, because it comes from Mr. Volare. It’s the third entry that he sang, and the fourth and last that he composed.

This song is best known for a controversy where Domenico Modugno insisted last-minute on having the song not performed by the orchestra, but by his three-piece band, which almost got his song disqualified from the contest. Fortunately, the EBU knows that every participant country paid tons of money to go to Eurovision and would never disqualify an entire country from the contest at the last minute. Eventually the EBU threw their hands up and let him have his way. In this article on a blog about Eurovision conductors, you can read more about this story. Basically, Mr. Volare was being an arrogant jerk who insisted on having things his way. The zero points could be a result of his behavior, or because the juries felt he shouldn’t have been allowed to perform without an orchestra. Or maybe the juries just were opposed to doing something different, it’s quite a mystery.

I personally think this didn’t deserve zero points at all. Regardless of whether you think his minimalist arrangement should’ve been allowed, I think it sounds really neat and stands out from the rest. It’s a drama ballad that doesn’t sound all too ballady. It strikes the perfect balance between dramatic and heartfelt and makes for a lovely listen. The lyrics are “this is how much I love you” cranked to the extreme, very typical of Domenico Modugno. Because of all those disagreements on whether to use the orchestra, I completely understand why Eurovision eventually switched to only allowing backing tracks, and I don’t oppose that decision. I do wish the contest would at least allow live instruments on stage though.

Fun fact: this song ends the pattern of Italy sending the winning song of Sanremo to Eurovision each year. From the next year until 2013, Italy sent the Sanremo winning song only twice: in 1972 and 1997. I wonder if this song getting zero points was the reason for this?

France: Chez nous

Artist: Dominique Walter

Language: French

Key: G major, briefly E♭ major

My ranking: 18th (last)

And now, we have “N’avoue jamais” 2.0, although this song isn’t quite as bad. His voice sounds weirdly powerless, he swings his arms around too much, the lyrics are fairly patronizing to women and Eurocentric, and the most annoying thing about this song is the title repetitis (a term that Erica Dakin coined). I like to amuse myself by pretending he’s singing about his knees, because “chez nous” sounds sort of like “genoux”. The main reason this isn’t as bad as “N’avoue jamais” from last year is because the addition of female backing singers is pretty cool. I just wish we could see them on stage for more than one second. Still, this is easily the most annoying song of the night, so I’ve ranked it last place.

I would have totally expected this to do well in the juries, because normally they love all French 6/8 ballads, but not this one apparently. This got only one point, which came from Monaco. I feel like the juries totally changed their approach to voting this year, and I’ll discuss more about that in the general thoughts.

Netherlands: Fernando en Filippo

Artist: Milly Scott (Marion Henriëtte Louise Molly)

Language: Dutch

Key: B♭ major, B major

My ranking: 14th

The Netherlands must have decided that to do better in Eurovision, they should send something totally bizarre this year. That could be why they dragged out two guitarists in sombreros, who portray Fernando and Filippo. This strategy didn’t really work, because this got only two points. Fortunately, just three years later the Netherlands would absolutely fucking kill it and send one of the most beautiful songs in Eurovision history.

Erica is embarrassed that her country sent this song, but I don’t mind it too much. I mean, it’s not great or anything, just a weird parody of Mexican music that and has too much “tooon-riki-ton”. It doesn’t actually sound that Mexican, more like an old Dutch schlager with trumpets attached. But Milly Scott gives it her all on stage and I’m amused by her exiting the stage amidst her singing, so I can’t fully hate it.

Ireland: Come Back to Stay

Artist: Dickie Rock

Language: English

Key: A♭ major, A major

My ranking: 12th

Ireland sure loves their wholesome goodboy ballads, don’t they? Well, in the early years, that is. He’s a good singer with particularly good diction. He sings every word crystal clear, which means that even if I didn’t natively speak English, I’d have no trouble understanding him. But otherwise this is yet another generic 6/8 ballad with an unnecessary key change. At least it’s not as dreary as the last Irish entry.

United Kingdom: A Man Without Love

Artist: Kenneth McKellar

Language: English

Key: D♭ major

My ranking: 13th

To close the contest, then UK has sent some regional flavor: a man widely known as Scotland’s greatest tenor, dressed in a kilt. He can sing, but I’m not a big fan of this myself. It’s too freeform and operatic, and I agree with Erica, the lyrics are inane. I suspect the intent was for non-native English speakers to understand the lyrics.

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My full ranking

I had a fun time ranking this year: it wasn’t too easy, nor was it too hard. My list looks like this:

It’s another case of one entry being by far the best, but not as extreme as 1965. You can see this wasn’t too bad of a year overall.

Rest of the show:

First off comes the interval act, a fun little Dixieland jazz band from France called Les Haricots Rouges (The Red Beans). It was a simple and fun act, clearly different in style from the competing songs, thus it serves its purpose of keeping the audience entertained. I’ve been to New Orleans once, the birthplace of Dixieland, and they really do have jazz performers throughout the streets each day, it’s pretty cool.

The design of the scoreboard is horrific, I’m afraid to say. It’s very vertical and doesn’t even remotely fit into the TV screen, which makes the voting sequence a horrific mess of zoom-ins that’s near impossible to follow. The titles of the song names are way too small and don’t really need to be there at this point. At least the arrow showing who’s in the lead helps a bit, I suppose.

The voting sequence soon turned into one of the funniest results sequences in Eurovision history, but also one of the most baffling. As the results proceeded, it increasingly became a farcical fest of neighborly bias. The audience started laughing when Norway was the second Nordic country to give five points to Sweden, then they laughed even more when Finland awarded points to two other Nordics. Same for Portugal and Spain giving each other five points. I also like the moment where Josiane Shen expects to speak to the Swedish spokesperson in English, but he turns out to speak fluent French. She said “vous parlez français ?”, he said yes, and she thanked him with a hand on her heart. Near the end came the funniest moment of the voting: she greeted the British spokesperson with “good night London”, and he responded with “good morning Luxembourg”. Even the presenter burst out laughing at this! Crazy enough, if the UK had returned the five points Ireland gave them, then Ireland would’ve scored second place. This shows that the contest now had too many countries for the 5, 3, 1 point system to work.

Now why is this one of the most baffling voting sequences? Because Norway didn’t win, of course. Third place is pretty good, but still, they should have won. But instead, Austria stayed in the lead throughout, but Sweden came close to beating them after all those neighborly votes.

Udo Jürgens was stoked to have finally won Eurovision and got a double thanks from the host, because he sang and composed the song. The lyrics were co-written with Thomas Hörbiger, who exchanged a hug with Udo Jürgens. Both of them received the prize from none other than France Gall, which is good because it’s annoying when the producers aren’t able to drag in last year’s winner. Mr. Jürgens got on the piano, said “merci, jury” into the microphone, then began the winner’s reprise. It’s just a shame that when he finally won the contest, there was a much better song that deserved the prize more.

General thoughts:

The presentation of this year wasn’t anything too spectacular, but it did what it needed to. The presenter was a little stiff for most of the show, but got more engaged with it during the voting. She didn’t introduce each song individually; instead, we got a title card with the song name, and the country name in French, written in a charming little combo of script and sans serif fonts. The stage design isn’t too impressive either, but I do like the chandelier behind the singers, and how it spins during some songs but stays still in others.

Now for the song lineup and results, this is a pretty weird year. This is one of those years where one song is far superior to everything else, which is of course Norway, but that song didn’t come close to winning. Yes, I know it got third place, but any song could’ve gotten third place with a bit of neighborly support. The end result of the contest would’ve left me baffled, but at the same time happy for Udo Jürgens. Aside from my winner, the rest of the songs were decent enough and I’m thankful this year had more upbeat songs than the last few. It was kind of cool to have a stretch of upbeat songs in the first half then a stretch of ballads in the second half; it was a result of randomization, but reminds me of the intentionally chosen running order of 1956.

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See you next time as the UK scores a clear, decisive victory. But not before I finish a review of a Homestuck fan album that came out a few days ago.

>> 1967: The Year Where the Host Spoke Russian