Cookie Fonster Plows Once Again Through Eurovision 1974: The Year Hosted in My Birthplace

Intro Post

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Introduction

Yes, I was actually born in Brighton, England, which is where Eurovision 1974 (the year of my dad’s birth) took place. But I do not consider myself British at all. My parents just happened to be spending a year abroad in England and returned to the United States when I was three months old, and I haven’t been back to the UK since.

Luxembourg had hosted and won Eurovision 1973, but unsurprisingly for such a small country, they refused to host Eurovision twice in a row. Spain who came second place also declined to host, so the EBU asked the ever-eager BBC to hold their horses as they looked for other countries who could do it. Israel’s IBA offered to do it, as did the BBC’s rival broadcaster ITV, but the IBA lagged behind many European broadcasters in technology, and ITV participating meant the BBC wouldn’t be able to. So the BBC bidded to host after all, and after getting the offer they chose to put on the show in the Brighton Dome. The arena normally had 2100 seats, but half of them had to be temporarily removed to make way for commentator booths and other equipment, which means this is another show with a rather small audience.

As with the previous contest, 17 countries took part this year, but we have a little swap-out. Greece made their debut whereas France dropped out because of their president Georges Pompidou’s sudden death. This year has a mythic place in Eurovision lore because it has a lot of songs that tie in with real-world events in some way, not to mention two very big names: Olivia Newton-John representing the UK, and the winners, ABBA from Sweden. But what I’m interested in is, do the songs this year hold up? We’re about to find out together.

Before I dive into the songs, there are some clever details in this year’s production I’d like to point out. For one thing, I like that the producers picked one good-looking font and used it throughout the show. The font is called Optima Bold and looks remarkably timeless. It fits well in a 1970’s show and wouldn’t be out of place in something produced in 2025 either. The logo for this year’s contest is also timeless and cleverly designed: a bird holding a microphone circled by the text “EUROVISION SONG CONTEST 1974”. The postcards are fabulous too: first they show a bit of the participating country, then footage from the contestant’s rehearsal, and finally them having a good time exploring Brighton. They cram a lot of material into 40-ish seconds and do it really well.

Did I forget anything? Oh right… Katie Boyle hosted this contest, making it her fourth and final time presenting Eurovision. She still holds the record for most times having hosted Eurovision; the only other people who have hosted multiple contests are Jacqueline Joubert (1959, 1961) and Petra Mede (2013, 2016, 2024). Unfortunately, this time around Katie looks like she’s afraid something disastrous will happen throughout the show. If you read up a little bit on this contest, you’ll know why that is: it’s because she wasn’t wearing underwear beneath her dress. I watched the show with British commentary done by David Vine.

And one more thing: the voting system got reverted to “each jury has 10 members who can give a point to one song each” for one last time. Surprisingly, no country scored zero points this year. Instead, four countries tied for last place with three points each: Norway, Germany, Switzerland, and Portugal.


Finland: Keep Me Warm

Artist: Carita Holmström

Language: English

Key: C major

My ranking: 1st. Yep that’s right, I have a new winner.

One more touch in the postcards is that each one features a folk song from the country that’s next to perform. I find that a lovely detail, even if I only recognize only two: Finland’s “Letkis” because of the video game Cave Story, and Israel’s “Hava Nagila” because I learned it on piano once. Also, I’m curious why the title captions list the song bilingually as “Älä Mene Pois (Keep Me Warm)”.* My guess is that Carita originally wanted to perform this in Finnish but then changed her mind. Note that “Äla mene pois” actually translates to “don’t go away”.

In any case, this is an incredibly underrated song. So underrated, in fact, that I’ve decided to retcon it to be my winner this year. It’s such a pretty song and I don’t get why so few people talk about it! It deserved so much better than 13th place. I do know that Famicom Guy loves this song and later even retconned it to be his winner of 1974. “Waterloo” was originally my winner, but when writing this post, I decided I could not think of any reason to have it as my winner over this hidden gem. “Keep Me Warm” makes me feel something, while I’m afraid “Waterloo” doesn’t really.

This is a classy piano ballad that has many things I like about music: a hopeful and tender sound, interesting chords in the verses and chorus, and did I mention I have a soft spot for girls on pianos? I very much do, just as long as they don’t ditch the piano 30 seconds in. I also wonder, are those record scratches in the chorus or is that just my imagination? Maybe I’m confusing them with guitar noises or something.

The English lyrics are well-written and don’t feel janky at all, and there’s a reason why. The Finnish lyrics were written by Heikki Veikko Harma (AKA Hector), while the English lyrics were written by a British man who spent most of his life in Finland named Frank Robson. This means he’s exactly the type of person who would know how to localize a song from Finnish to English. Not to say that non-native English speakers can’t write good English lyrics, just that the best person to translate from language A to language B is a native speaker of language B who is thoroughly familiar with language A.

* Technically it’s listed as “Aelae Mene Pois”, since “ae” is sometimes used as a substitute for “ä”.

United Kingdom: Long Live Love

Artist: Olivia Newton-John

Language: English

Key: B major, C major

My ranking: 13th

This song, on the other hand, I really don’t like and shouldn’t have scored as high as fourth place. Olivia is a strong singer, but she didn’t like this song at all and you can kind of tell from her performance. It’s one of those British circus music entries with dainty frilly lyrics, an ultra-stompy beat, and a cheesy key change. At least “Puppet on a String” a few days prior I have to admit is an earworm, but this isn’t so much. The only thing I like about it is Olivia’s voice.

Spain: Canta y sé feliz

Artist: Peret (Pedro Pubill Calaf)

Language: Spanish

Key: E major and E minor, back and forth

My ranking: 6th

Peret is a bit of an odd name, because I keep thinking it’s a mispronunciation of “Peret” by someone who can’t say “th”.

Anyway, this is Spain sending something unmistakably Spanish. An extremely Spanish-sounding entry can be brilliant (e.g. Bandido), atrocious (e.g. Quién maneja mi barca), or just alright like this one. Not alright as in average, but alright as in “I actually sort of like it”. It has the full package of Spanish tropes: heavy use of guitar and brass riffs, a mix of major and minor key reminiscent of “Estando contigo”, and a style of singing that just feels Spanish. I also like watching Peret play around on his guitar, which he holds with only his hands and no strap, and even taps on the back near the end.

As Erica says in her review: “It’s not brilliant, but it’s endearingly Spanish, and I kinda like it.” I couldn’t agree more with her.

Norway: The First Day of Love

Artist: Anne-Karine Strøm and the Bendik Singers, ostensibly, but the credit is misleading

Language: English

Key: A major in the chorus, A minor in the verses, B♭ major at the end

My ranking: 14th

Bleh, what a disappointment this song is after the Bendik Singers’ wonderful last entry. Crediting the song to the Bendik Singers is a little misleading, because the redhead Ellen has been replaced with some other lady, who along with the Bendik men has been mostly relegated to singing “oooo” in the background.

I feel like a song called “the first day of love” demands an intimate, romantic performance, like the type Anne-Marie David is so good at. I don’t know how to put this, but I feel like when Anne-Karine performs this song, she comes off as she’s sort of… explaining something? It’s hard to describe. She doesn’t really feel the song, that’s the point. Plus, the song has too much of a disconnect between the verses and chorus, neither of which is all that great, and it overall comes off as 1970’s cheese in a sour way. I know “It’s Just a Game” is also total seventies cheese, but that song is the good kind.

Greece: Krasí, thálassa ke t’ agóri mou (Κρασί, θάλασσα και τ’ αγόρι μου)

Artist: Marinella (Kyriaki Papadopoulou)

Language: Greek, a language I still have a soft spot for

Key: C major, D♭ major

My ranking: 5th

We can now welcome Greece to the contest, who sent a song that only they (or Cyprus I suppose) could send. I summed up the song pretty well in round 1: “This feels like a Greek counterpart to Spain’s entry. It prominently features a bouzouki to parallel Spain’s acoustic guitar (though not played by the singer), it has a lot of backing vocals, and the lyrics are romantic in a Greek way. The title means “wine, the sea, and my boyfriend”, and the lyrics say that those are the three most important things to the singer. I’m not a fan of the slowdown before the key change, but this is still a good start for Greece.

I forgot I had described this song as a Greek equivalent to Spain’s song, but that’s a perfect description for it. I’m a sucker for a good bouzouki (which is part of why I love “Alcohol Is Free” so much) and the rest of the song is overall cute and happy. I just wish it didn’t have that dramatic slowdown or an unnecessarily exaggerated ending. That’s why I only score it a seven instead of an eight.

Israel: Natati La Khayay (נתתי לה חיי)

Artist: Kavaret, a band who went by Poogy in Eurovision

Language: Hebrew

Key: E minor

My ranking: 2nd

As with Finland, I’ve decided that this song also does more for me than “Waterloo” does. Even if I had no idea what the lyrics were about, I’d still get the vibe that this is a song full of metaphors for real-world events. I don’t know what that is about it: maybe that the music sounds a little quirky but profound at the same time. You just know when they’re singing that they’re telling a story of some sort. It has some nice piano parts and multilayered vocals, and I like that it stays in minor key throughout unlike so many other entries of the time. It’s the kind of song that gets me reflecting on life, just through the music alone.

This song is really interesting lyrically as well. Going by translations of the lyrics, it has a dual meaning of a romantic conflict where no one can agree and the real-world conflict between Israel and Palestine, which is still nowhere fucking close to being resolved over 50 years later, and that just makes me really sad. One line in the lyrics says that nowadays, people constantly argue over whether the egg or apple came first, which could reference how people disagree on who the land rightly belongs to, or perhaps who started the latest conflict in the region. Then comes a line saying there is enough air for a country or two, and it’s pretty clear that’s an advocation for a two-state solution. At heart, this song is an earnest message for peace. It has an air of sincerity that you wouldn’t find in songs like, let’s say “A Million Voices”.

Yugoslavia: Generacija ’42 (Генерација ’42)

Artist: Korni Grupa

Language: Serbo-Croatian (Serbian)

Key: I still don’t fucking know in the verses, E major in the chorus

My ranking: 9th

I was really hoping that this time around, I would be able to tell what key the verses are in. Unfortunately, I am still absolutely stumped because those chord progressions are just so out there. Maybe the verses just don’t have a key signature, kind of like how a song that consists solely of rapping and a drum beat does not have a key signature.

The British commentator said that these guys went back and forth on which language they would sing in, and when he talked to the band they were still undecided. You can also see from the postcard that they made a last-minute change to their outfits and opted for an ultra-seventies look.

Anyway, it has an interesting message about being born amidst World War II, but musically the song isn’t for me. It’s too discordant in the verses and too dreary in the chorus. It’s a pretty interesting composition but it unfortunately doesn’t leave much of an impression on me.

Artist: ABBA, who need no introduction

Language: English

Key: D major

My ranking: 3rd. It’s no longer my winner!

We’ve now reached a challenging point for many a Eurovision reviewer: the ultra-famous song “Waterloo” by ABBA. In round 1 I analyzed what all the song does right, but this time I’ll instead talk about why I don’t love the song THAT much. It was actually pretty hard to write an analysis of this song last time, and now I know the reason why: much like the equally famous “Volare”, this song really doesn’t spark passion in me. It’s a good song and I don’t mind listening to it, but compared to so many other songs everyone knows (e.g. “Gangnam Style” by PSY or “All Star” by Smash Mouth, two of my favorite songs ever), this one kind of leaves me cold.

Now it’s not ABBA’s fault that this song leaves me so cold. I’m not an expert on the band or anything, but since I don’t live under a rock, I know quite a few of their songs. Most of them have something I like about them that I can go off about. For instance, when I hear “Dancing Queen”, the anthemic melody in the chorus jumps at me, and when I hear “Ring Ring” I get intrigued by how it’s happy and melancholy at the same time. My personal favorite ABBA song is probably “The Winner Takes It All” because a few years back, I heard someone play a really lovely arrangement of it at a piano recital, which made me realize how moving and powerful that song is. The dramatic piano, the drawn-out melody of the chorus complemented by the backing vocals, the chord progression that slightly changes as the song progresses… there are just so many things that pop out to me when I hear “The Winner Takes It All”. On the other hand, whenever I hear “Waterloo” I just think, “okay, this is a 70’s hit song that exists”. It’s very catchy and easy to listen to, but it just doesn’t have cool details that pop out to me.

I think Vlad has a good point when he says “Waterloo” is far simpler than most of ABBA’s discography. That’s probably part of why it won Eurovision, but also why it doesn’t do much for me. Also, I’m glad he mentioned their song “Head Over Heels” in this review, because I’m certain I’ve never heard it before and it shows that Björn and Benny are more versatile composers than you might think. I love how heavily the song uses harmonic minor key in particular—I wouldn’t have expected that from ABBA! That’s often how it is with big-name musicians. Their famous songs mean many people associate them with just one style, when in fact they have a whole world of different music waiting for you to discover. It reminds me of how Scott Joplin composed SO MUCH MORE than just happy ragtime pieces.

The nice part about admitting “Waterloo” is no longer my winner of the year is that I can now evaluate which songs this year do more for me than this does. It turns out there are only two such songs, “Keep Me Warm” and “Natati La Khayay”, which proves this isn’t that great of a year. I do still think it was the right choice to turn into an 8-bit cover, because I’m not sure either of those other two songs would’ve worked quite as well.

Luxembourg: Bye Bye I Love You

Artist: Ireen Sheer, a British-German singer

Language: French with the most painful English accent I’ve ever heard

Key: B♭ major, B major

My ranking: 17th (last)

Now we’ve reached the first of two consecutive Luxembourgish entries I have a big hate boner for, and both are for the same reason: they’re sung in French with an extremely thick English accent. Look, I don’t mind hearing a foreign accent in songs usually, but it’s better if you at least try to pronounce the language correctly. She starts the song singing “mwa zhuh nuh savay preskuh pah parlay fronsay”, which is supposed to be “moi, je ne savais presque pas parler français” and means “I hardly knew how to speak French”. No Ireen, your French isn’t any better now. She makes the rookie mistake of heavily aspirating her P’s, T’s, and K’s, which I admittedly did for the longest time until my mom told me that was incorrect, but come on, it’s not too hard for an English speaker to learn how to pronounce them unaspirated.

The instrumental of this song is absolutely horrible too. It has an ultra-stompy beat that drives me crazy and sounds like one of those dainty circus music entries that the UK often sent around this time, but cranked up to eleven. And it has a key change because of course it does. Her accent is so heavy that I can hardly even understand what the lyrics are about, so I can only assume they’re about a generic happy love story… no wait, apparently it’s about a breakup where her boyfriend dumped her for someone else, but the music doesn’t match this theme at all.

How the fuck did this song score fourth place, you people??? It’s so godawful! You’d think a thick English accent would negate the juries’ francophone bias, but apparently it doesn’t. Now, in all fairness, it tied with the UK and Monaco for fourth place, but it still didn’t deserve to score this high. Thankfully, Ireen Sheer would redeem herself with an actually decent song four years later.

Monaco: Celui qui reste et celui qui s’en va

Artist: Romuald Figuier, returning from 1964 (Monaco) and 1969 (Luxembourg)

Language: French

Key: C major, D♭ major

My ranking: 15th

As I said in round 1: Romuald’s first two songs blended with the others of the time period, and I’m afraid this one does too. This has an interesting topic about breakups in general, which is that the one who stays behind is always hurt more than the one who leaves. But as a piece of music, this is a total DAF ballad with an annoying brief slowdown before each chorus begins, plus a cheesy key change at the end. Apparently I hadn’t called anything a DAF ballad since my 1969 re-review, but this song absolutely deserves the title. It goes in one ear and out the other. I wouldn’t say I hate this song, but I really don’t like it at all. I do like his sparkly dark purple suit though.

Belgium: Fleur de liberté

Artist: Jacques Hustin

Language: French

Key: B major

My ranking: 11th

I said in round 1 that this is an average 70’s pop song that doesn’t make me feel much one way or the other, and I still agree with that. It has a decent melody in the chorus and he has a nice voice, but the song doesn’t interest me otherwise.

Netherlands: I See a Star

Artist: Mouth and MacNeal

Language: English

Key: E major, F major

My ranking: 4th

Oh hell fucking yes, this song has by far my favorite postcard of the year. I love watching Mouth drag his buddy MacNeal on a wagon while they carry balloons and share a good laugh.

I analyzed this song quite heavily in round 1, so I don’t have much else to say about it that I didn’t last time. To recap, it’s a playful song with a double meaning about romance and smoking weed. It has a stompy circus beat like the UK and Luxembourg, but the parts where the stompy beat pauses (which is to say the street organ solo, followed by the piano and strings part) make this style of beat so much more enjoyable. It gives the song some nice push and pull, so it doesn’t stay the same throughout.

This song is by no means amazing, but it’s well-suited for Eurovision because the composition and staging make it memorable after just one listen. And since 1974 isn’t that great of a year, this is quite high up in my ranking.

Ireland: Cross Your Heart

Artist: Tina Reynolds

Language: English

Key: F major, F♯ major

My ranking: 7th

As I said in round 1, Tina Reynolds was almost going to substitute Maxi for Ireland’s entry last year, and since she didn’t get to in the end, RTÉ offered for her to represent Ireland this year and she accepted.

I never realized how many songs with stompy beats there are this year—this one’s the fourth. It isn’t bad at all, actually: she sings it well and the composition has some interesting chords especially in the chorus. I’m not a fan of the slowdown before the key change, but every other song this year has one. If I was Irish and watching live, I would’ve actually felt this was a strong effort and hoped Tina would do well. But since I’m not Irish, I just think this song is alright enough, though I am feeling generous enough to score it a 6/10. It landed seventh place (tied with Israel) in case you were wondering.

Ooh, apparently this song has a German version called “Hand aufs Herz”. Can Tina sing in German well? I’m curious! She has a moderate English accent and doesn’t know how to pronounce the “ich” sound, but otherwise she makes a decent effort.

Germany: Die Sommermelodie

Artist: Cindy and Bert (Jutta Gusenberger and Norbert Berger)

Language: German

Key: G minor and G major in alternation, then A♭ major at the end

My ranking: 12th

Agh, now here’s another song that feels like two completely different songs stitched together. This is a strange variant of “good verses, bad chorus” where the first verse is good and the rest is shit. The first verse sounds like a sort of cross between ballad and tango with nice harmonies, but the chorus spoils it by being dreary as all hell, and also vaguely 70’s cheese. Not only that, the first verse ends abruptly as if the song is saying “hold it, we can’t have too much fun here”, and next thing you know you’re hearing a completely different song. Unfortunately the song never recovers after the first chorus, because the entire rest of the song continues being dreary. Nope, I don’t have any patriotism in my heart for this one. I’m ranking it the highest of my 3/10’s only because it has a nice intro.

Switzerland: Mein Ruf nach dir

Artist: Piera Martel

Language: German

Key: G minor and G major in alternation, then A♭ major at the end. Same as Germany, weirdly enough.

My ranking: 16th

This is even drearier than Germany’s song if that’s even possible. She has a vaguely “volume = quality” style of singing and it’s super ballady and I don’t like it at all. Also, why does her dress have to use this much fabric? That’s seriously too much, it probably doesn’t even feel good to wear. Olivia Newton-John’s dress also used a ridiculous amount of drapery, but at least that one matches her circus song.

Portugal: E depois do adeus

Artist: Paulo de Carvalho

Language: Portuguese

Key: D major and D minor in alternation

My ranking: 10th

I know this is famous as the song that started the Carnation Revolution, but as a piece of music I sadly find it forgettable. The piano in the minor key parts is nice and he’s a confident performer, but otherwise I don’t have any strong feelings for it one way or another. Sorry to anyone who was expecting me to write a detailed review of this.

Italy: Sì

Artist: Gigliola Cinquetti, who won in 1964

Language: Italian

Key: F minor in the verses, A major and C major and then E♭ major in the choruses. Thanks my past self for writing this for me.

My ranking: 8th

We meet again, Gigliola Cinquetti! I like how you can basically watch her life story by binging every Eurovision year: she competed in 1964 and 1974, was one of the hosts in 1991, and finally was an interval act in 2022. She’s still alive as of this writing, at 77 years old.

Now here’s the last song of the contest and the final to tie in with real-world events. As I said in round 1: Because the song repeats its title (Italian for “yes”), and because Italy had a referendum on whether to keep divorce illegal, it was banned from Italian radio stations for a month and cut out of Italy’s broadcast of this contest.

I praised this song quite a lot in round 1, and I still think it’s one of the better songs this year, but it’s nowhere near my favorite. It’s artistic in an Italian way much like their entry two years prior: it tells a musical story about proposing to the man she loves, which makes it sort of a sequel to “Non ho l’età” which was about when she was too young to feel true love. It’s a song to enjoy while it happens, but not a song to come back to (at least for me). I still do appreciate how the song mixes minor and major key in a way that actually feels seamless. I can’t fully explain why the key mixing works specifically in this song—must be the Italian musical magic.


My full ranking

Alright, here’s how Eurovision 1974 stacks up:

With no songs scored above an eight and six songs a three or lower, you can tell this year is a big step down from 1972 and 1973. It’s not too bad of a year, and I can still see why it’s seen as so iconic. But it has quite a lot of drivel as well. Anyway, time to update my winner list:

  • Belgium, 3 (1957, 1976, 2003)
  • Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2 (2001, 2006)
  • Denmark, 2 (1963, 2000)
  • Finland, 5 (1974, 1983, 1989, 2010, 2023)
  • France, 3 (1977, 1990, 1991)
  • Germany, 5 (1956, 1968, 1979, 1982, 1999)
  • Greece, 1 (2013)
  • Hungary, 2 (2005, 2019)
  • Iceland, 1 (1992)
  • Ireland, 3 (1970, 1980, 1994)
  • Israel, 1 (1987)
  • Italy, 1 (1964)
  • Latvia, 2 (2002, 2018)
  • Lithuania, 1 (2022)
  • Luxembourg, 4 (1965, 1972, 1973, 1988)
  • Moldova, 1 (2009)
  • Monaco, 1 (1960)
  • Montenegro, 1 (2015)
  • Netherlands, 8 (1959, 1967, 1969, 1971, 1975, 1998, 2014, 2024)
  • North Macedonia, 1 (2020)
  • Norway, 4 (1966, 1985, 1993, 1995)
  • Portugal, 2 (1984, 2017)
  • Serbia, 4 (2004, 2008, 2011, 2012)
  • Sweden, 3 (1958, 1996, 2025)
  • Switzerland, 2 (1986, 2021)
  • Turkey, 2 (1978, 1997)
  • Ukraine, 2 (2007, 2016)
  • United Kingdom, 3 (1961, 1962, 1981)
  • (20 winners)

Rest of the show:

The interval act this time is footage of puppets from a British kids’ TV show called The Wombles exploring Brighton, set to an orchestral arrangement of its theme song. Why have a kids’ show as an interval act? Well, why not! It keeps the audience entertained, as I always say an interval act should do. I’m curious whether there were any adults back in the 1970’s who thought The Wombles was the greatest TV show ever made. Perhaps there were some, like the adult fans of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (such as me) or this one guy I know who is absolutely obsessed with Bear in the Big Blue House. There might even be some grown-ups today who absolutely love the Wombles, and if it makes them happy they’re more than welcome to. Don’t you dare forget that you are a Womble. Don’t even think about it. Well, you should think about the fact that you’re a womble, but you shouldn’t think about forgetting it.

Katie Boyle explains the voting in English and French, and this time the voting sequence does something unusual: the countries voting are in a random order. That’s needlessly confusing, but at least we have an experienced presenter to handle the sequence. The British commentary was only recorded until the start of the voting, so from here on out we’ll hear Austria’s Ernst Grissemann with his soothing deep voice instead. Except at the very end, when the commentary switches to a Dutch guy.

And so we have the usual jury voting sequence with a spokesperson for each country, the host showing off her language skills, and a few almost-mishaps. Sweden stayed in the lead pretty much throughout, but not by as big of a landslide as you might think. It’s strange to think that because of this year’s voting system and the scattershot points, ABBA won with a modest 26 points. Anne-Marie David wasn’t in Brighton for whatever reason, so the EBU president Charles Curran was the one to give ABBA (Benny and Björn specifically) their trophies. Then of course they perform their winning song, which is chopped into pieces in YouTube uploads, but everyone already knows that song so it’s not much of a problem.

General thoughts:

Eurovision 1974 is one of those years with a great presentation, but an underwhelming song lineup. It isn’t that bad of a year, but I’m afraid it’s not as good as many people seem to think. But there’s a good reason the year is the most famous of all 20th century contests: it has freaking ABBA! Even though they can do so much better than “Waterloo”. Still, given how hugely popular ABBA would later become, it would be pretty insane to argue that they shouldn’t have won Eurovision 1974. Then again, I’d have said the same thing if Domenico Modugno had won 1958, but he didn’t and his song became ultra-famous anyway.

It felt good to retcon my winner of the year away from ABBA, because it slowly started to become a reluctant winner for me. “Keep Me Warm” was robbed, you people!


See you next time as I reveal some surprising new takes on Eurovision 1975.

3 thoughts on “Cookie Fonster Plows Once Again Through Eurovision 1974: The Year Hosted in My Birthplace

  1. Here’s what I think of 1974 – Overall, it felt like a step down compared to 1972 and 1973. My top 3 for this year was: Greece (my winner for this year), Sweden (2nd), and the Netherlands (3rd). The rest of them… I don’t really have any strong feelings about (which would be a recurring opinion I have for most 70s editions).

    I do agree that as much as ABBA are rightfully iconic and legends, I think that there are better songs in their discography than “Waterloo” (TBF though, they only existed as a band for two years at this point). Some of my favorites are: “Dancing Queen”, “Take a Chance On Me”, “The Winner Takes It All”, “Chiquitita”, and this underrated gem – “The Day Before You Came”. I was recently listening to ABBA Gold and More ABBA Gold, and that was just fantastic.

    Again, great re-review as always!

    Liked by 1 person

  2. 1974 for me is quite overrated, because of ABBA. Still I have a 9/10 song, which is Portugal. It’s just pretty much my style of music. I quite like Finland, too. I would have loved to see it performed in Finnish, because I love this mysterious language! Again, I enjoyed to see your points of view of this particular year.

    Liked by 1 person

    • I really did get the feeling “E depois do adeus” is the kind of song Spanish and Portuguese speakers would love. I’m surprised Spain only gave it one point, but that’s probably because of this year’s voting system.

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