Tag Archives: 80’s pop music

Cookie Fonster’s Journey into Eurovision 1987: An 80’s Fever Dream

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Intro Post

< 1986 Review | 1987 Review | 1988 Review >

Introduction

Hosted in Belgium for the first and only time, Eurovision 1987 had quite a lot of drama behind its production. Two broadcasters had agreed to organize Eurovision together in the event Belgium won: the Dutch-speaking BRT (now called VRT), and the French-speaking RTBF. However, when the time came for them to team up, they were as good at cooperation as a nerd and a jock assigned to do a high school chemistry project. When the French-speaking broadcaster chose Brussels as the host city, the Dutch-speaking broadcaster threw their hands up and left RTBF to organize it alone, while BRT chose the Belgian entry. If you want to see two broadcasters successfully collaborating, you’d have to wait until 2023.

This contest had the largest lineup of countries so far: Greece and Italy returned after skipping last year, making for 22 countries total. All countries that had ever participated in Eurovision were present this year, except Monaco, Malta, and Morocco. This is an intimidatingly long contest, almost as big as a Eurovision final in the current era. The winner was the first person to win Eurovision twice: Johnny Logan, representing Ireland. The postcards are themed upon what comes to most people’s minds when they think of Belgium: Belgian comic strips.

Annoyingly, this is another year where due to one particular song (glares intensively at Spain), you can’t find many commentary uploads on YouTube, and most of them are of terrible quality. So, um, I guess I’m watching it with Swedish commentary this time. The video description contains a link to the full unabridged Swedish commentary in good quality, so I’ll use that. I won’t be able to understand the commentary, but I’ve at least picked up on a few words from Scandinavian languages by reading translations of their Eurovision entries.

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Cookie Fonster Excavates Eurovision 1986: The Youngest Winner Ever

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Intro Post

< 1985 Review | 1986 Review | 1987 Review >

Sorry this review took so long! I went on my big trip of this year (to Germany) a few weeks ago, during which I temporarily lost interest in writing Eurovision posts. Then I made a video about an event I went to during the trip. But now I’m back in the saddle, and hopefully I can balance this project with my MLP reviews (and real life of course).

Introduction

When the historically unlucky Norway finally got to host Eurovision, they went all out and splurged tons of money to make the best show they possibly could. They set up elaborate events throughout the week and invited some of the country’s royal family, a first in Eurovision history. For the presenter, they chose Norway’s 1966 singer famed for her deep, soothing voice: Åse Kleveland. Five Norwegian cities bidded to host the contest, and the winner was Bergen—the northernmost host city in Eurovision history. The easiest way for the record to be broken is if Iceland someday won the contest.

Oh, that’s right! Speaking of Iceland, this contest was the first time they got to participate. They were the last newcomer until the influx of ex-communist countries that began in 1993. Yugoslavia and the Netherlands returned after skipping last year, Greece withdrew after sending an entry, and Italy withdrew without an entry. The winner was both a first timer and record breaker: Belgium with Sandra Kim’s “J’aime la vie”, the youngest winning singer at 13 years old. A controversy surrounding her age almost got her disqualified, as we’ll later learn. However, contestants of any age were still allowed to perform for a few more years. The age limit of 16 wasn’t enforced until 1990.

As for the opening of the contest, the little multilingual song Åse sings is so goofy but so sincere. Her speech afterwards is sincere in the right way too. She says in English that the most important part about international contests is to participate, but it’s undeniable that nothing tastes sweeter than victory. Then she says the same thing in French. She loyally followed the guidelines for presenting the contest but still gave it some of her own personality, which I admire.

The postcard format combines a frequent theme—scenery throughout the host country—with literal postcards, like the kind you’ll send a friend when on vacation. It’s the only contest to take the term “postcard” this literally. Yet again, I watched the contest with Terry Wogan’s British commentary.

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