Tag Archives: emotional guitar songs

Cookie Fonster Actually Revisits Eurovision 1966: The First Woman Not to Wear a Dress

Posted on by
6

Intro Post

< 1965 Review | 1966 Review | 1967 Review >

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.

Continue reading →

Cookie Fonster’s Verdicts on Eurovision 2022 (Final): The Year of Moody Guitar Songs

Posted on by
25

Intro Post

< 2022 Semifinals | 2022 Final | 2023 Semifinals >

I woke up early to finish this post because it’s nice to get this out of the way before my work day starts. After this post, I only have four left till I finish this project! Thanks to all my commenters for sticking around all this time. And don’t worry, I have a few bonus posts in mind once I finish 2024.

Introduction

Because the winner last time was a Big Five country, the grand final of Eurovision 2022 featured 25 countries instead of the usual 26. These countries all competed for the prize in Turin, Italy, and due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, many fans saw it as a foregone conclusion that Ukraine would win, and that’s indeed what happened. They overwhelmingly won the televote with the second native-language winner in a row. The jury winner was the United Kingdom who got, after so many years of terrible results, a jaw-dropping second place. Their best ever result since 1998! Spain achieved a just as amazing third place, their best ever result since 1995, meaning that two Big Five countries had their redemption arcs this year. In fact, I was originally going to call this post “The British Redemption Arc” before I chose a title reflective of the other songs this year.

After a bunch of opening acts I don’t care much about, we finally have a flag parade as it should be: all the contestants walk on the stage waving their flags! I love seeing each of them carry their flags in a different way with a different style: some go big, some go modest, some mix in rainbow or transgender flags. I also love seeing the United Kingdom, for once, getting some of the biggest cheers in the crowd. I’m still not a big fan of these hosts, but I do love Laura Pausini’s sparkly blue suit. Maybe I just have a thing for sparkly clothes, and I never unlocked this taste till I watched Eurovision?

The postcards feature a drone robot named Leo (introduced in the opening film of semifinal 1) showing the viewers a tour of Italy, with images of the contestants projected onto the buildings. I’m not a big fan of these postcards because they show too much of Italy (lovely country though; it’s a tourist destination for good reason) and not enough of the contestants. One of many ways the production doesn’t live up to 2021.

I watched the grand final with British commentary, done by Eurovision veteran Graham Norton. I find that the more years someone has commentated Eurovision, the more entertaining their commentary gets.

Continue reading →