Tag Archives: eurovision

Cookie Fonster Slogs Through Eurovision 2001: Trying Too Hard to Impress

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Intro Post

< 2000 Review | 2001 Review | 2002 Review >

I won’t start writing my 2002 review until after MAGFest 2024 (January 18-21, I’m leaving on the 17th). This will be my fifth time at MAGFest and after the event, you’ll see content related to it on my YouTube channel!

Introduction

Denmark won Eurovision two oh oh oh,
so now was their second turn to host the show.
Copenhagen was chosen to stage this event,
an agreeable choice without too much dissent.
They chose a stadium capable of housing
a staggering audience of thirty-eight thousand.
Some say they wanted to outdo Sweden,
and indeed, this record still hasn’t been beaten.
That no one’s surpassed it is much for the best,
since the stage looked like merely a blip to most guests.

Austrians, Belgians, Romanians, the Swiss,
Cypriots, Finns, and North Mac had to miss.
Lithuania returned this year, as did Slovenes,
plus Bosnians, Greeks, Poles, and the Portuguese.
Of the new guys that poured in here since ninety-three,
Estonia became the first winner. Yippee!
It was twelve years ago, far too long in fans’ eyes,
when a country last received its first ever prize.
From this contest up until two thousand eight,
the winner would be someone new. Ain’t that great?

Every achievement last year by the Swedes,
the Danes were determined to beat and exceed.
The Swedish hosts may have seemed cheesy last time,
but they’re nothing compared to these hosts’ endless rhymes.
They hosted the song contest in rhyming pairs,
but I think my rhymes are more clever than theirs.
Since I wanted a breather from the BBC,
I watched this contest’s broadcast from RTÉ.
Marty Whelan still comments for Ireland today.
He’s much more respectful than Wogan, I’d say.
Now what are we waiting for? Let’s have some fun
and review Eurovision two thousand and one!

(Phew… this poem was so tough to write. Also, if you’re reading it out loud, stress the third syllable of Copenhagen.)

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Cookie Fonster Recaps Eurovision 2000: The (Second) Year of Radio Guitar Pop

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Intro Post

< 1999 Review | 2000 Review | 2001 Review >

Introduction

The first Eurovision contest of the new millennium was the fourth of six (soon to be seven) in Sweden, the second of three in Stockholm, and the first of two in the Globe Arena (now called the Avicii Arena). It featured the biggest in-person audience thus far, a whopping 13,000. From this point onwards, ten to twenty thousand became a typical Eurovision audience size, though Denmark would try outdoing it a year later.

The lineup of participants now featured four countries that would automatically qualify every year to keep the contest afloat: the UK, Germany, Spain, and France. This rule was implemented before the 1999 contest but applied to 2000 onwards. I suspect this was done because the EBU didn’t want to risk France’s relegation, which would have happened in 2000. The Big Four/Five rule was controversial then and it’s just as controversial now. Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Portugal, Poland, and Lithuania were relegated, while Finland, North Macedonia, Romania, and Switzerland returned after missing last year. Russia came back after two years of absence and Latvia made their debut, which bumped up the number of participants to 24.

Latvia made a strong debut with third place, Russia scored their first of four second places, and much to the audience’s surprise, Denmark won for the first time in 37 years with “Fly on the Wings of Love”, sung by the oldest singers to win the contest.

Thanks to a sponsorship by Microsoft, this was the first Eurovision contest broadcast on the Internet, which meant Americans could finally watch Eurovision live without going overseas. (EDIT: Two months later, a friend of mine showed me an RTÉ video that proves Eurovision 1997 was also broadcast online.) Unfortunately, not all viewers got to enjoy the contest in full. The Netherlands cut their broadcast short because of the Enschede fireworks disaster which killed 23 people, then re-broadcast the contest a month later.

I’ve heard that every year when the Eurovision hosts are revealed, some fans scream “can Petra Mede come back instead?” Since I’ve seen snippets of her amazing hosting, I’m having the same thoughts as I sit through the presenters’ cheesy, blatantly scripted gags.* At least I have Terry Wogan with me to snark about them! Well, not literally, because he died in 2016.

* Credit where it’s due, the Swahili part got a laugh out of me.

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Cookie Fonster Relives Eurovision 1999: The Death of the Language Rule (and the Birth of Me)

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Intro Post

< 1998 Review | 1999 Review | 2000 Review >

Please enjoy my first Eurovision review of the new year! I wonder how far I’ll get when the 2024 contest happens? I don’t think I’ll catch up, but maybe I’ll reach 2015 or so. Remember, I’ll be in Malmö and/or Copenhagen during the contest.

Introduction

An audience filled with flags, cheerful hosts accompanied by electronic music, a stage full of flashy light effects, seemingly endless pleasantries before the contest properly begins… yep, the first Eurovision contest after I was born isn’t far from what we know it as today.

Eurovision 1999 took place in Israel just as it would twenty years later, in its capital city of Jerusalem just as it did twenty years earlier. The number of participating countries was reduced from 25 to 23, so seven countries were relegated (Finland, Greece, Hungary, North Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland) and five rejoined (Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Denmark, Iceland, Lithuania). Lithuania had last participated in 1994 and Hungary wouldn’t rejoin until 2005. Perhaps this decrease in participants was done to allow for commercial breaks between the songs, which were filled by mini-interval acts for the live audience and non-commercial broadcasters.

This year featured two massive changes to the rules: (1) the orchestra was abolished and (2) just like from 1973 to 1976, the language rule was abolished. Technically, the orchestra wasn’t fully abolished, but broadcasters could now opt out of providing one, which is what Israel did. From this point onwards, all Eurovision entries were sung entirely over a backing track.

The first winner of post-orchestra and post-language rule Eurovision was none other than Sweden with “Take Me to Your Heaven”, who would become the biggest power player till the present day. Iceland scored second place with another pop song in English, and Germany combined four languages to reach a respectable third place. One more fact: This was the first Eurovision with three presenters, which would be the most common amount from 2010 onwards. One of them sang Israel’s entry in 1992, “Ze Rak Sport”.

I frankly don’t have high expectations for these next few years of Eurovision. I’m bracing myself for a bunch of cheesy Eurodance, painfully off-key singing, and nonsensical English lyrics. Maybe Terry Wogan’s commentary will make it more bearable, we’ll see.

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Bonus Eurovision Post: My favorite entry from each country 1956 to 1998

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Introduction

For quite a while, I wanted to do a special bonus post once I reached a cutoff point in my Eurovision blog post series. That is to choose my favorite entry from every participating country so far. I’d say there is no better cutoff point than 1998, since that was the year after which two rules were abolished: the orchestra and the language rule. It’s where I mentally draw the line between classic Eurovision and modern Eurovision.

Quick disclaimer: I’ll only choose favorite entries from countries that competed with at least three songs from 1956 to 1998. That means I won’t include Morocco, Lithuania, Romania, or North Macedonia. I’ll go through all these countries in alphabetical order and I’ll list my favorite entry of theirs in bold. Since I obviously can’t remember how all 1,600+ songs in Eurovision history sound, for countries where my favorite isn’t immediately obvious, I’ll consult the wonderful recap videos by SchlagerLucas to refresh my memory.

There’s no particular reason I wanted to publish this post on Christmas, other than that I don’t have much to do today. I went to see family yesterday and I’ll see more of them tomorrow, but I’m not doing much on the day itself.

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Cookie Fonster’s Eurovision 1998 Reflections: Dana, Guildo, and Other Such Icons

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Intro Post

< 1997 Review | 1998 Review | 1999 Review >

Please enjoy my last Eurovision review of 2023! I will review Eurovision 1999 after the new year. For the rest of this year, I’ll focus on getting other projects done and finding jobs, since I was recently fired from my latest one. Luckily I already paid for my Eurovision trip, including flights, tickets, and a place to stay.

Introduction

In many ways, Eurovision 1998 was the end of an era for the contest. It was the last year where countries had to sing in their own languages, the last year with an orchestra, and until 2023, the last contest to take place in the United Kingdom. Fifteen different British cities applied to host the contest, and the winner was the second largest city in the UK: Birmingham. But it was also the start of an era for the contest: it was the first where most results came from televoting and it kickstarted a trend of LGBT visibility. More trivially, it was the first year where the names of countries appeared on screen during the songs.

Five countries were relegated from this contest (Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Denmark, Iceland, Russia) and five returned from 1996 (Belgium, Finland, Israel, Romania, Slovakia). Italy willfully skipped and North Macedonia made their proper debut, after not qualifying in 1996. Israel famously sent Dana International, the first transgender person to ever compete in Eurovision, and she won the contest.

As with the last two years, the female presenter handled the voting while the male presenter had a different job. In 1996 it was watching over the green room, in 1997 it was the interval act, and in 1998 it was commentary. That’s right: this year, Terry Wogan both hosted and commentated on this contest!* I’m glad he got to host before he became bitter about the contest. Even if I could understand every language in Europe, I would still think the only acceptable way to watch the contest was with British commentary, so that’s what I did.

Interestingly, neither of this contest’s hosts are native to the UK: Terry Wogan is Irish and Ulrika Jonsson is Swedish. However, both had been working for years as BBC presenters. The contest featured four other Eurovision hosts as a special guest. Their, or should I say her name is Katie Boyle, whose hair had gone gray but looked sharp and confident as ever. It’s weird to think she outlived Terry Wogan by two years.

* As far as I know, the only other people who did that were Léon Zitrone (1978) and Graham Norton (2023).

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Cookie Fonster Learns About Eurovision 1997: Foreshadowing the Bonkers Era

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Intro Post

< 1996 Review | 1997 Review | 1998 Review >

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”.

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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Cookie Fonster’s Eurovision 1996 Dissertation: An Atmospheric Top Three

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Intro Post

< 1995 Review | 1996 Review | 1997 Review >

Last week, I booked flights to Copenhagen in May for ẗhe Eurovision Song Contest 2024! I plan to visit both Copenhagen and Malmö (two very close cities) for the contest, and that’ll be my big trip of 2024. I have no idea whether I’ll get tickets for the contest, but I’ve told it’s worth visiting the host city either way. This will be my first time in both Denmark and Sweden!

Introduction

Eurovision 1996 was Norway’s second time hosting Eurovision, and this time they chose their capital, Oslo. It graciously gave Ireland a one-year break from hosting. This was the second contest to have a semifinal, but it again didn’t have the format we know today. Norway automatically got a slot in the final, but 29 countries—all but one of whom had participated before—competed for the other 22 slots. Their qualifying round was not a televised event, but an audio-only jury selection.

Seven countries were eliminated in the semifinal: Denmark, Hungary, Israel, Romania, Russia, and two that especially hurt: North Macedonia and Germany. North Macedonia wanted to debut this year, but they had to wait till 1998. Germany was eliminated despite sending a fan favorite song, which caused a lot of controversy that I’ll discuss very soon. It also meant there were no more countries with perfect attendance, since Germany was the last. Five countries returned after skipping 1995: Estonia, Finland, the Netherlands, Slovakia, and Switzerland. Ireland won for the seventh and most recent time, and Norway and Sweden were the next highest.

I feel like I should be more surprised that one of the hosts (Morten Harket) is the lead singer of a-ha, the band known for “Take on Me”, but Flo Rida once competed in this contest so anything is possible. The other host (Ingvid Byrn) is a regular old Norwegian TV presenter. The EBU must have realized that hiring two singers as presenters in 1991 wasn’t a great idea.

The postcards had a three-part format: first the singer introduces themselves and sings a song of their choice, then the usual good old Norwegian scenery, and finally a politician from each country wishes the contestant luck in their own language. I’m guessing the organizers had three different ideas for postcards and combined them into one.

This blog post will cover 30 songs: the seven non-qualifiers, then the entries in the contest itself. It’s gonna be a doozy, so you better buckle up. I watched this contest with British commentary.

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Cookie Fonster Muses Over Eurovision 1995: A Surprising Amount of Jazzy Songs

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Intro Post

< 1994 Review | 1995 Review | 1996 Review >

A few days ago, Eurovision confirmed that “United by Music”, the slogan of the 2023 contest, would now be the contest’s permanent slogan. If you think that takes away the heart and soul of the contest, then I’m sorry, that’s completely ridiculous. The slogans are one of the least interesting parts of the contest’s planning anyway.

Introduction

Man, I really miss when Eurovision started with the host broadcaster logo surrounded by “Eurovision” in a circle. The contest stopped doing that in 1994 and instead emphasized the Eurovision network logo. In my personal opinion, that is so much less cool.

After hosting the last contest in the Point Theatre in Dublin, Ireland, RTÉ saw no reason to change the location in 1995. They took an approach of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, though they did revamp the stage design so that the contest would feel fresh. I actually kind of hate the phrase “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, because people usually use it to complain about change, but the saying applies in this case.

For this contest, the EBU decided 25 countries was too many and changed the limit to 23. This meant five countries returned (Belgium, Denmark, Israel, Slovenia, Turkey) and seven were relegated (Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Netherlands, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland). For now, Germany was the last remaining country with perfect attendance. The most famous entry is easily the winner, “Nocturne” from Norway, notable for being mostly an instrumental piece. It gave Ireland a year-long break from hosting Eurovision.

Hosted by Mary Kennedy, this was the last contest with a solo presenter until 2013 with the legendary Petra Mede. I watched the contest with German commentary by Horst Senker.

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Cookie Fonster’s Eurovision 1994 Rundown: The Interval Act Steals the Show

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Intro Post

< 1993 Review | 1994 Review | 1995 Review >

We got the first confirmed Eurovision entry early this time, before even the list of participating countries: “Mon amour” for France. It’s a nice song that blends classic and modern styles, but its score will come down to how well it’s staged.

Also, I’m telling you in advance: the contests from 2004 onwards will get two posts each. One for the semifinals, where I review the non-qualifiers and the presentation of the semifinals, and one for the final.

Introduction

I was originally going to call this post “ireland op plz nerf” before I settled on something less ridiculous. After being the fourth country to win Eurovision twice in a row, Ireland became the first to host twice in a row and put on Eurovision 1994 in Dublin. When the contest ended, Ireland became the only country to win three times in a row and the first to win six times.

Despite the repetition in the contest’s winners, the lineup of countries was way different from last time. This was the first Eurovision to use a relegation system to limit the number of participants: the seven lowest-scoring countries from last year were locked out to make way for newcomers, at least in theory. Cyprus, the seventh lowest-scoring country, got lucky because Italy willfully quit the contest. This means that seven countries didn’t return from 1993 (Belgium, Denmark, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Turkey) and seven joined for the first time (Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia).

The relegation system doesn’t seem fair to me and I’m guessing it’s what drove Italy and Luxembourg away from Eurovision. It also broke Belgium’s perfect attendance, leaving only Switzerland and Germany as having attended every year… for now. The newcomers were a lot more successful than last year; Poland even got second place, by far their best result to date. On the other hand, Lithuania’s first entry got zero points and they didn’t return until 1999.

An interesting fact about one of the hosts: Cynthia Ní Mhurchú originally worked as an Irish language teacher. It shows with how confidently she spoke Irish on stage, and because she looks like a teacher. A sad fact about the other host: Gerry Ryan died in 2010, at only 53 years old, to the shock of his entire country.

The most famous thing part of this contest was actually the interval act. It was a folk dance performance called “Riverdance” and it’s perhaps the best known Eurovision interval act, rivaled only by “Love Love Peace Peace” in 2016. I’m quite excited for it! Oh yeah, I watched the contest with British commentary.

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Cookie Fonster Gazes into Eurovision 1993 + KzM: Accommodating the Eager Newbies

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Intro Post

< 1992 Review | 1993 Review | 1994 Review >

Just warning you: this is by far my longest Eurovision review so far. It would still be my longest if I didn’t review Preselection for Millstreet. Read at your own risk!

Introduction

Eurovision 1993 was an unusual year for two major reasons. First off, it was the first year to have a semifinal, but it wasn’t the kind of semifinal we know today. The EBU had raised the maximum number of Eurovision participants to 25, and since Yugoslavia was banned from the competition, three slots were open for newcoming countries. Seven countries, all former communist regimes or parts of one, were interested in joining the contest, so a semifinal was hosted in Ljubljana, Slovenia to narrow them down to three. That event was called Preselection for Millstreet (known in Slovenian as Kvalifikacija za Millstreet, KzM for short). When you think about it, it’s a bit like Eurovision 1956: seven countries participated in it and the competition had an unconventional format by today’s standards.

Three countries made it through the preselection: Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina. The other four got to debut in 1994. As the semifinal’s name suggests, the contest would not be held in Dublin like all other times Ireland got to host, but in the miniscule 1,500-person village of Millstreet. It’s all thanks to an entrepreneur who offered to host Eurovision in the Green Glens Arena for free. He believed that the contest would boost tourism in Millstreet, and he was right! Because Millstreet is so tiny, the nearby cities of Killarney and Cork hosted additional events promoting Eurovision. This means that in a sense, Eurovision 1993 took place in four cities: three in Ireland, one in Slovenia.

The 1993 contest was once again dominated by Anglophones, with Ireland on top and the UK second. In third place was Switzerland, with the last entry in French to reach the top three until 2021. It was also the last time Luxembourg participated until 2024—the longest Eurovision hiatus a country has ever taken.

I watched the semifinal with Slovenian commentary. Even though I can’t understand a word of it (barring loanwords), Slovenia’s last two Eurovision entries (Disko, Carpe Diem) have given me a soft spot for their language. The semifinal was broadcast in all seven participating countries plus five others, but most of their commentary is nowhere to be found. As for the final, I went for German commentary by Jan Hofer—I figured I’d give his commentary a chance.

I’ll start by reviewing the entries eliminated in KzM, then give overall thoughts on the semifinal, and finally review the 25 songs from the contest proper. This should be an interesting year, so let’s begin!

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