What are your favorites? Which ones should have won? Which ones won but didn't deserve to? Also... were there any finalists from individual countries which never made it to the contest, which you feel should have? By researching Eurovision entries, I ahve found SO MANY songs i've never heard before that I truly LOVE. My favorite of all of them is this one, and i'm totally hacked off that I can't seem to find it on CD in any form!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFjTUsYZ_uU

Your'e right, it would sound better with a different singer. i'm not much for French lyrics... people always think I'm nuts, but I don't feel French is that pretty of a language. I've said before that I think Swedish is the most beautiful language.

Just for that I'll post some songs from the Swedish contest through the years....just for you.

Lena Philipsson - "Om igen", 1988, 2nd place

Cayenne - "Stanna hos mig", 1994, 3rd place

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccclXbCmG6g

Östen Warnerbring - "Som en dröm", 1967, 1st place

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xYaRt31cdo

Lotta Engberg - "Juliette och Jonathan", 1996, 3rd place

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqeznB7GDiU

Karin & Anders Glenmark - "Kall som is", 1984, 4th place

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWABTlBqKZk

Back in the 60s and 70s it was very common for ESC songs to be translated into Swedish and recorded by Swedish artists. Here are a few examples of how it sounded.

Agnetha Fältskog - "Sov gott min lilla vän" (original: Frida Boccara - "Un jour, un enfant", represented France 1969)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nGQOJoNaPA

Tina och Marina - "Tina och Marina" (original: Conny Froboess - "Zwei kleine Italiener", represented West Germany 1962)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FThnC71zzK8

Vikingarna - "Halleluja" (original: Gali Atari & Milk and Honey - "Halleluja", represented Israel 1979)

Britt Bergström - "Blå, blå är kärleken" (original: Vicky Leandros - "L'amour est bleu", represented Luxembourg 1967)

Inger Öst - "Rör vid mig" (original: Mocedades - "Eres tu", represented Spain 1973)

Agnetha's "Som Jag Ar" has always been one of my favorites. I have to say, I like many of Agnetha's Swedish lanuguage solo recordings better than many Abba songs. Her greater comfort singing in her native tongue really comes through, and gives a better end result. I don't know how much the lyrics are changed, but I'm amazed how nicely these songs translate into Swedish without sounding awkward. I've heard many an English song translated into German that sounds awkward as hell. So much so, that I find many German pop songs hard to listen to unless they were originally written in German. Inger Ost has a lovely voice, and a nice version of "Eres Tu". I still haven't found any info on the Preview video version of "Eres Tu", I guess I must be resigned to the fact it must not have been released at all... that the version on the preview video is either an unreleased version, or a lip synch to the audio of the national finals.

Edited February 6, 201213 yr by alphanguy74

My guiltiest of pleasures (not that I suffer much from guilt)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pACePi441ds

That has got to be one of the campiest ones of all time, and I love it to death! Bucks Fizz... what a load of drama THAT group is. The most fool hardy move in music history was to hire David Van Day to be in the group. What a prick he is. Poor Mike, he finally washed his hand of the whole thing, and now he just travels around to play all the gay pride festivals.

Edited February 9, 201213 yr by alphanguy74

That has got to be one of the campiest ones of all time, and I love it to death!

Sir Terry Wogan said of the song something to the effect of: "Ridiculous song, tear their frocks off at the end. Ludicrous. Had to win!"

It's a really happy song and I like that three of the members still perform it together on UK television, harmless good fun.

Edited February 9, 201213 yr by DaytimeFan

Thanks for mentioned that, Daytime fan! I hadn't check in with what they were doing the last couple years, so I find out Mike got back togehter with Jay and Cheryl again, that's so great! Apparently the missing member, Bobby, has the rights to the name, and he has his OWN group, so the THREE original members have to call themselves "Original Bucks Fizz", while the group with only one member gets the actual name. How tacky is that?

Thanks for mentioned that, Daytime fan! I hadn't check in with what they were doing the last couple years, so I find out Mike got back togehter with Jay and Cheryl again, that's so great! Apparently the missing member, Bobby, has the rights to the name, and he has his OWN group, so the THREE original members have to call themselves "Original Bucks Fizz", while the group with only one member gets the actual name. How tacky is that?

Really tacky. Bobby G registered the name as a trademark in the name of his wife. Terrible.

That said, Mike, Jay and Cheryl do well in the UK, they do the best talk shows once a year or so.

I would think so. If I were a producer and had the choice between three original members and only one... that's a no-brainer!

Only seven countries (France, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy, Switzerland and West Germany) participated in the first contest in 1956. But during the years more and more countries joined, and here are some debut performances through the years.

Monaco 1959 (Jacques Pills - "Mon ami Pierrot")

Greece 1974 (Marinella - "Krassi thalassa ke to agouri mou")

Iceland 1986 (ICY -"Gleidibankinn"

Estonia 1994 (Silvi Vrait - "Nagu merelaine")

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjdcGg0yMJY

A walk down memory lane.....

Winners, 1956-2009, part 1

Winners, 1956-2009, part 2

2nd place, 1956-2009, part 1

2nd place, 1956-2009, part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Gqezg6a2Qc&feature=related

More memories.....

3rd place, 1956-2009, part 1

3rd place, 1956-2009, part 2

4th place, 1956-2009, part 1

4th place, 1956-2009, part 2

....and even more memories.

5th place, 1956-2009, part 1

5th place, 1956-2009, part 2

6th place, 1956-2009, part 1

6th place, 1956-2009, part 2