A Point of Departure; a Song Holiday in Europe
We don’t talk nearly enough about the European powerhouses Luxembourg and Sweden, let alone the dominance of Ireland.
The controversy of 1969 almost led to the collapse of the institution.
Many still question the success of the German delegation in 2010.
Add on a byzantine voting structure and methodology that takes hours to compile and seems anything but democratic. The qualifying process is opaque, and even the bylaws change from year to year. Voting blocs form that correspond to historic, ethnic, or linguistic ties threaten to corrupt what little remains of the idealistic process. It’s a hot mess, and few are truly satisfied with the outcomes.
The EU Parliament? [ok, yes, but also:] Not quite. The topic of today’s post is an institution both older, and arguably, more important in terms of European Unity. Of Course, I’m talking about the Eurovision Song Contest.
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You all know my music tastes are eclectic. I'm out to prove that my taste is also atrocious
— Matt Blind (@ProfessorBlind) April 2, 2014From my perspective (American, professed jazz aficionado, actual musician) and as someone who hates American Idol and the various permutations that both predate 2002 and have proliferated after* – I should—by all rights—have a severe allergic reaction to Eurovision and the whole exercise should not only be beneath notice but also entirely off my radar.
* I do however have a certain fondness for The Sing-Off so I guess I’m guilty of multiple hypocrisies.
My interest was piqued last year by an excellent Boing Boing piece, written by Leigh Alexander — but my reaction then was ‘oh those wacky europeans’ — I filed the information away (wherever it is that I keep all the trivia) and did not follow up.
That changed in January (of this year) when I first heard a particularly catchy song by InCulto:
They weren’t even the winners that year (2010) — in fact, InCulto as a band broke up in 2011 after 3 albums [2010’s Closer Than You Think seems to be the only one available via Amazon/iTunes] and who knows where they are now. (not holding my breath for the VH1 special)
[Go ahead and hit ‘replay’ on the youtube embed above. I know I did.]
The thing is: InCulto didn’t even make the Eurovision Song Contest finals in 2010. I thought, “Hell, if these guys are the runners-up, what am I missing here?“
The TL;DR is ABBA 1974 and Lordi 2006. Watch these next two clips and that’s it, you’re done.
xtra credit for Finland’s 2006 offering:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_Rock_Hallelujah
http://www.reddit.com/r/mashups/comments/1nj0ct/as_requested_lorde_vs_lordi/
That’s it. We now return you to your regularly-scheduled cat pics and flapping-mouth-tv-cap-gifs
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For the four people still reading: let’s see just how deep this rabbit hole goes.
[wikipedia]
“In the 1950s, as a war-torn Europe rebuilt itself, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU)—based in Switzerland—set up an ad hoc committee to search for ways of bringing together the countries of the EBU around a ‘light entertainment programme’. At a committee meeting held in Monaco in January 1955, director general of Swiss television and committee chairman Marcel Bezençon conceived the idea of an international song contest where countries would participate in one television programme, to be transmitted simultaneously to all countries of the union. The competition was based upon the existing Sanremo Music Festival held in Italy, and was seen as a technological experiment in live television, as in those days it was a very ambitious project to join many countries together in a wide-area international network. Satellite television did not exist, and the so-called Eurovision Network comprised a terrestrial microwave network. The concept, then known as ‘Eurovision Grand Prix’, was approved by the EBU General Assembly in a meeting held in Rome on 19 October 1955 and it was decided that the first contest would take place in spring 1956 in Lugano, Switzerland. The name ‘Eurovision’ was first used in relation to the EBU’s network by British journalist George Campey in the London Evening Standard in 1951.[/wikipedia]“The first contest was held in the town of Lugano, Switzerland, on 24 May 1956. Seven countries participated—each submitting two songs, for a total of 14. This was the only contest in which more than one song per country was performed: since 1957 all contests have allowed one entry per country. The 1956 contest was won by the host nation, Switzerland.”
The simile I’d propose is that Eurovision is like a combination of the Olympics and a junior high talent show, assuming your junior high PTA had enough scratch to hire a conductor and orchestra. (The in-house orchestra, sadly, has not been a part of Eurovision since 1998, replaced by pre-recorded backing tracks.) Oddly enough, winning the Eurovision Song Contest is neither a guarantee of future success (for the artist) nor a particular point of pride (for the country), as there were 5 times when the winning country declined to host the next Eurovision Song Contest. “Thanks for the prize and all, but it’d be a bit much to do all this again…”
[Since 1981, all winners have deigned to also host, perhaps providing a bright line between the ‘international and collegial cooperation’ phase of Eurovision, and the ‘milking it for profit’ era]
The Eurovision Song Contest won’t celebrate another big-round-numbers anniversary until next year, 2015, so I get to steal a march on every other blogger with the 59th annual broadcast, hosted this year in Copenhagen, Denmark for the week of 6-10 May, 2014.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurovision_Song_Contest
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Eurovision_Song_Contest_winners
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurovision_Song_Contest_2014
However, in attempting to document the whole of the Eurovision Song Contest, an amateur youtube-historian faces two very large challenges: the fragmentary video record of the 1950s (back when no one thought about ‘saving’ the tapes, except for the ‘recycling’ definitions of the term ‘saving’) and then, more pernicious, the copyright takedowns following the DMCA that have tragically impacted just about every archivist’s efforts for the last 15 years;
The Eurovision Song Contests are available in full (2-3 hours apiece) from 1957 to 1999 on YouTube — an amazing archive. […at least, all were available at the time this post was written]
Let me repeat and re-emphasize that fact: 43 Years of an international cultural competition are archived on YouTube and available for both historians and enthusiasts to watch, in full, because other enthusiasts uploaded the (occasionally rare, or at the very least scarce) original sources to a new digital format and forum.
From 2000 on, even when the same international cultural competition is helpfully uploaded, many videos are taken down. From 2006 on, every last version gets taken down by a copyright claim. I don’t know if the Eurovision Song Contest counts as ‘fair use’ or not, or its status as public domain (unlikely) but the blanket take-downs seem… oppressive. Individual clips are often available — and hell, I was able to track down the winner of each and every year — but for whatever reason (one song? two?) the actual Eurovision broadcast always gets DMCA’d into oblivion and that’s it, no historical or cultural reason for viewing such could possibly be more important than some corporation’s right to the (theoretical, non-existant) profits — and we don’t even know which songs we’re missing, and might be buying, because the whole has been squelched.
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Onerous bits of copyright law aside: A whole lot of Eurovision can be found on YouTube.
A Top 10?
Honorable Mention: Eurovision 1964 Winner, Italy, Gigliola Cinquetti – Non ho l’età : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Utd9cHBPfRA
Honorable Mention: Eurovision 1959 Winner, Netherlands, Teddy Scholten – Een beetje : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rq7NbdatWPk — very sweet, in a hollywood-musical kinda way
Honorable Mention: Eurovision 1965 Winner, Luxembourg, France Gall – Poupée de cire, poupée de son : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buhVUrGp8yU
Eurovision 2001 Winner, Estonia – Tanel Padar, Dave Benton and 2XL – Everybody : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wri72BfnGh4
Eurovision 1981 Winner, United Kingdom, Bucks Fizz – Making Your Mind Up : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boEph_ic-NM
Eurovision 1982 Winner, Germany, Nicole – Ein bißchen Frieden : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHNIsldGnFo
Eurovision 1978 Winner, Israel, Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta – A-Ba-Ni-Bi : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nr0nAQ4iW0A
Eurovision 2003 Winner, Turkey, Sertab Erener – Everyway That I Can : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o01_zbQ_bVY
Eurovision 1995 Winner, Norway, Secret Garden – Nocturne : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qqOI04uo_c
Eurovision 1990 Winner, Italy, Toto Cutugno – Insieme: 1992 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlvJ6lhudJg
Eurovision 1963 Winner, Denmark, Grethe and Jørgen Ingmann – Dansevise : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kNbOxkIyRQ
Eurovision 1994 Winner, Ireland, Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan – Rock ‘n’ Roll Kids : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1x_9JnCGXFY
Eurovision 2009 Winner, Norway, Alexander Rybak, Fairytale : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXwgZL4zx9o
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I have compiled everything, or at least all that I’ve been able to find, into a single YouTube playlist, starting with the winners of each Eurovision Song Contest and then (if you have the fortitude) also as many of the full broadcasts as are available.
This is much more than you can (or should) consume in one session, and a youtube playlist is also a bit hard to parse; to make it easier to search for (and one presumes, watch) each year’s Eurovision Song Contest, what follows is a plaintext listing of my YouTube findings. [For my money, 1963 is the ‘threshold of awesome’ and one shouldn’t bother with anything before that, by YMMV]
Playlist: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcuzQ6QokNI&list=PLT6vaQUDmjILWIKpA1GRldekxj0CPLF3m&feature=share
[alas: what remains isn’t necessarily human-readable, and for that you have my apology. The point isn’t a clickable list – as there is already a youtube playlist – but rather a ctrl-f-enabled list: seek and ye shall find. The benefits of presenting all the links in plaintext outweighed other considerations, and I told you this post was ‘over’ 11 paragraphs and 13 video embeds ago]
— Thank you for reading this far. :) —
Eurovision 1956 Winner, Switzerland, Lys Assia – Refrain : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyqIPvOkiRk :
1956 Full Show [audio only] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vfP62Jp9KY
Eurovision 1957 Winner, Netherlands, Corry Brokken – Net als toen : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ms6Huhv19AQ :
1957 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNr6Juqapto
Eurovision 1958 Winner, France, André Claveau – Dors, mon amour : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2VdDmfeoNw
1958 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrHNDlOG0Ig
Eurovision 1959 Winner, Netherlands, Teddy Scholten – Een beetje : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rq7NbdatWPk
1959 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VzY4Z_Hv6E
Eurovision 1960 Winner, France, Jacqueline Boyer – Tom Pillibi : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eksKnnIohKY
1960 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXTmYksu3OQ
Eurovision 1961 Winner, Luxembourg, Jean-Claude Pascal – Nous les amoureux : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUIPZDc4IsU
1961 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqRM9c1xGDg
Eurovision 1962 Winner, France, Isabelle Aubret – Un premier amour : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehOMiDWtF5U
1962 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cT8qJ2QFjc
- Eurovision 1963 Winner, Denmark, Grethe and Jørgen Ingmann – Dansevise : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kNbOxkIyRQ
1963 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FR1glIROdIs
Eurovision 1964 Winner, Italy, Gigliola Cinquetti – Non ho l’età : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Utd9cHBPfRA
1964 Full Show (4 parts) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmhSiCatghE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ripwVV2PHGk http://youtu.be/kXwJLsqfhpQ http://youtu.be/CqnJRPN3W7w
Eurovision 1965 Winner, Luxembourg, France Gall – Poupée de cire, poupée de son : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buhVUrGp8yU
1965 F7ull Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rFe7N7rJjU
Eurovision 1966 Winner, Austria, Udo Jürgens – Merci, Chérie : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7Y6tIMCQn8
1966 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKPBbFCksxY
Eurovision 1967 Winner, United Kingdom, Sandie Shaw – Puppet on a String : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfeiCaRJgMY
1967 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwqihhANeug
Eurovision 1968 Winner, Spain, Massiel – La, la, la : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34ox6vkOrP0
1968 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDrtlDufkEw
- [1969 featured a 4-way tie for first because no one thought to include a tie-breaker rule before this, and it was a live broadcast – and so: clusterf**k]
Eurovision 1969 Winner, (4 way tie) Spain, Salomé – “Vivo cantando” : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpkJvC79GbU
Eurovision 1969 Winner, (4 way tie) United Kingdom, Lulu – “Boom Bang-a-Bang” : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp1Q4-Imt70
Eurovision 1969 Winner, (4 way tie) Netherlands, Lenny Kuhr – “De troubadour” : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE5YPcXoe48
Eurovision 1969 Winner, (4 way tie) France, Frida Boccara – “Un jour, un enfant” : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rub6mOmOoCU
1969 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6zJr9re2yk
- Eurovision 1970 Winner, Ireland, Dana – All Kinds of Everything : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqUr8t9aMLY
1970 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oL3Q2IfaRao
Eurovision 1971 Winner, Monaco, Séverine – Un banc, un arbre, une rue : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGOHPY3xtmU
1971 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRnVyfBWm58
Eurovision 1972 Winner, Luxembourg, Vicky Leandros – “Après toi” : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBQJ3kIIb2A
1972 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HCl4sxCz1E
Eurovision 1973 Winner, Luxembourg, Anne-Marie David – Tu te reconnaîtras : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i9Z9cN7Npk
1973 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMOg01GM8XQ
Eurovision 1974 Winner, Sweden, ABBA – Waterloo : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XxV8w9jR6Q
1974 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGOqrXzEI9Y
Eurovision 1975 Winner, Netherlands, Teach-In – Ding-a-dong : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OJsf76fbDo
1975 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARaseYWjcUQ
Eurovision 1976 Winner, United Kingdom, Brotherhood of Man – Save Your Kisses for Me : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aDSHdUohmA
1976 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qm06oPckpfw
Eurovision 1977 Winner, France, Marie Myriam – L’oiseau et l’enfant : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgMlZS4NsEs
1977 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oohLukxnrCc
Eurovision 1978 Winner, Israel, Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta – A-Ba-Ni-Bi : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nr0nAQ4iW0A
1978 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UX_HATfICgI
Eurovision 1979 Winner, Israel, Gali Atari and Milk and Honey – Hallelujah : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDFNZwmkMxs
1979 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU1M7HKSt6Q
Eurovision 1980 Winner, Ireland, Johnny Logan – What’s Another Year : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vccwzuttIQY
1980 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv0FgYqGq7M
Eurovision 1981 Winner, United Kingdom, Bucks Fizz – Making Your Mind Up : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boEph_ic-NM
1981 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gf7l2hVXp08
Eurovision 1982 Winner, Germany, Nicole – Ein bißchen Frieden : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHNIsldGnFo
1982 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhA1VMHB0HQ
Eurovision 1983 Winner, Luxembourg, Corinne Hermès – Si la vie est cadeau : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQKw9VBwZ9k
1983 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0ZZJBm-Hbo
Eurovision 1984 Winner, Sweden, Herreys – Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-RRXHG00GY
1984 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14ITBex-lIY
Eurovision 1985 Winner, Norway, Bobbysocks – La det swinge : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKGQdapez3E
1985 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPqfJIbjaZs
Eurovision 1986 Winner, Belgium, Sandra Kim – J’aime la vie : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akMqfNmBjzY
1986 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9X6XUUwwAU
Eurovision 1987 Winner, Ireland, Johnny Logan – Hold Me Now : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6RjdihLfiA99
1987 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVRMjw7ghKg
Eurovision 1988 Winner, Switzerland, Celine Dion – Ne partez pas sans moi : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLPlhvgE9qA
1988 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkBnF0-toN8
Eurovision 1989 Winner, Yugoslavia, Riva – Rock Me : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0q5uQm-9aBA
1989 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e33w6xYABvY
Eurovision 1990 Winner, Italy, Toto Cutugno – Insieme: 1992 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlvJ6lhudJg
1990 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6ny2cOlW90
Eurovision 1991 Winner, Sweden, Carola – Fångad av en stormvind : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wnS4nu-bOc
1991 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKCgyiaO-FE
Eurovision 1992 Winner, Ireland, Linda Martin – Why Me : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMhGwonFXSk
1992 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_kJYn-o4lk
Eurovision 1993 Winner, Ireland, Niamh Kavanagh – In Your Eyes : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHE8a-D9Zb4
1993 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aP1hOl5Y5hk
Eurovision 1994 Winner, Ireland, Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan – Rock ‘n’ Roll Kids : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1x_9JnCGXFY
1994 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Z5Uoxo9UxE
Eurovision 1995 Winner, Norway, Secret Garden – Nocturne : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qqOI04uo_c
1995 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbDABx9sxQY
Eurovision 1996 Winner, Ireland, Eimear Quinn – The Voice : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rj345GYAG1k
1996 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76KIG07u9WY
Eurovision 1997 Winner, United Kingdom, Katrina and the Waves – Love Shine a Light : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-o5v3wpI1o
1997 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CI4RG2e__c
Eurovision 1998 Winner, Israel, Dana International – Diva : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wdApYXHSNA
1998 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5spdQLwD3U
Eurovision 1999 Winner, Sweden, Charlotte Nilsson – Take Me to Your Heaven : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2NU4H85J4o
1999 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfJqsLi69IU
Eurovision 2000 Winner, Denmark, Olsen Brothers – Fly on the Wings of Love : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xROvbWV-nA
** 2000 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vb-07BeZLCk&list=PL5D8AF528703A7AEB&feature=share
Eurovision 2001 Winner, Estonia – Tanel Padar, Dave Benton and 2XL – Everybody : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wri72BfnGh4
2001 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q-xDuWZy2c
Eurovision 2002 Winner, Latvia, Marie N – I Wanna : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK_Ip_Vi0Mk
** 2002 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU301OHOs9s&list=PL7558135F50FBFD67&feature=share&index=1
Eurovision 2003 Winner, Turkey, Sertab Erener – Everyway That I Can : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o01_zbQ_bVY
2003 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4OSEgtvSR4
Eurovision 2004 Winner, Ukraine, Ruslana – Wild Dances : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10XR67NQcAc
2004 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgzsuHm8ygM
Eurovision 2005 Winner, Greece, Helena Paparizou – My Number One : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghQZojJWxKI
2005 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HjH0kvcVS8
Eurovision 2006 Winner, Finland, Lordi – Hard Rock Hallelujah : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAh9NRGNhUU
2006 Full Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hs-LhouTul0
Eurovision 2007 Winner, Serbia, Marija Šerifović – Molitva : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSueQN1QvV4
2007 Full Show
Eurovision 2008 Winner, Russia, Dima Bilan – Believe : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-72s4WzUcKI
2008 Full Show
Eurovision 2009 Winner, Norway, Alexander Rybak, Fairytale : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXwgZL4zx9o
2009 Full Show
Eurovision 2010 Winner, Germany, Lena – Satellite : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzOaU5H3P4c
2010 Full Show
Eurovision 2011 Winner, Azerbaijan, Ell/Nikki – Running Scared : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AcE47E11bI
2011 Full Show
Eurovision 2012 Winner, Sweden, Loreen – Euphoria : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pfo-8z86×80
2012 Full Show
Eurovision 2013 Winner, Denmark, Emmelie de Forest – Only Teardrops : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k59E7T0H-Us
2013 Full Show
** link to a playlist, rather than a single video; please note, some portions of these playlists will be blocked depending on your country and take-down requests.
No full broadcast after 2006 was found on YouTube.
Bonuses:
BBC 50th anniversary doc : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wLWU9v-xVs
Boom Bang-a-Bang: 50 years of Eurovision http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGNGALw7qSs
50th anniversary special (in parts)
open http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6bvT-9DCes
part1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chjqw6nwyNs
part2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-l2Y_mGjQg
part3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWFJyzxxaKE
part4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTVAVH165kw
part5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovAKls-XC70
part6 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwjOC1cySmQ
