As a bit of fun, following is a timeline placing every one of my national selections for #Eurovisioctober and #Eurovember. Obviously, the early years are statistically sparse by virtue of the pool being more broadly spread (the younger competitors have a narrower target to cluster within).
🇸🇲 cont.
I found it tricky picking a fave here, so I've settled on the one that made the biggest impact at the time: Serhat's "Say Na Na Na" captures the lyrical spirit of Eurovision perfectly. It's a fitting final choice (all the more so for being the wrong one!).
youtu.be/d_iEis_ZRoQ
#Eurovember
🇲🇩 cont.
The ESC has a limit of 6 people on stage at once, and Moldova see that as a challenge. In 2018, DoReDoS stretched the limit to breaking point with this bedroom farce trapped inside a Rubik's Magic. My favourite slice of the Moldovan Sound, "My Lucky Day":
youtu.be/5evrVL1rJPA
#Eurovember
🇦🇱🇦🇩🇧🇾 cont.
But Belarus had their musical moments too, and one is today's selection: Dmitry Koldun with "Work Your Magic Shoe": a modern Bond theme that ends up looking like the aftermath of a Winton-helmed Saturday teatime gameshow. Magic in a Pendragon-y way. 👞
youtu.be/PxON-jTcBPA
#Eurovember
🇮🇸 cont.
Of course, it's Daði og Gagnamagnið — the sound of spring 2020 — shuffling round the collective living room with their funky librarycore earworm and some kooky choreography. So put on your old green jumpsuit with 8-bit avatar applique and get ready to bop:
youtu.be/1HU7ocv3S2o
#Eurovember
🇳🇴 cont.
Back to the jaw-dropping greatness of 1977 then, for my favourite Norwegian entry: the adorable Anita Skorgan and the fantastic "Casanova" — a wonderfully twee number with a head-swaying chorus. By the end you'll want to yelp with excitement. ❄️
youtu.be/JPJxDxHW7LM
#Eurovember
🇲🇨 cont.
My winner does neither of those things. Minouche Barelli's "Boum-Badaboum" is a Gainsbourg-penned cacophonous explosion like some banging rave anthem 20-odd years ahead of time. Not one sock remains in an on position.
Light blue touch paper and retreat:
youtu.be/MBGbHS-m3zE
#Eurovember
🇨🇭 cont.
For my selection, we return, for the first time in a while, to the glory that is 1977 and the multi-millinary Hopkirk (deceased) joys of the Pepe Lienhard Band and their "Swiss Lady". It's as if Simon Bates and co took the Radio 1 roadshow skiing.
youtu.be/3JIa2xNJhm0
#Eurovember
First winner Lys Assia in 1958 with her fourth Eurovision entry, "Giorgio". She's got a tight crop of curly hair, a triple string of pearls, and a satin mesh-scoop ballgown with pearl embellishments. Were there no other singers in Switzerland in those days? Or did they just recognize a good thing when they saw it? This performance is somewhere between a yodel and the theme-tune to Bonanza. It's also the first polyglot entry in the contest's history ("polenta polenta polenta polenta".
Switzerland inventing the cockney chanson in 1970, with Henri Dès putting in some terribly annoying comic double-take glances. Here he is "ok"-ing us in his black safari suit, pink shirt, and sculpted side-parting. The song treads a fine line between irritating and fun. In the backdrop, Roland DeGroot's big silver balls.
Simone Drexel in 1975 with a song that utilizes the sort of repetition that is probably banned under a Geneva convention. A seemingly innocent and sweet introduction gives way to the bouncing "Bananas in Pyjamas" cabaret-style chorus (complete with tuned percussion) that will never ever leave you. Never. Ever. No matter how hard you try. Some might call that annoying. But it's a fine line between annoying and amazing, and this is firmly camped in the latter. It has a good chorus, it knows it, and it will continue to use it until the time is up. It is wise to do so. Simone here is looking up from her microphone in CU. She has luscious black '70s hair cascading in a wave. Her eye makeup is purplish, her lips similarly hued, and we can see right up her nostrils.
Nemo delivering an energetic, even gymnastic performance atop a whirligig seesaw thing. They've got curly brown hair and are wearing a coat made from pink muppets. The song is a driving whirligig in its own right, swinging from operatic falsetto to machine-gun rap to pop anthem — an autobiographical account of Nemo's own non-binary self-discovery.
#Eurovisioctober is over but we still have some gaps, so let's extend into #Eurovember, shall we? Same conceit as before but for the leftovers, which means we start with 🇨🇭, the first ever winners of the Eurovision Song Contest, and the most recent hosts.
