After the qualification for the final by San Marino (2014) and Czech Republic (2016) there's only one country left that has never made it: Andorra. And as Andorra seems to have no intention to participate again in the Eurovision song contest - sadly - after their six year run of misfortunes, let's have a look what they did offer us during those years 2004-2009.
They debuted in 2004 with Marta Roure and Jugarem a estimar-nos, the first ever song in the contest in Catalan. She scored 12 points in the semifinal (all of them from Spain!) and places 18th leaving behind Belarus, Monaco, Slovenia and Switzerland. Marta released her debut album shortly after but has since disappeared, at least from the internet.
The year after Dutch born hotel director Marian van de Wal had the honors with Anabel Conde in the backing vocals with La mirada interior. She scored 27 points (10 from Spain and 7 from the Netherlands, and 6 from Albania and 4 from Moldova), that was enough for the 23rd place beating Monaco (again!) and Lithuania. Nothing is heard of her ever since.....
Jennifer Serrano aka Jenny, a waitress was sent to Athens with Sense tu. She came last with the 8 points from Spain only. No wonder seeing the staging....
After three failures that had already made Andorra famous for their rather questionable fashion sense and staging attemps things were looking up when Anonymous punk-rock boyband was sent to Helsinki 2007 with Salvem el món. They were considered a pretty sure qualifier and were hugely popular in the host city and regular sight in the parties always being the last ones to leave. However, their 80 points scored were enough only for the 12th place in the semifinal (that was murder that year with 28 countries and only 10 making it) and missing the final only by 8-9 points. A total of 19 countries voted for them with the obvious 12 from Spain. The band enjoyed some fame and gigs in Europe afterwards. Today Niki Francesca, the lead singer goes by as Nick Gain and his story continues here.....
After that reasonable success Andorra turned into big guns and sent Gisela, a familiar name from a Spanish talent show who was enjoying success at the time. Casanova was a fan favorite and #2 hit in Spain. Yet she failed to conquer the rest of the Europe - maybe too stunned for the staging and look? - and scored only 22 points in the semifinal and finished 18th. Spain gave her of course 12 points, and five other countries some small points. Her career continues here.
In 2009 they turned to Susanne Georgi, a Danish Andorra based singer who already had tried her luck in the Danish selections as My & My with her sister. They had also scored some European hits before. La teva decisió (Get a life). She scored only 8 points in the semifinal (from Turkey, Malta and Portugal) and finished 15th.
And after that they decided to get a life and leave Eurovision. In 2011 they were planning to leave EBU altogether but stayed in the end. They have no intention to come back to the contest anytime soon......
Check out their preview videos by clicking the titles above and their live performances under the jump... I'm still wondering who did Marta's hair, and the make up in 2005? And those outfits in 2005 and 2006? They are all so wrong in so many ways.... not to mention the choreographies.... Anonymous stands out among these six being the only act where everything was right, the other entries were quite disastrous vocally and/or staging all wrong. But this said, I would love to have Andorra back!
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