Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Eurovision throwback! New series. I will present and comment here the contests of yesteryears picking up four songs from each year (or more). Not the ones I think are the best (now) but the songs that throwback memories when I see them in the participation list. Of course mostly they're my favorites at the time, songs that I have loved. Some have aged well, some... well, not so well. After the 1976-77 editions that I have some uncertain memories, 1978 is the contest I remember almost too well watching. I remember our old house, how it was furnished, the people I watched it with. My parents had some relatives visiting who decided to leave after the songs as it was getting late and they had to drive some 30 kms to home. I remember I was in total shock how could they leave in the middle and not wait for the winner! Well, I guess I was getting the first signs of some deeper obsession to the Eurovision at tender age of 11. Well, what do I remember? The lifts bringing the ar...

Israel took a surprise and easy win in the Eurovision song contest 1978 (no matter what Jordanian television think) with their sixth participation, with Izhar Cohen & The Alphabeta group and their groovy and catchy A-ba-ni-bi . (However that nearly didn't happen as in the national final there was a tie with Belev echad by Chedva Amrani & Pilpel Lavan. Hmmm, who knows if they had sent that one instead...?) Six times 12 out of 19 possible, and 32 points lead on runner up Belgium. They also set the trend for the Israeli entries that continued well into the 1990's: lead singer and highly choreographed group with a catchy up tempo tune. Between 1978-1985 with six participation they scored two wins, two runner ups and 5th and 7th place. Not bad.  Incidently Izhar started this run and also ended it in 1985 when he returned with Olé, Olé! placing 5th. Again in white and white a vry energetic backing group. Today the participation is propably best remembered for the...

One of the highlights of last night's Danish final was Alexander Rybak's violin medley of some Eurovision winning songs, from Fly on the wings of love to  Hold me now to Hard rock hallelujah , from A-ba-ni-bi to Satellite, Fängad av en stormvind to his very own Fairytale . Great stuff! Watch it here .

Every now and then previous Eurovision winners want to try it again and this year we have Ireland's Niamh Kavanagh. She won back in 1993 with wonderful In your eyes and tries again this year with It's for you. Let's see how it has been for the previous returning winners in the past.... So far only Johnny Logan, also for Ireland, has managed to win Eurovision twice; in 1980 with What's another year and in 1987 with Hold me now . Italy's Gigliola Cinquetti came close in 1974 with Si as she was only beaten by ABBA. She won ten years earlier with Non ho l'etá . Also Lys Assia for Switzerland and Elisabeth Andreasson for Norway have scored a second place after their win. Lys took part three years in a row and came 1-8-2 in 1956, 1957 and 1958. Elisabeth on the other hand won with Hanne Krogh in 1985, came 6th with Jan Wener in 1994 and finally went solo in 1996 and scored a 2nd place.  Isabelle Aubret won in 1962 for France with Un premier amour and went on to ...

April 22, 1978 Palais de Congrès de Paris hosted the 23rd Eurovision. Twenty countries taking part when Denmark returned after a long absense. France didn't seem to be very interested in the show and didn't get great reviews for the rather boring stage and several tecnical problems. Most interesting part was the rotating orchestra - most fun provided by seeing if the conductors managed to jump on their place without falling off. Something new the French did bring to the contest: a presenter duo! Léon Zitrone was also the first male presenter since 1956! Baccara sung for Luxembourg and were as big as T.a.T.u was when singing in Eurovision many years later. Norway's Jahn Teigen almost stole the show by scoring the first null points in the new (and still in use) voting system. The songs in French ruled (2nd, 3rd, 4th, 7th, 10th) but Israel won clearly with an up tempo song and a real choreography. Izhar Cohen & The Alpha Beta shared the victory in Israel and was sent to Pa...