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 Lex's 1990s Eurovision Countdown |
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 1st October 2016, 06:23 PM
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#21
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 DROTTNING!
Joined: 15 April 2006
Posts: 63,953 User: 480 
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Modlitba however is a work of GOSSAMER BEAUTY and the spiritual mother of Beautiful Song. She should've kept to the medieval feel and come out dressed as a slutty Mary Queen of Scots *.*
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2nd October 2016, 02:48 PM
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#22
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 I was born 7 million years ago in Sweden, Africa
Joined: 4 October 2010
Posts: 13,253 User: 11,955
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Guildo really isn't my sort of naff Eurovision song, just like 'Wadde hadde dudde da?' but I can see why it did well.
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6th October 2016, 01:34 PM
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#23
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Attack Dog/Sass Queen
Joined: 29 January 2008
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Hello again. This is still a thing.
55. Croatia 1996: Maja Blagdan - Sveta Ljubav (4th, 98 points) Those of you with a long memory will remember this from that 'book of records' segment from 2014 as the 'highest note' ever performed on the ESC stage. Surely when one reads that information they would assume that said highest note is part of a fabulous and extended build up throughout the 3 minute epic resulting in the towering crescendo? Well, in a word, no. Scientists and sociologists still ponder the cause of and rationale for the repeated recurrance of that out of nowhere high note but I posit that it is all part of the camply majestic/majesticly camp mise en scene of the performance. Nowhere can you see this better than in that choreo at 1:46 (sticking with 96 here, if Malta is the 'gettin down and dirty' moves then Croatia is the 'pretending you're a prima ballerina whilst inebriated at the end of the night'). All in all, if you want to feel your majestic fantasy then this is not a bad track to pick to live it to at all. |
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6th October 2016, 02:11 PM
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#24
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Attack Dog/Sass Queen
Joined: 29 January 2008
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54. Bosnia & Herzegovina 1994: Alma & Dejan - Ostani kraj mene (15th, 39 points) *PEAK BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA*
Staying in the balkans, it's time to talk about Bosnia. We talked earlier about how the dissolution of Yugoslavia brought about a brand new set of countries all wanting to join Eurovision (as should be a priority for any potential new European state - take note Scotland/Catalonia!) and nowhere is the tangible danger of the conflict more perfectly embodied than in Bosnia & Herzegovina. Their first ever entry in 1993 (which didn't make this list but isn't bad if you're desperate for some early 90s balkan angst) had to flee gunfire to make it to the plane to Dublin and was recorded using energy supplies from the UN. So, naturally, Bosnia typically get both a good reaction in the mid 90s contests for the mere feat of getting to the host city and pretty underscored because if you think Ukraine is potentially a risky host in 2016 then Sarajevo 95 would have been something else. Songwise, the word I would use for this one is 'charming'. Inkeeping with everyone's attitude to Bosnia as the pluckiest of all the pluckiest underdogs, you can't help but find it endearing. Lyrics wise it's as cheesy/sweet as you can get with gems such as I"n your eyes, there’s a blue river through which hatred will never flow" and "all the pain will vanish/Except this song, me and you". N'awwwwwww This post has been edited by LexC: 9th October 2016, 10:19 PM |
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6th October 2016, 11:10 PM
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#25
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 I'm a paragon so don't perceive me
Joined: 3 February 2011
Posts: 37,418 User: 12,929           |
I definitely rather like Bosnia 93 I seem to remember. This one's almost as good. Their circumstances just make the songs so easy to love.
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6th October 2016, 11:39 PM
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#26
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DROTTNING!
Joined: 15 April 2006
Posts: 63,953 User: 480
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Give me ALMA CARDZIC if we're talking NINETIES BOS
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7th October 2016, 10:07 PM
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#27
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Attack Dog/Sass Queen
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53. Turkey 1991: İzel Çeliköz, Reyhan Karaca & Can Uğurluer - Iki Dakika (12th, 44 points)
Long before Turkey figured out how to infuse their national folk music culture into titshaking ethnopop and before, frankly, they gave a shit about Eurovision, they send stuff like this. I don't know if you've ever felt like you needed a Turkish language 50s rock'n'roll style bop with late 80s pop sensibilities in your life but regardless, here it is *.* |
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7th October 2016, 10:09 PM
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#28
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Attack Dog/Sass Queen
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I am currently rewatching that performance and it just will not stop giving!
*everyone else hates it* |
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7th October 2016, 10:11 PM
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#29
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I'm a paragon so don't perceive me
Joined: 3 February 2011
Posts: 37,418 User: 12,929 |
oh
my god how did I never know this existed?! |
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8th October 2016, 01:48 PM
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#30
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Attack Dog/Sass Queen
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52. Cyprus 1998: Michael Hajiyanni - Genesis (11th, 37 points)
You know what else was a really big deal in the 1990s? Disney! In particular the epic orchestral pop ballads. I bring this up here because this sounds like the sort of thing you'd hear at the start of a big sweeping disney epic set in ancient Greece (like if Hercules had been any good). Annoyingly they don't make use of that key change which is what stops it being the truly earth shattering epic it's trying to be but its still a good one to get your 90s eurodisney fantasy ~ |
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8th October 2016, 03:04 PM
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#31
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I was born 7 million years ago in Sweden, Africa
Joined: 4 October 2010
Posts: 13,253 User: 11,955
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OK the thread may have peaked with 'Iki dakika' *.*
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8th October 2016, 10:52 PM
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#32
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Attack Dog/Sass Queen
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51. Hungary 1996: Gjon Delhusa - Fortuna (DNQ)
Gather round kids, time for another instalation of Eurovision History! As more and more countries flocked to the contest, the organisers had to find some way of keeping the numbers in the contest at a manageable number (because anyone who's sat through the 2007 semi, a 28 song contest is a hard slog even for the most dedicated!). Before they settled on the semi final/s as the fairest way of deciding who gets to perform on the Saturday night, the EBU went through a wide variety of qualification methods. In 1993, 7 brand new countries fought it out for 3 spots in Millstreet (which I'd like to think all of the reactionaries who decry "Eastern Europe should have their own semi!!1!11!!!" are actually massive fangirls and know all about Eurovision in the 1990s) and in 1996 something closer to what would eventually become the template for the semi finals where all the songs except the hosts were listened to by the juries in Europe, scored, and the lowest scorers were eliminated. The only difference is that those losers (Hungary, Germany, Denmark, Macedonia, Russia, Israel and Romania), rather than be recorded as a non qualification were pretty much erased from ESC history as if they never existed. Well, the time has come to RECLAIM the 96 DNQs! Similar to Bosnia 94, the main affect of this one is charming and sweet. There's a really nice soaring melody here, although somewhat hidden beneath the post-communist sartorial styling and what I assume in 1996 Hungary passed for a TV studio. |
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9th October 2016, 10:31 PM
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#33
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 23 December 2010
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Finally caught up with all these, and I'm in agreement that Turkey 1991 is the discovery of the bunch here especially with that 5 second 50s dance breakdown but I'm also loving Cyprus 1998 which is what I imagine 'Milim' to sound like if it was transformed lyrically and instrumentally into a Disney epic.
Bobbysocks 2.0 (Iceland) was pleasant likewise the Maltese song although that reminds me A LOT of "what's love go to do got to do with it". France 1999 had amazing armography at the end that rivals Despina Olympiou from 2013! I've never actually seen Guildo all the way through but it was certainly an experience, I prefer Wadde Hadde Dudde Da of the Stefan Raab novelties though. Looking forward to what is coming next! *.* |
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14th October 2016, 09:05 PM
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#34
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Attack Dog/Sass Queen
Joined: 29 January 2008
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we're back, back, back again!
50. Ireland 1990: Liam Reilly - Somewhere In Europe (2nd, 132 points) It's time to talk about Ireland! (Umi and others get yo asses in here, this is #relevant) One of the biggest 'storylines' if you can call it that of 90s Eurovision was the emergence of Ireland as the Accidental Powerhouse. Ireland either won or hosted every contest from 1992 to 1997 including the now legendary three in a row from 92 to 94. Here's the thing though, Ireland were also by far and away the most guilty of finding a genre/style that worked for them (namely the 80s/90s style ballad on a sliding scale to powerballads and pared down dreariness like the 1994 winner) and mining it repeatedly well into the 2000s until the advent of televoting meant it just wasn't working any more. The reasons the Emerald Isle couldn't seem to stop winning included but were not limited to, the language rule that meant Ireland was one of three countries that were permitted to sing in English, the most universal of all the European languages, the role of subconscious bias against newly independent countries being unable to run/host the contest by the jurors and thus being undermarked (and we'll get to some very well known casualties of that higher up the countdown) and the voting being comprised of 100% Jury voting that tends to bias toward more "technical" elements of songs such as voice and instrumentation rather than televoting's bias towards commercial viability and visual spectacle. The effect of this is that, play all of the Irish 90s Eurovision songs alongside each other and eventually they'll begin to merge into one homogeneous mass. This one, however, somehow manages to retain an air of charm and sweep almost in spite of itself and, hey, in a post Brexit world a device as simple as listing nice things in a series of different European countries is really working for me. Granted, it's way overmarked in 2nd ahead of a very strong field in 1990 but I can sort of justify this one being amongst the chasing pack which I struggle to with many of the rest of the Irish ouvre (what the hell songs like Rock'N'Roll Kids and Mysterious Woman were doing getting 12s I will never know). The highlight is still (like pretty much everything in ESC 1990) the backing singers who the staging director thinks are hiding their abysmal knitwear under that lighting. |
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14th October 2016, 09:20 PM
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#35
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Attack Dog/Sass Queen
Joined: 29 January 2008
Posts: 16,022 User: 5,342
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49. Greece 1991: Sophia Vossou - I anixi (13th, 36 points)
Something for fans of DRAMA here. Everything here screams "late 80s/early 90s mature diva" pop from the deliciously high almost operatic range of the vocals to the "Greek version of Dynasty meets Supervillain's wife" dress and the two beats that go with "Tha'ne" at the start of the lines of the chorus. Literally the only thing that stopped this getting to where it ought to have on the scoreboard is that failure of a sax solo in the middle of the performance (stupid shambolic Italian organisation couldn't even get a decent saxaphonist!!1!11!!!) BRAVA! |
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17th October 2016, 02:56 PM
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#36
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I was born 7 million years ago in Sweden, Africa
Joined: 4 October 2010
Posts: 13,253 User: 11,955
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Ironic that I think Ireland are the worst country at Eurovision quality wise.
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17th October 2016, 03:25 PM
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#37
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DROTTNING!
Joined: 15 April 2006
Posts: 63,953 User: 480
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I do wonder if the saxophonist really was the reason I anixi failed though. You'd think the juries would've taken it into account.
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17th October 2016, 05:51 PM
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#38
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Attack Dog/Sass Queen
Joined: 29 January 2008
Posts: 16,022 User: 5,342
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48. Austria 1996: George Nussbaumer - Weil's da guat got (10th, 68 points)
Fun fact for linguistic diversity fans, rather than your standard German/Austrian German this one is sung in "Vorarlbergish" a dialect in the High Alemannic family of German languages spoken mostly in Liechtenstein and the Liechtenstein-adjacent parts of Austria (I think I've got that right but someone like Iz ought to know if any of that checks out). The more you know! I'm a complete sucker for something gospel tinged with a tonne of tempo and/or key changes and that is pretty much exactly what you're getting here. However, by far and away what elevates this to a top 50 worthy track is the backing choir (think the muses from Disney's Hercules only German and 10 times camper) in particular the queen in the green jumper queening the fu |
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19th October 2016, 04:06 PM
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#39
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Attack Dog/Sass Queen
Joined: 29 January 2008
Posts: 16,022 User: 5,342
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47. United Kingdom 1999: Precious - Say It Again (12th, 38 points)
And we've come to the first UK entry of the countdown and, in a sharp contrast to 21st century UK entry discussions, I don't feel a sense of overwhelming and crushing despair about it! Yes, long ago there was a time when the UK actually sent stuff that sounded like the music that was in the charts at the time (which, if you think about it, is quite the cruel irony that we gave up on that front just as the voting format changed so as to enable chart-ready music to flourish). Of everything we sent in this period this is probably the most like what late 90s girlband pop sounded like and, as somebody with a penchent for that kind of thing, I very much enjoy this. Unfortunately for teh galz, a poor running order draw and a lot of other countries entering strong pop music meant that it only got a dismal 12th (I know now we'd kill for a 12th place but at that point we hadn't been out of the top 10 since 1987) and would send the UK into a decade long 'idgaf' attitude which I'm sure you've all got very strong opinions about. The eagle eyed amongst you will also notice the presence of Kerry Katona replacement Jenny Frost in the line-up. And who says you can't have a decent post-Eurovision career? |
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19th October 2016, 04:14 PM
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#40
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Attack Dog/Sass Queen
Joined: 29 January 2008
Posts: 16,022 User: 5,342
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Also of note, Precious only beat this bit of funky reggae-ska in the National Final by a small margin which, if I'm not mistaken, would have been the first bit of non-English lyrics in a UK Eurovision song ever (and bonus points on the multikulti scale with her being originally from Sierra Leone). Maybe this could have edged into the top 10?
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