I totally forgot about Abba :o :drama: Naturally I adore Waterloo.

 

 

 

I have no idea why I'm not participating. I was going to do so for 2009 onwards.

Marija Magdalena pretty much set the tone for Antique, Sertab, Ruslana and Helena and their etno-pop glories no? PURE GOLD.

 

And pretty much every Portuguese entry until 1994 was a huge homeland hit. So ironic that most Portuguese people would fail to recognize our most sucessful entry "O Meu Coração Não Tem Cor".

 

Portuguese highlights and most recognized entries include:

- Ele e Ela (1966)

- Desfolhada Portuguesa (1969)

- Menina do Alto da Serra (1971)

- E Depois do Adeus (1974) - the song that was the go-sign for our Carnation revolution

- Sobe, Sobe, Balão Sobe (1979)

- Um Grande, Grande Amor (1980)

- Playback (1981)

- Bem Bom (1982)

- Não sejas mau para mim (1986)

- Conquistador (1989)

- Sempre, há sempre alguém (1990)

- Lusitana paixão (1991)

- Amor d'água fresca (1992)

- A cidade (até ser dia) (1993)

- Chamar a música (1994)

 

 

and then everyone lost interest. :(

and then everyone lost interest. :(

I did look for playback :kink:

I'm BEGINNING TO THINK we ought to have an enforced listening to all entries from years before 2009 (that aren't Gina G or Scooch or whatever, shock horror!) before anyone can with any certainty declare Gina G to be the greatest Eurovision song ever! It's GREAT, don't get me wrong, but there's so much better out there...

I'm BEGINNING TO THINK we ought to have an enforced listening to all entries from years before 2009 (that aren't Gina G or Scooch or whatever, shock horror!) before anyone can with any certainty declare Gina G to be the greatest Eurovision song ever! It's GREAT, don't get me wrong, but there's so much better out there...

THIS. :angry:

At the end of the day, I'd be hardly surprised if anything overcame Gina G. It's not just how strong the song is musically and melodically and so on, it's also got childhood memories tied up with it and it's going to take a lot to overcome that.

 

So greatest, maybe not, but my favourite, yes. I am aiming to listen to them all though!

At the end of the day, I'd be hardly surprised if anything overcame Gina G. It's not just how strong the song is musically and melodically and so on, it's also got childhood memories tied up with it and it's going to take a lot to overcome that.

 

So greatest, maybe not, but my favourite, yes. I am aiming to listen to them all though!

 

I coldn't agree more. Forget Eurovision for a moment, Ooh Aah...Just A Little Bit is one of my all time favourite songs full stop. It stands to reason that it's by FAR my favourite pre-2002 entry. Never forget how powerful an influence an attached memory is. Who cares if Spain 1986 or Germany 1984 or whatever were musically 'better', they will never mean as much to me. Gina G's song was the whole package, nothing from between 1995-2007 touches it for me frankly and yes I've heard every entry from all of those contests!

My main pre-2000 highlights then, these are all at least 9.5/10's, there are MANY more 9/10's out there;

 

Carola - Främling (Sweden 1983)

Carola - Fångad av en stormvind (Sweden 1991)

Dana International - Diva (Israel 1998)

Imaani - Where Are You (UK 1998)

Eimear Quinn - The Voice (Ireland 1996)

One More Time - Den Vilda (Sweden 1996)

ABBA - Waterloo (Sweden 1974)

Secret Garden - Nocturne (Norway 1995)

Selma - All Out Of Luck (Iceland 1999)

Charlotte Nilsson - Take Me To Your Heaven (Sweden 1999)

Precious - Say It Again (UK 1999)

Evelin Samuel & Camille - Diamond Of Night (Estonia 1999)

Katrina & The Waves - Love Shine A Light (UK 1997)

Bucks Fizz - Making Your Mind Up (UK 1981)

Jill Johnson - Kärleken Är (Sweden 1998)

Aud Wilken - Fra Mols Til Skagen (Denmark 1995)

 

All sensational, but still none come particularly close to Ooh Aah...Just A Little Bit for me :wub: Say It Again was my first 'encounter' with Eurovision, a sign for the future. I bought it on single because I'd seen it on CD:UK and liked the song, I had no idea that it was our entry that year, I thought they were just another random new girlband seeing as there were so many around at that time (Honeyz, All Saints, B*Witched, Spice Girls, Hepburn etc...). I tuned into ESC 1999 purely to see them perform, having learnt that it was our entry after looking at the sticker on the front of the CD single :lol:

 

As an aside, 1996 was amazing - the top three were all beautiful new age type songs and with Gina in the mix too the quality was immense. 1999 wasn't far behind with the excellent Scandi top two, the Precious song that I loved and the wonderful Estonian entry :wub:

 

I'm struggling to care about any of the 50s, 60s and 70s contests if I'm honest, but that's in line with my music tastes in general. ABBA aside, I really don't seem to enjoy anything pre 1980s...

Have you heard Tu te reconnaîtras Rich?

Yes, I've heard all of the winners many times, Tu te reconnaîtras is a lovely song! I bought a DVD from eBay a few years back which included MP3 files of every song to have ever been entered to the contest. I've never mustered up the enthusiasm to listen to much more than the top two from each contest although I do now know everything from 1995 onwards. Pre 1995 I know a handful from each contest, including all of the winners, UK entries and the majority of the Scandinavian entries.

IMPROMPTU PRE-00s TOP TEN (pre-full exploration of 1956-1997)

 

1. One More Time - Den Vilda (Sweden 96)

2. Anne-Marie David - Tu te reconnaîtras (Luxembourg 73)

3. Carola - Främling (Sweden 83)

4. Doris Dragovic - Marija Magdalena (Croatia 99)

5. Amina - Le dernier qui a parlé (France 91)

6. Frances Ruffelle - Lonely Symphony (We Will Be Free) (UK 94)

7. CatCat - Bye Bye Baby (Finland 94) (GREATEST VIDEO EVER *.*)

8. Dana International - Diva (Israel 98)

9. Carola - Fångad av en stormvind (Sweden 91)

10. Elisabeth Andreasson - I evighet (Norway 96)

 

Obligatory mention for Waterloo, of course.

'Tu te reconnaîtras' is my favourite pre-2002 Eurovision song. INCREDIBLE.

IMPROMPTU PRE-00s TOP TEN (pre-full exploration of 1956-1997)

 

1. One More Time - Den Vilda (Sweden 96)

2. Anne-Marie David - Tu te reconnaîtras (Luxembourg 73)

3. Carola - Främling (Sweden 83)

4. Doris Dragovic - Marija Magdalena (Croatia 99)

5. Amina - Le dernier qui a parlé (France 91)

6. Frances Ruffelle - Lonely Symphony (We Will Be Free) (UK 94)

7. CatCat - Bye Bye Baby (Finland 94) (GREATEST VIDEO EVER *.*)

8. Dana International - Diva (Israel 98)

9. Carola - Fångad av en stormvind (Sweden 91)

10. Elisabeth Andreasson - I evighet (Norway 96)

 

Obligatory mention for Waterloo, of course.

 

I can't argue with that top ten, the ones that weren't in my list are solid 9/10's for me. I very nearly put Lonely Symphony in there, I'm really surprised that it didn't do better than 10th, it's very classy - and she's Eliza Doolittle's mum :lol:

 

Den Vilda is second in my affections only behind Gina G. 1996 :wub:

 

'Tu te reconnaîtras' is my favourite pre-2002 Eurovision song. INCREDIBLE.

 

You even put it on your CD Swap that I received two years ago iirc! :o

Because I didn't have much better to do last night, I worked out my top 50 pre-2002 entries...

 

01 ABBA - Waterloo (Sweden 1974) Pretty obvious choice of number one, but nothing comes anywhere near Waterloo

02 Charlotte Nilsson - Take Me To Your Heaven (Sweden 1999)

03 Marlain - Tha'ne Erotas/In The Name Of Love (Cyprus 1999) I like both this and Charlotte Nilsson's entry equally. In The Name Of Love would have made a brilliant Steps track.

04 Nuša Derenda - Energy (Slovenia 2001) How did this only come 7th?! Slovenia's best entry and it'll probably be the closest they ever get to winning the contest

05 Paul Oscar - Minn Hinsti Dans (Iceland 1997) Another underrated entry, finishing in just 20th place. I suppose it didn't really appeal to the juries who provided most of the votes in 97

06 Gina G - Ooh Aah... Just A Little Bit (United Kingdom 1996)

07 Dana International - Diva (Israel 1998)

08 Friends - Listen To Your Heartbeat (Sweden 2001)

09 Bucks Fizz - Making Your Mind Up (United Kingdom 1981) Bucks Fizz are a real guilty pleasure of mine. MYMU is far from their best, but it is a classic

10 Imaani - Where Are You? (United Kingdom 1998) A very well deserved runner up to Dana International

 

11 One More Time - Den Vilda (Sweden 1996)

12 Selma - All Out Of Luck (Iceland 1999)

13 Katrina & The Waves - Love Shine A Light (United Kingdom 1997)

14 Baccara - Parlez-vous Français? (Luxembourg 1978) :wub: The full length English version of this is pure brilliance!

15 Nicole - Ein bißchen Frieden/A Little Peace (Germany 1982) The 1982 winner and the UK's 500th number one single. Such a lovely song

16 Natasha St-Pier - Je n'ai que mon âme (France 2001) A fine example of France doing what they do best! I remember this caused somewhat of a stir as it was the first French performance in a while, possibly ever (?), to contain English. That last chorus on the night was magnificent!

17 Teach-In - Ding-A-Dong (Netherlands 1975)

18 Sandie Shaw - Puppet On A String (United Kingdom 1967)

19 Brotherhood Of Man - Save All Your Kisses For Me (United Kingdom 1976)

20 Secret Garden - Nocturne (Norway 1995)

 

21 Antique - (I Would) Die For You (Greece 2001)

22 Bardo - One Step Further (United Kingdom 1982)

23 Sweet Dreams - I'm Never Giving Up (United Kingdom 1983) After the success of Bucks Fizz in 81, the UK tried to recreate it in both 82 and 83 and failed. I do love both this and the Bardo track. Sweet Dreams was a trio who featured none other than Fame Academy's Carrie Grant!

24 Celine Dion - Ne partez pas sans moi (Switzerland 1988) One of Celine's better tracks. Shame she's brushed it under the carpet since :(

25 Bobbysocks - La det swinge (Norway 1985)

26 Nicki French - Don't Play That Song Again (United Kingdom 2000)

27 Lindsay - No Dream Impossible (United Kingdom 2001) I may well be alone here, but I really liked both of these UK entries!

28 Şebnem Paker - Dinle (Turkey 1997) Şebnem is most definitely the best thing Turkey have ever brought to the contest. She appeared in 96 and 97, Dinle being the slightly better of the two tracks

29 Jasmine - Niin kaunis on taivas (Finland 1996) Poor Jasmine! Everybody ridicules her, mainly for her hair and for forgetting when to start singing the final chorus, but I thought the song was charming!

30 Doris Dragović - Marija Magdalena (Croatia 1999)

 

31 Leon - Planet Of Blue (Germany 1996) Germany's shock DNQ! How it happened is beyond me!

32 Ines - Once In A Lifetime (Estonia 2000)

33 Brainstorm - My Star (Latvia 2000) The brilliant debut entry from Latvia - It was all downhill from there really

34 Dana - All Kinds Of Everything (Ireland 1970)

35 Katarína Hasprová - Modlitba (Slovakia 1998) Serverely underrated, this was a beautiful entry for Slovakia

36 MeKaDo - Wir geben 'ne Party (Germany 1994)

37 Şebnem Paker - Beşinci Mevsim (Turkey 1996)

38 Charmed - My Heart Goes Boom (Norway 2000)

39 Catherine Ferry - Un Deux Trois (France 1976)

40 Eimear Quinn - The Voice (Ireland 1996) A bit overrated, but I didn't mind it winning despite One More Time and Gina G deserving it more

 

41 Hara & Andreas Konstantinou - Mana Mou (Cyprus 1997) One of Cyprus' better entries, if somewhat forgotten about now

42 Vanna - Strings Of My Heart (Croatia 2001)

43 New Seekers - Beg Steal Or Borrow (United Kingdom 1972)

44 Anne-Marie David - Tu te reconnaîtras/Wonderful Dream (Luxemborug 1973) Yes, I do like it a lot too!

45 Lulu - Boom Bang-A-Bang (United Kingdom 1969)

46 Dschinghis Khan - Dschinghis Khan (Germany 1979)

47 Sonia - Better The Devil You Know (United Kingdom 1993) :kink:

48 Belle & The Devotions - Love Games (United Kingdom 1984)

49 Precious - Say It Again (United Kingdom 1999)

50 Sverre Kjelsberg & Mattis Hætta - Sámiid Ædnan (Norway 1980) Mattis is so adorable!

I watched 2001's contest the other day and I thought Vanna's Strings of My Heart was criminally underrated in the voting!

One of Croatia's better tracks IMO! :)

Because I didn't have much better to do last night, I worked out my top 50 pre-2002 entries...

 

01 ABBA - Waterloo (Sweden 1974) Pretty obvious choice of number one, but nothing comes anywhere near Waterloo

10 Imaani - Where Are You? (United Kingdom 1998) A very well deserved runner up to Dana International

16 Natasha St-Pier - Je n'ai que mon âme (France 2001) A fine example of France doing what they do best! I remember this caused somewhat of a stir as it was the first French performance in a while, possibly ever (?), to contain English. That last chorus on the night was magnificent!

27 Lindsay - No Dream Impossible (United Kingdom 2001) I may well be alone here, but I really liked both of these UK entries!

40 Eimear Quinn - The Voice (Ireland 1996) A bit overrated, but I didn't mind it winning despite One More Time and Gina G deserving it more

 

I could go on much longer than I had if I'd have known it was pre-2002, the 2001 contest was amazing for me, the first I looned for, did the topic title change from pre-2000 to pre-2002 at some point? Anyway, my comments on yours;

 

1. Surprisingly, I skip this more often than not when listening to ABBA Gold or whatnot but that's testament to the rest of their spectacular back catalogue as opposed to a slight on this track, which is still a solid 9.5/10 for me :lol:

10. This was so fresh in 1998, it didn't exactly sound out of place in the charts at the time - which is a good thing when it comes to Eurovision imo, why we get a load of dated turd year after year is beyond me when some countries continually pull something modern and fresh out of the bag. Imaani put on a great performance too.

16. Stunning song, perhaps my favourite French entry ever - flawless performance of a flawless song

27. I didn't care for Nicki French but you're not alone with Lindsay D, shoehorned in rap aside I thought that this was excellent, a #2 hit in my personal chart

40. Definitely, it didn't deserve another Irish win but top three/four most definitely, I love that violin solo in the middle :wub:

I could go on much longer than I had if I'd have known it was pre-2002, the 2001 contest was amazing for me, the first I looned for, did the topic title change from pre-2000 to pre-2002 at some point? Anyway, my comments on yours;

 

1. Surprisingly, I skip this more often than not when listening to ABBA Gold or whatnot but that's testament to the rest of their spectacular back catalogue as opposed to a slight on this track, which is still a solid 9.5/10 for me :lol:

10. This was so fresh in 1998, it didn't exactly sound out of place in the charts at the time - which is a good thing when it comes to Eurovision imo, why we get a load of dated turd year after year is beyond me when some countries continually pull something modern and fresh out of the bag. Imaani put on a great performance too.

16. Stunning song, perhaps my favourite French entry ever - flawless performance of a flawless song

27. I didn't care for Nicki French but you're not alone with Lindsay D, shoehorned in rap aside I thought that this was excellent, a #2 hit in my personal chart

40. Definitely, it didn't deserve another Irish win but top three/four most definitely, I love that violin solo in the middle :wub:

 

01 - ABBA definitely had stronger songs than Waterloo, but I think one of the reasons I love Waterloo so much is that it's by far the strongest song they produced in that era. I mean, compared to songs like Sitting In The Palmtree and King Kong Song, Waterloo is an unquestionable masterpiece! It's hard to believe all three songs come from the same album :lol:

10 - I completely agree! It was the last time we sent something current to the contest. Blue came close, but even I Can was more similar to music that was popular here a few years beforehand.

27 - The rap did let it down somewhat, as did a couple of Lindsay's notes on the night, but at least the final note was spot on! It was a pretty decent performance on the whole from someone with so little experience though!

40 - I agree, excellent instrumentalisation!

CatCat - Bye Bye Baby video FOUND. UTTERLY AMAZING

 

http://www.zappinternet.com/video/ZeYwToyM...at-Bye-Bye-Baby

I did think you were exaggerating but you're definitely NOT.

 

*.*

GREATEST FINNISH ENTRY EVER