1956: Jetty Paerl - De Vogels Van Holland (Netherlands)

 

 

Composed in the chanson style characteristic of the contest's early years, the song is about the titular "birds of Holland". Paerl sings that they are especially musical, learning to "twitter in their early youth / So they can celebrate spring in Holland". She goes on to explain that it is the unique nature of the Dutch climate and the faithfulness of Dutch girls that cause the birds of the country to sing. It appears, indeed, that Holland's birds actually sing lyrics, as they are contrasted with "the French birds", "the Japanese birds" and "the Chinese birds", all of which sing "tudeludelu" (a sound roughly approximating birdsong).

Edited March 14, 201312 yr by AlexRange

 

1957: Birthe Wilke & Gustav Winckler - Skibet Skal Sejle I Nat (Denmark)

 

 

"Skibet skal sejle i nat" ("The ship is leaving tonight") was the Danish entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1957, performed in Danish by Birthe Wilke and Gustav Winckler and consequently the first time Danish was heard in the Eurovision.

 

The song is a love duet, with the singers parting before one of them takes a sea voyage on the ship of the title. Additionally, the song is famous for the kiss the duo exchanged at the end of the performance - the longest stage kiss in Contest history, made so by a stagehand omitting to signal for it to end.

 

While the Contest was still predominantly a radio show at the time, the conservative social mores ensured that this event has entered Eurovision folklore. Indeed, at the late 2005 Congratulations special, hosts Katrina Leskanich and Renars Kaupers pretended to re-enact it, only to have Wilke herself appear between them.

 

1958: Lys Assia - Giorgio (Switzerland)

 

 

It was performed in German and Italian. It was the first song to be performed in more than one language in the Eurovision Song Contest.

The song was performed by Lys Assia, winner for Switzerland at the 1956 contest, and was composed by Paul Burkhard and Fridolin Tschudi.

 

Lys Assia is a Swiss singer who won the first Eurovision Song Contest in 1956. When Lys Assia was a young girl she was a dancer. In 1940, however, she stood in for a female singer. People who heard her singing liked it, so she changed from dancing to singing. In 1956 she was the winner of the very first Eurovision Song Contest, in which she sang for Switzerland. She had also been in the German national final of that year and returned to the contest again for Switzerland in 1957 and 1958.

 

In September 2011, Assia entered her song "C'était ma vie" written by Ralph Siegel and Jean Paul Cara into the Swiss national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in Baku, Azerbaijan. The song, however, only came eighth in a closely fought national selection. She attended the event in Baku as a guest of honour. In 2012, Assia entered the Swiss National Final Die grosse Entscheidungs Show to represent Switzerland in Malmö at the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 with the song "All In Your Head" featuring the hip-hop band New Jack.

 

 

 

1959: Alice & Ellen Kessler - Heute Abend Wollen Wir Tanzen Geh'n (Germany)

 

 

"Heute Abend wollen wir tanzen geh'n" ("Tonight We Want to Go Dancing") was the German entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1959, performed in German by Alice & Ellen Kessler, also known as the Kessler Twins. The song is a moderately up-tempo number, with the singers suggesting to a boy that they all go dancing "without a break till tomorrow morning".

 

Alice and Ellen Kessler are twins popular in Europe, especially Germany and Italy, from the 1950s and 1960s and until today for their singing, dancing and acting. They are usually credited as the Kessler Twins, and remain popular today. In the USA, they were not as popular but appeared in the 1963 film Sodom and Gomorrah as dancers and appeared on the cover of Life Magazine in that year.

 

Their parents, Paul and Elsa, sent them to ballet classes at the age of six, and they joined the Leipzig Opera's child ballet program at age 11. When they were 18, their parents used a visitor's visa to escape to West Germany, where they performed at the Palladium in Düsseldorf. They performed at The Lido in Paris between 1955 and 1960, and represented West Germany in the 1959 Eurovision Song Contest, finishing in 8th place with Heute Abend wollen wir tanzen geh'n (Tonight we want to go dancing). They moved to Italy in 1960 and gradually moved to more serious roles, but moved back to Germany in 1986 and currently live in Munich.

 

 

 

1960: Jacqueline Boyer - Tom Pillibi(France)

 

 

"Tom Pillibi" was the winning song of the Eurovision Song Contest 1960, sung in French by Jacqueline Boyer. This was France's second victory in the first five years of the Contest.

 

The song is a moderately up-tempo number, with the singer talking about her lover - the title character. She describes his material wealth (two castles, ships, other women wanting to be with him) before admitting that he has "only one fault", that being that he is "such a liar" and that none of what she had previously said about him was true. Nonetheless, she sings, she still loves him.

 

In what would become increasingly the norm over Contest history, the English version of the song, while still about the same man, conveyed quite a different impression. In this version, Tom is a compulsive womaniser and not to be trusted at all. Perhaps as a result of this, Des Mangan's book on Contest history confuses the issue further by describing the song as being about "A man with two castles and two boats and who's generally a right bast*rd, but she still loves him anyway." Boyer also recorded a German language version of the song, under the same title.

 

 

 

 

1961: Greetje Kauffeld - Wat Een Dag (Netherlands)

 

 

"Wat een dag" ("What a day") was the Dutch entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1961, performed in Dutch by Greetje Kauffeld. The song is sung from the perspective of a young woman experiencing love and generally finding the world to be a lovely place. She sings, for example, that "I have even picked some flowers unpunished/In the park across the street", lending credence to her belief that this is truly her day.

 

Greetje Kauffeld is a Dutch jazz singer and Schlager musician who represented the Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest 1961. Music was Greetjes most loyal companion in her early years. Days on end she would listen to the radio or play Doris Day and Frank Sinatra records. “That’s how I learned to sing” she says, “by singing along with them”. Sinatra and Day were excellent teachers. From the latter Kauffeld adopted the ability to come very close to her listeners, to endear and to move them. From the Voice she learned phrasing. She was so engrossed in all this that she mastered the pronunciation of the English language even before completing primary school. Lyrics were very important to her and still are. Thirteen years old, Greetje appeared on radio for the very first time.

 

On February 1, 1957 she was contracted with THE SKYMASTERS, launching her professional career which soon turned international, due to her participation in the Festival de Canzone in Venice (Italy). The Dutch delegation with Mieke Telkamp, Christine Spierenburg, Willy Alberti, Johnny Jordaan, Greetje and the Zaaiers Band led by Jos Cleber won first prize: the Golden Gondola. As a result of this success famous German bandleader Werner Müller invited Greetje for a guest performance with his RIAS Big Band in Berlin.

 

In 1986 she formed a unique trio, only consisting of her voice, guitar (Peter Nieuwerf) and saxophone (Ruud Brink and later Jan Menu). This unusual combination and its musical results illustrate her willfulness, her guts and her justified self-confidence. The albums “The Song is You” and “On my Way to You” (featuring only Alan and Marilyn Bergman lyrics) display how her ability to empathize with words and music is successfully pushed to its limits.

 

“To me each song is a story” she says. “I live the lyrics that I sing; I let them enfold me, like an actor treats his lines”. This strong identification with the lyrics she sings determines the character of her performance.

 

 

 

 

1962: Conny Froboess - Zwei Kleine Italiener (Germany)

 

 

"Zwei kleine Italiener" ("Two little Italians") was the German entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1962, performed in German by Conny Froboess.

 

The song (with lyrics by Georg Buschor and music by Christian Bruhn) is a moderately up-tempo number in the schlager genre, with Froboess describing the plight of two gastarbeiter from Italy who wish to return to their homeland to be with their girlfriends, Tina and Marina. She contrasts this situation with that of the rest of German society (at the time undergoing the Wirtschaftswunder largely as a result of immigrant labour), for whom "a journey to the South is something chic and fine". The two Italians, it seems, despair of ever returning to Naples. This unusual subject matter marks the first time that a social issue was described in a Contest entry.

 

Despite its middle-of-the-table finish, the song has become a minor favourite among Contest fans. Froboess herself recorded versions of the song in English (as "Gino"), Dutch ("Twee kleine Italianen") and Italian ("Un bacio all'italiana"). Of these, only the Dutch version relates to the same topic. The English version is a love song to a man named Gino, while the Italian version describes her preference for lovers from that country.

 

The song was also widely covered throughout Europe and the rest of the world in a number of other languages; in Spanish as "Los dos italianitos", in the francophone countries as "Cheveux fous et lèvres roses", in Scandinavia in Danish, Norwegian and Swedish under the title "Tina & Marina" (in Sweden with lyrics by future ABBA manager Stig Anderson), in Finland as "Tina ja Marina" and in the United States Connie Francis subsequently covered Froboess' Italian version of the song, "Un bacio all'italiana".

 

 

 

1963: Heidi Bruhl - Marcel (Germany)

 

 

"Marcel" was the German entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1963, performed in German by Heidi Brühl.

 

The song is sung from the perspective of a young woman telling her lover (the titular Marcel) that he is moving too quickly for her. She tells him that "only a gentleman has a chance with me" and that he needs to respect that. Brühl also recorded the song in English.

 

Heidi Rosemarie Brühl was a German singer and actress who came to prominence as a young teenager and had a prolific career in film and television. She was also a successful recording artist, and is known for her participation in the 1963 Eurovision Song Contest.

 

Brühl first screen appearance was in the 1954 film Der letzte Sommer with Liselotte Pulver, but it was in the role of Dalli, in what became known as the "Immenhof films", that she became famous in Germany. Die Mädels vom Immenhof, adapted from a novel by children's writer Ursula Bruns, appeared in 1955 and was followed by two sequels, Hochzeit auf Immenhof and Ferien auf Immenhof, at yearly intervals. In 1959, Brühl obtained a record deal with the Philips label, and her first single "Chico Chico Charlie" reached #5. In 1960 her recording of "Wir Wollen Niemals Auseinandergeh'n" or "(We Will Never Part) (Ring of Gold)" sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.

 

Brühl first took part in the German Eurovision selection in 1960 with the Michael Jary-composed "Wir wollen niemals auseinandergehen" ("We Never Want to Be Apart"), which finished in second place but went on to top the German singles chart for nine weeks. She participated again in 1963, and this time was successful when the song "Marcel" was chosen to go forward to the eighth Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 23 March in London. "Marcel" finished the evening in ninth place of 16 entries. Brühl also co-starred with Guy Williams in the 1963 classic film Captain Sindbad.

 

Brühl met American actor Brett Halsey, and moved with him to Rome, where they married in December 1964. In 1970, she moved to the USA where she appeared in shows in Las Vegas and played in television series such as Columbo. Brühl returned to Germany to play in two further Immenhof sequels in 1973/1974, Zwillinge vom Immenhof and Frühling auf Immenhof. She appeared in The Eiger Sanction in 1975. Brühl and Halsey divorced in 1976, and she returned to live in Germany the following year. She did dubbing work on films such as The Never Ending Story and Look Who's Talking Too, and her last roles were in television serials such as Ein Fall für zwei and Praxis Bülowbogen.

 

-

Edited July 2, 201411 yr by Alex.

 

1965: France Gall - Poupee De Cire, Poupee De Son (Luxembourg)

 

 

"Poupee de cire, poupee de son" was the winning entry in the Eurovision Song Contest of 1965. It was performed in French by French singer France Gall, representing Luxembourg. Composed by Serge Gainsbourg, it was the first song to win Eurovision that was not a ballad. As is common with Gainsbourg's lyrics, the words are filled with double meanings, wordplay, and puns. The title can be translated as "Wax doll, Sawdust doll" (a floppy doll stuffed with sawdust) or as "Doll of wax, Doll of sound" (with implications that Gall is a "singing doll" controlled by Gainsbourg).

 

Sylvie Simmons wrote that the song is about "the ironies and incongruities inherent in baby pop"—that "the songs young people turn to for help in their first attempts at discovering what life and love are about are sung by people too young and inexperienced themselves to be of much assistance, and condemned by their celebrity to be unlikely to soon find out."

 

This sense of being a "singing doll" for Gainsbourg reached a peak when he wrote "Les Sucettes" ("Lollipops") for Gall.

 

The day after her Eurovision victory the single had sold 16,000 copies in France, four months later it had sold more than 500,000 copies.

 

The central image of the song is that singer identifies herself as a wax doll (poupée de cire), a sawdust doll (poupée de son), and a fashion doll (poupée de salon). Her heart is engraved in her songs; she sees life through the bright, rose-tinted glasses of her songs. Is she better or worse than a fashion doll?

 

Her recordings are like a mirror where anyone can see her. Through her recordings, it is as though she has been smashed into a thousand shards of voice and scattered so that she is everywhere at once. This central image is extended, as she refers to her listeners as rag dolls (poupées de chiffon) who laugh, dance to the music, and allow themselves to be seduced for any reason or no reason at all. But love is not just in songs, and the singer asks herself what good it is to sing about love when she herself knows nothing about boys. The two concluding verses seem to refer to Gall herself. In them, she sings that she is nothing but a wax doll, a sawdust doll, under the sun of her blond hair. But someday she, the wax doll and sawdust doll, will be able to actually live her songs without fearing the warmth of boys.

 

At a young age, France Gall was too naïve to understand the second meaning of the lyrics. She felt she was used by Gainsbourg throughout this period, most notably after the song "Sucettes", which was literally about lollipops, but with multiple double entendres referring to oral sex.

 

 

 

 

 

1966: Ann Christine Nystrom - Playboy (Finland)

 

 

Ann-Christine Nystrom is a Finnish singer who performed on the Eurovision contest in 1966 in Luxembourg with the song Playboy.

 

She chose to end her musical career in 1973 after 11 years in showbiz, and has been living in Stockholm, Sweden, since 1976. In spite of Swedish being her native language she recorded all her songs in Finnish or English. Her current occupation is opera singer.

 

 

1967: Vicky Leandros - L'amour Est Bleu (Luxembourg)

 

 

"L'amour est bleu" ("Love Is Blue") is a song whose music was composed by Andre Popp, and whose lyrics were written by Pierre Cour, in 1967. Brian Blackburn later wrote English-language lyrics for it. First performed in French by Greek singer Vicky Leandros as the Luxembourgian entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1967, it has since been recorded by many other musicians, most notably French orchestra leader Paul Mauriat, whose familiar instrumental version became the only number-one hit by a French artist to top the Billboard Hot 100 in America.

 

The song describes the pleasure and pain of love in terms of colours (blue and grey) and elements (water and wind). The English lyrics ("Blue, blue, my world is blue …") focus on colours only (blue, grey, red, green, and black), using them to describe elements of lost love. The English version by Vicky Leandros also appeared as "Colours of Love" in some locations including the UK.

 

Some forty years after its original release, "L'amour est bleu" still counts as one of very few non-winning Eurovision entries ever to become a worldwide hit.

 

Greek-born Leandros recorded the song both in French and English, and had a modest hit in Europe with it, but in Japan and Canada she had a big hit with this song. She also recorded it in German ("Blau wie das Meer"), Italian ("L'amore e blu") and Dutch ("Liefde is zacht") . The song has since become a favourite of Contest fans, most notably appearing as part of a medley introducing the semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 in Athens.

 

"L'amour est bleu"/"Love Is Blue" is noted as one of the most-covered and biggest-selling Eurovision Songs ever, and remains a widely familiar melody due in part to its continued recurrence in pop-culture mediums.

 

1968: Kristina Hautala - Kun Kello Kay (Finland)

 

 

"Kun Kello Kay" ("When time goes by") was the Finnish entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1968, performed in Finnish by Kristina Hautala.

 

Written by Esko Linnavalli and lyricist Juha Vainio, "Kun Kello Kay" was introduced by Hautala on an YLE TV2 broadcast on February 10 1968 on which Hautala and five other singers: Anki, Johnny, Irina Milan, Aarno Raninen and Inga Sulin, each performed one of the six songs being considered to be that year's Finnish entrant at Eurovision. For the first time in Finland's Eurovision participation which dated from 1961, the Finnish Eurovision entrant was selected based on ballots mailed in by the viewing public: on February 17 1968. "Kun Kello Kay" was announced as the top vote-getter and therefore Hautala would perform her number to represent Finland at Eurovision 1968.

 

At the close of voting, "Kun Kello Kay" had received 1 point, only the judge from Norway having voted for the song which resultantly shared last place - 16th in a field of 17 - in a tie with Ronnie Tober representing the Netherlands with the song "Morgen". Two of Finland's prior Eurovision bids had received zero points but in neither instance had the relevant song been viewed as a real contender: it was the poor showing of "Kun Kello Kay" at Eurovision 1968 which consolidated the long standing perception of that nation's Eurovision participation being risible.

 

Hautala also recorded ""Kun Kello Kay"" in Swedish as "Vanta och se" ("Wait and See") whose lyrics were written by legendary Stig Anderson.

 

 

Until the Vicky Leandros & France Gall tracks I mostly don't know these, so would probably pick Volare or Are You Sure for early tracks, but Love Is Blue is a great song. Had I been charting in early/mid 1968 the instrumental version by Paul mauriat would definitely have been a Number One in mychart! France Gall is a sweet record, only got to know it properly in the last few years, but it's engaging (and a little naughty). Serge gainsbourg had a number one in my chart though with a VERY naughty record....!

 

cheers

john

 

1969: Lulu - Boom Bang-a-Bang (United Kingdom)

 

 

Boom Bang-a-Bang" was the United Kingdom entry to the Eurovision Song Contest 1969. It was sung by Lulu, and was co-written by Alan Moorhouse and Peter Warne. It was the joint winner with three other entries.

 

The song was the second consecutive entry with a nonsense title to win the contest (after Massiel's triumph in 1968 with "La La La"), and became infamous in the comedy world - most notably inspiring Monty Python's Flying Circus to parody it with "Bing Tiddle-Tiddle Bong" (Python precursor I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again had previously had Bill Oddie do something similar with a song for which the title was rendered entirely in sound effects).

 

Lyrically, the song is a plea from the singer to her lover to "cuddle me tight". She then goes on to explain that "my heart goes boom bang-a-bang boom bang-a-bang when you are near", complete with appropriate musical accompaniment. The single made UK # 2 in the singles charts and was a major hit throughout Europe.

 

Over two decades after its first release, the song was included on a blacklist of banned songs issued by the BBC during the 1991 Gulf War.

The song is the theme tune to the 2010 BBC Three sitcom Him & Her.

 

1970 : Dana - All Kinds Of Everything (Ireland)

 

 

"All Kinds of Everything" is a song written by Derry Lindsay and Jackie Smith; as performed by Dana. "All Kinds of Everything" represented a return to the ballad form from the more energetic performances which had dominated Eurovision the previous years. Dana sings about all the things which remind her of her sweetheart, with the admission at the end of every verse that "all kinds of everything remind me of you". The recording by Dana became an international hit.

 

Dana had competed in the 1969 Irish National Song Contest — she was a resident of Northern Ireland and citizen of the United Kingdom but it was decided that year to have the Irish entry in Eurovision represent the island of Ireland in its entirety rather than just the Republic of Ireland. Although in 1970 the Irish Eurovision entry reverted to representing the Republic of Ireland only, Dana had made such a favorable impression in the previous year's Irish National Song Contest - her performance of "Look Around" had come second - that the contest's producer Tom McGrath invited her to participate again singing "All Kinds of Everything," a composition by Derry Lindsay and Jackie Smith, two twenty-eight year old amateur songwriters who worked as compositors for a Dublin newspaper.

 

Dana's performance of "All Kinds of Everything" won the 1970 Irish National Song Contest and that 21 March - a Saturday - she performed the song at the Eurovision Song Contest held in Amsterdam. Dana was the twelfth and final performer on the night. Ireland chose not to send its own conductor to accompany Dana, so Dolf van der Linden, the renowned musical leader of the Dutch Metropole Orchestra, conducted his own orchestra for the Irish entry. Dana sang seated on a stool fashioned as a cylinder which left her feet suspended above the floor and caused her concern that she'd slide off. However Dana performed the song with the self-possession she had displayed at rehearsals, when the production team had her rise from her stool mid-performance to accommodate a set adjustment she continued singing regardless and earned a standing ovation from the orchestra.

 

"All Kinds of Everything" took first place in the contest with a total of 32 votes besting second place "Knock, Knock Who's There?" by wonderful Mary Hopkin by seven points. 1970 had augured to be an off year for Eurovision with five nations boycotting the contest and an apparently predictable outcome with a victory by Hopkin or possibly Julio Iglesias. The surprise victory of "All Kinds of Everything" by the ingenuous Dana made 1970 one of the most memorable Eurovision contests.

 

The entry was politically sensitive as Dana came from Derry in Northern Ireland, yet was representing Ireland, not the United Kingdom. At this time The Troubles in Northern Ireland were erupting, and some people found political symbolism of a Northern Irishwoman representing the Republic. On the other hand, the United Kingdom's entry the following year was sung by Clodagh Rodgers, who was also from Northern Ireland. Following her victory Dana returned to Derry and sang her victorious song to a crowd of cheering wellwishers from a balcony in the city.

 

The record was released on 14 March 1970 on the Rex label for whom Dana had previously recorded four singles (including "Look Around") and became a massive hit in the Republic of Ireland even prior to its Eurovision win reaching #1 on the chart dated 20 March 1970 and remaining at #1 for nine weeks: in October 1970 Dana received a gold disc for "All Kinds of Everything" selling 100,000 units in Ireland. In the UK "All Kinds of Everything" was #1 for the weeks dated 18 April and 25 April 1970.

 

A #2 hit in the 1970 Eurovision host nation the Netherlands, "All Kinds of Everything" was also a hit in Austria (#7), Germany (#4), New Zealand (#8), South Africa (#7), Switzerland (#3). In Australia the release of Dana's "All Kinds of Everything" was preceded by a cover by Melburnian singer Pat Carroll whose version reached #25 before the Dana original charted to be ranked jointly with Carroll's version: the highest position this joint ranking reached was #34. "All Kinds of Everything" also charted in Italy but failed to become a major hit with a #58 peak.

 

Overall sales for Dana's "All Kinds of Everything" are estimated at two million units.

 

 

 

1971 : Clodagh Rodgers - Jack In A Box (United Kingdom)

 

 

"Jack in the Box", written by David Myers and composed by John Worsley, was the United Kingdom's entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 1971, performed by the Northern Irish singer Clodagh Rodgers.

 

The singer expresses her strong feelings of love to a man who treats her like a toy, thus providing the "jack in the box" simile, as she feels that in exchange of his love, she would gladly "bounce on a spring" like the aforementioned toy (but isn't so thrilled to do it without reciprocation). At the end of the song, however, she lets this man know that one day she will be fed up enough to leave, so she hopes he will tell her he loves her, as she will do anything (within a reasonable time frame) to hear those words.

 

On February 20, 1971, Clodagh Rodgers sang six songs at the UK National Final, A Song for Europe, which was aired on the television series It's Cliff Richard!. Rodgers was chosen by the BBC to be the United Kingdom's representative for that year, with the intent to ease tensions between Great Britain and Northern Ireland (severe fighting due to The Troubles had strained relations). Due to a postal service strike, regional juries voted and picked "Jack in the Box," the third song performed that evening, to accompany Rodgers to Dublin. Rodgers later stated that she received death threats from the Irish Republican Army for representing the United Kingdom at Eurovision.

 

In 1971, each national broadcaster were required to show "preview" videos; the BBC used footage from It's Cliff Richard! to showcase during Preview Week. For the performance Rodgers wore a pink frilly top and spangled hot pants. At the end of judging that evening, "Jack in the Box" took the fourth-place slot with 98 points. After Eurovision, the song placed at #4 on the UK Singles Chart. It remains her most famous hit.

 

This song features prominently in the Monty Python's Flying Circus episode, "The Cycling Tour", in which a motorist believes, as a result of head trauma, that he is Clodagh Rodgers.

 

 

 

1972 : Sandie Jones - Ceol An Ghra (Ireland)

 

 

My favourite BBC preview video.

 

"Ceol an Ghra" ("The Music of Love") was Ireland's entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1972, performed in Irish by Sandie Jones.

 

Lyrically, the song is a ballad, with Jones singing about hearing "the music of love" wherever she is. She sings about being in Tír na nÓg, the Land of the Young, a mystical place in Irish Mythology allowing whoever goes there to be forever young - it may also be metonymic for Ireland herself. During Preview Week, clips from Ireland's National Song Festival were interspersed with new footage of Jones singing on a cliff, walking on a footbridge, standing near the Two Working Men, and perhaps most famously, strutting in de rigueur fashions and platform shoes past awestruck Catholic schoolgirls. The video was also notable for short scenes which featured Jones in hot pants, which caused a stir in Ireland at the time.

 

Interestingly, while this was the only occasion on which Ireland performed in its own language. The performance was also the first of only two occasions so far on which a Celtic language has been heard at the Contest, with France entering the Eurovision Song Contest 1996 with the Breton language song "Diwanit Bugale". "Ceol an Ghra" was her first and most successful record from 5 singles.

 

"When Irish Eyes Are Smiling" also very good song and available on Youtube.

Edited December 27, 201212 yr by AlexRange

 

1973 : Maxi - Do I Dream (Ireland)

 

 

"Do I Dream" was the Irish entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1973, performed in English by Maxi. At the close of voting, it had received 80 points, placing it 10th in a field of 17.

 

The song is sung from the perspective of a young woman whose lover has just confessed his feelings for her. She asks him whether or not she is dreaming when she thinks of the wonderful future they will have together.

 

Maxi (Irene McCoubrey) is an Irish radio disc-jockey and producer; actor, journalist, and singer. She was nicknamed Maxi in school because of the "McC" letters in her name. She came to fame in Ireland as part of the popular girl band, Maxi, Dick and Twink, in the late 1960s.

 

She grew up in Dublin's Harold's Cross. At school she sang in the Little Dublin Singers before joining the Young Dublin Singers. It was in that choir that she was teamed with Barbara Dixon and Adele King - Dick and Twink respectively. The trio toured Ireland, the UK and Canada and recorded two singles. They also worked a session singers in Motown studios in Detroit, Michigan, before disbanding. Maxi pursued a career with Danny Doyle and Music Box before going solo. She represented Ireland twice in the Eurovision Song Contest: in 1973 singing "Do I Dream", and again in 1981 with Sheeba and their entry "Horoscopes". During her singing days she was under contract to the Holiday Inn group of hotels in Canada and the USA as well as headlining her own shows in such far-flung shores as Florida and Greece.

 

In the late 1970s, Maxi became part of the all-girl trio Sheeba, with Marion Fossett and Frances Campbell. After making several records, appearing all over Ireland and Europe, the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest, Sheeba's career came to halt following a road accident in 1982 in Mayo in the west of Ireland. Despite a short tour of Japan in 1983, the group realised they could no longer tour and broke up. Maxi embarked on a career in broadcasting with the Irish national broadcaster RTE. Working mainly on radio, she also took on some television work including a quiz show, presenting Ireland's lottery and fronting the Miss Ireland contest. In 1987 Maxi presented the selection contest for Eurovision alongside Marty Whelan. As an actor, she has performed in Dublin's Abbey Theatre and Cork Opera House.

 

 

1974 : ABBA - Waterloo (Sweden)

 

 

"Waterloo" was the first single from Swedish pop group ABBA's second album Waterloo, and their first for Epic and Atlantic. This was also the first single to be credited as "ABBA". The song won ABBA the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest on 6 April and began their path to worldwide fame. The Swedish version single was coupled with "Honey, Honey" (Swedish version), while the English version featured "Watch Out" as the B-side.

 

"Waterloo" was originally written as a song for the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest, after the group finished third with Ring Ring the previous year in the Swedish pre-selection contest, Melodifestivalen 1973. Since it focused on lead vocalists Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson chose it in place of another of their songs, "Hasta Mañana". "Waterloo" is about a girl who is about to surrender to romance, as Napoleon had to surrender at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

 

The song proved to be a good choice. It won Melodifestivalen 1974 (in Swedish) in February and won the Eurovision Song Contest 1974 (ESC) final on 6 April by six points.

"Waterloo" was originally written with simultaneous rock music and jazz beats (unusual for an ABBA song); this was later discarded in favour of more disco-esque rhythms. The song broke the "dramatic ballad" tradition of the Eurovision Song Contest by its flavour and rhythm, as well as by its performance: ABBA gave the audience something that had never been seen before in ESC: flashy costumes (including silver platform boots), plus a catchy uptempo song and even simple choreography. The group also broke from convention by singing the song in a language other than that of their home country; prior to "Waterloo" all Eurovision singers had been required to sing in their country's native tongue, a restriction that was lifted briefly in the 1970s (allowing "Waterloo" to be sung in English), then reinstated a few years later, then ultimately removed. Compared to later ABBA releases, the singers' Swedish accents are decidedly more pronounced in "Waterloo," as their understanding of the English language was limited.

 

Though it isn't well-known, Polar accidentally released a different version of "Waterloo" shortly after ABBA's Eurovision win before replacing it with the more famous version. The alternate version had a harder rock sound, omitting the saxophones, plus an additional "oh yeah" in the verses. The alternate version was commercially released in 2005 as part of The Complete Studio Recordings box set. However, it was this version that ABBA performed in the 1979 Europe/North American tour.

 

The "Waterloo" single introduced the world to the phenomenon that was to become ABBA. The song shot to #1 in the UK and stayed there for two weeks, becoming the first of the band's nine UK #1's, and the 16th biggest selling single of the year in the UK. It also hit the top of the charts in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, West Germany, Ireland, Norway, South Africa and Switzerland, while reaching the Top 3 in Austria, France, the Netherlands, Spain, and ABBA's native Sweden. (The tune did not reach #1 in their home country, its Swedish (#2) & English (#3) versions were beat out for the top spot by the Waterloo album [At the time Sweden had a combined Album and Singles Chart].) The song also spent 11 weeks on Svensktoppen (24 March - 2 June 1974), including 7 weeks at #1. Surprisingly, the song never made a huge impact in Italy, only reaching #14. In fact, ABBA would only achieve Top 10 success in Italy 3 times.

 

But the song's appeal transcended Europe; unlike other Eurovision-winning tunes, which are usually ignored outside the continent, "Waterloo" also reached the Top 10 in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and even the United States (peaking at #6, "Waterloo" is one of only two Eurovision winners, the other being "Save Your Kisses For Me", to be an American Top 40 hit). "Waterloo" is the only Eurovision song to reach the Top 10 in 15 countries. The Waterloo album performed similarly well in Europe, although in the US it failed to match the success of the single.

 

In 1994, "Waterloo" (along with several other ABBA hits) was included in the soundtrack of the film Muriel's Wedding. It was re-released in 2004 (with the same B-side), to celebrate its 30th anniversary, reaching #20 on the UK charts. On 22 October 2005, during the 50th celebration of the Eurovision Song Contest, "Waterloo" was chosen as the best song in the competition's history.