Hey everyone! Since there's bound to be some downtime between now and December when the 2008 action gets going, I thought I'd put together another little chart like last year. Eurovision changed alot in several ways at the dawn of the new milennium, and I thought I'd give the post-2000 songs a chart of their own, especially as the majority of people on here are more familiar with these songs.

 

This time however it is not my personal chart. My personal opinion of the songs does not come into it. I've taken into account several factors including the success on the night, the chart success, whether the act managed to forge a career afterwards, public opinion of the song, and how much it was talked about at the time, to come up with the ultimate Top 40 Eurovision songs of the 21st Century.

 

The countdown will start soon....any predictions? :D

Lordi, Paparizou or Ruslana in #1.

I'd like to see Antique do well. :D

OK then here goes!

 

40. GERMANY 2004 - Max - Can't Wait Until Tonight

Max was the first German entry in years to have major chart success in his home country, reaching number one and becoming one of the biggest selling songs of the year. After winning Stefan Raab's (Germany 2000) search for a Eurovision singer, he was entered in the national final as a wildcard, where he beat off established acts like Scooter, with a gobsmacking 93% of the votes! He performed his mellow jazzy song, written by 2000 entry Stefan Raab (who had also written Guildo Horn's 1998 song), with a chorus in Turkish at the final in Istanbul, and took home 93 points to finish in 8th place. Since then he has released two albums and toured with Katie Melua. Max has the 40th most successful Eurovision song of the new milennium.

 

Eurovision Performance

 

More soon!

I like this song. ^_^ Pleasant song, should've done better I feel. :( The last big four song to have done particularly well too. :(

39. SWEDEN 2001 - The Friends - Listen To Your Heartbeat

Since the huge ABBA revival in 1999, the Swedish public seem to be quite fond of sending songs inspired by the music of the supergroup to the Contest. These tend to be the kinds of songs that have fared well for Sweden in the 21st Century - probably the best example being "Listen To Your Heartbeat" by the Friends. Formed as part of a reality TV show in 1999, they made it to the 2001 Contest after missing out in the 2000 edition of Melodifestivalen. The song was the first ever instance of admitted plagurism in Eurovision, but not of ABBA - of Belgium's 1996 entry by Lisa Del Bo. Despite not having been heard of much since the Contest (they split soon after), their 100 points resulting in a 5th place finish are enough to get them into the Top 40.

 

Music Video

Good song, one of the better Swedish songs in recent years I think. ^_^ Their songs are usually of a high standard too. :wub:

That was amaze, I had a LTYH revival a few weeks ago :heart: It's like a high-paced version of The Winner Takes It All :wub:

That was amaze, I had a LTYH revival a few weeks ago :heart: It's like a high-paced version of The Winner Takes It All :wub:

 

Not sure whether that's a good thing.

 

There have been Swedish songs copying the Abba style in recent years, but that song was just a complete and utter rip-off!

38. NORWAY 2005 - Wig Wam - In My Dreams

 

Glam, Teeny, Flash and Sporty make up Wig Wam, the glam rock back from Norway who took Europe by surprise in 2005! They formed in 2001, and after winning "Melodi Grand Prix" and qualifying for the final, they managed to get 125 points to come 9th and gain a cult following all over Europe. In their performance at Kiev, Glam the lead singer used an orange bandana for the show, to represent the "Orange Revolution" that had taken place in Ukraine months before. After five albums to date, the band are still going strong in Norway.

 

Music Video

 

More coming soon!

 

 

Oh, I liked that ^_^

Horrible entry imo. :( Glad it didn't win!

Horrible entry imo. :( Glad it didn't win!

 

I thought it was great! I always support entries that aren't the usual middle-of-the-road Carola-esque pop.

I thought it was great! I always support entries that aren't the usual middle-of-the-road Carola-esque pop.

Yes, but we don't get much Carola-esque pop these days apart from the odd entry that fails to make it out of the semis (Kate Ryan et al), the infrequent entry that isn't by Sweden in the finals, and then the large majority of Sweden's entries :lol:

 

May explain why I love Sweden so much :wub:

Yes, but we don't get much Carola-esque pop these days apart from the odd entry that fails to make it out of the semis (Kate Ryan et al), the infrequent entry that isn't by Sweden in the finals, and then the large majority of Sweden's entries :lol:

 

May explain why I love Sweden so much :wub:

 

Well that's not strictly true. The vast majority of diverse or inventive songs were knocked out of the semis this year. If you listened to all 42 songs, then you'd hear a wide wide range of styles and genres, but if you just listen to the 24 that made it to the final, it would seem like any other year.

Maybe this year was a little different, but 2006 was definitely a year for typical Eurovision fare....including this example....

 

37. GREECE 2006 - Anna Vissi - Everything

Anna Vissi had entered Eurovision twice before: once for Greece (1980) and once for her home country of Cyprus (1982), but since then, she had become a superstar in that part of the world. It was a big deal for the home nation, Greece secured Anna Vissi for their entry, and it looked like she had it in the bag, getting Greece two wins in a row. The song, co-written by Anna Vissi herself, was the clear favourite to win until the week of the Contest, and most of Europe thought there would be no stopping it. The music video was among the most watched on Youtube that year and the single reached number one in both Greece and Cyprus. Taking all this into account, this song would probably be alot higher in the Top 40 had it managed to gather more than only 128 points and finish higher than a disappointing 9th place.

 

Music Video

I think Lordi will be no 1. Appearantly they have been touring in the USA (Ozzfest I think) and managed to gain quite decent following and I don't think any other participant this decade has managed that. Nor the huge press it got when it won. And it was top five hit in many countries, such as Germany.

 

Other ones that I think will chart high are Olson Brothers (made top ten in Germany and some other countries etc), Jessica Garlick (didn't really make many headlines or anything but the sole success UK has had this century so this might help it higher than otherwise would have been), tATu (obviously big headlines when they entered even thou the song didn't chart), Ruslana (it was big in some Eastern European countries), Vanilla Ninja (very popular a few years ago in Middle Europe), Helena Paparizou (some success around Europe), Carola (ESC icon who gained lots of headlines when entered 3rd time and the song very popular among ESC enthusiasts), Mihai Traistariu (very popular in Eastern Europe and just like Carola's song this is still huge among the ESC crowd), Verka Serduchka (made into UK top 30 as a dl and made even French top ten...and all the headlines it created because of the performance and the controversial lyrics). All these will probably chart high but Lordi has it in the bag.

 

And the songs so far, I've liked Wig Wam, Friends, and Anna Vissi. Max had a dull song.

And now here, like Anna, is another song that promised much but failed to deliver....in spectacular fashion!

 

36. RUSSIA 2003 - tATu - Ne Ver Ne Bojsia

In 2003, everyone in Europe had heard of TATU, and were probably surprised when they agreed to represent Russia at Eurovision. It was all anybody in Eurovision circles could talk about that year, and they were clear favourites to win. Unfortunately, the whole week turned out to be one big publicity stunt for the band. Not only did they not win (they came 3rd with 164 points), but they were booed on and off stage, gave what has been widely remembered as a very disappointing performance, free of any promised controversy, and took quite some time to recover from the Eurovision "mistake." While tATu are still popular in Russia, they have lost touch with alot of the European market they once conquered, possibly because of the Eurovision memory, and despite finishing in the top 3, they can only make it to 36 on this countdown.

 

Live at St. Petersburg, 2006

 

 

Anna Vissi and TATU both had good songs imo. ^_^ Glad neither of them won though, there were many other far more worthy songs in both contests.

More tomorrow folks :D