Results tagged “France” from Boom Bang a Blog

Eurovision was getting a popular thing to be part of in 1996. So much so, there simply wasn't enough room to accommodate the 29 nations wishing to participate in Olso. With that in mind, the organisers staged a preliminary round in the months leading up to the show where a group of juries sat and listened to studio recordings of every song (bar hosts Norway, the only country sure of a spot on the big night) and voted on them as though it were a rather sterile version of Big Eurovision. This sorted everyone out, with Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Israel, FYR Macedonia, Romania and Russia all missing out on a place in Norway. By dumping Germany (whose Kraftwerk-ish song was tipped for great things beforehand), those juries had rather foolishly removed one of the largest potential audiences for the show before it had even begun and the 1996 Contest remains the only one so far not to have an entry from Deutschland.

When 23 nations did assemble in Oslo's Spektrum Centre on May 18, some who did badly in the preliminary round soared up the scoreboard, while others who scored very well when the juries were just listening to the CD version nosedived.

Don't worry, we're going to show you the placing in both rounds for each entry so you can draw your own conclusions...

The film celebrating 40 Eurovision Song Contests which opened the 1995 event. Think of it as reminder of most of your Bluffer's Guides so far...

I wasn't impressed when Ireland won Eurovision for the third successive year in 1994. I therefore refused point blank to support the Irish squad who got to the World Cup in the USA that year (despite it being the tournament Graham Taylor couldn't lead England into) and, being young, naive and foolish, refused to like anything remotely linked with Ireland for the next 12 months. As I say, I certainly was young, naive and foolish as I have an Irish surname for a start.

Anyway, I'm sure you can imagine my reaction when smiley host Mary Kennedy appeared on stage at The Point - the only time the same venue has been used in two successive years - and welcomed viewers to "What has almost become the annual Eurovision Song Contest from Ireland."

I booed. Loudly. But the slightly smug tone Mary used when introducing everyone back to Ireland (again) would soon backfire on her. This was the year when some canny countries realised it was time to play the Irish at their own game. And win.

When Linda Martin won in 1992, it must have been inconceivable that the Contest would be held anywhere other than Dublin in 1993. But an entrepreneurial equestrian centre owner had other ideas. He wrote to RTE, the Irish broadcaster, on the very night Ms Martin took the trophy, suggesting that the Green Glens Arena in the tiny County Cork town of Millstreet would be the ideal setting for the 38th Eurovision Song Contest. The people at the telly admired his brass and so it came to pass that the Contest was heading for its least populous host town ever. Millstreet in 1993 had a population of around 1,500.

And so, this lush speck on the map became the setting for one of the most highly publicised Eurovisions of the decade. Three former Yugoslavian states made their debut. Luxembourg said goodbye for good and Italy sort-of-did too. Switzerland had its last top five showing to date and the stage looked a bit like a paper plane.

But all that was overshadowed by one of the most nailbiting finishes ever, when the UK possibly counted the cost of snubbing the Maltese entry in Malmo.

When hosts Harold Treutiger and Lydia Capolicchio (that doesn't sound very Swedish) introduced the watching world to Eurovision 1992, the former described it as "the greatest gameshow in the world."

Boom Bang a Blog would like to think there's a bit more to the Contest than it being a glorified version of Bullseye - but there is a sense that, from this point on, Eurovision enjoyed a renaissance of popularity where its public appeal had slumped from the late '70s and much of the '80s.

Swedish rules then dictated that, in the event of a Eurovision victory, the city which hosted the national final that produced the champ would then stage the Contest proper. As Sweden's third city of Malmo played host to the 1991 Melodifestivalen, where Carola won the ticket to Rome, the destination of the 37th Eurovision Song Contest was therefore assured the moment Frank Naef announced that Fangad Av En Stormvind had more 10s than the French song with the very long title twelve months earlier.

How much you enjoy the 1991 Eurovision Song Contest depends on how much you enjoy watching an already lackadaisical production completely collapse around itself. The main hurdle concerning an Italian-hosted Eurovision is that the Song Contest itself was inspired by the San Remo Festival, the composition competition which remains big news in Italy each year and is held in much higher esteem across the wider music world than its pan-European little brother. With that in mind, why go to all the trouble of giving a hamburger the hard sell when you've got allcomers flocking to sample your sirloin steak?

Eurovision 1990 is the very first one I watched. It was to be another two years before the Contest would become personal appointment TV for one Saturday night a year, but it is certainly the first one I can ever remember the BBC devoting a fair bit of publicity to before the big night - perhaps because it was one year when they were fairly confident of victory. How wrong they were...

But we'll get back to Britain in a bit. The truly chronic Rock Me brought Yugoslavia its first opportunity to host the competition in a year when the staging state - and a few others - were either starting or on the brink of serious upheaval. The Berlin Wall had fallen between Riva's victory and the 35th Eurovision in Zagreb, Yugoslavia itself would only enter another two Contests after this before it split into the separate countries of Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia who entered the Contest in their own right. Serbia & Montenegro made its Eurovision debut as an independent state much later- and not long before it too split into two states. Russia was also soon set to splinter into independent countries which would enter the competition individually.

The change in the air was so obvious that it even affected the themes of the songs Europe's composers were submitting to the Contest, making 1990 the Eurovision which gave a nod to events in the outside world more than any other.

If Bruce Forsyth was peeved at the Yugoslav jury denying his daughter and the UK a Eurovision victory in 1988, let's hope he wasn't watching when Switzerland hosted the return leg the following year. In 1989, Yugoslavia actually won the Eurovision Song Contest - and a narrow victory over the United Kingdom at that. What's more, the winning song was not the sort of stuff you'd imagine Tanita Tikaram covering for the B-side of Twist In My Sobriety.

However, considering Yugoslavia wouldn't exist in the same form for very much longer, it would be very mean of Britain to deny the Slavs their delight at winning the trophy and hosting the show for the very first time as the '90s dawned. And the imminent new decade would see massive changes in Europe, changes that would also be reflected on the Eurovision scoreboard.

But we can get to the '90s and the slightly serious stuff next time. Let's cling to the eighties while we still can...

The following clip is shown to students of TV production everywhere. It's the feed from industry legend and maverick, the late Stewart Morris, a stalwart of big BBC productions, as he directed his team through the hairy final moments and winning reprise of Eurovision 1977 at the Wembley Conference Centre in London.

PLEASE BE AWARE! Mr Morris does not hold back on his language, so don't click on this clip if easily offended by extremely salty words.

Our favourite bits are where he's screaming at someone to make the flags start revolving and the moment he realises the end credits have gone missing.

That's how the Contest ended, but let's delve a little deeper into how it all began in 1977...

In 1976, the BBC decided to stop asking an established act to put themselves forward for Eurovision and A Song For Europe became an open competition for the first time since 1963. This meant that songwriters could now marry up their potential entry with the act of their choice, which composers found a far more favourable arrangement.

Michael Aspel hosted the Miss World-style heat, which even got the front cover slot on the Radio Times, where 12 acts lined up for the right to represent the UK. That line-up included Tony 'Amarillo' Christie, who finished third with this and '60s favourite Frank Ifield who sadly finished last with this. After a close-fought fight with the group CoCo (and you'll hear more about them in a future Bluffer's Guide) and some genuinely good-quality contemporary stuff among the competing dozen (Boom Bang a Blog's personal favourite is this), the winner-by-a-squeak of A Song For Europe 1976 was Brotherhood of Man with Save Your Kisses For Me.

The quartet's biggest battle was already behind them. When they got to Eurovision in The Hague they won with very little trouble at all.

Winners 1976: Brotherhood of Man perform Save Your Kisses For Me for the United Kingdom

The song topped the charts and went on the be the biggest selling single of the year in the UK, shifting more copies than ABBA's Dancing Queen, Elton John and Kiki Dee's Don't Go Breaking My Heart and the much-hyped/much-banned Sex Pistols early work.

And there was also that dance.

The BBC had finally done it at their tenth attempt. Sandie Shaw's Puppet on a String walked away with the 1967 vote in confident barefooted strides - and the UK was keen to ride this wave of good fortune to do what no country had done before - win the Eurovision Song Contest twice in succession. And, oh, that dream was but a vote's breadth from becoming a reality.

With it being a British Eurovision, Dame Katie of Boyle naturally assumed the role of mistress of ceremonies. This time around, she wasn't stuck in one of Television Centre's pokier studios with a scoreboard and a not-especially-clappy audience. Oh, no. In 1968, our Katie strode out to greet the near 6,000 capacity of London's Royal Albert Hall in the glitziest Eurovision Song Contest yet staged. Oh yeah - and it was the first one broadcast in colour, too. Not that the BBC wanted to show off to its previously grey-eyed, now green-eyed, European broadcasting colleagues (ahem).

Everything about the 1968 Contest created an atmosphere of a home team as confident of victory as eleven lads in red had been at Wembley Stadium not quite two years earlier. If only a Russian linesman had intervened after the German jury struck.

The Villa Louvigny in Luxembourg was one of the few auditoria large enough in the home of the 1961 winners to stage the Contest - and it was here the same 16 countries as the year before showed up on March 18 to do melodic battle.

It was not one of the most exciting Contests in the event's history. It had an atmosphere flatter than a pancake run over by a convoy of steamrollers and France consolidating the sort of reputation Ireland would gain notoriety for 30 years later by winning for the third time in five Eurovisions.

However, despite having neither debutantes nor maiden victors, there were a number of firsts at the 1962 competition which have become traditions continuing well in to the 21st Century.

Winner 1962: Isabelle Aubret performs Un Premier Amour for France

The same town, the same venue and the same hostess as the 1959 event welcomed everyone back in 1961.

No revolving platforms this time - just a rather impressive double-breasted staircase leading down to a teeny performing area - but beyond the pomp and grandeur, grand larceny was afoot. This was the very first time that the UK could stand up and shout with confidence: "We wuz robbed."

Winner 1961: Jean Claude Pascal performs Nous Les Amourex for Luxembourg

Any blog connected with music has to mention the passing of Michael Jackson today. It would be foolish - not to mention disrespectful - to attempt to spin the most spurious of connections between our favourite event and one of the few truly international popstars who ever walked this planet, so we won't. Instead we shall pass on our respects to his many fans, some of whom may even wander in here from time to time and move on to, ironically, the first Contest to be staged in his lifetime.

Winner 1959: Teddy Scholten performs Een Beetje for the Netherlands

Following Andre Claveau's dreary little snoozer winning in 1958, French telly must have had a major guilt trip over Volare not wining and showed how grateful they were for victory by pulling out all the stops to put on the classiest show so far inside Cannes' Palais De Festivals.

The stage was made up of three revolving platforms. When it was each country's turn to perform, the stage revolved, revealing each perma-smiling act - trying their best not to fall over when the stage stopped turning - with a suitably nationalistic backdrop pasted behind them. The UK had the Houses of Parliament on a very cloudy day.

The third Contest was held in a Dutch TV studio (Host city Hilversum is - and remains - the centre of the Netherlands telly world) filled with tulips and Hannie Lips (the latter being the name of the hostess, stop that childish giggling at the back).

Winner 1958: Andre Claveau performs Dors, Mon Amour for France

All of the semi-finalists have now rehearsed in Moscow's Olimpiskiy Arena. Sakis fell over, Svetlana from Ukraine's Hell Machine consists of three giant cogs with naked men in it and the Toppers remain as camp as Christmas.

So that just leaves the five finalists. Here's the first two.

FRANCE
Patricia Kaas: Et s'il fallait le faire

Depending which aisle of HMV you choose to wander through, there's a chance you may have heard of this chanteuse.

Recognise this?

You will do if you've seen the new ads for the Renault Megane in the breaks for Corrie and The X-Factor.

It's Sebastien Tellier with Divine, this year's French entry. It only finished 19th in Belgrade, but it seems to have pricked a fair few more ears up than the winning ditty did.

United Kingdom: Andy Abraham - Even If

Eh up, it's us.

As you may have heard on our blogcast with the rather smashing Professor of Eurovision, Phil Jackson, Andy Abraham's Even If is touted as the UK's best entry for some considerable time.

Anyone who witnessed Andy's progress on The X Factor will also be aware this is the most reliable set of lungs to be carrying the UK entry since Jessica Garlick in 2002.

Even If is a generous slab of funky pop - although rather dated - and has the potential to have far more oomph live than on disc - which is the right way round where this Contest is concerned.

It was looking OK for UK until the middle of March. Then they did the draw.