Results tagged “Netherlands” from Boom Bang a Blog

The world's oldest 17-year-old sings a song by Father Abraham for the Netherlands

With all this rumbunctious brou-ha-ha over buying tickets and meeting up with other Euro chums to get through these past 24 hours, Boom Bang a Blog has foolishly neglected the other two songs which were selected for Eurovision this weekend.

You will have heard Ik Ben Verliefd (Sha-la-lie) in its demo version before Crimbo. Written by Pierre Kartner, the man who sang with/composed for The Smurfs in the late 1970s as Father Abraham, the Netherlands' Nationaal Songfestival 2010 took place yesterday evening. Five different acts put their own spin on Kartner's schlager-friendly tune - although nobody came up with a wildly different version from what was already on the demo. A four-strong panel (which included Johnny Logan), then had to choose which version they liked best. Two went for 17-year-old (yes, 17, really. Swear down) Sieneke with her pipe-organ carousel-friendly styling, while the girl band Loekze's take on it - which had shades of Amazulu and was, to be frank, dreadful - also got two votes. It was deadlock, and the public vote only had the same weighting of one of the professional jurors. Therefore, the people of the Netherlands voting in their thousands for the interpretation by a young man called Vincent meant diddly squat.

It was all down to Father Smurf himself to break the deadlock and choose who he wanted to go to Oslo with his song.

He couldn't handle the pressure.

"Welcome one, welcome all. To paraphrase a football song, Eurovision's coming home." So began Terry Wogan's commentary for the first British Eurovision in 16 years. It doesn't make sense of course. Eurovision's home is Lugano in Switzerland, where it all began in 1956 - or Geneva, the headquarters of the European Broadcasting Union - or even Dublin, the city which had hosted six of the 43 Eurovisions prior to this point. But not really anywhere in the UK. However, there was no denying that the events which took place inside Birmingham's National Indoor Arena on May 9, 1998, constituted the most anticipated Contest of recent years. Two of the 25 entrants were making headlines across the Continent in the weeks leading up to the event - and one of them would go on to win the competition.

It also marked the end of the United Kingdom's run as one of the most successful countries taking part in the competition. After 1998, there were very few glimmers of hope to be found as Blighty sank further and further down the scoreboard. But we won't worry about that here. Come with us now on a trip to the Midlands, where the British Broadcasting Corporation decided to be as non-jingoistic as possible and employ an Irishman and a Swede to host its last Eurovision to date, the winning singer won a unique glass bowl by Susan Nixon, the postcard films were a work of quiet genius and everybody laughed at a middle-aged Dutch lady.

I will never forget watching the 1997 Eurovision Song Contest. I was in my second year at Glasgow University, staying in a tenement flat not too far from the Botanic Gardens or the famous Byres Road (you really should try and do the pub crawl) which had rooms as big as ballrooms that were just as difficult to heat. Two days before the Contest was screened, Labour had swept to power after 18 years in the shadows and Tony Blair looked like the sort of bloke who could make Britannia cool again. With such a momentous seachange for Britain, it's understandable that the goings on between acts from 25 nations across the Irish Sea in Dublin's Point Theatre weren't going to register much on neither media radar nor national consciousness. But somehow, it did.

Topping off a week when, for Britain's non-Tory populous, things really could only get better - they only went and did. As though it was written fresh on the statute book in the burgeoning daylight of May 2, as though everyone had decreed it so to welcome in a new age, as though the rest of Europe suddenly realised we weren't so bad after all on this sceptred isle. On May 3, 1997, the United Kingdom won the Eurovision Song Contest.

And it's still the only one I've ever watched on my own.

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 song that will represent the Netherlands at Eurovision 2010 in Oslo was made public today, although not in the version that we'll all be hearing in Norway in May.

Ik Ben Verliefd, Shalalie (I Am In Love, Shalalie), as previously reported, is written by Pierre Kartner, the man who collaborated with the Smurfs in the 1970s under the name of Father Abraham.

A number of acts will now compete to perform the song at Eurovision, each putting their own spin on Kartner's tune, with the version deemed the best getting the ticket to the Telenor Arena.

Now, from where I'm sat tip-tapping away, I have no way of listening to the songs, so you'll have to tell me what you think of Ik Ben Verliefd, Shalalie and if it's worth me having an ear-shufty when I get home.

Do help by leaving a comment. It is the Christmas.

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.

Some very, very original ideas are bubbling away in the minds of television companies across the continent in the run-up to the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest.

For a start, the Spanish have just launched their search for a song which will end 40 years of Eurovision heartache. It's called Tu País te Necesita and for the non-Spanish speaking among Boom Bang a Blog's readers, that translates as Your Country Needs You.

Where did they get that idea from?

I wasn't actually in to watch the Junior Eurovision Song Contest last night - I was at a cult telly thing in Birmingham - so I am very pleased to report this morning that the winner was the Netherlands. Hurrah! That's the first Eurovisiony thing they've won in my lifetime, their last victory being 1975 in the main event with Teach-In and Ding Dinge Dong.

Ralf wins Junior Eurovision 2009 for the Netherlands with Click Clack.

Just like the Grown Up Contest, the JESC uses both a jury score and the televotes from the public to determine the winner and that seems to have broken the stranglehold Eastern Europe has had on this event in particular - Russia and Armenia tied for second place and Belgium came fourth.

This bodes well for Proper Eurovision, if a country that hasn't had a whiff of the trophy engraver's apron for more then three decades can come out on top again.

That looks suspiciously like the rocket from Tintin's Destination Moon...

The home of the European Parliament finally became the home of the Eurovision Song Contest, the event had enjoyed 31 previous editions before it reached Belgium and the organisers were keen to show the millions of viewers what they'd been missing out on all this time. One thing they'd clearly been missing out on a woman called Viktor Lazlo (also the name of a character in Casablanca, curiously) with huge ear-rings hosting the show, so they hired her for the night.

It was arguably the most impressive and contemporary-looking production yet with some very late '80s dayglo pink contrasted with the pale grey used in both the stage and the suits of the orchestra members. There was also some flashy lasers zinging out from behind a big sphere at the whim of the director and the whole Contest did look as if it was finally being dragged towards a style that would sit more comfortably with the MTV generation. It has to be said, though, that the atmosphere and acoustics in Brussels' Palais du Centenaire (built for the 1935 Expo and in the shadow of the Atomium) was as flat as a crepe. At times, the performers sound as though they're belting a song out in a deserted out-of-town cash-and-carry in the hope that a passing sympathetic motorist will nip in and offer a round of applause.

Still, Eurovision wasn't remade in a day and the massive effort put in by Belgian telly to liven proceedings up would be built on over the coming years.

But sets don't sing and juries don't vote on the colour of the woodwind section's lapels - shall we have a shufty at the songs?

Many thanks to our business reporter and fellow blogger Alistair Houghton for passing this little gem on to Boom Bang a Blog - there's another European Song Contest taking place this weekend, celebrating the mother tongues you don't hear very much about in the mass media.

Leeuwarden in the Netherlands hosts the sixth (No, I'd never heard of the previous five, either) European Minority Song Contest Liet International on Hallowe'en night.

Sounds a lot more fun than Brucie's laboured jokes on Strictly...

As you may have already read, Israel had won both the 1978 and 1979 Contests, but when the Netherlands stepped in to host as a favour to the cash-strapped Israeli Broadcasting Authority, they inadvertently scheduled Eurovision for a date when the trophy holders remembered their fallen and couldn't possibly take part.

With the country who had had a stranglehold on the results at the end of the '70s now absent, there was a clear run for everyone else involved. Although, 'I' would continue to be a lucky initial for Eurovision's winner for the third year running.

With stepping in at relatively short notice, the Dutch production was nowehere near as grand as it had been in 1976. With The Hague's Congresgebouw (pictured, above) being used once more, part of the opening travelogue film from four years previous - featuring beckoning hands welcoming allcomers to Den Haag - was recycled to save a few gelder. While only those with long-term photographic memories would have made the connection in 1980, it's a bit easier to spot in the era of videos, DVD and a certain file-sharing website.

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 20th Eurovision Song Contest came from Stockholm and it was very, very blue. The set was blue, the scoreboard was blue and the presenter's dress was blue. Debutantes Turkey were also blue, albeit in more abstract fashion - and we'll get to them later.

This was also the first year that 'douze points' was awarded at the Eurovision Song Contest. The voting system had been thoroughly overhauled to make everything as fair as possible, ABBA had suddenly made the Contest seem a credible sorta-thing for pop groups to enter and the viewing figures were going through the roof across the continent.

All 1975 needed was another top-drawer, bespoke slab of prime European pop to take the trophy and the Contest could maybe, just maybe, become the event songwriters of every calibre would sweat semi-quavers to be part of.

The judges went for this:

Winner 1975: Teach-In perform Ding Dinge Dong for the Netherlands

Despite its wealth, plush casino venues and potential as a tourist attraction, Monaco didn't want to capitalise on its 1971 win by hosting in 1972.

Spain and Germany, the silver and bronze medallists in Dublin, weren't interested in stepping in, either. Therefore, the baton was passed to fourth-placers, the UK, making this the fourth time the BBC would host.

Possibly in deference to Lulu bringing Britain a tied win in 1969, it was decided the Contest should be held in Scotland. In a move which surely miffed Lulu's home city of Glasgow, it was decided to stage the event in the more genteel surrounds of Scottish capital Edinburgh.

The 3,000(ish) capacity Usher Hall on the Lothian Road was chosen as the venue. Katie Boyle was the stock BBC Eurovision hostess at the time, but having a very English lady acting as announcer would doubtless rub the hometown audience up the wrong way, so actress, dancer and wife of Ludovic Kennedy, Moira Shearer was persuaded to do the job.

Moira (pictured), who died in 2006, gamely took the job on because her daughters wanted some teasing ammo for future use. Prior to her presenting job, Moira was known to ballet afficionados throughout the world for her leading role in Powell and Pressburger's 1948 classic film The Red Shoes, about a pair of enchanted/cursed scarlet ballet slippers which won't stop its wearer from dancing.

The same 18 countries which appeared in Dublin returned for Edinburgh - with the French and Greek reserves pulling a big win out of the bag with an even bigger ballad.

Winner 1972: Vicky Leandros performs Apres Toi for Luxembourg

Winner 1964: Gigliola Cinquetti sings the rather beautiful Non Ho L'eta for Italy in a painstakingly restored clip by this man here. Good work, 1947dave.

This - as far as we are aware - is the only video excerpt which exists from the 1964 Eurovision Song Contest. It's a crying shame as, by this point, the Contest was not the snoozefest of overly dramatic ballads it was threatening to be at birth, but was just beginning to be populated with chart-friendly tunes almost guaranteed to be a hit with record buyers back home.

Despite winning in London and putting on what looks to be a visually cracking show for the home leg in Copenhagen's famous Tivoli Gardens, Eurovision's favour was rotting in the state of Denmark. Three years after this production, they would embark on a self-enforced 11-year absence from the competition.

It is suggested that changes at the top in Danish television saw executives who did not see TV as something to be wasted on something as frivolous as 'entertainment' and a long period of very, very serious broadcasting ensued. That attitude and the fact no complete recording exists of the 1964 Eurovision could well be linked. Its absence has also been connected with a fire at the TV station's archive in the 1970s. It seems like we'll never really know, although a full audio recording of the event survives.

But enough about what we can't show you from 1964. Come this way for the bits we can tell you...

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

What a bumper treat for you all! As there were only three songs left from the seond semi-final to preview, they're all getting lumped in together.

And so, adopting the best Jimmy Savile stance we can muster, here we go now with a song from...

UKRAINE
Svetlana Loboda: Be My Valentine (Anti-Crisis Girl)

Quick, send granny out the room. She might start getting ideas.

Bless you for your loyalty in the run up to Fun-Sized Eurovision on Saturday. The first of today's four entries is from Serbia, this year's hosts of the other singing contest.

SONG 9
Serbia
Uvek Kad U Nebo Pogledam performed by Maja Mazic

There's more this way.

Boom Bang a Blog couldn't let this momentous day pass without paying tribute to Barack Obama and his historic claim to the US presidency.

Barack was born in an era when black and white men couldn't always share the same bus, or even sidewalk, in his home country. So, with that in mind, we're going to go right back to the 1966 Eurovision to bring you a clip of the very first black artist to take part in the Song Contest. And despite the ever present permeance of daftness which hangs around Eurovision, let's not forget that, for mid-'60s Europe, this was a rather progressive step.

The lady's name was Milly Scott, she represented the Netherlands at that year's Luxembourg-held melodic showdown, and despite the heavy burden of Eurovision history lying on her shoulders, that didn't stop being rather good at indicating which particular Mexican gentleman she was referring to at any given point during Fernando en Philippo.

Note: We don't think these men are really from Mexico.

It took until 2001 for a black artist to actually *win* Eurovision, though. Poor Milly only came 15th.

But never mind all that. Sock it to 'em, Barack.