Eurovision

Serge Gainsbourg, arguably the best continental european pop writer of his time and a huge influence on Beck, Pulp, Arctic Monkeys etc, entered songs at least three times (and won once).

 

And let us not forget one of the globe's best selling stars for five decades, who also writes and produces, was a fine footballer, and remains a legendary pork swordsman: Julio! (Beaten by Dana in 1970.)

If you sell 100 million albums, and shag 100 birds a year, you surely have some street credibility...

 

Funny thing is, totally contrary to how it used to be: in terms of establishing a career, you are now arguably better off doing well in eurovision than having a domestic number one. eg Sam Ryder is now more famous and venue-marketable than any number of here today gone tomorrow chart acts of 2022. One of france's biggest male popstars is still more wellknown here for his fifth-placed song from six years ago than for any of his subsequent hits.
What a change from 1973/4, when Abba freely confessed EV was simply a stepping stone towards the holy grail: a UK number one.

 

Dearie me. How many people even know what is no1 in the uk charts as we speak?
Back in the day, virually the whole country would know.

o tempora o mores.

 

I think many "who had a career", already had a sucessful career before Eurovision. I assumed the point was how many made a career out of winning Eurovision. Eg Bucks Fizz certainly but BoM and K&TW had hits prior to Eurovision.
(not in reply to your recent posts, OT78).

 

aye, i know. but he wasnt precise in his terms of reference, so left an open goal.

 

It is a bogus debate anyway.
EV is a contest for songwriters, not artists.
Occasionally, an artist gets a launch out of it, but that is not the primary purpose.
Even the supposedly famous cases thereof can be misleading eg Abba were already having chart hits and albums across various euro territories pre-Brighton

 

Even B of Man had a big hit pre-win.
And the writers had been smashing it for a decade.

 

in other words: criticising EV for not breaking new enduring artists is a 'category error', akin to slating fish for their species' lack of tour de france triumphs

 

Yes I mentioned BoM in my post, though no top 30 hits for 6 years so EV certainly brought them back from the dead !
Dana is another (if not previously mentioned) who broke through thanks to EV.

 

There’s still a chart?

 

Dana is the nailed-on overnight EV sensation perfect example, to be sure to be sure.
iirc, she was still at school? Had barely sung professionally?
Vaguely recall the Brits were carking about then having to go to bomb factory Dublin in 1971...

 

Yes a bit before my time but “Please tell him that I said hello” by Dana was the first song I ever recorded on my reel-to-reel tape recorder in 1975 aged 12.

 

You had to go and ruin it.

 

Reel to reel!
vg. stylish.

 

It is so hard to keep up a serious face when discussing EV

 

Portugal had a wonderful, brilliantly performed and very high cred 'traditional' winner about 5 years ago. Totally uncamp too.

 

Germany's 'A little peace' was similarly unironic, uncamp, and rather well done. Bit four-square/Abbavolkish for modern tastes but an indelible melody line, emotionally sung by a virgin teen, that struck a chord during the cold war heights:

 

and this is just a brilliant simple song, very predictably yet satisfyingly plotted out, superbly sung by a near-novice teen, that everyone knew would win the second it finished:

 

Remember it well. Beat the shadows “let me be the one” into 2nd place IIRC??

 

no, that was 1975*. france beat our 'rock bottom' in 77.
*shadows lost to DingADong

 

had forgotten how well we used to do.
all top four finishes for about a decade there.
We mightve been 'the sick man of europe' but they loved us.

then Thatch got elected and it was all downhill, bar bucks fizz

(Then the very day after Blair got in, we won again, at last )

 

voting Starmer would be a high price to pay for another EV success...

 

Ah that’s right. Mike Moran and LD Paul. . Teachin (?) Dutch(?) won in 75

 

As did Sandie Shaw and Lulu…in those days we seemed to select currently big names and give them a catchy tune to sing which tended to yield some success. As opposed to the utter garbage sung by ‘who??!’ we seem to decide on these days.

 

yup. see above:

https://wfcforums.com/index.php?threads/eurovision.59355/page-5#post-3230812

 

A shed search reveals I seem to own two copies of that winning 1975 single plus the parent album.
(Also: the winning singles of 1964 & 1971, plus the album by 1977's winner, and a complete set of Abba LPs.
Perhaps I need help...)

 

btw, if anyone has an appetite for yet more televised competitive camp tat, check out the wfcfc Bargain Hunt thread, where @reg_varney has posted some extraordinary groundbreaking scholarship:
https://wfcforums.com/index.php?threads/bargain-hunt.58508/page-131#post-3240873
You don't get that kind of quality work on other fc forums...

 

Oy vey.
Israeli entry in doghouse for comments deemed to dishonour Poland:

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news...3a00000?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

 

Cliff was quite famous before his Eurovish attempts. Point taken regarding the other two particularly Celine Dion .