History

They will rock you!

It is often said: Rock music… that doesn’t belong in the Eurovision Song Contest. But why not? And who decides? That is the counter-question. The answer is simple; If we look at the rules of the EBU, there are rules about length, publication, originality, but not about the genre.So…. Rock music at Eurovision: Sure thing! The early years For the very first Rock entry, we’re going all the way back to…..1956! An entry in the very first year of Eurovision, which would not be out of place for Elvis (regardless of the language). The Austrian Freddy Quin was one of the German representatives; his song was called was “So geht das jede Nacht”. As with every entry in the Eurovision Song Contest of 1956, apart from the winner, the placement is unknown. Varying degrees of success and the lowest ranking Rock songs were submitted with varying degrees of success in the years that followed. In 1982 a Rock-bottom was reached: Finland’s Kojo with “Nuku pommiin”, took the very last place with 0 points. Was it really that bad, or was Europe not ready for it? Judge for yourself: Rock Win It took quite some time before Rock really made a difference at Eurovision, but in 2006 the time had come: Lordi for Finland with “Hardrock Hallelujah” won the contest with 292 points. Rock is part of it After that, Rock as a type of music at Eurovision was taken a lot more seriously. Bigger successes were achieved, and in 2018 even a Hungarian hard metal band managed to reach the finals. That AWS with “Viszlát Nyár” finished last in the grand final, doesn’t matter… They made it to the finals. The icing on the Rockcake was, of course, Måneskin in 2021. France was the big favorite (Barbara Pravi), but with 524 points, Italy left France behind. The conclusion may be that Rock definitely belongs at Eurovision, although opinions will always be divided on this. 2024 was a year without Rock. We are curious to see what 2025 will bring.

🇱🇺 Luxembourg: national finals in history

Luxembourg is back The news came out two days ago: Luxembourg will have a national final. The national final will take place on January 27. Other news is that participants must hold Luxembourgish nationality or have resided in Luxembourg for at least three consecutive years or exhibit a strong cultural involvement and proven connection with the Luxembourgish music scene. With that news, Luxembourg is breaking with a tradition. In the past, Luxembourg chose it’s participants from other countries most of the time. And very seldomly the songs were chosen through a national final. Winners for, but not from Luxembourg No less than five times Luxembourg won the contest. But never ever anyone with the Luxembourgish nationality held the trophy. Jean-Claude Pascal (1961), France Gall (1965), Anne-Marie David (1973) and Corinne Hermes (1983) were from France. Vicky Leandros (1972) was from Greece, but lived and still lives in Germany. 1976 and 1978 About national finals in the sixties, nothing is known. It is said that in 1972, Vicky Leandros offered 9 songs to the Luxembourgish broadcaster. However, nothing about a televised final is known. It was German singer Jürgen Marcus who first won a Luxembourgish final, in 1976. He defeated among others Marianne Rosenberg. Two years later, Spanish duo Baccara won the national final. However, Danish Gitte Haenning and Belgian Liliane Saint Pierre were also involved. Gitte already took part for Germany before. Liliane was the Belgian contestant in 1987. Park Café and Marion Welter That was it for Luxembourgish national finals with plural contestants. However, the American/Luxembourgish group Park Café offered the audience three songs. 66,5% of the voters chose “Monsieur” as their entry. In 1992, Luxembourgish Marion Welter was supposed to sing the song “Iwerall doheem”. However, to give the selection an extra touch, the audience was able to make a choice between two songs. And of course, not “Iwerall doheem” but the other song “Sou fräi” won. Internal selections All of the other years, Luxembourg selected their song and artist internally. However, there are two songs we want to share with you. In 1979, Penny McLean, member of Silver Convention (esc 1977) submitted a song. The English version became a hit. Enjoy “Tut-ench-Amun”: Three years later, it was Marcha (esc 1987) who almost got the job. She was the lead singer of Babe, an all girl group. Their song “Boomerang” was released in English. Do you recognize Marcha?

Happy birthday, Eurovision!

Happy birthday, Eurovision Song Contest. Today it is 66 years ago that the first Eurovision song contest was held. The Eurovision Song Contest was created after the coronation of the British Queen Elizabeth II was broadcast on French television. They wanted to use the equipment purchased for this for other events. A song contest, modeled after the Italian festival of Sanremo, was one of the ideas. The first song contest took place in Lugano, Switzerland. Ten countries wanted to participate, in the end there were seven. They each presented two songs. There was no voting as we know it now. The jury consisted of two members from each country. Remarkable: Luxembourg had no jury, two Swiss did the honors for that country. At the end of the evening, chairman Rolf Liebermann only announced that the song “Refrain” had won. That was one of Lys Assia‘s two Swiss entries. Little image has been preserved of the first Eurovision; only a part of the reprise, when Lys Assia had won. Wanna know more? Have a look at our 1956 page!

Christopher Scicluna passed away

Yesterday, Maltese Eurovision contestant Christopher Scicluna passed away. His wife Moira Stafrace announced this sad news.Chris and Moira participated in several national finals before they entered the Eurovision Stage for the first time in 1993. They were backing vocals for William Mangion, who sang “This time”. One year later, Chris and Moira won the national selection themselves. The song “More than love” was their Eurovision entry. It was a great succes with a 5th place. A few years later, in 1999, Chris and Moira were the team behind Times Three. It was an all-girl group including Moira’s sister Diane. Chris and Moira wrote the song and vocally backed them. Christopher Scicluna was 62 years old.

Laila Halme passed away

Today, the sad news came to us that Finnish singer Laila Halme passed away. Laila Halme, born Laila Soppi in the Finnish town of Jääski, was a Finnish singer and actress. She began her career in the 1950, singing in several orchestras. Her first single “Kaunis rakkaus” was released in 1959. In 1960, she released several singles and EP’s at the Philips label. In 1961 she debuted as an actress in two films: “Penkki” and “Tähtisumua”.In 1963, she participated in Euroviisut, the national final for the Eurovision Song Contest, with the song “Olen mikä olen”. She became 3rd, while the song “Muistojeni laulu” won and Irmeli Mäkelä was chosen to sing it in the Eurovision Song Contest. However, Finnish broadcaster YLE decided to let Laila Halme sing it in the international final. She did not receive any point at all. A year later, Laila Halme represented Finland in the festival of Sopot in Poland. She released a couple of singles but left showbusiness in 1967. We only saw her back in 1987, when she hosted Euroviisut. Her son Jussi Halme is also a singer, he took part in Euroviisut in 1990.Laila Halme was 87 years old.

Blast from the past: Denmark 1958

We know a lot about Eurovision; this is knowledge we want to share with you. Therefore we’d like to bring you a blast from the past. Back to 1958, when Denmark was represented by Raquel Rastenni with “Jeg rev et blad ud av min dagbog”. Denmark in the Eurovision Song Contest Hey, wait… it was only 1958! In Hilversum, The Netherlands, the 3rd Eurovision Song Contest was about to take place. Denmark expressed the wish to participate in 1956 already, but that didn’t happen. In 1957, Birthe Wilke & Gustav Winckler represented the country, ending their performance with the famous long lasting kiss. They ended up 3rd. How on earth could a performance be more spectacular than that one? Dansk Melodi Grand Prix The national final was held on February 16th in studio 2 of Radiohuset in Copenhagen. Six songs competed in the contest that was hosted by Sejr Volmer-Sørensen: Nanina, sung by Bent Weidlich Jeg rev et blad ud av min dagbog, sung by Raquel Rastenni For altid, sung by Birthe Wilke and Gustav Winckler Evas lille sang, sung by Preben Uglebjerg Mit gamle hakkebræt, sung by Preben Neergaard Refræn, sung by Raquel Rastenni After the presentation of the songs, the winner, song no. 2, was announced. No other results are known. Raquel Rastenni Raquel Rastenni was born as Anna Rachel Rastén, August 21 1915, in Copenhagen. She began her career as a dancer in the Helsingør Revyen in 1936 and had her debut as a singer in 1938. She also had her radio debut in that year. In 1940, she formed her own swing trio. That same year, her first record was released. She also toured in Sweden at the time. Being Jewish, Raquel had to flee to Sweden in October 1943 with her family due to the occupation. She spent the rest of the war years here, where she continued her success. In 1945, Raquel Rastenni returned to Denmark, and in the following years she became Denmark’s leading singer. Among her successes were “Vovsen i vinduet” (1953, Danish version of the English song (How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window?) And Heksedansen (1960). In the 1970s, she expanded the repertoire with Jewish songs. Her best-selling record was “Hele ugen alene” (1953), which sold over 120,000 copies. She was the first Danish artist to achieve a gold record for a million. sold gramophone records. She continued to receive awards throughout her career. She represented Denmark in the 1958 Eurovision song contest. She participated twice more in the Danish Melodi Grand Prix. In 1961 she sang a duet with Grethe Sønck, “Hjemme hos os“, which ended in a shared 5th place, and as a soloist in 1964 with the song “Vi taler samme sprog”. During the Yom Kippur War in the Middle East in 1973, she sang a backing track for Israel with Yiddish and Hebrew songs; she often visited the country and in 1975 was inscribed in Jerusalem’s so-called Golden Book. In the late 1980s, she retired from public life. She passed away in Skodsborg in North Sealand four days before her 83rd birthday. Jeg rev et blad ud av min dagbog “I tore a page out of my diary, every little word I regret my dear”, that was what Raquel Rastenni sang. The full lyrics can be found here. Sven UIrik and Harry Jensen co-wrote the song. Kai Mortensen was the conductor in Hilversum. On stage, Raquel Rastenni literally did what she sang: she tore a page out of her diary. Results Three countries all had one vote for the Danish song: Sweden, France and The Netherlands. That brought Denmark to an 8th place out of 10, which was much less successfull than the year before. photo credits: Beeldengeluidwiki

Blast from the past: Austria 2018

We know a lot about Eurovision; this is knowledge we want to share with you. Therefore we’d like to bring you a blast from the past. Back to 2018, the Austrian entry, Cesár Sampson with “Nobody but you”. Austria in the Eurovision Song Contest Austria is a country with a long history of bad placings in the contest. After the victory in 1966 with Udo Jürgens, it took ages before Conchita Wurst took the prize back home in 2014. However, since then Austria reached the final every time. Austria was back in the picture as a successfull country. Reason enough for the Austrians to look for another entry that would do it. National selection Conchita Wurst was chosen by ORF (Österreichischer RundFunk) internally to represent the country. After two national finals, Nathan Trent (the 2017 contestant) was selected internally again. ORF decided to do it this way again. Anyone could submit songs, but ORF also invited artists to submit songs themselves. On december 5th, 2017, there was news: it was Cesár Sampson who got the ticket to the contest in Lisbon. Songwriting team Symphonix International (Borislav Milanov, Sebastian Arman, Joacim Persson and Johan Alkenäs) wrote a song for him. “Nobody but you” was presented on March 9th. Cesár Sampson Cesár Sampson is an Austrian singer, songwriter, producer, dancer and model. He was born in Linz. His mother Kathy Sampson sang “A Good Friend” in the 1990s, the theme song of the well-known crime series Kommissar Rex. He is the nephew of the singer Helen “Pepsi” DeMacque-Crockett of the duo Pepsi & Shirlie. As a child, he was in front of the camera in a music video by La Toya Jackson.Sampson worked as a social worker for years. He has also worked in the music business as a producer for many years, including with the Symphonix International producer collective. As a backing vocal, Sampson was on stage at the Eurovision Song Contest twice in a row, in 2016 and 2017, representing Bulgaria. “Nobody but you” As mentioned, the Austrian entry was written and composed by the Symphonix International songwriters team ánd by Cesár Sampson himself. It was a song with a gospel sound. The full lyrics of the song “Nobody but you” can be found here. Although the song was not the favorite to win the contest, Austria seemed to have a sure qualifier and probably even a high scoring entry. Results Although the expectations were high, the jury vote brought a complete surprise: the expert jury chose Cesár Sampson and Austria as there winner, with no less than 9 countries awarding the song with ‘douze points’. But with the televoters only awarding it 71 points and a 13th place, the chances to win disappeared quite quickly for Austria. In the end, Sampson reached a 3rd place.

Blast from the past: Germany 1992

We know a lot about Eurovision; this is knowledge we want to share with you. Therefore we’d like to bring you a blast from the past. Back to 1992, the German entry, “Träume sind für alle da”, sung by Wind. Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest The golden years for Germany have ended. With a first place for Nicole in 1992 and second places for Wind in 1985 and 1987, Germany was the country to beat. But after Wind’s second time at the Eurovision stage, it stopped. The 1991 entry even was a total failure: three countries saved Atlantis 2000 from zero. Something had to be done to change this. Ein Lied für Malmö The national preselection was called “Ein Lied für Malmö” (A song for Malmö). German broadcaster MDR (Mittel Deutsche Rundfunk) organized the preselection, which was held on March 30 in Magdeburg, hosted by Carmen Nebel. Six singers and groups each had one song. Only the group Blaue Engel had never before taken part in a German Eurovision final. Bernhard Brink sang “Der letzte Traum“, 4th with 0 points Relax sang “Blue Farewell River“, 4th with 0 points Susan Schubert sang “Shalalaika“, 4th with 0 points Blaue Engel sang “Licht am Horizont“, 2nd with 3 points Lena Valaitis sang “Wir seh’n uns wieder“, 3rd with 1 point Wind sang “Träume sind für alle da“, 1st with 7 points The votes were cast by the 11 regional juries. Wind For a third time, the Germans chose Wind from Munich to represent them. At that moment, only two of the original group members, Sami Kalifa and Petra Scheeser, were around. The others were singer Albert Oberloher, Stefan Maro, Tina Hierstetter and Oliver Hahn. Wind was made up by singer/songwriter Hanne Haller in 1985. They were the surprise winners of the 1985 German final for the Eurovision Song Contest. Their song “Für Alle” was the hot favorite to win the contest. However, the group became 2nd. In 1987, with a new singer, they did the same. Note that in “Laß die Sonne in dein Herz” Rob Pilatus was one of the band members. Rob became famous (and infamous) as one of the two Milli Vanilli boys, who appeared not to sing their own songs.Wind released a total of 21 studio albums and started to become more and more a concept in stead of a band. They still exist, but none of the 1992 members still sing in Wind. Träume sind für alle da The song “Träume sind für alle da” (Dreams are there for all) was a typical 1990s German Eurovision schlager, but not really a song that many liked. The song was composed by Ralph Siegel, with lyrics from Bernd Meinunger. You can read the full lyrics here. Results Third time was clearly NOT a charm for Wind. With points from no more than 5 countries (10 from Portugal!), Wind ended up in 16th place. Wind did to later attempts to get to the Eurovision stage, but both times they failed.

Blast from the past: Netherlands 1973

We know a lot about Eurovision; this is knowledge we want to share with you. Therefore we’d like to bring you a blast from the past. Back to 1973! We will talk about the Dutch entry, “De oude muzikant” by Ben Cramer. The Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest It was quite a successful time for The Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest. A victory in 1969, a 6th place in 1971 and a 4th in 1972. A survey among people at Dutch broadcaster NOS learned that the famous duo Mouth & McNeal were favourite to represent the country in the 1973 contest. However, they didn’t want to go. Ben Cramer was 2nd choice. And he said yes!! Ben Cramer Bernardus Kramer was born in Amsterdam the 17th of february 1947. His career started with a band called The Sparklings. In 1966 they first performed on television. As Ben Cramer & The Sparklings they had their first huge hit in The Netherlands: “Zai, zai, zai“. This song and his solo single “Dans met mij” (1968) were his greatest hits. Cramer took part in a lot of song contests all over the world. In 1970 he sang the song “Julia” in the Dutch national final for the Eurovision Song Contest. In 1971 he started working together with Pierre Kartner, who also wrote his Eurovision Song. Cramer was a star, but in the early 1980s his stardom began to faint. In 1981 he did another attempt to go to Eurovision. However, his song “Retour” only got 2 points and “Marianne” even ended up with zero points. In the 1990s he started a new career, as a musical star. He played roles in “Evita”, “Chicago”, “The Phantom of the Opera”, “Aida” and “Chess”. National final A circus was the scenery of the national final. Wellknown Dutch artists showed circus acts. In between the songs Ben Cramer sang four songs. The contest took place on february 28 in Carré Theatre in Amsterdam. The four songs were: 1.Kom met me mee, 3rd with 15 points2.Melodie, 4th with 14 points (Ben co-wrote this song with Hans Blum)3.Kom Sylvia dans met mij, 2nd with 19 points4.De oude muzikant, 1st with 62 points “De oude muzikant” won with a landslide. De oude muzikant “De oude muzikant” (the old musician) was a song about an old, forgotten musician who once was a big star in Paris. You can find the lyrics here. The song was written and composed by Pierre Kartner, the man he worked with in those days. Bens performance in Luxembourg knew a lot of struggle. Especially during the general rehearsal, Ben had troubles with the technicians, as he was not happy with the lightning. He stopped the rehearsal, while the entire jury was watching. It can be the reason for his low final score. Rumour has it that the technicians took revenge by giving Ben Cramer lousy exposure on stage. Note that the musician in the video is composer Pierre Kartner. Final score Two jury members, one younger than 25 and one of 25+ formed the jury per country. They could both give a song a mark of 1-5, making it 10 per country. Only the jury in Luxembourg (7) and France (6) were a little bit enthousiastic about “De oude muzikant”. With a total of 69 points Ben Cramer only became 14th.

Blast from the past: Ireland 2003

We know a lot about Eurovision; this is knowledge we want to share with you. Therefore we’d like to bring you a blast from the past. Back to 2003, we will talk about the Irish entry, “We’ve got the world”, sung by Mickey Harte. You’re a star In the days when Pop Idol was one of the most popular shows in the world, with national versions in every country, it was Ireland that decided not to have a regular national final. The Irish entry was chosen by a Pop Idol-like show called “You’re a star”. It all started with 13 artists: Azi Jegbefume, Brian Ormond, Catherine Yore, Catriona McGinty, Joanne Fahy, Lisa Bresnan, Michael Leonard, Mickey Harte, Sarah Brophy, Shauna & Coaoimhe McElhinney, Simon Casey, Susan McFadden and Susan McGowan. One by one, they got rejected every week. On february 24, four artists left presented a potential Eurovision song: 1.”I couldn’t love you more“, Michael Leonard (co-composed by Ronan Keating)2.”I’ll still be right here“, Lisa Bresnan3.”We’ve got the world“, Mickey Harte4.”A better plan“, Simon Casey (written and composed by Brian McFadden) Lisa Bresnan had to leave the show. On March 2nd, there was a semifinal. Now it was Michael Leonard who had to leave. The Irish audience now had to choose between Mickey Harte and Simon Casey. On March 8th it was Mickey who got the ticket to the Eurovision Song Contest in Riga. Mickey Harte Mickey Joe Harte was born on August 21, 1973 in Lifford, County Donegal. He started playing the guitar at the age of 13. When he was 18 years old, he wrote his first song, “Candlelight”, inspired by the first Gulf War. However, as a singer/songwriter in the 90s it was hard to get a real breakthrough in Ireland, at that moment the country of the boybands. The success finally came when he participated in the 2002/2003 season of “You’re a star”. As the winner of this contest, he got the ticket to the Eurovision Song Contest. The song, “We’ve got the world”, reached the number one spot in the Irish charts. An album followed. In 2006, Mickey released his 2nd album “Live and learn”. A year later, he could be seen in a reality television show called “Celebrities go wild”. It took a few years before Mickey’s third album “Forward to reality” was released. In 2017, we saw the release of the single “For the broken hearted”. We’ve got the world The song “We’ve got the world” was a love song. “We’ve got the world tonight, let’s hold on together. And we’ve got a love that’s right so open your heart ’cause we’ve got tonight”, Mickey sang. The song was not written by Mickey himself but by Martin Brannigan and Keith Molloy. You can read the full lyrics here. On stage in Riga, Mickey was joined by 3 backing singers, all participants from “You’re a star”: Sara Brophy, Susan McGowan and Catriona McGuinty. Results This was the last year without semifinals. So Mickey was placed directly in the final. The United Kingdom awarded the song with 12 points, both Portugal and Cyprus gave it their 7 points. With a total number of 53 points Mickey became 11th. That was enough for Ireland to be placed directly in the 2004 final.