History

Olympic Gold for a “Mercy” lady

Today, French judoka Clarissa Agbégnénou won a gold medal at the Olympic Games in Tokyo. Agbégnénou, French but of Togolese descent, has won the gold medal at the World Championships judo already for five times. One other time, she was a member of the winning team. However, this was her first time at the Olympic Games. But wait…. isn’t there a Eurovision connection? Yes, there is! You can find out at the Madame Monsieur facebook page. In november 2017, she was a part of the very first videoclip of their song “Mercy”. The song represented France in the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest. “She came as she is, with simplicity, kindness and conviction. Today you are Olympic champion Clarisse and how proud of you! Thank you for all these beautiful emotions!”, Madame Monsieur adds. You can see her at the video at 0.10.

Curt-Eric Holmquist passed away

On the 21st of July Göteborgs Posten announced the sad news that Eurovision Conductor Curt-Eric Holmquist passed away on the 20th of July. The Eurovision fans may know him from his work for Lotta på Liseberg, where many Eurovision artists perform their songs and his work for achieving the Swedish Eurovision victory with Herreys and the song ‘Diggiloo Diggiley’ in 1984. The following year when the Eurovision Song Contest was coming to Gothenburg, Holmquist was the musical director of the show. In total he conducted seven songs for Eurovision. Curt-Eric Holmquist was 73 years old.

UEFA: THE FINAL!!

Tonight is the night: we will find out who wins the final of the UEFA European Soccer Championship! The match is between England and Italy. And what else can we do than provide you winners? Four times, an English singer or a (partly) English group won for the UK. It all started with Sandie Shaw in 1967; Brotherhood of Man in 1976; Bucks Fizz in 1981 and Katrina & The Waves in 1997. Italy won the contest three times. Back in 1964, Gigliola Cinquetti got the prize, followed by Toto Cutugno in 1990. And…. this year, it was the popular band Måneskin who got the award!

UEFA 2020: 2nd semifinal

As we said yesterday, it starts to look like a Eurovision Song contest. We already have the 2nd semifinal tonight. England plays against Denmark. And that is the moment when we go back to 2007. Both the United Kingdom (with an English group) and Denmark had contestants who were dressed quite remarkable. The British group Scooch were dressed as flight attendants, while a transvestite represented Denmark. Watch and enjoy!

UEFA 2020: 1st Semifinal

UEFA 2020, the European Soccer Championship, begins to look a little bit like Eurovision. Today is the first semifinal. However, there will be no 10 finalists, only one country gets through. This match is between two Southern European countries: Italy and Spain. And again we chose for duets; both are love songs. In 1989, Ana Oxa and Fausto Leali sang “Avrei voluto” (I would have wanted….) for Italy. In 2018 Amaya and Alfred sang “Tu canción” (Your song). One song about someone who doesn’t get the one he wants, the other one about someone who got wat he/she wants.

UEFA 2020 Quarter finals: DAY 2

Today is the day for the other twho quarter finals in the European soccer Championship. The first match will be between Czech Republic and Denmark. Both countries have sent boybands in the past. Czech Republic sent Lake Malawi in 2019. Denmark sent boybands more than once. We chose for the Anti Social Media, representing their country in 2015 with “The way you are”. The second match is between Ukraine and England. We chose winners from both countries. Ruslana won for Ukraine with her song “Wild dances”. The United Kingdom won with Katrina and The Waves and “Love shine a light”. And although Katrina is American, the Waves are English.

UEFA 2020: Quarter finals DAY 1

We are getting closer and closer to the final of UEFA 2020, the European Soccer Championship. Today we will have two quarter finals. The first match will be between Spain and Switzerland. In the sixties, both countries had a song with a double title. In 1965, Conchita Bautista brought the song “Que bueno, que bueno” for Spain. In 1969, Paola Del Medico sang “Bonjour, bonjour” for Switzerland. For the second match, Belgium vs Italy, we look at duos. Belgium sent quite a few, but the most outstanding one was the duo Nicole & Hugo in 1973. Their song was “Baby, baby”, but they are particularly famous for… well have a look yourself. In 1985, Al Bano & Romina Power represented Italy. They had Europe wide fame already when they sang “Magic, oh magic”.

UEFA Eighth finals: DAY 4

The 4th and last day of the UEFA Eighth Finals has arrived. With, again, two matches. First we start with England vs Germany. They won in the early 1980s in a row. The United Kingdom won with Bucks Fizz in 1981. One year later, in the small city of Harrogate in England, Nicole got the prize with “Ein bißchen Frieden”. Sweden will meet Ukraine today. Both countries once sent a song about an angel. In 1998, Jill Johnson sang “Kärleken är” (En ängel flög forbi mot himmelen så fri, men hon lämnade sitt leende). In 2011 it was Ukrainian Mika Newton who sang the song “Angel”.

UEFA Eighth finals: DAY 3

It is already the 3rd day of the UEFA eighth finals. The first match of today is between Croatia and Spain. Both countries decided to celebrate with a song. Croatian Daria sang her song “Celebrate” in 2011, while Spanish Rosa sang “Europe’s living a celebration” in 2002. France meets Switzerland. These countries are united in one man: Jean Philippe. The French singer participated for both countries: in 1959 he defended the French colours with the song “Oui, oui, oui, oui”. In 1962 he came out for Switzerland with the song “Le retour”.

UEFA 2020 eighth finals: DAY 2

We already go to the second day of the eighth finals in the European Soccer Championship. The first match is between Czech Republic and The Netherlands. For this match, we go back to 1968. The Czech Republic did not participate, but one of the most popular Czech singers, Karel Gott, represented Austria. He sang “Tausend Fenster”. The Netherlands were represented by one of their most popular singers: Ronnie Tober. He sang “Morgen”. During and after Eurovision, the two became friends. They remained so until Karel Gott passed away in 2019. The other match of today will be between Belgium and Portugal. We have only one song here that combines both countries. In 2005, Belgium was represented by Nuno Resende. The singer was born in Porto but moved to Belgium with his family when he was 12.