Page 79 - Phonebox Magazine April 2011

Royaume-Uni nil points?
by Steve Clark
If you would like a thrilling and dynamic showcase of the very finest entertainment on offer then it is probably wise to avoid watching BBC 1 television on the evening of Saturday 14th May 2011. This is the date that viewers in the united Kingdom get their annual opportunity to indulge in that festival of self-humiliation and degradation that is the Eurovision Song Contest. The earliest incarnation of this dubious spectacle took place on 24th May 1956 in lugano, Switzerland. Just seven countries took part in the first contest. These were Belgium, france, Germany, Italy, luxembourg, Netherlands and Switzerland. The contest was won by 30 year-old lys Assia (real name Rosa Mina Schärer) who sang “Refrain” for the host country. Somewhat amazingly, lys Assia is still going strong – unlike many of those who have followed in her footsteps in subsequent years! The whole idea of the contest, with memories of the Second world war still painfully fresh, was to convince all of the countries in Europe how jolly lucky they all were to be friends once again. It was therefore probably inevitable that the uK would get drawn in to this little scheme, as was indeed the case in 1957. for this second contest, the original seven and the uK were joined by Austria and denmark. Various other countries have joined the club over the years, one of the most notable being Ireland in 1965. Since its inception, some 51 countries have taken part at least once in the Eurovision Song Contest. All participants have to be active members of the European Broadcasting union. The united Kingdom, along with Germany, france, Spain and Italy, get an automatic entry into the contest final each year as they are the biggest contributors to the EBu.
There is a rule which prohibits any song being entered which has been previously commercially released or broadcast in public in advance of the start of the selection process. Some of the other rules tend to change every year but essentially the winner gets the dubious honour of hosting the contest the following year unless they can’t afford to do so, in which case the united Kingdom usually picks up the tab, as was the case in 1960, 1963, 1972 and 1974.
french, German and Spanish. Sandie didn’t actually like “Puppet on a String”, but it clearly impressed our European chums.
1969 was rather unusual in that there were four joint winners. It seems that the organisers hadn’t thought up a rule to establish what would happen in the event of a dead heat, so all four were hailed as winners that year. our joint winning entry was the rather dire “Boom Bang a Bang” by lulu. we had to wait a few more years before our next stunning victory with “Save your Kisses for Me” by Brotherhood of Man in 1976. More success came our way in 1981 with Bucks fizz and “Making your Mind up”. This song was memorable more for the colourful and slightly risqué dance routine choreographed by former Hot Gossip dancer Chrissie wickham than for its lyrical quality. Although the band was formed specifically to enter the 1981 contest, they continued to produce a number of singles and albums and enjoyed some 15 million record sales. I actually had the chance to see Bucks fizz perform as a live act at Baileys in watford some years later. I can only say that they were absolutely excellent, the only poor part of the set being a performance of the aforementioned Eurovision winner. The final taste of victory for the united Kingdom came in 1997 when Katrina and the waves topped the voting with “love Shine a light”. Strangely enough the rules have never required that a performer should actual originate from the country they represent, so it was perfectly legitimate for Katrina leskanich, an American, to capture our final triumph.
The united Kingdom entries over the years have actually featured some really excellent artists, but we tend to shoot ourselves in the foot by making them sing atrocious songs. Typical examples have been “long live love”, our 1974 entry by the wonderful olivia Newton John and “Knock Knock who’s There”, performed perfectly by the enchanting Mary Hopkin in 1970. Mary came second that year, having been pipped at the post by dana’s “All Kinds of Everything”, one of the seven wins enjoyed by Ireland over the years. There have been some very memorable contests over the years. The 1974 competition gave us “waterloo” by Abba, probably the greatest success that will ever come out of the concept. If I had to pick a particular favourite, it would have to be the 1982 winner for Germany, Nicole Hohloch with the stunning “Ein bißchen frieden” (“A little Peace”). when Nicole reprised the song after her win was announced, she performed parts of the song in perfect English, french and dutch along with the original German. when “A little Peace” was released in the uK it went on to become the 500th number one single in the charts. Nicole also produced full versions of the single in french, dutch, Spanish, danish, Slovenian, Russian and Polish. In october 2010 Nicole released a ‘best of’ Cd compilation of her work over the years called “30 Jahre mit leib und Seele”.
The most memorable event ever in the history of the contest came in 1994. Host nations of the contest had often struggled to fill the interval between the performances of the songs and the final announcement of the voting. In that year, producer Moya doherty came up with a seven- minute intermission piece that left whole nations spellbound and speechless. The item featured traditional Irish dancing and singing and featured Michael flatley and the stunning Jean Butler. That intermission produced such a massive amount of interest that it was
eventually extended into a full show called “Riverdance”. over the years Ireland has been responsible for injecting a vast amount of culture into the Eurovision Song Contest. Sadly that tradition will not continue this year as the Irish entry into the contest is probably their worst ever. Given the opportunity to vote for the best act to represent their country, the Irish viewing public decided to spurn some fine acts including Nikki Kavanagh and opt instead for the incredibly dire John and Edward Grimes, who apparently featured over here on one of those astonishingly appalling Saturday evening TV shows that masquerade as ‘entertainment’. The Irish entry is entitled “lipstick”. Perhaps sick-bag would be more appropriate? The only saving grace is that the Irish entry will have to get through one of the semi-finals, as they do not have the direct entry into the final enjoyed by the united Kingdom.
It is highly probable that the uK entry for this years show in düsseldorf will fare little better than those of the past few years. A number of approaches have been tried in the past few years, all to no avail. our selectors clearly haven’t appreciated that our performance is totally irrelevant as most countries refuse to vote for the uK for political reasons. The entry by Blue is called “I Can”. Presumably they will follow that up with “I Can’t”? I am surprised that the selectors decided to put forward this bunch of has-beens, rather than selecting a bright and dynamic new act.
In 1994 the person chosen to represent the uK was the outstanding actress and singer frances Ruffelle, daughter of Sylvia young. frances had first come to attention and public acclaim in her role as Éponine in the English language version of ‘les Misérables’. frances performed eight different songs from which “lonely Symphony” was chosen by the viewing public as our entry. It is a great travesty that we only came tenth, as our song was clearly way ahead of all the other entries. It would have been interesting to have given frances’ daughter, Eliza doolittle, a chance to seek revenge this year!
The Eurovision Song Contest has always been plagued by political voting, which has grown dramatically as the number of nations entitled to enter has grown. In previous years I have thoroughly enjoyed the irreverent commentaries of Terry wogan, but sadly even Sir Terry has given up in disgust at the way that the event has gone. on some occasions the political bias has been even less subtle. In 1978 during the performance of the Israeli entry the Jordanian broadcaster suspended the broadcast and showed pictures of flowers instead. As Israel surged into an unbeatable lead during the voting, JRTV suddenly stopped the transmission and eventually announced that Belgium, the runner-up, had won the contest! In 2005 lebanon incurred a substantial fine for late withdrawal from the contest after they were told that they would have to transmit the Israeli entry.
I don’t know what the future holds for ‘Concours Eurovision de la Chanson’, but in these days of austerity and budget cuts it may be that this competition is one dubious pleasure that we choose to live without.
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Email: stephen.clark89@yahoo.co.uk website: http://tinyurl.com/km9hdd
Steve on facebook: http://facebook.com/Tiliacus
official Eurovision website: http://eurovision.tv/page/dusseldorf-2011
Sandie Shaw
This is probably why so many countries submit such dire entries. The united Kingdom has actually won the contest on a total of five occasions. our first win came in 1967 with Sandie Shaw singing “Puppet on a String”. This song is still remembered with great affection by all of those lucky enough to witness our triumphant performance. Sandie was actually a popular performer across Europe as she had previously recorded most of her hits in Italian,
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