Favorite Eurovision songs of all time

music
1

Okay, I don‘t know who all’s gonna get in on this but Eurovision has had some hot and wild stuff across the years and I wanna hear everyone‘s favorites. I’ll start with some primo vintage. Beat this song if you can (you can't)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBh7hBdYSuU

WHO is driving this lady's boat, we will never find out. but it will be a cool vibes time in the interim.

Okay here's a newer-ish one (9 years old, whatever) from finland that (I believe!?) I saw live when watching eurovision in poland with my buds. I really thought this should win but it didn't make many waves. It really digs its talons in deep on me though. It's basic as heck and maybe I'm basic for finnish nonsense, but listen to that chorus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43GWoVxRk2Y

alright what good eurovisions do you all have.

2

Cool thread idea. I don't know any Eurovisions but I would like to learn some!

3

I like this one in a weird way even though it isn't very good… but to be fair I like anything that has a girl playing a banjo

https://youtu.be/aPE_jTvBKMo

And this one from turkey has really good vibes

https://youtu.be/-ZjdblOuqT4

4

I haven't watched it properly for a few years but my immediate contribution is both the first Eurovision that I watched and the precise moment that I realised I liked women with massive, ginger hair.

https://youtu.be/eh_KwCI4tUA

5

Are we allowed to pick the Omega Rugal of the contest? Or is that cheating?

Lots of decent French-spoken songs to share here. If you dig Joan Baez’s _Here’s To You_, you’ll dig _L’oiseau et l’Enfant_ (this won in 1977). The intro to the video showing the posh British 70s audience (that year was organized in the UK) is a nice bonus.

https://youtu.be/q5N6gL1AF_g

Another winner, _Un Premier Amour_ in 1962. The orchestration makes the song.

https://youtu.be/vM7-__W117U

Now, for a bit of background shenanigans trivia. Back when French radios and record labels cheated by using Luxembourg as a surrogate second entry (think Konami/Palcom/Ultra on the North American NES market), the tiny country had bangers like _Tu te reconnaîtras_ (winner in 1973) and _Poupée de Cire, Poupée de Son_ (winner in 1965) which is one of the few songs you can find in Japanese karaoke services.

https://youtu.be/JVGHBBcnlbo

https://youtu.be/7cv9NIzGmSI

Similarly, Canadian popstar Celine Dion’s first call to fame was winning the Eurovision with a French song on behalf of Switzerland (1988). The song is so-so and the performance feels a bit like watching Michael Jordan being asked to dunk on a 8 feet basket against high schoolers so I won’t share it here, but FYI. Instead, here is young Belgian girl Sandra Kim "genuinely" winning in 1986 for Belgium. She was only thirteen! The song is the super average synthpop standard of the era but, more importantly, it led to Sandra Kim singing [one of the greatest anime OPs of all time.](https://youtu.be/kNnpHAszq64)

https://youtu.be/IZfcdzbeIfg

Now, all those were winners but not necessarily the best songs of those years (Eurovision is a very political thing). So here are a few undeserving losers.

Luxembourg’s (French) song by (Greek) Vicky Leandros in 1967, _L’Amour est Bleu_, is the only French-spoken song to ever top the US billboard top 100. You might have also heard the subsequent English cover.

https://youtu.be/PLZy2uafo8U

Somehow someone convinced/ tricked / drugged [Sébastien Tellier](https://youtu.be/C3B2omR-axI) to represent us in 2008.

https://youtu.be/CZQjBCvFd9E

And this year’s French candidate Barbara Pravi finished second but her song and performance were pretty good.

https://youtu.be/Unj9WbeLzRU

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https://youtu.be/WU2Kb4F22Hs?t=32

7

One of my favourite stories from Eurovision, and in music as a whole is Finland's 2015 entry. The band were formed from a group of adults meeting at a charity supporting people with learning disabilities, and they got a lot of attention for what they were doing to dispel myths around disability.

Also it's just generally cool to see punk music at the contest as opposed to the swathes of disco pop there is these days.

https://youtu.be/v4Y0HOPL5GU

8

@chazumaru Poupée de cire, poupée de son is an all-timer for sure.

9

@chazumaru I think ABBA is fair game but probably not the most interesting choice! also very interesting to see these french versions of the broadcast with just some ASMR man talking over the proceedings. The french just going off to do their own thing every single eurovision is one of my favorite things about it.

Did Un Premier Amour debut in eurovision!? that's news to me! and France Gall was there? and Celine Dion? I need to learn more about eurovision history. I'd never heard this anne-marie david sing, the muted drums in this really make it for me. also wow, this is a wild anime intro here.

@LeFish Finland loves to put rock/metal/etc entries in for eurovision… they've had good success with it with Lordi and all that! (Who I later saw at ozzfest)

another favorite thing is seeing how far any given eastern european country is going to push the "I will show boobs for votes" angle in a given year. I remember the year where poland had like... handmaids milking fake cows and stuff.

Also for non-europeans here are the videos that can't be seen above

Barbara Pravi

Sertab Erener:

10

I always listen to this twice in a row and it’ll stay in my head for days.

https://youtu.be/1HU7ocv3S2o

11

I guess these folks watched napoleon dynamite

12

1973 was the same year as Eres Tu which everybody forgets only finished second. The song was already mentioned above but here is the actual performance.

Third place that year was also pretty strong but sung by an English pedophile so eeeeeh not feeling like advocating for their musical talent here. 1972–1979 is probably the peak of Eurovision in terms of pure musical talent, genuine effort, still a reasonable amount of countries (only a dozen or so) and excellent backing orchestra. The show turned into its modern kitsch / gay icon persona in the 80s but sadly the musical quality progressively declined (I blame cocaine and German hair spray fumes) until the nadir of the 00s.

You mentioned Lordi earlier but I think their performance truly had a huge impact on kicking the ants nest, getting a new generation interested in the contest and forcing everyone involved to reconsider Eurovision i.e. try interesting stuff again and genuinely push for talent to emerge. Not everything is good obviously but at least there are way more interesting artistic choices and risks taken since then.

13

Also, holy shit ! We can’t have an Eurovision thread without the greatest Eurovision song ever, Euro-Vision from Telex.

Finished dead last in 1980. The lyrics make extremely sarcastic fun of Eurovision in a typical Belgian (Walloon) dry humor style, which might be why, but also electronic music was still a controversial topic among more conservative musical audiences at the time.

Here is their album from that year.

14

@chazumaru Reminds me of this gift that keeps on giving. Just as you think it can't get any more ridiculous, it does. I remember watching it live and shrieking like a banshee at the solo.

15

@LeFish I didn’t know that one! Big Yatta! energy from Lithuania.

They apparently ended up with the best result in Lithuania’s history (6th place) (because of course this Wikipedia page exists) so I guess it kinda worked!

16

@chazumaru Spectacular. That's stuck in my head now.

17

Youtube recommended me this song as a follow up to Telex and holy crap it’s awesome: Rendez-Vous by Pas de Deux (but actually the song itself is in dutch).

Finished third to last at Eurovision 1983… Whoever selected candidates for Belgium back then was way ahead of their time. Unlike Telex, it does not seem to have gained much fame post-factum, possibly because the artists were on the Flemish side of the country? It sounds like a Remain In Light-era Talking Heads song. And props to the crew in München for that stage design.

Also, this next one is in the Waterloo • Eres Tú tier of « became way bigger than Eurovision » but Save Your Kisses for Me began its commercial carrer as the (winning) candidate for the UK in 1976.

I really like the Monaco entry from that same year, Toi, La Musique et Moi. The girl who sings it, Mary Cristy, is possibly the most eurovisionary person ever: Italian woman, but born in Luxembourg, started her carrier as a child star singer in Germany, sang this at Eurovision in French for Monaco, then recorded the same LP in French, English, Spanish, German and Italian versions! It’s basically what if Konrad Adenauer and Céline Dion had a kid.

18

@exodus i have to point out that she sings in swedish and that`s propably why it sounds any good.

@LeFish some years ago i worked as an instructor in a grouphome for people with disabilities and got to spend time with Pertti Kurikka (the guitarist in pertti kurikan nimipäivät) in whose name they took for the band and i have to say he’s propably the weirdest dude ive ever met. his evening routine included having an instructor to come help him write in his diary as he told about his day. his absolutely massive record collection included mostly christian choir music, abba, bob marley and random punk joints.

Here's a vid that is filmed in his apartment. you can see some of his cassette collection in the back

19

all timer just dropped a week ago at Finland's national selection show and it won

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf1NS1vEhSg

20

https://youtu.be/jqd2PD8MXVc

on the night of the 25th day of april 1974 at 2245 Paulo do Carvalho sang the song that would serve (100% unbeknownst to him) as the first call up signal for lisbonese army troops to stand up and be ready to overtake Salazar‘s government dictatorship

it also ended up in a four-way tie for last place! that’s my country