Support ESC Insight on Patreon

Counting Down To Eurovision Perfection: #50 – #41 Written by on April 9, 2012 | 2 Comments

I hope you enjoyed the first part of our All-Time Eurovision Chart last week, where we counted down numbers 100 to 51, with some surprisingly low rankings for very well-known songs. Before we announce the next batch of ten, would you like to find out which  famous Eurovision songs didn’t make the upper levels.

For those who missed last week’s article, the way the rankings have been worked out is to divide the total number of points each country achieved on the night by the total number of points they could have scored. So, for 2011, 43 countries took part, subtract one (as you can’t vote for yourself), and multiply that by 12 to give you a maximum score of 504 points. Then divided the score each song got in the final by 504 for their percentage of perfection. C’est ça!

So let’s look at some of the less-well placed songs from 1957 to 2011.

The Geeks, Sportos, Motorheads, Dweebs, Dorks…

  • 529 – À force de prier, by Nana Mouskouri (Luxembourg 1963, 8th with 17.33%).

Poor Nana, one of the most famous names ever to take part in ESC, she hasn’t faired very well over the years. Originally of Greek descent, she represented Luxembourg back in 1963 with the little French ditty and came a respectable 8th, exactly half-way down the chart for that year. I am sure though she will be delighted to know – if she ever loses any sleep over her all-time chart placings, she was one place above Feminnem’s 2005 effort!

  • 526 – Congratulations, by Cliff Richard (United Kingdom 1968, 2nd with 17.5%).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-z51J0vV_Q

Cliff, Cliff, Cliff. He was the sure-fire favourite of his first year entering but it wasn’t to be – his song was already famous all over Europe – perhaps over-exposure – but he lost out to Spain’s La La La (at 506). Perhaps 1968 was the year of children being allowed in the jury room and they could learn those lyrics a little more easily!

  • 634 – Boom Bang-a-Bang, by Lulu (United Kingdom 1969, 1st 12.00%).
  • 634 – De troubadour, by Lenny Kuhr (Netherlands 1969, 1st 12.00%).
  • 634 – Un jour, un enfant, by Frida Boccara (France 1969, 1st 12.00%).
  • 634 – Vivo cantando, by Salomé (Spain 1969, 1st 12.00%).

The 4-way tie debacle is the lowest ranking winnerat #634. It annoyed so many of the countries that only 12 of them  took part in 1970 when Dana won (#328). Not to take anything away from Dana, it was a good song in its time, but let’s face it, a bit of a hollow victory. Anyway, 1969 was a weird year, perhaps in an effort to promote European harmony Clifford Brown (the Svante Stockselius / Jon Ola Sand of his day) decided to let all four countries win. I can’t believe they never thought “oooh, what if two, or three countries get the same score?’, when they put the rules together. It damn well nearly killed Eurovision, thankfully Mr Brown didn’t last much longer.

  • 158 – Running Scared, by Ell/Nikki (Azerbaijan 2011, 1st with 43.85%).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSnz-iF9Xps

Well this was a surprise for me, only #159? Well… yes. They managed less than half the total number of points that were available to them so it was a low-ranking winner. They scored less than Yohanna in 2009 (#156), Ani Lorak’s Shady Lady in 2008 (#148) and even Verka from 2007 (#129). But they won. Congratulations. Hello Baku!

  • 108 – My Number One, by Elena Paparizou (Greece 2006, 1st 50.44%).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5Sju9fTLUk

‘You are the one, you’re my number 109’ – Elena again is surprisingly low, gleaning just over half of the votes available. Less, in fact, than in her earlier entry as part of Antique in 2001 with ‘(I Would) Die For You’ at #71 – you’ll remember that from last week.

  • 1064 – I Do, by Fabrizio Faniello (Malta 2006, 24th with 24th 0.23%).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQeL73Sw7ik

More like ‘I Don’t’, poor Fabrizio has the honour of being the lowest ranking song ever. That is, if you ignore the 34 songs that have scored zero over the years. Even Bebi Doll beat it (#1061)!

Get on with it! (#50-#41)

Right, so, here is the next batch of songs in the top 100 Eurovision Songs…

 

  • 50 – It’s Nice to be in Love Again, by The Swarbriggs Plus Two (Ireland 1977, 3rd).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLTWMBIM9OA

 

Lovely.  And Irish.

  • 49 – Why Me?, by Linda Martin (Ireland 1992, 1st).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EakbBFYwDY

Back in the day when Eurovision was still classified as ‘Easy Listening’ at HMV (other music outlets are available, but hurry) Linda stole the show with ‘Why Me?’ This started the tricolour tri-win. It’s a great song, albeit set in the context of a boring, dreadful year. Even the hosts has as much charisma as a can of paint. Let’s not forget, it also launched the career of Christer Björkman and his stunningly successful entry in this chart (…at #948), so all can’t be that bad. Ahem.

  • 48 – You Are Summer (…), by Nova (Sweden 1973, 5th).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBHjolc5y5g

Understand this, this is the only time you will ever, ever hear ‘breasts’ at Eurovision. Although there are many that take to the stage. What the heck are these lyrics about? Maybe I am missing something, but the early seventies were known for their changing liberal ways. Apparently she never tells him no. Wonder what that’s all about.

  • 46 = Falter im Wind, by Milestones (Austira 1972, 5th).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU8tHuziI9w

Yes. Nice.

  • 46 = Diese Welt, by Katja Ebstein (Germany 1971, 3rd).

A passionate performance from young Katja, she’s loving it. And I don’t blame her, a nice wee song with a great melody and, stuff. I like it. And so did she.

  • 45 – Insieme: 1992, by Toto Cutugno (Italy 1990, 1st).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8H-TbwiadFs

Now, I had to come to an agreement with Ewan about how much space on his lovely website I could use to slag off be critical (that’s better – Ewan) of Toto. But rather than risk upsetting half of Italy I decided against it. Toto. What can one say. Nice hair? Great presentation skills? Amazingly good manners? And the way he stared at Gigliola’s breasts throughout 1991‘s contest. Maybe that’s what Nova at #48 were on about! It was a great introduction into the Nasty Nineties. None of us could have guessed what the next two years had in store for us. Thank God we couldn’t see the future.

  • 44 – Theater, by Katja Ebstein (Germany 1980, 2nd).

And off she goes again. And she still loves it. A lot. Sing it girl! Slightly scary performance. She couldn’t get enough the first time!

  • 43 – Rock Bottom, by Lynsey de Paul & Mike Moran (United Kingdom 1977, 2nd).

A little different for its time but still firmly belonging to the 70s, I am not sure many people other than die-hards could even tell you anything about this song. Other than the bad acting at the start and looking like 2 shaggy dogs. It did very well though, the judges liked it voting it in 2nd place, the UK have a great Eurovision 2nd place tradition and maybe the judges saw something I still can’t. Wonder what they’re doing now (the judges or Mike Moran? – Ewan).

  • 42 – Seventh Wonder, by Ira Losco (Malta 2002, 2nd).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b3ywwJMZLQ

Ahh, Ira, lovely little ditty that made me feel all cozy, fluffy and pink. A very girlie song that just made us all go ‘awwww’. Okay, not all, but she looked very cute that night and especially when she glittered us all. I can imagine the audience at the front of the stage all falling in love with her, still coughing up glitter to this day. A nice song from Malta. What’s happened?

There’s no number 41 as we have a tie for number 40… find out on the next chunk of this fab Euro chart to see who that is!

The whole top 100-1 (once revealed!) can be found as a countdown chart on the Youtube playlist if you click the following link. That is if you want to see all the entries so far in all their colourful (and some black and white) glory. Enjoy. See you next week for #40-#31!

 

You Can Support ESC Insight on Patreon

ESC Insight's Patreon page is now live; click here to see what it's all about, and how you can get involved and directly support our coverage of your Eurovision Song Contest.

Have Your Say

2 responses to “Counting Down To Eurovision Perfection: #50 – #41”

  1. Louise H says:

    Guys, I can see no small amount of work has gone into this and it is appreciated; and I am especially loving the youtube playlist, THANK YOU!

  2. Ewan Spence says:

    All the credit goes to Steven on this one, Louise, his original idea and analysis, I just heped with some editing and layout work.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *