Heja från Malmö, Sverige, as they say round these parts!
It’s that time again to look at the best songs from the Eurovision Song Contest semi final history. You’ll remember from the last 3 weeks’ articles that I have been counting down the top 100 semi final songs, those that didn’t make it to the final on the Saturday night shows, from 1993, 1996 and 2004-2012.
We have now hit the point in time where I reveal the all-important number one song, and you can browse the full playlist on YouTube.
But before I get to that, I thought I would also look at some of the other favourites that, ahem, didn’t make it and were therefore locked away in the halls of Euro history to never be hear again. Until now, that is, when I inflict the world to the dulcet sounds of yesteryears has-beens, or rather more accurately, never-weres.
The Hidden Gems Lower Down The Rankings
At no.148 is ‘Get a Life – Get Alive‘ by Eric Papilaya (Austria, 2007). Because this song did so dreadfully poorly Austria decided for the next few contests to sit it out. They sulked. A lot. They blamed the contest for bias away from the ‘traditional countries’ and Europe simply not liking Austrian acts and music and claimed that Germanic countries would never do well again in Eurovision. Germany won a handful of years later and guess what, Austria changed its mind and sent us a very good song. They qualified. Do we have a better contest with Austria back? Did they make a valid point by pulling out and sulking? Or did they just decide to actually put some effort in to it and stop sending crap? You decide.
No.146 is ‘Stay Forever‘ by Platin (Slovenia, 2004). A cute little song. It was sickly how much in love they were (and I assume still are) that they even decided to get married at the Eurovision venue a few days after not qualifying. I still quite like it. Not sure why.
At no.138 is ‘Narodnozabavni rock‘ by Ansambel Roka Žlindre & Kalamari (Slovenia, 2010). Like WTF? I cannot tell you how much I hate this song, it’s the worst of the worst mishmash of two totally different songs that should never have been allowed to be recorded on the same planet, let alone on the same stage. This is Euro-God-awful crap at its worst and I hope to God it never happens again. Oh, damn, we have Macedonia 2013!
Get On With It!
So, the top 20, here we go. To recap on how I’ve worked this all out – I have taken the total number of points they earned and divided that by the total they could have achieved if every country voting in that semi final had given them maximum points. 2004-2012 is easy to calculate, 1993 and 1996’s results are a bit odd in the way the countries were scored so I have included those two years in the tally below but not numbered them. And you’ll see why when you scroll down!
- 20 – Era stupendo by Paolo Meneguzzi (Switzerland, 2008)
- 19= – Love Unlimited by Sofi Маrinоvа (Bulgaria, 2012)
- 19= – Unbreakable by Sinplus (Switzerland, 2012)
- 17= – Nа inаt by Pоli Gеnоvа (Bulgaria, 2011)
- 17= – I’m Still Alive by TWiiNS (Slovakia, 2011)
- 15= – Just Get Out of My Life by Andrea (Montenegro, 2009)
- 15= – Legenda by Marcin Mroziński (Poland, 2010)
- 13= – Feel the Passion by Aurela Gaçe (Albania, 2011)
- 13= – Live It Up by Yüksek Sadakat (Turkey, 2011)
- 11= – Nеstо stо kе оstаnе by Next Time (Macedonia, 2009)
- 11= – My Dream by Thea Garrett (Malta, 2010)
- 10 – East European Funk by InCulto (Lithuania, 2010)
- 8 – With Love Baby by Witloof Bay (Belgium, 2011)
- 7 – Työlki ellää by Kuunkuiskaajat (Finland, 2010)
- 6 – DJ, Take Me Away by Deep Zone & Balthazar (Bulgaria, 2008)
- 4= – Boom Boom by Emmy (Armenia, 2011)
- 4= – One Life by Glen Vella (Malta, 2011)
- 3 – Cipela by Marko Kon & Milan Nikolić (Serbia, 2009)
- 2 – Let Me Love You by Tamara, Vrčak & Adrijan (Macedonia, 2008)
So, the number one song? Well, it’s pretty ironic that this song is placed at this position, considering we are in Sweden this year. This song is the only non-finalist that Sweden has ever had where they have entered the competition. The singer was so visibly upset when she didn’t qualify (as reported in the Swedish press the next day). At least Anna can take solace in achieving this high honour, the number one non-qualifying semi finalist is…
- 1 – This is My Life by Anna Bergendahl (Sweden, 2010)
However, as I have mentioned before, there are two other years where we can regard the qualifying rounds as semi finals. I have included these songs in the rankings but because the scoring system was a little different the results are a little skewed. But for your information they are listed below.
- Nu pleca by Dida Dragan (Romania, 1993)
- Árva reggel by Andrea Szulák (Hungary, 1993)
- Muretut meelt ja südametuld by Janika (Estonia, 1993)
- Amnestia na neveru by Elán (Slovakia, 1993)
So, depending on your viewpoint, Anna is number one, or Elán is. I’ll leave you to decide who the real winner is.
So there you have it, numbers 100 to 1 are all now available on ESC Insight’s YouTube playlist. Once the 2013 season is over, I will be updating both the top 100 semi finals and finals charts with their new rankings. Until then, enjoy and ciao, for now.
Interesting list. No huge surprises, but still a good read.
Poli and Anna failing to qualify are two of the biggest tragedies since they started the Semi Final system. Although the magical vanishing guitar didn’t earn Anna any favours.
I loved the vanishing guitar
Era Stupendo is still one of my all-time favorites. A tragedy it didn’t qualify.
I remember being on the floor of Telenor Arena and after the semi ended without Sweden qualifying, someone turned to me and said, “Does anyone want to buy 10,000 orange glow sticks?”
Agree with Michael on Era Stupendo. The best song for me in 2008 and I was shocked it did not qualify.
I liked Love Unlimited too – definitely better than Bulgaria’s entry this year.
And also Unbreakable by Sinplus.
“Era stupendo”??? No! My pick for 2008 would be “Let Me Love You”.