Four more acts. Do you recognise them? Do you like them?
NUMBER ONE: As far as I know there’s only one Eurovision song with a dancing gorilla.
NUMBER TWO: My, hasn’t she changed over the years!
NUMBER THREE: One of my all-time favs. Outrageously happy.
NUMBER FOUR: Eurovision’s first faux lesbians
Catch you round!
Last year I went to Australia Decides on the Gold Coast.
This was a new event for Australia: it simply followed the European model where various acts perform and one is chosen to represent Australia at Eurovision 2019. When I got home I made some ‘art’ – representations of the acts I liked with coloured card but I didn’t do much with them. This year, with a big gap where Eurovision won’t be happening and lock downs in place, I’ve taken the opportunity to create more ‘art’. Some evenings I put on a classic Eurovision DVD from a random year and make little paper works of some of the most iconic performances. You don’t need to be a Eurovision tragic to pick many of these but it helps to know a little bit about Eurovision.
So who are these acts? Do you know? Do you like them?
NUMBER 1: Recognise her? One of my all time favs. Well deserved second place.
NUMBER 2: Originality, moody, quality vocals: you often don’t get all three in Eurovision.
NUMBER 3: You’ll have to think back for this one, but totally iconic, don’t you think?
NUMBER 4: Here’s a challenge. Might need a clue or two for this one.
Hope you enjoy them! More to come.
All images ©WJL 2020
Hello Europe!
Or as Erez kept saying: Good night Europe!
So glad to see that the Australian entry finally realised that the big dress has been done to death.
See, kiddies, this is why it’s good to know a bit of history. You can see what’s been done before and if it’s good you can do it too and if it’s not you can do something different. Hopefully better.
Good to see Kate and friends wafting around on black sticks across the universe instead of being super-glued to a giant termite mound.
A creative song and a creative staging which is more than a lot of ’em this year.
Yikes again.
PRINCESS IN CONE + DEMENTOR ON A STICK ≠ GOOD CHOICE for EUROVISION 2019
Oh Australia! Yet again I am ASHAMED to be AUSTRALIAN!
It’s not just Clive Palmer or our treatment of refugees, it’s Australia’s entry for Eurovision 2019…
Yikes. The world is SOOOOOO OVER big dresses.
Starting back with Linda Wagenmakers, Netherlands 2002 – or maybe even earlier – the idea of a big dress has been DONE TO DEATH.
She went for WIDE:
After that it was all out for HEIGHT. And then HEIGHT with special effects…
I suppose many Australians getting into Eurovision for the first time find the idea of a big dress wild and creative and original.
IT’S NOT!
Here’s proof of some excellent pre-2019 big dresses:
2013 was THE YEAR for the BIG dress: Or the big, er, COAT:
In 2018, Estonia gave us the BIG DRESS + projection + opera singer all-in-one:
And after all this, what does Australia come up with?
Yikes!
THE END
Let’s have some fun!
Warning: This is a silly quiz. A funny quiz. A tongue-firmly-planted-in-cheek kind of quiz. You will NOT be asked whether Czech Republic appeared in Semi-Final 2 in 2011. Or who came fourth in 1963. You will be asked much more fun questions like:
Peoples, this is hi-tech Euro-quizzing. There are 20 questions…in a WORD document…some with illustrations in full colour!
So go ahead! Get in the spirit of the ESC!
For Eurovision silly quiz click on Petr 
Well meaning advice: Print it out and blu tack it to the walls at your next Eurovision party. Get your friends to do their best. I recommend handing out prizes. IKEA is good. I have absolutely no affiliation with them but, well, they’re Swedish. And cost-effective. And you can get candles and cushions and boxes and mirrors and stuff that everyone can use. Well, except at one of our parties a few years ago when a quiz winner I shall call ‘Kevin’ won an IKEA watering can I shall call ‘Blumt’ but lived in an apartment I shall call ‘plant free’. Oh well.
Oh, for answers click on Verka (or ‘Verk’ as I call her…actually I just made that up)
Good luck!
Here begins a list of Eurovision songs that are outstanding in their songwriting. Well, in my opinion. I’m just listening to Eurovision 2005 right now so 2005 it is…
THE WAR IS NOT OVER. LATVIA 2005.
I love this song. It was written by Mārtiņš Freimanis who features in F.L.Y. with the wacky Hello from Mars, Latvia’s fourth appearance in Eurovision. Hello from Mars is also a wonderful song but for very different reasons.
Sadly, Freimanis died in 2011 in his early 30’s.
THE WAR IS NOT OVER is a stunning piece of songwriting. As well as the the beautiful harmonies, the first verse is a masterpiece. Just read the words and be devastated at how it captures the human condition. Wow:
I slowly walk into the night around
To see how dreams of people die
They gently fall from windows all around
And crash against the ground like glass…
I am SO glad that apparently the chorus was tweaked slightly from:
‘That someone is loser, that someone is winner’
to
‘That someone’s the loser, someone’s the winner’
Is this true, Mr Wikipedia? I really appreciate that shift. Being a native English speaker, that correct grammar makes SUCH a difference. (I will return to this concept of good grammar with poor old Sanna Nielsen whose dazzling performance was in contrast to the, er, lyrics she had to sing. Ho hum.)
But back to Latvia. Having absolutely no Latvian background, I did a bit of research on dear old songwriter Mārtiņš. I found a live version of him singing: Pie Dieviņa gari galdi which was pretty damn tuneful.
But please, can someone – anyone – out there tell me what this song is about???
Google translate suggests the title is: To adore long tables.
Possibly not.
Coming Up Next…
Aisha. Latvia. 2010.
And no, this is not supposed to be Latvia only, it’s just happened that way.
SEMI-FINAL 1 2017
THE YEAR OF THE (MOSTLY) MODEST LONG DRESSES
or
THE YEAR OF THE POINTY SHOES
or
THE YEAR OF PLAITS
But mainly the year of: Why? Why? Why the bright blue skirt? Why the horse’s head? Why the wedding dresses? Why is Eurovision eating itself?
My vote:
ENCOURAGEMENT AWARDI’ll say it again. It’s a bad decision for Australia to be in Eurovision 2016. It’s not our Song Contest. Europe welcomed us as a wild card entry last year. It was the 60th anniversary of Eurovision, that’s why. And it was in Copenhagen, goodness me. Home of Princess Mary and hubby. This year is different. It’s so sad. Julia and Sam no longer have that wild & free access to dressing rooms and gossip and the fun and the buzz because SBS has changed the whole relationship as of 2015. Not sure why.
News through that Australia will be in Eurovision 2016…
This is WRONG, peoples.
Australia had a special guest slot at Eurovision 2015. It was thrilling to participate, to wake up at 5am and see it LIVE. And to VOTE for the first time ever (even through the phone voting packed up completely…did you get my 13 votes for Norway???).
Eurovision 2015 was amazing. And Europe was exceedingly GRACIOUS in accepting us and making us welcome.
But we don’t belong there.
Eurovision belongs to the Europeans!
Please Australia, get a grip. Please EBU, don’t invite us.
It is embarrassing, awkward and STUPID for us to do it again.
eurovisiondownunder.com 