I love ESC
ABBA - Waterloo ESC 1974 Sweden
What better way to get rid of the post-ESC blues then by one of the all time favorites of the contest? Waterloo was voted the best song in the competition’s history in the programme Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest, which marked the 50th anniversary of the contest in 2005.
This was Sweden’s first win, and ABBA went on to become superstars. The flashy costumes (love the silver boots!), the catchy tune and the simple performance still represents a highlight in the ESC history.
Marion Rung - Tom Tom Tom ESC 1973 Finland
I sometimes love this song, sometimes hate it. Maybe not hate, but sometimes it annoys me. Marion sings about the music brought to her by her lover, and it was the first occasion that Finland had not performed entirely in Finnish. At the close of voting it had received 93 points, placing 6th in a field of 17. This would be Finland’s most successful ESC appearance until 2006, when Lordi won.
SunStroke Project and Olia Tira - Run Away ESC 2010 Moldova
The Epic Sax Guy! What better way to celebrate the ESC final!
Saxophonist Sergey Stepanov became the subject of a major internet meme surrounding his saxophone solo (despite a rule prohibiting musical instruments being played on stage). The song itself didn’t do that well, barely making it thru the semifinal and placing 22nd of 25 countries. But the saxophonist lives on along with his fantastic dance moves.
Bendik Singers - It’s Just a Game ESC 1973 Norway
Personally, I think this song is a strange mix of some catchy parts, really good vocal skills and some messy parts. It was performed in English and French - with some lyrics in Spanish, Italian, Dutch, German, Irish, Serbo-Croatian, Hebrew, Finnish, Swedish and Norwegian. This makes it the only entry, besides the 1971 entry from Ireland, to feature the Irish language.
Unusually, over the next three years, all Norwegian eurovision entries would feature one or more members of the Bendik Singers. 1974’s entry featured all four of them, the next to years there were solo performances from some of the members. But none of these subsequent efforts would achieve the same high finishing position (7th) as this entry.
Nicole & Hugo - Baby, Baby ESC 1973 Belgium
Oh my lord. This song has achieved a cult status among ESC fans, due to the amazing purple jumpsuits and the unusual dance moves. The song itself is a rather straightforward love duet, with the duo pledging their love to each other in a variety of languages (and making the somewhat unusual comment that “the divorce doesn’t hurt at all”). At the close of voting, it had received 58 points, placing 17th (last) in a field of 17. The song still lives on and Nicole and Hugo still travel around and perform it wearing (- you guessed it) purple jumpsuits!
Inga & Anush - Jan Jan ESC 2009 Armenia
Ah this is what ESC should be; a perfect mix of ethnical features, brilliant costumes and dancetranceeurodance :D the armenian sisters just made it to top ten in the final, I think they should have come in second (Norway was impossible to beat this year).
Mocedades - Eres tú ESC 1973 Spain
This song went on to become a huge international hit and one of the all time ESC favorites. It came in second, just beating UK and Cliff Richard with two points.
However, the song caused a scandal in 1973 when it was accused of plagiarism due to reasonable similarities in the melody with the Yugoslav entry from the 1966 contest (Berta Ambrož - Brez besed). The two songs are fairly similar and I’m not that so sure it wasn’t a case of plagiarism. Anyhow, ”Eres tú” was not disqualified. It has been suggested that this may have been for political reasons, as Francisco Franco’s Spain was seen as more part of the European mainstream than Josip Broz Tito’s Yugoslavia.
Mihai Trăistariu - Tornerò ESC 2006 Romania
I don’t know why I like this song, especially this live version which is somewhat shaky. Anyway, it still makes me dance when I hear it. The song received 172 points, the highest score from Romanian history in Eurovision (even though it isn’t the highest placing). It ended up placing 4th in a field of 24.
Anne-Marie David - Tu te reconnaîtras ESC 1973 Luxembourg
Luxembourg repeated their win from the previous year, this time with french singer Anne-Marie. The song was not the aboslute favorite to win this year, and the voting was a very close one. Luxembourg won with 129 points, with Spain finishing only 4 points behind and Cliff Richard another 2 points after.
David recorded the song in five languages; French, German, English, Spanish and - very unusually - in two entirely different Italian translations. The song scored the highest score ever achieved in Eurovision under any voting format, recording 129 points out of a possible 160; scoring just under 81% of the possible maximum.
Grethe & Benny - Småting ESC 1972 Norway
This is such a sweet song, and one of the few Norwegian entries from the seventies that I actually like. Grethe and Benny are comparing the great successes of human life (inheriting a castle, landing on the moon) with the “little things”, such as watching a sunset, which they sing are superior experiences. The song didn’t do very well (almost a tradition by now for Norway), it ended up 14th out of 18 countries.
