Welcome to the new decade. Norway joins, Luxembourg returns and the UK hosts despite not winning the previous year, which will become a bit of a trend during the 60s and 70s (and 2023).
And here we are, the 50s are over, the 60s have just begun, though the radical changed to popular music are a bit off and Eurovision won’t catch up with those changes until the end of the decade.
Norway makes its way into the Eurovision family and never leaves of its own accord, and we all love them for it.
We’re in London today, on the south bank of the river Thames, as David Jacobs, the British commentator, pointed out. He also pointed out that the stage is “a blaze of blue, red and gold”. It’s presented by Katie Boyle, whom we’ll see again several times.
Before getting to the songs, Katie Boyle introduces every country and their artist in both English and the country’s native language.
An extremely strong opener. Bryan Johnson effortlessly plays with his voice, moving from high to low notes and projects it to the audience. There’s an abundance of rhymes, which is always a huge positive in my books and the hook is extremely memorable.
The instrumental fits with the song really well too. The brass plays a slightly more important role than before, though the strings are still the lead section. And he is, of course, accompanied by woodwinds when he starts whistling.
The song is ridiculously catchy as a result. The combination of rapid succession of rhymes and a strong hook make it stick in your mind for a while.
The commentator describes it as “sad”, but also says that it has a “very gay tune”. While I do know that this was before the word “gay” took on its current meaning, I still had to pause the video for a bit before I stopped laughing (I’m not a very mature person).
I do agree with him. The topic of the song is actually quite sad, about how the singer isn’t courageous enough to propose to someone she loves and has to sit and watch how other people fall in love and get married.
The instrumental is, on the other hand, very upbeat and quite jazzy. Since I don’t know Swedish and rely on looking up translations, this wasn’t jarring, but I imagine it could be for anyone who does speak Swedish.
This is a fairly mellow ballad about love, which usually means that I’m not going to like it very much. Despite all odds, I do actually like this. The singer sounds very sincere without being saccharine, the instrumental isn’t boring. I really liked the rhyme between “Gedanken”, “wanken” and “schwanken”.
Luxembourgish sounds quite peculiar. It makes me sad that Luxembourg would only send one more song in it. Let’s hope that they send something in it again after their return.
This song proves that romanticising the past is not a new thing at all. “Gosh, weren’t things just better in the 1900s compared to the depraved 1960s?”
It’s a fairly light and airy song, rather dreamy, though not slow and boring. Once again, I think that people who make fun of Danish aren’t really being fair. It’s actually quite melodic and playful.
Fud Leclerc is back for the third time. The man clearly loved participating in Eurovision.
He sings a fairly classy song about love, comparing it to all sorts of things - the sea, the sky, the dawn etc. It’s slow and mellow, with no risqué meanings of any kind.
Despite not being very exciting, Fud manages to elevate it much higher than I expected. And it’s not that he does anything special, he just simply performs it well.
This is a very charming and innocent song about a Sami girl waiting for her sweetheart. It also has a very memorable hook (yes, it’s “voi-voi”, just as you’d expect from the title). But I actually like it when songs put their hook in the title because they give you something to expect in the song itself.
I found the instrumental to be much more interesting than the song itself. While Harry performs it really well, it’s just too repetitive lyrically and fails to catch my attention.
On the other hand, the instrumental is quite varied and dynamic. It flows and changes, the strings swell and go quiet. It gave me a feeling of skating on ice for some reason, hard to say why (my mind could’ve done that because of Harry’s surname).
This is pretty good. François is a great performer and elevates this otherwise-mediocre song a lot. I don’t think I would’ve enjoyed it as much if it was someone else performing it, so I have to give credit where credit is due.
This is a beautiful Italian ballad, wonderfully performed by Anita. Her voice is strong, powerful and rich. It also uses a lot of piano, which is nice, most songs only use strings and woodwinds, occasionally some brass. This makes it stand out a bit from other ballads. I’ve enjoyed this a lot, it’s very well-suited to the Italian language, and I can’t really blame them for sticking to it.
Once again, I feel like the instrumental is more interesting than the vocal performance. Rudi’s voice is a bit flat (not in the sense of key, I don’t think he’s gone off the key once, but more in the sense of dynamism and interestness) and unengaging. It’s not the kind of song that will stick in your head after the performance.
This is a bit reminiscent of Dors, Mon Amour from 1958. It could be that the theme of the song is similar, singing good night to your love. I find it a bit more interesting than that entry though. First of all, I much prefer the instrumental here. It’s in a minor key, which is a bit of an unconventional choice for an entry like this. Secondly, I prefer that it’s a bit quicker.
This is quite operatic in my opinion. Renato’s voice is powerful and matched by an equally powerful instrumental. The performance “fills” the whole stage and it’s honestly captivating. It’s also very different from the other song in Italian this year, which is great. Italy has always had a diverse music scene, so I’m glad they’re not just sticking to one formula, but mixing it up a bit.
As the commentator puts it, this song is about a “lovable liar”. It tells a story of Tom Pillibi (shocking, I know), who has two castles and is the king’s daughter’s lover. Unfortunately, he has one small flaw - he’s a liar.
The structure of the song is brilliant. The second verse starts telling us his secret, but subverts our expectations by actually singing about the king’s daughter. It only states that he’s a liar at the very end of the third verse.
The instrumental is suitably playful and simple. It accents - but doesn’t overpower - the performance.
This makes it the second time I’ve snubbed France in my ratings. Don’t worry France, your time will come soon.
What a year. France finally deviated from their formula - and won my heart (and the prize in real life). Monaco went from one of my least favourites to one of my favourites. Norway debuted with a bang. Even my last place got a good score from me. I’ve definitely enjoyed this year a lot. The Eurovision spirit keeps showing through more and more, though we’re still in the experimental era, back when most countries didn’t know what they were doing and new entrants kept arriving almost every year.
Very good voting sequence as well. The UK and Monaco had a strong star with Norway and Germany having a separate battle. All of a sudden, Monaco gave 5 points to France, which propelled them quite nicely, but it wasn’t until the 10th country - Belgium - gave 4 points to France and blanked the UK that they took the top spot.
In fact, next year we’ll see a debut from a Nordic country (the last one for the next 25 years), a Slavic country (the only one for slightly over 30 years) and a country from the Iberian peninsula.