Woooo, Edinburg. Since Monaco couldn’t host Eurovision (and they tried to), the BBC hosted it on their behalf (as they usually did back then). No changes in the makeup from the previous year, same 18 countries are taking part.
Since I’m watching this show with the British commentary, the British commentator (Tom Fleming) started singing praises to Edinburg (and Scotland) right away, which I found charming, he clearly isn’t faking his enthusiasm. But yeah, the show opens with views of Edinburg and a great orchestral rendition of Un banc, un arbre, une rue.
After that, we’re greeted by our host, Moira Shearer, who pretty quickly greets us, introduces the audience to the contest and we move on to the songs. Nothing out of the ordinary this year.
Ah, what a great opener. First word that comes to my mind is “fresh”. Maybe it’s Mary’s energy, but it’s incredibly enjoyable, energetic and fun. The orchestra overpowers her a bit, but poor mixing is par for the course in a lot of years and easy to ignore. The nice and interesting arrangement with the bongos improves it even more.
Phew, the previous year was just a fluke and France is back to sending very good songs. Something about this sounds quintessentially French to me in a very enjoyable way. Unlike Germany’s entry, I wouldn’t call this very contemporary, but that doesn’t make it bad. And Betty elevates it a lot by her performance. The nice wordplay rhyme between “comédie” and “come on dit” is pretty clever too, I have to give some credit for it.
It’s nice to hear a song in Irish in Eurovision, it really is, but I wish it was more substantial so to speak. This song sounds like it’s out of a children’s stage play, with a 12/8 rhythm. I can see why the juries weren’t really impressed by it, but, once again, kudos to Ireland for sending a song in Irish.
Also, I listened to the studio version and it has a slightly slower tempo that works much better, at least in my opinion. I wish they didn’t change it for Eurovision (it’s 3:08 minutes long, they could’ve just cut down the musical intro).
This is a fairly big downgrade from the previous year’s entry. It isn’t particularly bad, but it isn’t very gripping either. Jaime performs it well (vocally at least), but it just failed to grip me. And I guess the juries weren’t extremely impressed with it since they put it 10th (out of 18, so right at the top of the bottom half).
Fun fact: they wanted to use a backing track, but the EBU didn’t allow that since all instruments had to be played live. If they waited just one year, they would’ve been able to do that since using a backing track (and mimicking it on stage) has been allowed since 1973.
Anyway, this is a good song, I like it more than most of the previous UK entries. It has a catchy hook and a nice contemporary instrumentation. There’s almost nothing to dislike here, but I think it relies on its hook too much and doesn’t have enough movement. Still, this was a great experience and I’m glad the UK brought something different.
Ok I found this absolutely charming. The repeated hook of Smålting doesn’t get annoying, the instrumentation is really catchy and fun, their voices are harmonious and fun and it has a very innocent vibe around it. Despite some of my comments, I appreciate cuteness, but not when it’s too twee, and Grethe and Benny manage to avoid feeling twee.
Wow, Carlos has changed a lot in just four years (obviously, because of the beard). He also has a new and fresh musical style. This song verges on the edge of being a rock song, but it’s held back by its purely orchestral arrangement. I think it would’ve greatly benefitted from a guitar. But even with that, it’s still absolutely awesome. It’s rich and dynamic, very well-performed and even got me to hum along. It also has a great message about celebrating life and the good things in it, which always helps.
I’ve stopped expecting a lot of things from Switzerland, but I adored this. It was very mysterious and intriguing. It’s a pretty simple song, both lyrically and instrumentally, but it doesn’t bore me. It pulls off being minimalistic really well, trading complex progressions for simple alterations between major and minor keys. And the guitar is pretty nice too.
My only problem is the vibrato in her voice. It can get a bit grating at times, which prevented me from fully enjoying the song.
And here’s the opposite of Norway. They feel too twee, with those looks at each other. And, unlike the last time, the song isn’t very good. It feels very repetitive and messy. I don’t even think the language was the issue here, though it, of course, didn’t help.
The British commentator describes them as “two of the most attractive performers in the contest”. I won’t comment on his comment, I just found it funny.
This was great. It’s the second Nordic love duet I’ve enjoyed this evening. They have good chemistry, but aren’t over-the-top with it. The song is very catchy even if you don’t know Finnish, but at the same time it sounds so Finnish, it’s insane. And the dance break at the end adds a lot as well.
Wow. This was absolutely beautiful, from the first guitar strum to the last. It had a very complex arrangement with a clarinet (mimicking the wind if I were to guess), piano and very prominent guitars. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that this was slightly ahead of its time. It reminds me a lot of the Guitar Slinger composition for the Amiga. But yeah, once again, this feels very fresh and listening to this was an immense pleasure.
The lyrics just tell a story of a butterfly, which is probably a metaphor for life, but I’m not sure. I’d be completely happy if it wasn’t.
Yup, I enjoyed this much more than Italy’s previous entry. It’s very quintessentially Italian, but with an added guitar (which seems to be the theme of this year, guitars, lots and lots of guitars - not that I’m complaining) and great vocals. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this and I liked it a lot.
Tereza has a much much better song this year than back in 1966.
I usually don’t like this sort of theatrical singing, but this entry absolutely clicked with me. I did like Tereza’s performance in 1966 (I just didn’t like the song, at all), so it’s unsurprising that I find this much more engaging. The lyrics are all about music (and you) and how beautiful the world is because of it. It’s all accompanied by a lot of brass that makes the song sound very grand and the brief key change at the end made me unreasonably happy.
And Sweden takes another step to schlager. This really has some ABBA vibes, in a very positive ways. Unlike their previous entry, this song feels focused and structured, with no weird turns. I loved listening to it and I liked their performance of it a lot.
Monaco, you sent a great love duet just 5 years ago, what happened now. The verses are fine, I would’ve probably liked it if it only had the verses, but what is this chorus? I’m serious, what is the chorus? It’s so unoriginal and stale, I think I got a mould allergy just from listening to it. At least I don’t feel insane this time because the juries didn’t like this either and put it 16th.
Well, at least they have decent chemistry together. Unfortunately, the lyrics are still very trite and boring and the “pa-pam” instrumental doesn’t help either.
It feels appropriate that I’m watching this right after Luxembourg’s national final. I’m really happy they’re returning and I’m very happy with their choice.
Anyway, this song immediately has winner vibes. First of all, Vicky is no longer a teenager, which has done wonders for her voice. She’s way more confident and in complete control of the stage. This is the first time I can confidently say that her dress was picked for the song. Having her in something more colourful would’ve spoiled the mood a bit.
And the song itself is amazing too, of course. The instrumental strikes the right balance between lively and longing, which is very appropriate for this song. And of course, the lyrics. They were masterfully rewritten from German by Yves Dessca (who also wrote the winning entry the previous year) and, honestly, improved. While most translations lose something, I can confidently say that the original lyrics pale in comparison to this. The German Lyrics are all about finding love and are honestly fairly banal. The French lyrics, on the other hand, are about losing love. They’re about life after your lover has left you, which isn’t something people sing about. And yet, it’s in a major key, which gives it a hopeful feeling anyway, despite fairly sad lyrics. Top it off with a great performance and you have a sure winner (coming second-to-last doesn’t hurt either).
And ok, maybe I’m biased because I can mostly understand French, but not German, but still, these are my reviews, so I feel how I want to feel.
This is a really good closer (and really ups the mood after the previous entry). The song changes up between fun and upbeat and calm and less energetic parts, but that doesn’t kill the energy. The lyrics are “all about love”, of course, as if you could’ve expected anything different from a duet, but not in a saccharine and annoying way. Good job, Netherlands, this was fun.
The 70s seem to be a decade of repeat winners for me. But what can I do, I just like their songs.
This was a much much better year than 1970 and 1971. I enjoyed pretty much every song and some of the songs I didn’t enjoy weren’t even that bad.
The voting wasn’t that interesting though, Luxembourg really ran away with it and nobody really managed to catch up. Still, they deserved it, it really was the song with the biggest wow factor.
I’ll see you all in 1973, with one of the most iconic stages of all time (and probably the worst sound mixing of all time). But I’ll talk more about sound mixing once we get there.