Saturday 3 September 2016
484 Eurovision Song Contest
First viewed : 4th April 1981
I'd been aware of the Contest since I first got interested in pop music at the beginning of 1973, when Cliff's Power To All Our Friends lost out to Anne-Marie David's Wonderful Dream ( undoubtedly a better song ) but this was the first time I'd actually watched the Final. It wasn't a bad one to pick as the UK scored its penultimate ( at the time of writing ) victory with Bucks Fizz and Making Your Mind Up complete with the skirt-ripping routine already familiar from their Top of the Pops appearances. Apart from the result the thing I most remember is how vital a part of the proceedings Terry Wogan's droll commentary was.
Oh and Norway scored their customary nul points with a dreadful dirge.
While Bucks Fizz were well-drilled and faultless on the night their successors in 1982 Bardo were not so good with Sally Anne Triplett ( like Bucks' Cheryl Baker a second time around contestant having been in 1980's outfit Prima Donna ) sounding breathless and off key on One Step Further , She has though had a strong career in musical theatre ever since. They lost out to Germany's Dana clone Nicole whose cloying A Little Peace is still the last Eurovision winner to top the UK chart. Norway passed the wooden spoon to neighbours Finland whose punky anti-nuclear ditty "Nukku Pommin" ( or something like that ).
I don't think I watched it again until 1987 when Ireland's Johnny Logan scored his second win in eight years with "Hold Me Now" although he had to make do with the runner's up spot in the charts. The next one I remember is 1994 when a couple of unremarkable Irishmen Harrington & McGettigan won with the instantly forgettable "Rock And Roll Kids"; there was speculation that the Irish had selected it to fail because they couldn't afford to host three contests in a row but it still won anyway.
In 1998 my wife and I were invited to watch it at a friend's house. That was the one won by the Israeli transvestite but what I remember best is hostess Ulrika Jonsson's hatchet job on one of the special guests. The Dutch judges had invited a previous contestant, Conny van den Bos who was completely unknown in the UK, to be their spokesperson and when she appeared on screen to announce their votes she made a meal of it : " Before I start giving you my points I should like to say my heart goes to all the singers because I know what they feel". Ulrika was having none of this grandstanding ( note she said my points ) and hit her right between the eyes with " I know . You of course have taken part so you must be feeling their nerves . A long time ago was it ?" and you could hear the Birmingham audience's collective intake of breath . You don't mess with the Swede !
Since then the only one I've watched through was the infamous 2003 Final when the UK's hapless Jemini scored the dreaded nul points. The song was a routine effort but they sang it badly and as Terry Wogan kindly pointed out at the time, the rest of Europe were using the voting as a way to express their displeasure at the UK's support for the Iraq War. I don't suppose Tony Blair ever took them to dinner to make up for it.
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