Amph History of the Eurovision Song Contest - recap of the ESC 2010-2019

ESC 2002
Location: Tallin, Estonia
Winner: I wanna, Latvia

This is a contest that I saw alone. I was living in Ireland and sharing a house with other students, and all of them were away. It was also clear that the ESC wasn't as big in Ireland as in Sweden, so I couldn't find anyone who wanted to watch it with me. Still even if I remember seeing it, the entries that I remember the most are because of their costumes, not because of their music.

Estonia's neighbour Latvia won this year, keeping the title in the Baltic states. The song itself is quite repetitive, and it didn't manage any success after the contest. The performance was memorable though, with the singer starting out cross dressing as a man, and during a lot of dancing the clothes are removed until she wears quite a sophisticated dress.

I wanna, Marie N

Overall looking at the winning entry, and the other song, I think this was the year when the performance and visual effects started to really be prominent parts of the songs. The stage also had a new design that allowed the artist to go out into the audience.

The runner up was Malta.
7th wonder - Ira Losco

Personally I think the most memorable entry this year was Greece. Me and my friends are still calling it "the Attack of the Clones"-song. They also won the Barbara Dex Award, even if I think Malta was more deserving of it.

S.A.G.A.P.O - Michalis Rakintzis

 

Are you excited? It's not such a long time left until the Eurovision week in May. Tonight Sweden chose its entry, as usual in a year after victory it was a fairly bland field, but at least the best of the crop won. Oh, and I am going to be extra excited about the ESC this year, I have tickets to the jury rehearsal of semi-final two and I'm planning to be in Stockholm for the the party of semi-final 2. Then I'll be back to chat with you about the big final.

Anyway we have a couple of years still to go through.

ESC 2003
Location: Riga, Latvia
Winner: Everyway that I can, Turkey

This year saw 26 countries compete in the final. With such a large number it's quite hard to find a common theme for the music. A lot of the songs are just in the middle and not very interesting, then there are a couple of interesting entries. Overall the musical style was very much up-tempo, but nothing too adventurous. Still the top songs definitely showed a lot of diversity between them.

The Winner was Turkey. For a long time Turkey had try to send some folk music inspired songs, but they hadn't manage to engage most countries. This year they sent national star Sertab Erener with a song that was just the right mix of Middle Eastern/folk and modern music. I must also say that Sertab's stage presence was definitely the strongest of that year, and she should have done alright even without her dancers. The only thing I don't like with the song is the rap portion.

Everyway that I can, Sertab Erener

It was close call though and Turkey won with just 2 points ahead of Belgium. Belgium's entry was memorable because after all the talk about people just switching to English when there was no language rule in effect, well Belgium entereted a song in a totally imaginary language. Apparently understanding what they were singing about wasn't so important, and it also showed that just a good folk inspired song could still get a lot of votes in the ESC.

Sanomi, Urban Trad

Third place went to Russia. This year it was the popular duo t.A.T.u. that represented them, with a typical song from them. They played their roles of "bad girls" well and didn't show up to rehearsals in time, insulted Germany and so on. It's not one of their best song, but it's definitely different from the rest of the songs of this year's ESC.

Ne ver ne boysia ne prosi - t.A.T.u.

This year's "what where they thinking?" came from Austria. An entry in very strong dialect, that seemed to come straight from kindergaten. It mostly sounds like some kind of nursery rhyme about animals. The dancing is also quite special.

Weil der Mensch zählt - Alf Poier

The Barbara Dex Award in 2003 was awarded to t.A.T.u, but I totally disagree. Sure they don't have the best looking outfits, but it's clearly part of their image. I would have much rather given it to Poland, there is simply no excuse for dressing like that.

 

ESC 2004
Location: Istanbul, Turkey
Winner: Wild dances, Ukraine

This year was the first year with a proper semi-final. The top 10 from the previous year, and the big four, were the only one directly qualified for the final, all other countries had to battle it out in a semi-final. This was also the first year when all countries decided their vote with televoting.

Europe was in a dancing mood this year, and Ukraine managed to be both dance friendly and ethnic with Wild Dances performed by Xena, oh I mena Ruslana, and the best barbaric horde since Dschinghis Khan

Wild Dances - Ruslana

Despite all the uptempt songs the runner up was a ballad from Serbia-Montenegro, and it wasn't sung in English, which by now was definitely an exception. This was the first of a long range of very succesful Balkan ballads in the 2000s.

Lane moje - Željko Joksimović

In an unusually varied score board Turkey followed their win with a respectable fourth place but this time with a ska punk song, probably the best result for that genre in the ESC.

For real - Athena

The Barbara Dex Award for worst outfit went to Sanda Ladosi of Romania.

 

ESC 2005
Location: Kiev, Ukraine
Winner: My number one, Greece

Yes, I'm rushing on a bit, since I want to get to one of my favorite years ever (2006). The format in 2005 was the same as in 2004 with the top 10 from 2004 and the Big 4 directly qualified for the final, while the rest had to go through a semi-final. The top 10 from the semi-final went to the final. Overall this was definitely the year of the drum. There were a lot of entries with big drums on stage, the favorite drummer turned out to be Moldova's grandmother, the title of the song means "grandmother beats the drum". It ended up in 6th place, and took its place as a classic ESC performance.

Bunica bate toba - Zdob zi Zdub

In the end the battle for the win was pretty similar to the previous year. A dance friendly number vs. a ballad, the up-tempo song as the winner. It was Greece's first win, but of course it's compulsory for me to point out that the singer Helena Paparizou is Swedish. She had previously been part of the duo Antique, and I still think their entry for Greece with Die for you in 2001 is better than this song that she won with.

My number one - Helena Paparizou

It seemed as if the ESC winner had got stuck in a pattern of a dance friendly number performed by a woman with a group of background dancers and some slightly folk inspired music. The runner-up was Malta, once again, with also a very traditional ballad.

Angel - Chiara

There was some talk about the Big 4 all ending up as the bottom four, something that countries that had to go through the semi-final and felt was unfair. It's hard to be sure, but I actually think that Germany's entry can be the worst entry ever in the ESC.

Run & Hide - Gracia

The Barbara Dex Award went to Martin Vucic from Macedonia

 

ESC 2006
Location: Athens, Greece
Winner: Hard rock halleluja, Finland

This is probably my favorite ESC ever. I think this was the year that I "came out" as a serious ESC fan, and the thing was that there was so much buzz around it that it wasn't strange at all. I also had the funniest ESC watching experience. Me and a group of student friends where together in quite a small bar, and we had drawn straws on which song everyone should support. When "your" song came on we all took turns to show our support and get the rest of the room to join and vote for them, no matter the quality of the song. That it was a good year is show by the fact that I would say that at least three of the top 6 has gone on to become ESC classics, for good or for worse. In fact I think I will do a countdown for the top 6 instead of starting with the Winner.

6. - We are the Winners, LT United, Lithuania
This is true love it or hate it song. Basically it's six men shouting "we are the winners...of Eurovision" for 2,5 minutes. The kind of people that cares about musical integrity and wanting to defend the ESC as a quality music competition were so upset when it qualified from the semi-final, and then just kept getting votes. The rest I guess was like me, laughed at both the song and the people who got upset by it. Nowadays there is only one way of declaring that you've just won the ESC though, and that is to shout "We are the winners...of Eurovision".

5 - Invincible, Carola, Sweden
Sweden sent a very traditional ESC song, the upbeat power ballad. We also sent out ESC queen Carola, who had a 3rd position and a win to fall back on. This is actually her worst result. As the true ESC diva she is there was quite a few headlines on how upset she was both over Lithuania and the Finnish monsters. I can't stand Carola, but the song has grown on me even if I prefer the Swedish language version. Her performance also turned the "ESC fan" into a joke in Sweden.

4. Tornero, Mihai Traistariu, Romania
This was the entry that ended up surviving on the dancefloors all summer long. It's a fun dance song that catches on.

3. Lejla, Hari Mata Hari, Bosnia & Herzegovina
In between a couple of uptempt dance friendly song there was this number of the what was turning into quite a specific Balkan style in the ESC. I didn't like it at the time, but it has definitely grown on me and deserves its top position.

2. Never let you go, Dima Bilan, Russia
A performance that has also turned into a classic, and not just because of the dreadful accent of the English. The song is good, the singer is cute, but was it the gimmick that made it the runner up. Be sure to watch the performance, and not only listen to it.

1. Hard Rock Halleluja, Lordi, Finland
Perpetually bottom placed Finland decided in 2006 to simply ignore the traditional ESC sound, and instead draw from its strong metal/hard rock scene. In the weeks leading up to the ESC there was definitely a buzz about this entry. People who normally refused to watch or listen, or at least admit that they did, started talking about that they would vote for Finland just to see a metal band win. It is a good melodic hard rock song, and the stage show is magnificent, so I definitely feel that it was the right winner.

The winner of the Barbara Dex Award was Portugal


and the song that I had to publicly cheer for and get people excited about was from Ukraine. It ended up as 7th so it wasn't totally unfeasible that someone would like it.

 

ESC 2007
Location: Helsinki, Finland
Winner: Molitva, Serbia

I actually might have to revise my previous post, going through the ESC 2007 I think that's an even better year. After Lordi's win in 2006 people were really wondering where the ESC was heading, inbetween a monster rock win and a pure joke like "We are the Winners" in the top 5. A bit of that lack of direction can be seen in the entries of 2007. It was definitely the rockiest year, but there were so many different genres of music represented that there were very few songs that were just boring and uninteresting.

If everyone thought that the ESC was turning into a rock contest, instead of pop, they were totally wrong though. In a stark contrast to Lordi the winner of 2007 was a ballad in Serbian, sung by a woman in a simple suit and sneakers.

Marija Serifovic - Molitva

I was never a fan of this song, and I definitely think there were so many better songs this year. My absolute favorite, and still in my top 5 of ESC songs ever was from Georgia. I can't understand why it's not available on spotify.

Sopho - Visionary Dreams

I know many people who hold Germany's entry as their favorite ESC songs ever, and it's also an example of the diversity of style this year, in its awesome swing sound. Also this post is in memory of Roger Cicero who tragically passed away from a stroke earlier this week, just 45 years old.

Roger Cicero - Frauen regieren die Welt

Sweden sent one of our best bands, the Ark. And yes it was a bit of a joke that they were in the ESC at all and it's not one of their best songs, but still they definitely deserved a better result. And Ola Salo always deserves 12 points.

The Ark - The Worrying Kind

In the last of the good songs of the year I also think Bulgaria deserves a mention, both for the song and the performance

Elitsa Stoyan - Voda

2007 was also a strong year in the "what is this crazy thing?" department. In any year the UK entry of "Flying the flag" would have been on this list, but it barely gets to nr 4. The top three on this list is

3. Todomondo - Liubi, liubi, I love you (Romania) - how many languages and music styles can you fit in a song of 3 minutes.
2. Teapacks - Push the button (Israel) - At least it's different in the ESC to have a song about nuclear apocalypse.
1. Verka Serduchka - Dancing Lasha Tumbai - One of the craziest ESC performances ever, and ending up as the runner up for the whole contest. Well you haven't seen anything unthil you've seen a Ukrainian transvestite dressed in tinfoil with a star on top..

 

ESC 2007
Location: Belgrade, Serbia
Winner: Believe, Russia

After two very strong years 2008 feels a lot weaker. Most of the entries were powerballads, with a few "what is this?"- entries to liven it up. Interestingly I feel that this year there were fewer entries in English than usual and more in a variety of languages, which makes it a bit ironic that France sent a song in English. Already before the contest there was a lot of talk about Russia having decided that this time they were going to win. Having ended in the top 3 for several years, no expenses were spared in order to make sure that Russia would end up on the top this time. Start off with sending the crowd favorite from 2006 Dima Bilan, make a saccarine music video about him helping a child with cancer, add a world famous violinist and his Stradivarius, and then add the world's best male figure skater, oh and top it off with Dima Bilan ripping his shirt off on stage. Too bad they didn't spend any money on English lessons for him. Oh and spend a lot of time and money lobbying for the song as well.

Believe - Dima Bilan

No my favorites this year are all in the "strange, but after all it's ESC" section. First there is France with a song that must have been written by someone on drugs, but it's still good. It also had a backing chorus showing that ladies with beards were a good choice well before Conchita Wurst.

Divine - Sebastien Tellier

The second memorable song this year was Bosnia & Herzegovina. By now I had totally fallen for the Bosnian entries, always interesting and most of the times pretty good as well. (I'm so happy that Bosnia and Herzegovina will return to the ESC in 2016)

Laka - Pokusaj

Another country that has shown a tendency to send unexpected songs is Latvia, but unlike Bosnia and Herzegovina the songs are usually just crazy. In 2008 they sent a crew of pirates

Wolves of the Seas - Pirates of the Seas

Still no pirate was a match in this year's crazy category. The undisputed winner this year was Ireland. The nation with the most ESC wins of all, the nation that dominated the 1990's, well this year they sent a turkey puppet.

Irelande douze points - Dustin the Turkey

 

ESC 2009
Location: Moscow, Russia
Winner: Fairytale, Norway

A big change this year was the change in voting structure. The last years televoting had given rise to a lot of criticism about how neigbouring countries and large diasporas schewed the results. Some time in the future I think I will do a post about voting in the ESC, because there is definitely a lot of voting patterns. In order to basically give a chance to countries outside of the former Eastern bloc juries were reintroduced. From now on the votes from a country would be decided by 50% televotes and 50% jury votes.

As for the contest itself it was no surprise that Russia wanted to do something bigger and splashier than ever showing off the pride and worth of the motherland.1/3 of all the LED screens in the world were used in the arena. At the same time the contest was mired in controversy. ESC is one of the largest gay events of the year and there were gay protests that were beated down by the Russian police. Another controversy was Georgia. Georgias entry was called "We don't wanna Put In", and was deemed as too political and thus disqualified. Georgia later admitted that it was a protest against Russia, but rather withdrew than changing the title. Finally Sweden and Russia got involved in a bit of diplomatic row over the national selection in Sweden. The thing is that is one of the largest TV events of the year, and the interval act was about two people going to Moscow to see if they could get a hit in Russia. Swedish humour is a lot about laughing at yourself, but the Russian embassy got so upset over this interval act that a formal note was issued from Russia to Sweden. This was the act , but the thing is in the end at the sem-final 2, in which Sweden competed the interval act turned out to have a lot of the elements present in the parody, but of course dead serious. (I couldn't find the actual interval act for a comparison).

Now as for the actual music part of the ESC. There was a lot of good music this year. The favorite of the year, and who also managed to win was Alexander Rybak from Norway. The cute hobbit fiddled his way straight to the top and won with an up until then record score.

Fairytale - Alexander Rybak

It was a strong Nordic year with Iceland ending as the runner up, but still far below Norway. This is the best result from Iceland, and at least in Sweden it became a big radio hit.

Is it true - Yohanna

Third place went to Azerbaijan, a country that had found a succesful formula in importing Swedish song writers and background singers, this would continue in the coming years. I actually think this is better than the song that would win a couple of years later

Always - Aysel and Arash

The UK made it's best result since the 1990's. The reason, well they actually took the ESC seriously this time. The entry was written by Andrew Lloyd Webber, who was playing the piano on stage, the singer had been sent out on a mini-tour around Europé so that both she and the song was already familiar to the ESC audience.

My time - Jade Ewen

And now for my favorites of the year. One of my favorite countries in the ESC is Bosnia and Herzegovina, and this years song is in my top 3 of best ESC songs ever. It's so strong and powerful that I don't care that I don't have any idea what they are singing about.

Bistro Voda - Regina

Armenia had a totally different style, something between medieval, fantasy and ethnic. Still it's a quite cool entry, not the least due to the singers. I definitely wonder what the "norpa" is though.

Jan jan - Inga and Anush

Sweden did something different from our usual easy listening pop tunes. We sent one of our best opera singers, in fact she spent the Eurovision week commuting between Moscow and Vienna where she was rehearsing. Nobody had thought that she would actally win the national selection so she hadn't made room in her calendar for the ESC. I love opera, so I really like it, but the performance in the national selection was better and the stage show in Moscow wasn't top notch so I understand that it didn't get so many votes.

La Voix - Malena Ernman

 

ESC 2010
Location: Oslo, Norway
Winner: Satellite, Germany

Compared to 2009 I think that 2010 was a weak year. There were very few unique songs, and most of it seemed to be boring ballads. At least it makes it easier for me to pick my favorites.

The winner was Lena from Germany. She was the favorite going in and performed a flawless performance. The song is fun and quirky, even if it's been overplayed a bit so I don't like it as much as I did in 2010. It's definitely one of the most memorable English accents.

Satellite - Lena

Runner up was Turkey with rock entry, and in a ballad year that was enough to make it stand out. It's not Lordi, but has grown on me when listening to it.

We could be the same - maNga

This year's scandal had nothing to do with politics, which I guess was a bit of relief for the EBU. No about a minute into the Spanish entry a guy jumped up on stage and joined the performance. It was actually so well done that I remember that I thought it was part of the show. If you know what to look for you can see the security guards coming in and getting him off stage though.

Algo pequonito - Daniel Diges

An entry that I can't make up my mind about is Russia. Is it serious or camp? Is it melodramatic or powerful? I just don't know but unlike a lot of other entries this year it's something I remember.

Lost and forgotten - Peter Nalitch and Friends

Except for Lena the only song that found itself onto my playlists that year was Latvia's. I've always wondered why it ended up last in the semi-final, since it's a decent enough song. Looking at the performance now though it's a bad performance. It's boring to look at, and Aisha has clear problems with hitting the notes. Still in a studio version it's worth listening to.

What for? - Aisha

 

ESC 2011
Location: Düsseldorf, Germany
Winner: Running scared Azerbaijan

Wow another great year, in fact there were so many good songs this year that I can't fit all the songs that I have on my ESC playlist in this post. It was the year when at least the ESC fans had to learn how to spell Azerbaijan, and know that the adjective for anything from that country is azeri, not azerbaijani. The winning entry wasn't particularly azeri though, it was written by two Swedes and a Brit, and included a Swedish backing choir. I actually think that most of Azerbaijan's entries have been written by Swedes, and it's a bit of a joke in Sweden that if you don't win in Sweden, then you can always be in the azeri show. The winning song isn't a particularly stand out song, it's decent enough and in many other years it could have been a clear winner, but this year it actually set a record for lowest average scores from each voting country, and it's the only entry since the system with a shared televote/jury was introduced that didn't win the jury vote.

Running scared - Ell&Nikki

I'm going to skip Italy's runner-up, a jazz entry that I can't understand how it ended up so high with so many other good songs in the contest, and instead go on to Sweden. ESC is big in Sweden, and the last years' bad results was a matter of a national crisis. This year we redeemed ourselves and instead of sending something fairly experimental we we went for a catchy, dance friendly number with a good stage show.

Popular - Eric Saade

The best song this year wasn't in the top three though. Bosnia & Herzegovina once again sent the best entry. This time with veteran Dino Merlin, and this song is another one that's in my top 5 of best ESC entries ever.

Love in Rewind - Dino Merlin

The opera and language lover in me had France as a favorite, combining both opera and singing in Corsican.

Sognu - Amaury Vassili

I can't round up the best entries without mentioning Ireland. This turned out to be the big hit of the year with the two crazy twins of Jedward, who gained a lot of fans all over Europé with this song.

Lipstick - Jedward

A good ESC year also has some memorable entries in the crazy category as well. There was Moldova with returning Zdob si Zdub, instead of an old grandma like their previous entry, they brought some big hats though. The winner in this category though was Portugal. Portugal is the worst performing country in the history of the ESC. This year they actually sent a song that gets really stuck in my head every time I hear it, and it's not bad. I have no idea what it's about, there seems to be a kind of throwback to the 1970's protest movements, or is it the second time Portugal makes a reference to the revolution in 1975?

Luta é alegria - Homens da luta

 

I've wanted to post the annual SATW Eurovision comics, but they are so big. I'll be happy if you do it after my main posts though.

ESC 2012
Location: Baku, Azerbaijan
WInner: Euphoria, Sweden

The 2012 ESC turned out to be one of the more controversial ones, at least since Russia's hosting. Azerbaijan does not have a good track record when it comes to democracy and human rights, and there are a lot of people that can't called anything ut political prisoners. The EBU of course claimed that the contest is apolitical and didn't do or say anything that could be regarded as critical towards the host country. One person who did do something was the Swedish singer Loreen, who actively met with human rights activists while she was there, something that made the Azeri government angry and the protested that a person taking part in an apolitical contest shouldn't take part in such activities. Loreen's answer was ""Human rights are violated in Azerbaijan every day. One should not be silent about such things." At least she wasn't sanctioned for it, which would probably have been an even bigger scandal.

I think the EBU was pretty relieved when Sweden won though. The ESC was back in a totally non-controversial country, and in a country that loves the ESC. (ironically I missed the ESC this year because I was at a local comic-con). The winning entry is by many considered one of the top Winners in the history of the ESC, personally I don't think it's that good, but it's good enough and in this year it was a worthy winner, and the performance is a top notch.

Euphoria - Loreen

My personal favorite this year, when only looking at the musical qualities was Macedonia, it's a bit of a slow starter, but then it turns out really good.

Crno i belo - Kaliopi

I also love the Finnish entry, because it's purely beautiful. It was sung in Swedish, or rather in the Swecofennian dialect of Swedish that's so charming, so I understand that not many Europeans understood just how beautiful it was. It's a heartwarming love song from a daughter to her mother. I always get tears in my when I hear it.

När jag blundar - Pernilla

Overall 2012 was a strong year in the strange/wacky/camp category. It's not the least proven by the fact that the runner up to Loreen's very modern performance was...a group of Russian grannies baking bread on stage. It's impossible not to love them though, they are so cute and charming.

Buranovskiye Babushki - Party for everybody

Then there was the sailor from Turkey with his dancing boat

Love me - Can Bonomo

and the retro infused entry from Israel

Time - Izabo

I can't really make up my mind on the Montenegro song. Is it a protest song? Irony? or simply just bad? I missed the donkey from the music video, I guess he didn't want to be on stage.

Euro neuro - Rambo Amadeus

A song that can only be classified as embarrasingly bad is the entry from San Marino. Singing about this cool thing called social media (the song was originally called the Facebook song, but had to change the name so it wouldn't be advertizing.

The Social Network song - Valentina Monetta (take note of the name for future ESCs)

 

I was at Karlstad Comic-Con, it was a try to get something going there, I think it tried for two years, but didn't really get off the ground so I haven't Heard about it since then. It was locally organized, so nothing like the ones in Stockholm or Malmö that we have nowadays.

 

ESC 2013
Location: Malmö, Sweden
Winner: Only teardrops, Denmark

The history was back in western Europe again, and the EBU more or less asked Sweden to tone it down a bit. No new built arenas and stuff like that, and Sweden was happy to oblige. Also Sweden loves the ESC, but we don't take it too seriously, or rather anything too seriously which was obvious by the interval act. It wasn't exactly a tourist ad for Sweden.

On to the Music. The winner was Denmark, just like the last time that Sweden hosted the ESC. I am personally very torn on the song, I can see that it has musical qualities, but to me it feels so fake. It's like someone has just read a manual on how to make something look natural, and the result is that it's so artifical.

Only teardrops - Emmelie de Forest

Musically Norway and the Netherlands had the most interesting entries. At the time I definitely hoped that the Netherlands would win, but it hasn't hold up over the years, with Norway it's the other way around and I think it has grown on me.

I feed you my love - Margaret Berger (Norway)
Birds - Anouk (the Netherlands)

The big scandal in my view though is that the best song of the year didn't even go through from the semi-final. San Marino sent the same songwriter and singer as the previous year when they did the embarrasingly bad "Social Network Song", this time it was a perfect ESC entry, according to me. A great voice that sang a great ballad that only increased in energy all the way to the end, and in Italian.

Crisalide - Valentina Monetta

Another favorite that has gone on to my ESC playlist was Iceland. I think it's the only entry in modern times that's been sung in Icelandic, and it's a simple song to just some piano, but it's powerful. And it doesn't get worse by being sung by Thor

Ég á líf - Eythor Ingi

Two more memorable entries were Greece and Romania. Greece made a commentary on the economic crisis, (I guess), by simply shouting out that

Alcohol is free - Koza Mostra feat. Agathon Iakovidis

Romania made sure to defend the camp, sequined legacy of the ESC and sent an opera singer that looked and sounded like a castrato vampire

It's my Life - Cezar.

 

No, I didn't miss the last two years it was 2011-2012 that I missed.

I'm hoping to wrap the thing up within a day so that we can start the buildup for 2016, but I'm very happy if you would post and give your opinons as well, I don't have a monopoly on it.

 

I like to watch the pre-ESC programs, so that I have heard the songs once before the semi-finals, but I don't want to be familiar with them before the actual contest. When going through this list it's clear that many songs that I didn't like the first time has grown on me, or songs that I liked when I saw them at the ESC has gotten worse the more I've heard them, showing that it's not always about the best music going to the top, but the music that makes an impact the first time you hear it.

ESC 2014
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Winner: Rise like a Phoenix, Austria

The 2014 show very much continued the theme of 2013. There was a lot of humor, and some crazy things when the hosts surprised both the commentators and the artists. The two male hosts also kept on being very close to each other. Overall this was a year that felt very political, and also how split Europé is. There were the nods to the big gay audience of the ESC, and of course the fact that the winner was a drag queen, but also how Russia was booed both during the performance and during the voting. At the same time Russia also got a lot of points, and there were protests from Russia and many other countries in the former eastern bloc about the fact that a draq queen won.

On to the winner though. Not counting the political aspects of making a stand for the HBTQ movement, there was no doubt about the winner. The performance and not the least the song was magnificent, and all you could ask of a worthy ESC winner.

Rise like a Phoenix - Conchita Wurst

A group with a very clear message was Iceland's entry. A group singing about the importance of equal right, while dressed in rainbow coloured suits.

No prejudice - Pollapönk

Otherwise I would say that the most memorable entries this year were the cute and charming ones, and overall 2014 was a very strong year so it's hard to narrow down my favourites.

There was Malta with a folkrock song, that to me sounds very much like something Mumford and Sons' inspired song.

Coming home - Firelight

Switzerland was a very similar to Malta, at least until you manage to decipher the bad English and realize that the song could very well be sung by a stalker "you are the candy, tonight I'm going to eat you up"

Hunter of Stars - Sebalter

The cutest, or maybe I should say sweetest, entry was from Latvia though, and they didn't even get through to the final. I did bake a big red velvet cake with white icing as a protest for the final though, in honour of this entry.

Cake to bake - Aarzenmieki

Overall food was a bit of a theme this year, there was also an entry about cheesecake and the absolutely worst entry was the Polish. Not just the music but the whole performance which can best be described as butter churning porn.

My slowanie - Donatan & Cleo

 

Wow, I'm finally here. After four years I have caught up with the present and it's time to post the last entry in the countdown thread. I chose to save it for tonight as a way of kicking off ESC week that starts tomorrow. I'm not quite done with the list yet though, I have some posts still to round up, and then I have a new ESC history project I would like to start on. But for now here it is...

ESC 2015
Location: Vienna, Austria
Winner: Heroes, Sweden

As a Swedish ESC lover I of course think it's great to finish the list with a Swedish win. Last year was a generally good year, and I think when going back through all the entries it's because there are so many different genres of music represented. It's not just all rock, or all ballads or all dance music, so you don't get bored because the songs sound so similar. The winning song is not one of my favorites when just listening to it, but the stage performance is so good, and I just get happy by watching Måns Zelmerlöw performing it. It's so obvious that he loves being there, and it was a life long dream for him to perform at the ESC and then he ended up winning it. You are going to see a lot more of Måns the coming week since he's one of the hosts for the ESC 2016.

Heroes - Måns Zelmerlöw

The runner up this year, even if they were far behind, was Russia. This song is the opposite to Heroes. When just listening to it I really enjoy it, but when I watch it I just cringe knowing that it's Russia that's sent a song about "peace, love and understanding", it just feels like a big piece of propaganda. Also I don't like Polina's performance. I can't stand women that look like they are constantly on the verge of crying or breaking out in hysterics.

A million voices - Polina Gagarina

Third place went to Italy, finally proving that opera can be placed in the top of the ESC. I think the reason why this was in top, while other recent operatic songs have ended in the bottom has been that they did the simple thing this year. No counter tenors or bel canto melodies, no instead three handsome Italian men who only break into opera during the fairly slow chorus. It's definitely a good song, even if it's a bit safe.

Grande Amore - Il Volo

The ESC also had two very good songs that told proper and interesting stories. One was Norway's "the monster in me" but my favorite was Estonias hearbreaking story about a couple breaking up.

Goodbye to yesterday - Elina Born and Stig Rästa

I think my absolute favorite this year though was Slovenia, with a solid pop song, and I really like her voice.

Here for you - Maraaya

The biggest disappointment this year was Macedonia. I really like the song in its recorded form, but for the live performance they slowed it down and the singer just couldn't carry it. It didn't go through to the final.

Autumn leaves - Daniel Kajmakoski

This was also the year with the most disabled persons on stage. Poland's singer was in a wheelchair, but that was the only thing exceptional about that entry. More interesting was Finland, and we are not talking about the fact that they sent the shortest entry ever to the ESC clocking in at 87 seconds. The band that performed the song is a group of guys with developmental disabilities that met up at a day care centre for adults with disabilities.

Aina mun pitää - Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät

 

So we might have finished the retrospective, but I'm not quite done yet. I want to take the chance to post some of my top lists from the Eurovision, and I must say that going through the history has helped me find some songs I had forgotten, and some that I couldn't even remember.

In the first of three top lists I will go through the songs that I feel has changed the Eurovision the most, and led it into a totally different direction.

5. Gina G - Just a Little bit (UK, 1996)
Up until Gina G stepped on stage, the live Orchestra had been an integral part of the ESC. A performance always started with the presentation of the conductor. Now this wasn't the first entry to not use an orchestra, I think that honour goes to Telex from Belgium in 1980, but they had done it as part of a parody of the whole Contest. Gina G introduced the, quite, modern dance song egged on by drum machines to the competition. Three years later, in 1999, the live orchestra was eliminated and even if old school ESC fans still want it to come back, I think it's obvious that the producers much rather spend the budget on effects than on musicians.

4. Måns Zelmerlöv - Heroes (Sweden, 2015)
The ESC has been known for a long time to be just as much about the show as the music. There has been all kinds of gimmicks to grab the voters' attention, but in 2015 Sweden took it to a totally new level. Måns turned the performance into a live action music video, and even if it was just last year I think the ESC 2016 was a clear indication that we will see more and more performances that look more CGI than real, it might not be enough to win (sory Russia) but it is probably a trend that will survive for some years to come.

3. Secret Garden - Nocturne (Norway, 1995)
Secret Garden won the year after Riverdance had made a splash on the ESC in 1994. Secret Garden showed that some ethnic inspired music, preferably with a violin or a traditional drum, was definitely a winning concept in the ESC. In the 1990's there was a lot of Celtic inspired music, then came the Eastern Mediterranean rythms with of course Turkey winning in 2003, and a whole range of Balkan and Slavic inspired songs in the 2000s and 2010s. The ethnic inspired music hasn't left the ESC since 1995, and gained another victory in 2016 when Jamala added some traditional tatar singing to her entry.

2. Lordi - Hard Rock Halleluja (Finland - 2006)
A lot of ESC viewers were probably chocked when the monster rock band Lordi entered the stage in 2006, and didn't only compete, they actually won. Their win helped to diversify song genres represented in the ESC, showing that the ESC could be more than easy listening pop songs. I don't think there has been a song that's quite as much hard rock as this since then, but every year there are at least some rock bands entering the stage and hoping to gain the rockers' votes in the ESC.

1. ABBA - Waterloo (Sweden, 1974)
Up until 1974 the ESC was an old fashioned song contest. All the winners up until then were soloists in front of a big band orchestra, the ladies in evening gowns and the men in suits. They were standing still, possibly swaying a bit to the music or lifting the arms. ABBA was something else. This was a pop band, bringing in a sound and beat more suited to dancing than just listening to, and with costumes straight from the glam rock scene. It was nothing close to today's dance performances in the ESC, but just the fact that there were some choreographed movements was also new to the ESC. The beat introduced by ABBA in 1974 could still win in 1999, and lead to a top placement in the early 2000s. And just imagine what the ESC would have been without the sequins!

Do you agree with my list, or are there any other groundbreakers of ESC that should have been here?