Eurovision Fact #441:

The memebers of Joker Out, Slovenia's 2023 representatives, cited Ruslana's 'Wild Dances' as the start to most of their Eurovision obsession.

[Source]

'About Us,' Jokeroutband.com.

Eurovision 2004 - Number 62 - Linda - "Aria, sole, terra e mare"

Linda Valori is a singer having a bit of a moment. Her career had been escalating slowly since she started out in the mid 1990s. She'd won singing competitions, auditioned for the Italian Popstars series (although she missed out on being part of the resulting band - Lollipop), and won prizes.

In 2004 she got the big call up - singing in the main competition at Sanremo with her own song. She'd not even been in the Giovani competition prior to this, she had no albums out. That was probably because there had been a change at the top of Sanremo. There was a new artistic director in Tony Renis and a new presenter in Simona Ventura. There weren't many big names competing which gave new opportunities (even though it led to unprecedentedly low TV ratings).

Linda grabbed one of those with Aria, sole, terra e mare (Air, Sun, Earth and Sea). It's a song about experiencing everything and more. Grab it all, drink it all in, dance with joy, and have no regrets. Quite apart from it's celebratory intentions, it's a showcase for Linda's magnificently soulful voice. Although every source I've looked this up on claims that it's either pop or europop, it ain't that. It's got a lot more about it than that. Pop-soul at the very least.

Her status as being an outsider didn't stand in her way. She finished third - which as far as her career went was exactly the right place to finish in. She didn't want to become the new Jalisse. Within two months of Sanremo, she was asked to perform of Pope John Paul II.

She went on to perform at papal invitation five times and for three different Popes. Collaboration with other musicians began, notably including Massimo Ranieri. She was a regular on RAI music specials, and she's recorded songs for Benetton and Disney. She's also recorded four of her own albums and toured extensively to this day. Most recently she's been touring alongside Musicamdo Jazz Orchestra as a new project called the Soul, Rhythm and Blue Explosion

Presenting to you, Sakis Rouvas (Greece, 2004 & 2009) in 6 *hot and sexy photos (and/or videos)*.... 🥵❤️‍🔥

PHOTO CREDITS: Google Images

Eurovision 2004 vs 2005

Albania: The Image of You vs Tomorrow I Go Andorra: Jugarem a estimar-nos vs La mirada interior Austria: Du bist vs Y asi Belarus: My Galileo vs Love Me Tonight Belgium: 1 Life vs Le Grand soir Bosnia and Herzegovina: In the Disco vs Call Me Bulgaria: Lorraine Croatia: You Are the Only One vs Vukovi umiru sami Cyprus: Stronger Every Minute vs Ela Ela Denmark: Shame on You vs Talking to You Estonia: Tii vs Lets Get Loud Finland: Takes 2 to Tango vs Why France: À chaque pas vs Chacun pense à soi Germany: Can't Wait Until Tonight vs Run & Hide Greece: Shake It vs My Number One Hungary: Forogj, világ Iceland: Heaven vs If I Had Your Love Ireland: If My World Stopped Turning vs Love? Israel: Leha'amin vs HaSheket SheNish'ar Latvia: Dziesma par laimi vs The War Is Not Over Lithuania: What's Happened to Your Love vs Little by Little Malta: On Again... Off Again vs Angel Monaco: Notre planète vs Tout de moi (Europe had no right to treat them so badly in 2005) Moldova: Boonika bate toba Netherlands: Without You vs My Impossible Dream North Macedonia: Life vs Make My Day Norway: High vs In My Dreams Poland: Love Song vs Czarna dziewczyna Portugal: Foi magia vs Amar Romania: I Admit vs Let Me Try Russia: Believe Me vs Nobody Hurt No One Serbia and Montenegro: Lane moje vs Zauvijek moja Slovenia: Stay Forever vs Stop Spain: Para llenarme de ti vs Brujería Sweden: It Hurts vs Las Vegas Switzerland: Celebrate vs Cool Vibes Türkiye: For Real vs Rimi Rimi Ley Ukraine: Wild Dances vs Razom nas bahato United Kingdom: Hold On to Our Love vs Touch My Fire

2004: 16 vs 2005: 20

Eurovision 2004 (according to me):

12 points: Serbia and Montenegro

10 points: Belarus

8 points: Ukraine

7 points: Bosnia and Herzegovina

6 points: Spain

5 points: Germany

4 points: Latvia

3 opoints: Turkey

2 points: Greece

1 point: Sweden (would have gotten 6 points had the song been performed in Swedish)

Debuting countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004

Albania: Anjeza Shahini - The Image Of You [x]

Andorra: Marta Roure - Jugarem A Estimar-nos [x]

Belarus: Alexandra & Konstantin - My Galileo [x]

Serbia & Montenegro: Željko Joksimović - Lane Moje [x]

sometimes i almost manage to convince myself that 26 is not that old, then i go on the Luke Black discord and realise that i am, in fact, ancient 💀💀

Finland 2004

Takes 2 To Tango', performed by Jari Sillanpää. Composition: Mika Toivanen, and Jari Sillanpää. Lyrics: Mika Toivanen, and Jari Sillanpää.

It's a tango. The clue is in the name, but not the influence. Sillanpää's entry, from the music's playful nature to the lyrics' clear intention, is reminiscent of Moulin Rouge's 'Roxanne'.

There is a good side, there is a bad side, they dance together, and they are always in competition. And while there is an ebb and flow to these two sides, they are constant companions. For three minutes we get that ebb and flow, nothing really changes, and as the song comes to an end, everyone returns to where they started. What was the point of all that then?

Maybe it's about the journey? I don't think so. This is a pretty straightforward trip, the tempo stays steady, there's no variantion, it's just... there. This is never a good place for a song in competition, especially one that was opening the Semi Final.

Semi Final - Points: 51, Placing: 14th. Grand Final - Did not qualify.

🇦🇩 Marta Roure to perform at Pre-Party ES 2024

🇦🇩 #ICYMI Marta Roure, who represented #Andorra at #Eurovision 2004, will perform at @eurospaincom's #PrePartyES24. Will you be there to watch? #ESC2024

As we get closer to this year’s Pre-Party ES, EurovisionSpain, the organisers of the event continue to reveal the performers at this year’s event. Up next, we have Marta Roure, who represented Andorra at Eurovision 2024. She will perform on the 29th of March. Pre-Party ES 2024 View this post on Instagram A post shared by Eurovision-Spain | PrePartyES (@eurovisionspaincom) About the Pre-Party:…

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Eurovision Fact #472:

Albania has made it to the Grand Final 11 times, and out of that, nine of those times landed the nation a sub-10th place position.

Albania's best Grand Final scores came in 2004 and 2012. In 2004, Anjeza Shahini's "The Image Of You" placed 7th, and in 2012 Rona Nishliu's "Suus" placed 5th.

[Source]

Albania, Eurovision.tv.

Eurovision 2004 - Number 60 - Eneda Tarifa - "Qëndroj"

Festivali i Këngës is not the only Albania music festival. In 2001 Eneda Tarifa made her debut at Kënga Magjike on rival channel TV Klan. Although she didn't win, she did enough to warrant an invitation to the big show in December 2003.

This is her first appearance here and she's brought her own song Qëndroj (Stay) written with Erjon Zaloshnja fellow musician and soon to be her husband. The lyrics talk about getting older, with thoughts that don't fly quite as quickly as they once did. The night is approaching. All is not lost as Eneda has a love who will make it all bearable. A love she can't do without. However heavy a burden there is, it can be carried with him by her side.

I love the ones where the song-writers are clearly writing about each other!

It's a song for a big voice and perhaps Eneda isn't quite there yet. Where the song should soar, she's just about able to get there, but that ability to belt and emote will come with age. She's just starting out here and already showing the talent to both sing and right the grand devotional song.

This time it was not to be. Although she made it through the FiK semi-final, in the final she was not placed. She'd be back in four years time for another go. Her last try was in 2015 when she won the whole thing, carrying Albania's flag into Eurovision 2016. I'm sure we'll see here again in the future

Happy birthday to the following: Sakis Rouvas (Greece, 2004 & 2009); and Conan Osiris (Portugal, 2019)!

Cheers to another year of life and may you have a wonderful birthday. 🎂🥳🎁🎉

"Toxic" and "Can't stop the feeling!"

A pair into the #FearOfMu21c project, crowdsourcing the greatest singles of the 21st century. Here’s an index post.

Toxic - Britney Spears

I mentioned last time that Taylor Swift grew up in public. Britney Spears was never allowed that luxury. The Irish Times recently reviewed Britney's memoir:

Celebrity destroyed Spears. She was forced into premature adulthood: dressed in suggestive outfits; putting on promiscuous performances; working harder than most adults; financially supporting her family. But all the while her mind slowly regressed to childhood. She admits that after she was left by her husband, separated from her children, and mourned the death of a relative she became increasingly mentally juvenile. But that was by her mid-20s. In fact, this process was kicked into gear the moment she became a star. The weight of the contradiction – to be a child dressed as an adult, to be both sides of the “Madonna and whore” archetype at once – broke something in her. Even the prose in her book (reportedly ghostwritten) casts Spears, now 41, as a well-spoken preteen.

If there was a time when Britney Spears could have grown up, it's "Toxic". The sound of early 2004 featured Britney as an air hostess, as a black widow burglar, and writhing on the floor wearing a bejeweled skintight bodysuit. That'll keep the straights interested, and sell the message that Britney's mature now.

"Toxic" was written by Cathy Dennis and Henrik Jonback, with input from producers Bloodshy & Avant. Is it about Cathy Dennis's ex Noel Fitzpatrick from Channel 4's Supervet? Ah, she'll never say. Was the song turned down by Kylie Minogue? Very much so, it would have been her finest moment of the century. Are those Bollywood high-strings in the mix? Oh yes, that is entirely deliberate, so is the same motif being played backwards just before the middle eight.

Can't stop the feeling! - Justin Timberlake

Greatest pop song of the 2010s? "Can’t stop the feeling!", a disco confection more perfect than any millefeuille. Start with a funky bass riff, add on some sampled guitars and horns to accentuate the chorus like Wham! did.

The lyric doesn't have to mean much, in fact it's probably better if the lyric doesn't mean anything. Written by Justin Timberlake, Max Martin, and Shellback, it's a feelgood song, an instant classic… and got completely overshadowed in its own lunchtime. Didn’t even win Best Interval Act at the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest.

(And it's an excuse to post my favourite Senior Eurovision photo ever.)

Why does Andorra not participate in Eurovision anymore?

Andorra participated in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009, but it has never come back since.

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What happened?

In 2004, ATV (Andorra’s public TV channel) sent Marta Roure, who sang in the Catalan language for the first time in Eurovision history. Catalan is the native language of Andorra, but also of the rest of the Catalan Countries: Catalonia, the Valencian Country and la Franja in the state of Spain; Northern Catalonia in the state of France, and the city of l’Alguer in Italy. ATV didn’t have enough money to send a participant alone, but Andorra wanted to take part in the contest and to promote their language (Catalan) and culture.

For these reasons, they decided to partner with TV3, the public TV channel of Catalonia. This makes sense, given that it’s part of the same nation, with the same language, and Catalonia has a bigger population and a music industry that’s a bit more developed, and TV3 has more money than ATV because of its population and size. The contest to choose who would be sent was made in collaboration between ATV and TV3 and aired simultaneously in both TV channels.

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Spain’s threat to not air Andorra’s song

When TVE (the Spanish TV) saw that Andorra was working with Catalonia and one of Andorra’s purposes for participating in ESC was to promote Andorra’s language (Catalan), the director board of TVE threatened that they would not air Andorra’s performance because they considered it was a way for Catalan people to be present in Eurovision, which they didn’t think should be allowed. Basically, TVE would air the whole contest as usual, but cut to commercials when Andorra performed as if they did not exist.

After negotiations, the directors of TVE did not change their mind, but for unrelated reasons the director was changed in April 2004. The new directors didn’t care as much about Andorra’s participation and they decided to air the whole festival.

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Andorra’s results and TVE’s meddling

Andorra’s songs never did well in the classifications, they never had enough votes to pass to the final. The change arrived in 2009, the song chosen was “Get a life / La teva decisió” by the Andorran-Danish singer Susanne Georgi. After its release before Eurovision, the song was a success in Andorra and in the state of Spain. The hopes were high for the song receiving many votes!

But, last minute, TVE (Spain’s TV) decided to not air live the Eurovision semi-final where Andorra was taking part. TVE decided to record the semi-final and air it on a different day. This means that Spanish citizens (including most Catalan people), who could have voted for Andorra, had no way to watch the semi-final and, as a result, they could not vote.

Once again, Andorra didn’t get to the final. And this was when they thought they had a chance with a successful song! After this, Andorra has never come back to the song contest. The fact that they never qualified for the final, Spain’s continuous meddling, and the high economic cost of participating in ESC (which is very difficult to afford for a microstate’s TV) grew even more difficult with the economical crisis that was starting in all the continent.

However, Andorra has always maintained that they would like to come back to ESC.

Andorra has been the only country to sing in the Catalan language in ESC. Even though most Catalan-speaking territories are under Spanish rule and about 10,000,000 Catalan speakers live in the state of Spain, Spain has never sent a song in Catalan. In fact, when they chose the Catalan singer Joan Manuel Serrat in 1968, he said he would sing the song (called “La, la, la”) in Catalan. Then, the Spanish TV decided to take him out of the contest because they would only allow songs in Spanish. The song was given to the Spanish singer Masiel, who sang the same song in Spanish and won the Eurovision Song Contest 1968. Spain has never sent a single song in one of the languages of the territories its state occupies, even when some like Catalan and Galician have millions of speakers, and Basque has hundreds of thousands.