{"id":12584,"date":"2017-05-09T17:52:24","date_gmt":"2017-05-09T07:52:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stuartbuchanan.com\/?p=12584"},"modified":"2021-01-31T05:07:54","modified_gmt":"2021-01-31T05:07:54","slug":"back-catalogue-5-moments-eurovision-nearly-cool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stuartbuchanan.com\/archives\/2017\/05\/09\/back-catalogue-5-moments-eurovision-nearly-cool\/","title":{"rendered":"BACK CATALOGUE. 5 moments when Eurovision was nearly cool"},"content":{"rendered":"

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TheI’ll be presenting an alternative Eurovision on Fat Planet this week – bringing you soul from Slovenia, dream pop from Portugal, hip-hop from Poland along with music from over 20 countries in a two hour alternative Euro special<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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The annual\u00a0Eurovision Song Contest\u00a0<\/strong>has nearly always scored nil points when it comes to credible artists belting out top-notch songs. Yet, there have been a few moments across the decades where it seemed like cool might prevail against the onslaught of kitsch.
\nHere is a selection of well-known artists that put their career on the line in hope of a Eurovision win.<\/p>\n

France Gall \u2013 \u2018Poup\u00e9e de cire, poup\u00e9e de son\u2019<\/h3>\n

Serge Gainsbourg; to some, he was the epitome of cool French pop, to others the master of double entendre and lowbrow sleaze.
\nThose worlds collided in his collaboration with\u00a0France Gall<\/strong>, \u2018Poup\u00e9e de cire, poup\u00e9e de son’ (trans: \u2018Doll of wax, Doll of sawdust’) – a song which overtly implied that Gall was nothing more than Gainsbourg’s singing puppet.
\nThis 1965 entry from Luxembourg caused a ruckus at the time, taking home the Eurovision crown and ending a long run of turgid ballads, essentially kick-starting modern Eurovision as we know it today.<\/p>\n

Sandie Shaw \u2013 \u2018Puppet On A String\u2019<\/h3>\n

There’s more than a hint of Gainsbourg’s winning composition in\u00a0Sandie Shaw<\/strong>‘s \u2018Puppet On A String’, which followed in 1967. Not least in the title.
\nShaw already had a string of hits in the UK pre-Eurovision, including an excellent cover of Bacharach &amp; David’s \u2018(There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me’. But it was her Eurovision victory that launched her as a British fashion icon, imbuing all that was chic about the \u2018Swinging Sixties’.
\nIn 1983, the then-unknown Morrissey invited her to sing on The Smiths’ debut single \u2018Hand In Glove’, instantly delivering her a new generation of fans, who \u2013 much like the previous generation \u2013 fell deeply in love with her effortless cool.<\/p>\n

Ofra Haza \u2013 \u2018Hi\u2019<\/h3>\n

Ofra Haza<\/strong>‘s 1983 entry for Israel might not be much to get excited about, but her appearance preceded an unexpected trajectory that found her thrust into the midst of the nascent British hip hop community.
\nHer 1984 recording \u2018Im Nin’alu’ was sampled by\u00a0Coldcut<\/strong>\u00a0in 1987 for their remix of\u00a0Eric B &amp; Rakim<\/strong>‘s \u2018Paid In Full’. The remix eclipsed the chart success of the original source track, and has since made its way to near-legendary status as of one of the greatest remixes of all time.
\n\u2018Im Nin’alu’ was subsequently re-released as a single, selling three million copies worldwide.<\/p>\n

Telex \u2013 \u2018Euro-Vision\u2019<\/h3>\n

Founded in the late-’70s, Belgium’s\u00a0Telex<\/strong>\u00a0are a curio in the Eurovision catalogue. They’re a band who have carved a credible trajectory through the history of electronic music \u2013 collaborating with Depeche Mode, Sparks and Pet Shop Boys \u2013 but who nonetheless took a brief sidestep into Eurovision with their dry, nonchalant self-titled modular-synth driven \u2018Euro-vision’.
\nThey stepped onto the Eurovision stage, swathed in matching white scarves for a steely, DGAF performance. They were reportedly disappointed that they didn’t achieve their goal \u2013 to come last, with nil points.<\/p>\n

Tatu \u2013 \u2018Ne\u2019ver, ne boisia\u2019<\/h3>\n

Everyone’s favourite Russian lesbians represented Russia in 2003, 12 months after their global hit \u2018All The Things She Said’ split audiences into lovers and haters.
\nThey entered the Eurovision arena to rapturous applause, but sadly their schtick came unstuck as the audience was treated to off-key, shrill vocals, more high pitched than a dog whistle.
\nThey nevertheless came in a respectable third, allowing their juggernaut to roll on a little further.
\nA journalist famously asked Morrissey what he thought of\u00a0TaTu<\/strong>‘s cover of The Smiths’ \u2018How Soon Is Now’, helpfully explaining that TatTu were \u201cthose teenage Russian lesbians\u201d.\u00a0 To which Moz replied, \u201cWell, aren’t we all?\u201d<\/p>\n

BONUS MOMENT: Hawkins &amp; Brown \u2013 \u2018They Don’t Make ‘Em Like They Used To\u2019<\/h3>\n

That moment when\u00a0Justin Hawkins<\/strong>\u00a0from\u00a0The Darkness<\/strong>\u00a0teamed up with soul singer\u00a0Beverlei Brown<\/strong>\u00a0to enter a BBC talent show, designed to choose the official UK entry for Eurovision in 2007.
\nThey were pitched against (deep breath) a former member of\u00a0Atomic Kitten<\/strong>, and one-time\u00a0East 17<\/strong>\u00a0buffoon\u00a0Brian Harvey<\/strong>. Yet they still lost out in the public vote, to the execrable\u00a0Scooch<\/strong>\u00a0with their hi-energy disco take on Pan Am’s comedy career.
\nHawkins does look characteristically awesome and hams it up like Boss Hog, making for a bizarre \u2018what if’ footnote in Eurovision history.<\/p>\n

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Photo:\u00a0Telex at Eurovision in 1980. Photo from\u00a0Nationaal Archief<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TheI’ll be presenting an alternative Eurovision on Fat Planet this week – bringing you soul from Slovenia, dream pop from Portugal, hip-hop from Poland along with music from over 20 countries in a two hour alternative Euro special.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444,453],"tags":[1612,1610],"class_list":["post-12584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fat-planet","category-writing","tag-back-catalogue","tag-stuartbuchanan-blog","missing-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stuartbuchanan.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stuartbuchanan.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stuartbuchanan.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stuartbuchanan.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stuartbuchanan.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12584"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stuartbuchanan.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12584\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15303,"href":"https:\/\/www.stuartbuchanan.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12584\/revisions\/15303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stuartbuchanan.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stuartbuchanan.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stuartbuchanan.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}