The Eurovision Song Contest remains massively popular here in the UK and throughout Europe. And b-boy outfit Flying Steps guested at this year’s semi-final event in Germany…
Click here to watch the Flying Steps in action last night…
… and then read on as we look at some of the more memorable musical contributions to Eurovision down the decades.
If the entrenched voting alliances in the old Eastern Bloc and Balkans ensure rather neutered climaxes to the Eurovision Song Contest, then rest assured, there’s always at least one, two, even three songs performed at every final that causes just enough delighted befuddlement to keep us tuning in. See, it’s not about winners and nul-pointers – it’s about witnessing how terribly gauche and out of their minds we Brits and our fellow Europeans are. And in there, among all the dross and saccharine ballads, there are always some genuinely brilliant pop gems.
What entrants should remember is that Eurovision is like a one-channel variety show – here we are now, on a Saturday night, so entertain us. Just listen to Sandie Shaw’s and Lulu’s 1960s entries and the comedy pom-pom horns lay bare the music hall fun at the competition’s heart.
Just buggy off
Which is why, in spite of bagging a staggeringly low points tally, Sebastien Tellier will always have a place in our hearts. In 2008, after outraging French MPs with his choice of an English-language song, Tellier arrived on stage in a golf buggy to deliver the dreamily lugubrious Gallic pop of Divine, dressed as a Miami pimp and accompanied by female backing singers dressed as him. It was like witnessing a cartoon Serge Gainsbourg and it hinted at how fantastic it would be if Jarvis Cocker from cult band Pulp entered for the UK.
Laka-Laka Boom
The same year, Bosnia and Herzegovina travelled a similar path as Tellier. Though less enigmatic, Laka’s was the second-best song of the night. Translated, Pokusaj seems to be some nonsense about bananas and lovers falling out of trees, but it’s also a glorious and unashamedly joyful anthem that would give any serious indie-pop outfit a run for their money.
Excellent Satellite reception
That’s the key to a fine Eurovision entry – it has to be charismatic, eccentric and fun, with enough hooks to bring down the Eiffel Tower. Germany’s winner from last year – Lena with Satellite – was almost perfect. With little prior singing experience, the schoolgirl competed to be Germany’s representative on a whim and it’s her rawness and wide-eyed excitement about being there that made her such a star.
The Turkey is off
Even the most logic-defying entries, such as Ireland’s 2008 pop puppet Dustin the Turkey, are worth the admission. And there have been few finer moments in recent Eurovision history than Ukraine’s 2007 entry by comedian Verka Serduchka, Dancing Lasha Tumbai. Words don’t do this one justice.
Jemini's twin nightmares
When Eurovision falls flat on its face and gives its naysayers the ammunition to gun down the whole affair as a chintzy crime against pop, is when a country chooses some sickly, overly earnest ballad, such as Serbia’s 2008 winner. Or when they take the whole thing too seriously and deliver a song so calculated and safe it might have been torn from a schoolroom music textbook. Guilty of this crime more than any other country of late is our beloved UK: Javine, James Fox, Scooch and, worst of all, Jemini have all soured the British devotion to Eurovision, never mind anyone else’s.
We're not feeling Blue, are you?
This year, we can just ignore our UK entry again, too. Does anyone really think a reformed, preening boy band – Blue are the dullest of the lot, too – will charm anyone? Even with Lee Ryan’s astonishingly stupid soundbites, this is a band with about as much character as the cast of Hollyoaks. It’s better to end up with nul points for some mind-boggling, memorable and downright bonkers performance than it is to finish mid-table with a wet dribbly fart. There, we’ve said it. Oh, and twins Jedward are confirmed for the final as Ireland's representatives… another addition to Ireland's record number of wins, perhaps? Perhaps not, but the bookies have them as 11/4 second favourites, so who knows?
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