News

The Best of Eurovision?

• 26th Oct 2010

Do music fans who still watch the Eurovision Song Contest?
Have too many years of feeble UK entries achieving the dreaded “nil points” perhaps sickened us. Or maybe there is just too much kitsch about the event for modern tastes.

But the event has managed to survive for more than fifty years, and has even expanded to include many countries that are not obviously European. The likes of Israel, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Libya and Syria can now enter, as they have somehow managed to join the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).

There have been a lot of very bad Eurovision songs over the years. So an online competition to find the best ever song had its work cut out. Can you guess which entry came out on top?

The UK didn’t even come close. “Save All Your Kisses for Me” by Brotherhood of Man ended up in fifth place, while the Cliff Richard song “Congratulations”, was eighth.

In third place was the 1987 winner “Hold Me Now” by Ireland's Johnny Logan. The Italian “Nel Blu Di Pinto di Blu”, better known as “Volare”, which gave Dean Martin one of his biggest hits, came in second.

The winner, not surprisingly was Abba with Waterloo. As well as winning the Swedes the 1974 competition the song hit the top of the charts in many countries, selling over six million copies and launched a spectacular career.

So there is one group who can thank the contest for bringing them to the public’s attention!