Chiquitita, tell me the truth, I’m a shoulder you can cry on
Well, CHIQUITIA is a real ABBA classic, both in English and Spanish.
Now who in EUROVISION (artist – male or female) will you want to come and cry on your shoulder, especially after a shock result at Eurovision. I think Kate Ryan will be in many people’s minds but there are others. I still think 2010 is a great example for me, Sieneke not making the final and Didrik Solli doing so badly in front of his home crowd. Both can come and cry on my shoulder. I also want to share another experience from 2010. Morten and me and two other OGAE members had the honour to be in the green room (during that year the green room was not visible to the public). The 4 of us sat there surrounded by four countries – LATVIA, MALTA, FINLAND and SLOVAKIA and believe it or not, none of these 4 made it to the final – what a shock and sadness and seeing the head of delegation of Malta drying Thea Garrett’s tears with the huge Maltese flag is one of those moments burned into my mind forever. 
I think with this year’s shocking result I would need to spare a shoulder for both Ann Sophie and The Makemakes. I think they handled the result as really good sports with “we are the zeroes” because to get nul points would have to be a very disappointing thing to face.
Agree. “All the songs deserved a point that night.” But maybe Ann Sophie with her behave deserved the nul point too… So sorry, but she acted like a primadonna superstar…
Kat Mahon from Ireland has failed to qualify to ESC2015 with the song “Anybody got a shoulder”. That’s a lovely song and happy to see it at least in Second Chance Contest (fingers crossed!).
By the way, I don’t remember anybody who was disappointed/sad on his/her result – except Silvía Night, but I wouldn’t comfort her… Attending at Eurovision is a prize already. But I was really sorry about this year’s Danish elimination, so I’d give them my skinny, small so uncomfortable shoulder to cry on. Or maybe they can give me theirs…
Since 2003 Turkey was one of the top Eurovision countries reaching the top 10 in most occasions from 2003 to 2012 and were guaranteed qualifiers until 2011. Yüksek Sadakat failed to qualify for the Eurovision for the first time since semi finals were introduced. For that reason I wouldn’t mind to console the Turkish team and give them a big hug, including the caged “bird” or phoenix or whatever that was.
One other fella that I would lend my shoulder to cry on would be Leon who damaged Germany’s participation record in the contest. In 1996 so many countries wanted to participate in Eurovision and they decided to have an audio only pre-qualification round, unfortunately Germany’s participant Leon with the song “Planet of Blue” failed to make the cut! Because of this this is the only time Germany has missed out on a Eurovision final, 59 participations out of 60! Personally I reckon it would of been a great song for the 1996 edition, so catchy and a wonderful dance tune.
“Planet of Blue”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dufI6v9iwQ
Lukman, I also like PLANET OF BLUE and actually LEON tried again the next year with SCHEIN (MEINE KLEINE TASCHENLAMPE) which I like even more.I think he disappeared from the scene after this as I never heard of him again, so he surely needs many shoulders to cry on
I never heard of his second song, they should of let him represent Germany to redeem himself! Thanks for the suggestion!
Who could cry on my shoulder…. Well, I’d look no further than the entire nation of the Netherlands. From 2004, when not so coincidentally, semi finals first appeared, our beloved Netherlands could not catch a break. For what seemed like an eternity (2005-2013) the poor Netherlands couldn’t get through to Saturday night! Despite some absolute killer performances, glennis grace, edsilia, sieneke, Joan franka, hind, all quite successful in the home land, the Netherlands just couldn’t sinche the deal! (We will forget about that weird drumming song and the eyebrow less Rock band) anyway, getting off track, I’d gladly don my shoulder for any dutchies that need it for these crimes on humanity!!! 😉
There’s one every year… THAT song that should have qualified, but didn’t. The Netherlands had this curse once semi finals were introduced until Anouk broke it… But I could list one every year. I won’t bore you to death with that unless you really want me to. (Je T’adore, Chrysalide, My Impossible Dream, Same Heart..)
I naturally have chosen Marta and Vaclav from the Czech Republic this year, as everyone knows how much I love it, and I’d be more than happy for Vaclav to cry on my shoulder anytime… Oh, and Marta of course. Their powerhouse performance brought the house down, the song’s switch from desolation to hope, and their solidarity and vocal prowess was exceptional. Add to this the shoe toss… Well!!! Total disappointment.
Another disappointment to me would be Slovenia’s Omar Naber not qualifying in 2005. I thought his performance was excellent and the song had a great build to a big finale.
I also wanted CZECH REPUBLIC to make it for the first time, anyway HOPE NEVER DIES, the song has just been covered in AFRIKAANS and I should have it Friday
That will be very interesting to hear. Looking forward to hearing it!
OMG I was so depressed when Omar Naber didn’t make it!
Slovenia had a great promo campaign with OMAR and STOP, we got every day STOP signs, like saying, STOP, and listen to our song. I think they should have the stage design differently with stop signs etc to draw more attention – for me (I like the song) but I cannot recall the performance at all so it made no impression.
I would like to offer the UK’s Jemini a shoulder to try on. Being the first UK act to get nul points was tough enough, but then they had to put up with all the negative tabloid attention.
I did meet them, not sure if it was TALLINN or RIGA but they were nice and to me the song was NOWHERE near a NUL POINT song
Spare a thought for poor DJ BoBo and his vampires from Switzerland in 2007. He was one of the hot favourites that year amongst fans. He came second in the overall OGAE poll but failed to qualify for the Grand Final.
I would happily let him cry on my shoulder as long as his vampires do not bite into my neck : )
Probably Suzy (Portugal 2014). The country finally sends something halfway decent and she misses out on the final by only one point. It must have been horribly disappointing for her.
Too many to choose from. Yes the Makemakes did not deserve the Nulle pointes but they handled it with Austrian humour and have enjoyed post Eurovision success. I would go back in time and go to 1963 where four countries received zero, Norway, the Netherlands, Finland( I think) and Sweden. Monica Zetterlund was a Swedish jazz singer, with a lovely voice but jazz was not quite Eurovision style. Her Nulle points devastated her and the backlash in Sweden was biting. Last but not least lets go to 1968, ok not Nulle points but it was a pretty devastating loss no less. Cliff Richards whose song was supposed to win, was beaten by one point by Spain’s La, la, la. He did have the last laugh though, as it charted number one in most European countries and is still popular. Yep, those were the days my friend…..
Forgot 2014 latvia’ Aarzmnieki (hope that the correct spelling) with cake to bake. Not a fan initially but won over by his performance on semi final night and his stage persona. Yep he was pretty devastated by all counts and definitely need a shoulder to cry on!
Well, it’s a tough choice. At first I might say JEMINI—the song wasn’t too bad, and it’s really all Tony Blair’s fault, right? But I have to go with DANA INTERNATIONAL, the legendary diva, who didn’t even qualify in 2011, for “Ding Dong” (also not bad, IMO). That was a sad turn of events. But if I know Dana, we won’t be crying for long!
I would have to say Elhaida Dani (Albania 2015). Her music video is so polished and confident, but then her live performance was not. Her pitch was off and she seemed to have let nerves get the better of her. I’m sure she’s more disappointed in herself than anything. It must have really felt like she’d blown it.
I would lend a shoulder to Moje 3 from Serbia (ESC 2013). They sang a fun song, Ljubav Je Svuda (Love is Everywhere), and their voices were excellent. But they didn’t make it to the Grand Final, yet the shrieking falsetto Cezar from Romania did with his painful song It’s My Life. At least his dancers were good.
Granted, Moje 3 made a bad costume choice and should have stuck with the simpler ones they wore in their qualifying rounds, but they were certainly better than Cezar and his diamond encrusted, plunging neckline, black glitter dress. .
Perhaps it’s because I’m married to a witch but Amandine Bourgeois can cry on my shoulder. She got the shaft in 2013 with “L’enfer Et Moi.” I loved her Courtney Love meets Stevie Nicks look. The promo video was gorgeous with it’s eery New Orleans voodoo vibe. Going into the Grand Final I was worried that maybe she was a studio performer (think Italy’s Emma, 2014) and wouldn’t deliver on stage. Stuck opening the show, she erased that concern and delivered a really strong live performance. I wish she could have brought more of the feel from the video onto the stage but I understand it was her voice and presence that was chosen to highlight. Sadly, even Eyebrows Pojavis placed higher that her. Block voting sucks!
After the second semi-final in Vienna we were stopped backstage by a barricade of security. It was initially frustrating to be stopped because we didn’t know why. But then we realised it was for the artists that didn’t make it to the final. The green room was at the back of the stadium so the artists had to take a ‘walk of shame’ through the audience backstage. I spotted one of my favourites – Amber from Malta and she was in tears. I so badly wanted to console her but was star struck and couldn’t even yell out what I wanted which was “I loved it”.
France. That’s it … France. I have loved so much of what the french have performed over the years but alas never seem to do particularly well. Amandine and Lisa should have been regarded much more highly than they were.
I think Chiara from Malta. She’s such a trouper at Eurovision and came so close to winning a couple of times. Must have been heartbreaking for her.