The second episode of the R S G (radio sonder grense) series was broadcast after 6 pm on Sunday 9 July. Elsje van Jaarsveld presented it while Ilse Schurmann wrote the text and produced the show.
ESC Covers were almost prevented from listening to this episode as we had load shedding but luckily the power came on after two minutes of the show. This episode again ended after 20 minutes at 6.30 pm. During that time, 5 songs were played.
SONG 1 was CONGRATULATONS by CLIFF RICHARD. He represented the United Kingdom at the 1968 Eurovision song contest. Bill Martin and Phil Coulter composed the song. This song was tipped as the winner for 1968 but it lost by one point to LA LA LA by Massiel of Spain. Although it came just second, it went on to become a worldwide hit for Cliff.
SONG 2 was NE PARTEZ PAS SANS MOI by CELINE DION, the 1988 winner from Switzerland. Celine was 20 years old and a French speaking singer from Canada. Switzerland recruited her to represent them. Until that moment Celine was mainly known in the French speaking world and this victory was the start of her international career. The voting was one of the most exciting. Until the last country to vote, Yugoslavia, the United Kingdom was leading – a song called Go by Scott Fitzgerald. Yugoslavia gave Switzerland 6 points and they led the United Kingdom by 1 point, but Yugoslavia still had to give their 7, 8, 10 and 12 points. When Yugoslavia’s 12 points went to France, it was clear the UK got no points from Yugoslavia and Switzerland won with Celine Dion. Celine has never recorded the song in English as far as our knowledge go, but she did record it in German. Gary Spiers from Wales, a friend of ESC Covers, was in the audience that night in Dublin.
SONG 3 was SAVE YOUR KISSES FOR ME by BROTHERHOOD OF MAN. They represented the United Kingdom at the 1976 Eurovision song contest and won. They started the 18-country event in position 1. The song was composed by Tony Hiller and the two male members of Brotherhood of man. The song got points from all the other countries; 7 countries gave it their 12 points. Ireland, surprising, gave the song the lowest score – just 3 points. The song was still a runaway winner over second place. Elsje mentioned that the single sold over 5 million copies worldwide. R S G played the contest recording of the song.
SONG 4 was PUPPET ON A STRING by SANDIE SHAW, the 1967 winner from the United Kingdom and the first win for this country. Sandie sang bare feet, probably the first singer to do so. Bill Martin and Phil Coulter composed this song as well. R S G also here played the contest recording of the song.
SONG 5 was another winner, this time the first for GERMANY (at that stage still known as West Germany). 17-year-old NICOLE represented the country in 1982 with a song composed by Ralph Siegel (who had composed at least 23 entries in Eurovision for various countries). Bernd Meinunger wrote the German lyrics. He had written lyrics to over 3000 songs and almost every German singer recorded at least one song where he wrote the lyrics. Nicole won with the German song EIN BISSCHEN FRIEDEN. It got 12 points from 9 countries, one country did not give it any points and that was Luxembourg and Austria, a fellow German speaking country, gave it just 1 point. Nicole took of course revenge and her song became a number 1 hit in Austria. Nicole also did a first. The winner always must sing their song again at the end of the show and this time Nicole sang a multi-language version of German, French and English. She later also recorded versions in Dutch, Danish, Spanish, and Italian and recently also in Russian. Both Nicole and Bernd Meinunger have ties to South Africa in the form of holiday houses in the Western Cape and their publishing company is called CAPE TOWN MUSIC. The English version of the song A LITTLE PEACE was played.
The second show was very entertaining and all 5 songs played are favourites for us. ESC Covers are really pleased with the series and cannot wait for the remaining 11 episodes