POSITION 46 – CASANOVA – GISELA – ANDORRA 2008
POSITION 45 – HERO – CHARLOTTE PERRELLI – SWEDEN 2008
Tag Archives: Patricia Lewis
DIE ANDER KANT VAN ROEM/THE OTHER SIDE OF FAME
What has people like Carike Keuzenkamp, Rina Hugo, Janita Claassen, Anneli van Rooyen, Patricia Lewis, Bles Bridges, Ge Korsten, Manuel Escorcio, Fanie de Jager, Jannie Moolman, Andre Schwartz, Guillaume, Tobi Jooste, Cole van Dais, David Fourie, Min Shaw, Groep 2, Amanda Luyt, Andriette Norman, Barbara Ray, Alan Garrity, Romanz, Sonja Herholdt, Sunette Bridges, Jurie Els, Corlea Botha and many more in common? Yes they are all South African recording artists but each one of them has at least COVERED one song originally composed by German composer RALPH SIEGEL. Ralph is the most known Eurovision composer and will be in Kyiv, Ukraine in May 2017 with his 25th Eurovision entry. Ralph has won Eurovision once – in 1982 when Nicole sang his song EIN BISSCHIEN FRIEDEN. The previous 3 years he had been 4th, 2nd and 2nd with his songs. Over the years he has written Eurovision entries for Germany (his home country) but also Luxembourg, Switzerland, Montenegro and San Marino.
Ralph has asked Roy van der Merwe, the president of Eurovision South Africa and the owner of the website ESCCovers, to make him compilation CD’s with his songs by South African artists. Roy has identified 100 such covers he is aware of and it will be recorded on various compilations to be handed to Ralph in Kyiv to celebrate the fact that Ralph is there with his 25th entry and also it is the 25th Eurovision in a row Roy will be attending.
During next week the compilation CD’s will be recorded and at this stage it looks like there will be at least 4 different ones
1 – EIN BISSCHIEN FRIEDEN
As there are 14 covers of this song, they will all appear on one compilation
2 – DIE ANDERKANT VAN ROEM
This is the title of Patricia Lewis’s ralph cover and will feature lesser known covers
3 – ‘N DAG MET RALPH
This comes from the title ‘n Dag met Maria which is the title of a Jurie Els song of Ralph
4 – EK IS BAIE LIEF VIR JOU
This comes from the title of one of the very first Ralph songs covered in South Africa – in the middle 70’s and originally sung by Min Shaw
LARS “DILLE” DIEDRICSON DIED
It is sad that with the final of the Swedish selection happening this weekend, we learn of the death of Lars “Dille” Diedricson. He was born on the 12th of August 1961 and died on the 6th of March 2017 in Gothenburg. He won the Eurovision Song Contest 1999 as the songwriter for “Take Me to Your Heaven” performed by Charlotte Nilsson for Sweden. Patricia Lewis covered it in South Africa and it went double platinum. Lars was so impressed with Patricia’s cover that he produced a CD for her in Stockholm in 2000.
EUROVISION 1999 – JERUSALEM – ISRAEL
This was one of the best Eurovisions in many ways. This was the only time ever I had a direct flight to Eurovision. It was also the shortest flight (every other flight to Eurovision took almost 24 hours with lay overs somewhere) and the only time I could visit without a visa. But I had accommodation problems as the travel agent lied to me. Instead of securing me accommodation close to the venue, I was living in a guest house miles away from the venue. The travel agent said I wanted to stay CLOSE to a bus stop to take me to the venue, but my directive was that I want to stay as close as possible so I could walk there. It took almost an hour travelling by bus to Eurovision every day. Also I was totally away from any official hotels, so I was unable to use their transport and so I had to buy a bus ticket daily. I must say the guest house was out of this world, but totally wrong for me who came to Eurovision and wanted to be close to the venue.
Israel gave me my best accreditation ever – made me HEAD OF DELEGATION of SOUTH AFRICA so for the first and only time, I was allowed backstage to speak to the artists in private. They also produced for me a press card so that I was also able to get a pigeonhole. That year I represented the Portuguese radio station RADIO CIDADE.
Morten had a very special flight to Israel. He was on the same plane with all the artists from the Nordic countries. In the same plane were Selma (Iceland), Van Eijk (Norway), Charlotte (Sweden) and Trine and Michael (Denmark). Finland did not qualify for Jerusalem, so they were not there. Carola Haggkvist was also on the plane.
My flight from Johannesburg landed 3 minutes after the plane with the Nordic delegation. Charlotte Nillson spoke to me while we were waiting to go through customs and asked me what I thought of her song. At that stage there was a big debate about whether to sing in Swedish or English since the change of the language rule. I told Charlotte her song, “Take me to your heaven” would be a winner. More countries did televoting and I just knew for those viewers hearing/seeing the song the first time, this will do well. Patricia Lewis from South Africa covered the song and it sold 100 000 copies for her. She impressed the composers so much that they invited her to Stockholm where they produced a full CD for her.
Ralph Siegel was of course also in Jerusalem with Surpriz and their song Reise nach Jerusalem – kudus’e seyahat – it was exactly 20 years since he had been there with Dschinghis khan.
There were a change in rehearsals – Lithuania was suppose to be last on the first day but due to flying in only the next day (to save money), they swapped with another country which I cannot remember now but think it was Estonia.
Austria had a great promotion – their entry was “Reflection” by Bobby Singer and press people were given a disposable camera to take photo’s of Bobby and the person taking the best photo would win a holiday in some Austrian ski resort.
The biggest shock to me was the Friday before the final when the Jewish SUNDAY started and I was stuck 5 kilometers away from my guest house and no public transport and had to walk the distance home. Luckily it was mainly downhill.
Obviously with no transport to go to the venue from the guest house on the Saturday to watch the final from the press center, I stayed in my bed and watched the final on TV.
The entries I like best are
Sweden – Take me to your heaven – Charlotte
Iceland – All out of luck – Selma
Malta – Believe ‘n peace – Times three
Portugal – Conc tudo comecou – Rui Bandeira
And some horrors as well
Lithuania – Strazdas – Aisle
United Kingdom – Say it again – Precious
Spain – Lydia – No quiero escuchar
62 COVERS UNTIL KIEV – DAY 3 – GERMANY 2009
GERMANY 2009
Miss kiss kiss bang – David Hasselhoff & Patricia Lewis
Miss kiss kiss bang – Alex Swings, Oscar sings
ABBA MEDLEY COMPETITION
We have another competition, but this unfortunately is only for R O W members who will be at the ABBA museum on Wednesday 11 May.
Two South African singers (and R O W members) have done ABBA medleys and these songs are now available on one CD. There are just 5 copies, one will be given to the museum and 4 others to R O W members who are at the museum that day. It will be a lucky draw so everybody who will be there – your name will be put into a hat and the first 4 names drawn, will get these medley singles. The songs on the medleys are
PATRICIA LEWIS
01 – Ring ring
02 – S O S
03 – Gimme gimme gimme a man after midnight
04 – Waterloo
05 – Thank you for the music
RIANA VAN WYK
01 – Take a chance on me
02 – Dancing queen
03 – Mamma mia
04 – Thank you for the music
COMPILATION CDs for VIENNA – part 3
The last compilation was really created for DENMARK and is called DANISH DELIGHTS. There are no compilations left as all were taken in Copenhagen; but due to demand for this, we have decided to create a few more for fans in Vienna. Here is the index:
COMPILATION CDs for VIENNA – part 2
Here is the second compilation CD available for fans in Vienna. This is EUROVISION WE SING YOUR SONGS VOL 10, which contains covers of older Eurovision songs as well as a few bonus tracks, including a cover of a song originally sung by Conchita Wurst. Here is the index:
EUORVISION 60th CELEBRATION – SONG 47 of 60
It is GERMANY now and their 2009 entry MISS KISS KISS BANG, originally sung by ALEX SWINGS, OSCAR SINGS. The South African cover has an international connection with PATRICIA LEWIS doing it in duet with American celebrity DAVID HASSELHOFF. This is quite interesting as David had several number one hits in Austria.
EUROVISION 60th CELEBRATION – SONG 19 of 60
Its time for SWEDEN, one of the countries in Eurovision. It is also one of those with many covers in Afrikaans and so it is not so easy to pick something. In the end I decided on the 2001 entry LISTEN TO YOUR HEARTBEAT sung by FRIENDS. There are more than one Afrikaans cover and in the end, KOBUS MULLER in duet with PATRICIA LEWIS, was chosen.
