Today is the official launch of the big project OGAE Rest of the world has undertaken to celebrate 60 years of Eurovision. A 3 CD set will be made and will be available in Vienna during the Eurovision period. Celebrating 60 years, so the 3 CD set will contain 60 COVERS of EUROVISION songs by artists from South Africa. Each CD will contain 20 songs. Only 60 copies will be printed and handed out in VIENNA during promotions and competitions.

Deciding on which 60 songs took a lot of effort since there were over 400 to consider and only 60 could be chosen.

I have tried to take into account several factors

– countries of the original song (trying to give each country at least one song) but it was not always possible as some like Czech republic has no cover done and others, notable Sweden and Iceland could almost fill 33% of such a project.

– SA artists – trying to use as big a variety as possible, making sure no-one is there twice as solo artist. Some do appear twice but then in duet with someone else.

– New and old songs, classics and hidden gems

– Big hits at EUROVISION but also big hits in South Africa (this does not always correlate)

After selecting the 60 songs, I also consulted with about 10 people who each could add one song and now the final 60 is there.

In the next 6 weeks, I will introduce these 60 songs ONE by ONE in the order they will appear on the compilation set.

Once all 60 songs have been unveiled, I will do a post as to how people can get a copy – keeping in mind there are just 60 copies. Because it is a promotion, the CD’s are not for sale.

I hope by the time we do the cover around beginning APRIL, we will have a logo for the club which will be on the compilation.

The original idea was to hand the first set to UDO JURGENS in VIENNA, but unfortunately that is no longer possible since his death in December.