Today is the turn of one of my favourite songs from Eurovision, ICELAND 1991 and their song NINA by STEFAN and EYFI. The Afrikaans cover is my favourite of any cover done in South Africa. It is sung by BLES BRIDGES who tragically died 15 years ago, Until recently this was the biggest seller of any cover in South Africa and compared to the Icelandic population, it accounts to that 1 out of every 2 Iceland people would have bought a copy.
It’s a Eurovision winner next – GREECE 2005 MU NUMBER ONE by HELENA PAPARIZOU. The Afrikaans cover is by boy band Hi 5.
Surely Eurovision the our number one when it comes to music.
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.
It is now the turn of FRANCE, normally a country who’s euro entries I do not like. But their 1993 entry was a Major surprise, MAMA CORSICA by PATRICK FIORI. It is one of the best songs and among my top 10 of all time. The Afrikaans cover by STEVEN STERLING is called MAMA AFRIKA and it is the second best cover ever.
Onto ESTONIA and their 2011 song ROCKEFELLER STREET sung by GETTER JAANI. The Afrikaans cover, with the same title, is by CHRIZAHN.
Now we are getting to CYPRUS and their 2012 entry LA LA LOVE sung by IVI ADAMOU. The group CORTINA was chosen for the Afrikaans cover.
Onto Belgium for the 42nd song. It is my favourite Belgium entry of all time, LIEFDE IS EEN KAARTSPEL of 1996 by LISA DEL BO. The frikaans version is by CAROLINE BOSCH.
We start today again with the last group of 20 songs. It is the turn again of BELARUS and their 2012 song WE ARE THE HEROES by LITESOUND. This song is very special to me. Jan-Mattys van Lill who is doing the Afrikaans cover, did it for me as a birthday present in 2012, so there are not many copies of this available as it has not been commercially released.
We are now two-thirds of the way and next up is TURKEY. Only one song by them have ever been covered in South Africa. It is their 2009 song DUK TEK TEK sung by HADISE. The Afrikaans cover is by ANDRIETTE NORMAN.
Because so many songs from Sweden have been covered in South Africa, we are doing a second one – this time their 2012 entry EUPHORIA by LOREEN who also won Eurovision that year. The Afrikaans cover is by Tanya V
