After a few days break, we are back with the next ABBA song, DANCING QUEEN
“You are the dancing queen, young and sweet, only seventeen”
With such a young age, the question is which EURO artist (female) do you regard as one of the best young (under 21) artists to have appeared on the Eurovision stage over the 60 years.
That’s a tough one.
Sandra Kim is clearly an impressive one being the youngest winner and all. I also think Celine Dion being only what 20 years old(?) when she won would have been pretty impressive considering the career she had after that.
One point I’d like to make that I notice though, is that in the last couple of years at Eurovision, they invite the winners of the JUNIOR Eurovision Song Contest on the main stage, and we saw this year Vincenzo Cantiello, and last year Gaia Cauchi.
I don’t understand why they don’t just let them perform their entire song on the main stage. How amazing for those kids would it be to get to perform their winning song on the main Eurovision stage? (and not just an acapella verse) Just an idea 🙂
Excluding obvious choices like Sandra Kim and Louis Herrey, the best under 21 singer has been Molly Sterling from this year was one of the best. The thing about her is that with her poise and look, she didn’t feel like she was only 17. She had all the class of a mature woman and amazed me!
Back in 2012, Slovenia had high hopes to score very well and qualify for the second time in a row. Slovenia decided to look to their southern neighbours for some musical inspiration and sent a Balkan-style ballad “Verjamem”. Penned by Vladimir Graić, Hari Mata Hari and Igor Pirkovič, the song was dramatic, emotional, uplifting and they needed the right singer to communicate effectively. They found 16 year old Eva Boto from Šentjanž pri Dravogradu suitable for the role with huge public support, receiving 28,385 televotes in the national final. With a sweet girl, loveable image Eva performed “Verjamem” to the best of her ability. I regard her as one of the best young female singers at Eurovision because you can tell she had worked hard, battled nerves and captured the heart of the nation. Unfortunately Eva didn’t manage to qualify for the final and received what I thought an totally unfair result of 17th out of 18th in her semi. I will forever remember her as the sweet girl singing on a big stage, who opted for sweet and innocent routine and sung from the heart.
I also like the song and was shocked at the result
I too was shocked, but I think the performance was a bit too much. They should of just focused on Eva.
I think my vote for this would go to Lúcia Moniz from Portugal. She was 19 years old when she performed in the 1996 contest in Oslo with her song O Meu Coração Não Tem Cor (My Heart Has No Color). She has a wonderfully strong, clear voice, and did a great job with her song. I’ve watched her performance on YouTube and I love that Portugal always sings in their native language and wear outfits that represent their culture. For me, that’s one of the main reasons I love the show so much.
Lúcia came in sixth place at the Grand Final, and since then, has released four albums and has appeared in several soap operas and films, including Love Actually.
This is just an unfair question related to this song. I really like it, I expected that it’d be in this competition. It’s simply a must. But expected a totally different question, answering Tanja, last year’s Estonian amazing entry with an amazing dancing and singing performance. But she’s a bit over 21… And I’d also mention which cover of this song I think the funniest: it was in South Park, sang by the character Wing. (She also sings in her episode SOS but that was not so funny…) Believe me, it’s funny – if you think it isn’t, change your sense of humour…
But back to the question… There are so many dancing queens on my list (with a lead of Tanja, followed by Alice & Ellen Kessler, 1959’s German entry) but most of them are over the age limit (e.g. some of them with just a few months…)
So I needed to do another research. Sandra Kim is just an easy way to choose, as she’s the first who came to my mind when the topic is about young women… But honestly, I don’t like her performance really, I mean in her winning age, I think it could be presented in a better way…
My not-dancing young queen sang a beautiful song with her wonderful voice and a guitar. It’s Nicole (Germany, 1982). She was just 17 when she won the contest, but bringing there a really intelligent and important message. Any youth can impress me if they show me their intelligence in an authentic way and she did it! It was a song with a serious message but she was a good choice as she had a so innocent face.
Lisa Andreas represented Cyprus in 2004 with the stark ballad Stronger Every Minute. At the young age of 16, she stood alone on the stage, and drew the audience in with her emotional, powerful performance. Not only did she manage to fill the stage, but this extremely talented young lady’s beautiful rendition of the song also managed to win our eurovision party that year, impressing our panel to no end!
Baby Babs (as we affectionately nicknamed her)… Here’s to you!
Wow, this is indeed a hard one. There have been many young lovely ‘dancing queens’ to hit the stage. I really can’t look past the one and only Lena. Lena really changed the face of Eurovision in so many ways. When she won with satellite she was a mere 19 years old, with a little black dress, some stockings, great lighting, bad dancing and a killer, but simple song. I think it was the first year the Eurovision winner really went to a mainstream song. The following year, on her return, Lena had ‘grown up’ with the sultry, sexy and just a little bit evil ‘taken by a stranger’ which we loved maybe even more that satellite. Lena won our prestigious ‘Eurovision night’ in 2011. Lena is an all round performer who writes majority of her material and has that girl next door kind of charm. On a last note, who could forget her absolute horror at getting her vote reading wrong! Even when she stuffs up its highly entertaining!!
Lena takes it for me, too. I love her quirky singing style and innocently awkward dancing. She really nailed the nerd pop character. It is so wonderful to see a young woman win using personality, style, and voice. You don’t need to be a heaving sweaty milk maid to get my attention (sorry, Cleo).
There are so many to choose from !
I was really impressed with Nadine Beiler who represented Austria in 2011. She was 20 at the time and started off singing her song “The Secret Is Love” in acapella – a rare occurrence in Eurovision. The song started off slowly and started to build until it reached an spine tingling climax showcasing Nadine’s voice. She also co-wrote the music and lyrics to the song.
She qualifed 4th from the semi final but unfortunately finished low on the scoreboard in the final (18th overall). Interestingly with the jury vote in the final, she came 5th which I think is testament to the song and her performance. However, the televoters didn’t agree and she was ranked 24 out of 25 therefore sealing her fate to finish on the right hand side of the scoreboard.
She is the type of artist that Eurovision needs – a songwriter with an amazing vocal ability.
My choice for the best young singer at Eurovision for this we should go..
Back in time to Dusseldorf in 2011.
It was a charming little ditty, about Peter, the apple tree and saving our earth. I was most impressed by Finland’s young Paradise Oskar ( Axel Ehnström ) and his mature vocal & performance and I found it hard to believe he was only 20
when Axel took to the Eurovision stage to open a great ESC.
I was hopping this tune ‘Da Da Dum’ would do much better than the 21st placing Finland had in Germany 2011.
He has a real great vocal quality and maybe he will return to sing again for Finland I Hope so?
Well that was my vote for the young male singer! Now I have realised it should be a female. Dancing Queen
I am feeling very silly, I will get my eyes tested shortly, but let me dig deep into the Eurovision past to find a real dancing queen. We all loved Lena from Germany in 2011, at 19 years young.
However some 29 years before a German girl called Nicole took the Eurovision prize at Harrogate in 1982, this song was a real landslide victory. As well as Germany’s first victory it was the first winner from Ralph Siegel ( who is know to us today as Mr San Marino)
Nicole was just 17 at the time, and with her white guitar and crystal clear voice match ” Ein Bisschen freiden just perfectly, but I like to think it was the theme of peace that made this song so popular at Eurovision. Now Nicole went to huge success in Europe and homeland Germany. Her talent and charm is still enjoy with regular tour today.
There’s actually an Abba connection here with this singer and Classic winner, when writing the tune in 1982 Ralph was inspired by the Abba song I have a dream (1979) I think although the tunes are completely different the arrangement and sound is very much a tribute to the famous swedes.
I still regularly listen to Stronger Every Minute by Lisa Andreas so it has to be her. What a voice. What a brave young woman.
I agree with Nicole. She has such a great voice. And when she sung Ein bißchen Frieden in several languages -in French, English and Dutch at the reprise, it was really good. This year she stated that she was also quite emotional when Israel gave her the full twelve points ,given Germany’s history.
I had to google the name but remember Anjeza Shahini singing The Image Of You. That was a good song. She was only 17 at the time but was the first Albanian entry in Eurovision.
David was very quick on this one! I agree with Sandra Kim and Céline Dion, but since they are already “taken” I would say Carola who was only 16 years old when she performed Främling and the rest is, as they say, history.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18mi8_JfkoM
Carola is a great example. FRAMLING is a great song – I love the DUTCH version because I of course understand the lyrics
Given her ongoing relationship with Eurovision fans I think Anne-Marie David is definitely up there. At the age of 21 she embarked on a life-long relationship with the contest and its fans which she continues to nuture relentlessly. Who knew in 1973 that Luxemburg’s entry would still be sung in nightclubs decades later! Definitely a lifelong eurovisioner!
The Irish entries come to mind Dana 1970 and Molly 2015 as both were/are at school when they performed at Eurovision. I like to get a giggle of the imagined school yard conversation at lunchtime….
“what are you doing for the weekend?”
“Going to the movies”
“I’ve got basketball practice, what about you Molly”
“oh just representing the country at Eurovision in Vienna, nothing special!!”