Tag Archives: LookingBack

2000 Eurovision Song Contest

EUROVISION 2000 – STOCKHOLM – SWEDEN

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I of course was delighted to go to Stockholm – being a lover of Swedish music and also a Nordic country. But leading up to EUROVISION I had a major personal crisis. I applied for two weeks leave for Eurovision and visiting some other countries in Europe. I actually put it my application for leave on the 26th of January (for May). My boss approved it. Luckily I made a photocopy of the signed leave form before it was passed on to the personal department. Then towards the end of February, my boss suddenly said I had to go on leave in March, I refused – I had nothing to do in March and my leave was for May. He then got the staff to turn against me, my secretary refused to do any work I gave her, my best female friend at work one morning ran into the male toilet when she saw me coming down the passage, just not to speak to me. I did not take this lying down and went to court. My boss claimed he signed my leave for March (and meanwhile had the leave form destroyed by the personal department). I went instantly to the labour court, it was expensive but the judge gave one look at my photocopy of the leave form where MAY was clearly spelt out and my boss signature, and said I must go back to work and with a sum of money as compensation. I did not want to work in such conditions anymore and then suggested that they send me on early retirement and pay me monthly a pension as if I do not work anymore. So I stopped working permanently but if I again work full time, the monthly pension would stop. Why work and have stress when I got a monthly salary (yes not as much as if I had worked), but I choose Eurovision above work and a career.

Since this all happened so close to Eurovision, I was not able to book good accommodation and this was my worst accommodation ever at Eurovision. The only accommodation I could get was at a youth hostel on a big boat in the harbour. I was staying in a cabin for two people but the horror was that the other person was someone new every night as most people stayed just a day while I stayed the entire week.

The venue was one of the best – GLOBAN and I liked the whole set-up. One slight problem was the fact that the international airport in Stockholm is probably the furthest away from any city center in Europe. But Eurovision provided me with free transport from the airport in a taxi and they even got someone who spoke Dutch to drive me from the airport to the city to make me feel at home.

2000 was the first I saw the OGAE fan stand. It was, however, totally hidden away somewhere in a side passage of the Globen and I did not think many people visited it.

Stockholm was also the year my paths crossed with Andreas from Vienna, Austria. I had known of him as I had a very good friend who was a member of OGAE Austria and he told me to be on the look out for Andreas, also a member of OGAE Austria who was coming to Stockholm. Andreas did not have accreditation so often during breaks, I went out to chat to him and helped him get some of the promo singles.

I can’t remember if the press got free transport, but I walked every day to Globen – it was a distance but a nice walk and I enjoyed it. Obviously my hostel on the boat was nowhere near any hotel where the delegations stayed so I could not use the delegation buses.

Like in Oslo, the pigeonholes were open and people wondered inbetween them and helped themselves to CD’s, especially the Croatian CD which came in the form of a tin box.

Latvia debuted in Stockholm with a great song and finally all three Baltic countries were at Eurovision.

Someone similar to Guildo Horn, in the form of Stefan Raab, was the German entry. The German selection again was nothing special – there was a Ralph Siegel song sung by Corinna May but it was not a very good song. I quite liked Fancy and “We can move a mountain” and “Bitter blue” by Kind of blue was nice as well and 100 times better than the Stefan Rabb rubbish. Once again Germany ended at the bottom of my rankings.

Austria had again a great promo campaign. This time there was a robot running around the press center. I cannot recall exactly what the robot did, but it was fun seeing him/her moving around.

I got on very well with the composers of the Finnish entry “A little bit” by Nina Astrom. The lyric writer is Dutch and he apologized for not mentioning Johannesburg in the lyrics.

The Malta entry was also good, “Desire” by Claudette Pace with music by Philip Vella and lyrics by Gerard James Borg.

Each Eurovision also has several parties organised by various delegations. Like all previous years I have attended, there was again the welcome reception at the Stockholm City hall on the Monday – it was a buffet. There was also a Danish party where you could meet the Olsen brothers. That took place on the Wednesday and was at the Globe hotel. Because there are just so many days during Eurovision, several parties clashed and BMG records and BBC Television had a party for Nicki French at Tip Top but also on the same night (and time) as the Olsen brothers party. Many press go party hopping, staying like 30 minutes at one and then move to the next. I normally only attended a party if it was really special or if the CD was only handed out at such a party.

My favourites were
Ireland – Millennium of love – Eamonn Toal
Latvia – My star – Brainstorm
Finland – A little bit – Nina Astrom
Denmark – Olsen brothers – Fly on the wings of love
Malta – Desire – Claudette Pace

And the ones I disliked
Germany – Wadde hadde dudde da – Stefam Raab
France – On aura le ciel – Sofia Mestari
Israel – Sa-meakh – Ping pong

To read previous years go to esccovers
http://www.esccovers.com/tag/lookingback/

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Eurovision 1999

EUROVISION 1999 – JERUSALEM – ISRAEL

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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

Uncategorized

EUROVISION 1998 – BIRMINGHAM – UNITED KINGDOM

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When people ask me to pick the most awful of all my Eurovisions, it is easy to answer. It is this one by a long shot. Even before arriving at Eurovision, the biggest horror was the fact that Germany sent Guildo Horn as their entry – one of my biggest hates to date (and for all those who like German schlager music). In all honesty I have to say that the 1998 German selection was not that special. A penfriend sent me the compilation CD and although there were 3 Ralph Siegel songs in the selection namely “Kids” by Sharon, “Can-can” by Ballhouse and “Carneval” by Kopenick – none of these songs really stood out. I remember listening to the songs with Lana who worked with me and she went crazy over the “Gel song” by Fokker.

The trip also started with a horror drama. A week prior to my departure, I got off my bus from work and the bus driver closed the door before I was completely off and my arm was caught in the door and it broke the glass of my watch. The bus company said they would pay for the repairs, but I had to get two quotes. Naturally they accepted the cheapest one and I handed in my watch, saying I wanted it back before departing for Eurovision. The day before my departure, the watch was ready and I went to fetch it. Suddenly a guy stormed into the shop with a gun, demanding money. He grabbed a female as hostage. She was looking at a tray of expensive golden rings. The shock of being grabbed as a hostage was too much for her and she collapsed. The robber thought someone had shot at him but hit the female, grabbed some of the rings and ran out. The rest of us in the shop finally got our speech back and realized what a close escape we have had. So I did not have a good start to my journey.

1998 also brought the biggest crisis for me surrounding accreditation. The BBC did not think it was special for me to come all the way from South Africa for Eurovision when tons of South Africans are living in London and surroundings areas. If Greece had not come to my rescue and offered me accreditation (knowing that I do shows for the Greek radio station in Johannesburg), I would have had an even more miserable Eurovision. I was so upset that I left the Thursday before the final and flew to the Netherlands where I watched it on TV and televoted for Estonia. It was the first and last time I had ever televoted.

My hotel in Birmingham was also not that special. It was near the venue and affordable but it was small and I was the only Eurovision journalist staying there. But most of all, for some strange reason there was no curtains in front of the windows. And my room looked out right on a lamppost in the street. Since I am totally unable to sleep when it is light, I had to use my bedspread every night in front of the window to make the room dark.

At Eurovision Guildo Horn had so many followers – they were all around – tons of them came by boat to Birmingham to support their singer. His press conference was packed.

1998 also had DANA INTERNATIONAL for Israel and a lot of hype, as it was the first sex change singer to be at Eurovision. The press predicted the winner would come from either Guildo or Dana.

This was also when I met up with Chiara from Malta who was still very young and I was able to see how she grew and matured in later years when I met her again in 2005 and 2009.

The year also saw the first introduction of televoting on a limited scale – I am not sure but I think 6 countries voted by phone instead of the normal juries.

The Finnish party in the aquarium in Birmingham was one small highlight – this must have cost a fortune! But it probably was one of the most exotic locations for a party. Pity their entry “Aava” was not really my cup-a-tea, reminded me too much of the Norwegian Eurovision winner of 1995.

Because I did not stay until the end, I left Birmingham without obtaining all the entries on CD – I missed 3 – Germany, Israel and France. Luckily I was able to get them all later through other people.

Interesting is that someone made a Grand Prix compilation of the entries – all 25 and live from the performance.

Musically the highlights were
Estonia – Mere Lapsed – Koit Toome
Sweden – Karleken ar – Jill Johnson
Macedonia – Ne zori zoro – Vlado Janevski
Slovakia – Modlitba – Katarina Hasporva
Romania – Eu cred – Malina Olinescu

And of course the biggest horror
Germany – Guildo hat euch lieb – Guildo Horn
But other dislikes were
France – Ou aller – Marie Line
United Kingdom – Where are you – Imaani

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Eurovision 1997

EUROVISION 1997 – DUBLIN – IRELAND

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Going back to Ireland so soon was not that special. Ireland had won so many times in a relatively short span of time, so it was sort of boring. One good thing was that the venue was the same and I booked again at the same guest house where I stayed in 1995. This time I did not take chances with my flight and no Sudan airways. I flew British airways to London and then to Dublin. I however had a bad flight. There are many things I do not eat, so I always book a special meal. They slipped up and did not book it and the air hostess dare to tell me “This is not a restaurant, you have to eat what we have”. I was of course furious but not much I could do.

The Eurovision itself made up for this. 1997 was the year I got all the individual CD singles the fastest ever. By now the various delegations became aware of me, the only accredited journalist from Africa. I also were doing radio shows for the Greek/Cyprus radio station in South Africa (Radio Hellenic) and the Portuguese radio station in South Africa (Radio Cidade). Although I liked it a lot to do shows about Eurovision to these stations, the problem was that both were mainly interested in their entries and did not care about the entries of say Norway or Finland.

Very special to me was the fact that I met up with Ralph Siegel again – the last time I saw him was in Munich in 1983. He was there as composer for the German entry “Zeit” sung by Bianca Shimburg who sounded like a Celine Dion to me.

1997 also produced a huge winner – LOVE SHINE A LIGHT by Katrina and the waves and with Myrian Stockley from South Africa as one of the backing singers. I did not speak a lot to her – going to Eurovision surely was not to meet up with other South Africans when I could meet so many other people from all over Europe. I anyway hated the hit she had in South Africa with her sister a few years earlier as the Stockley sisters. Finnish singer Heidi Kyro covered Love shine a light in Finnish as “Paivanvaloon” which I regard as one of the best Finnish covers ever.

At that stage very few people knew it would be Italy’s last participation before their return in 2011. Luckily the Portuguese radio station was interested in an interview with Jalisse so I did interview them – but of course today I won’t recognize them and they also won’t recognize me.

Iceland caused some controversy with their entry by Pal Oscar. He was such a nice person to chat to and he gave me two of his CD’s. I was the first South African he has met.

I nearly lost a toe in the stampede to get the Hungarian CD single when someone quite heavy stepped on my right foot and I lost several toenails.

I admired one guy from the UK who was unable to get accreditation and he bought several copies of Love shine a light and stood most of the time at the artist entry to the venue and was able to get almost every entry in a CD swap – he giving them the UK entry in exchange for their entry.

I was looking forward to meet the Dutch composer Ed Hooijmans who had written several Dutch songs I like (for non Eurovision artists). But as he has a fear of flying, he was unable to come to Dublin. The Dutch press conference was quite interesting with the 5 females from Mrs Einstein who did not understand that although the press conference room was 90% packed with male journalists, very few asked questions. One of them joked and said “Do you want to know the size of our bra’s”. A journalist sitting in front of me then whispered to his friend “We’re more interested in the size of the jock straps of the guys from Blond” (the group from Sweden). It was already quite clear in those years that the majority of journalists at Eurovision are gay.

The bookmakers had Denmark’s entry by Cool Kai as their candidate for zero points, but the singer even made fun of it and had a party with that fact as its theme. It did not end up last and with zero points but I do not like rap and so it was my bottom song for 1997.

A disaster hit me on my return to Johannesburg. I had taken tons of photo’s and handed it in at my local CNA for development. There were 10 films of 36 photo’s each. When I went to collect them, they informed me that not a single photo came out, the films were destroyed and they blamed it on the airport security. That was the end of me taking photo’s at Eurovision.

Musically 1997 brought the following great songs
United Kingdom – Love shine a light – Katrina & the waves
Cyprus – Mana moy – Hara & Andreas Konstantinou
Ireland – Mysterious woman – Marc Roberts
Poland – Ale jestem – Anna Maria Jopek
Bosnia – Goodbye – Alma Cardzic
Malta – Let me fly – Debbie Scerri

I only hated two songs from 1997
Austria – One step – Bettina Soriat
Denmark – Stemmem I mit liv – Cool Kai

Eurovision 1996

EUROVISION 1996 – OSLO – NORWAY

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The Norwegian winner of 1995 was not at all my taste – too instrumental but I was able to have Eurovision in my most love country of Europe at that time – Norway. This was so special in so many ways. Getting to Oslo was quite a challenge – shortly before my trip the airport in Dusseldorf was destroyed in a fire and I had to change my flight plans. I decided to fly to Frankfurt and took a train to Oslo, so it took longer than anticipated and so I arrived only on the Monday evening and missed the welcome party.

In 1996 Eurovision came for the first time to the Norwegian capital of Oslo. When the artists arrived on the Sunday before Eurovision it was 25 degrees and full summer. The final-day they woke up to a little bit of snow on the ground. And since the final was on May 18, all the artists could experience the national day of 17th of May. This day is always celebrated with children parading the streets and all the artists, delegates and journalists were invited to cake at the town-hall in Oslo. I was able to attend the party on Norway’s national day, which is the best party I have ever attended. I did not bring a jacket and had to borrow one from Oystein, my friend I was staying with. It was miles too big. The huge bowls of strawberries were such a treat and the interesting cakes – I never had such nice things to eat at Eurovision again.

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But the biggest highlight was being able to GET all the entries on individual CD singles. The previous year I got about 60% but not all. Now I had been able to get each and every entry. What made it easy was the fact that most of the delegations stayed in the OSLO PLAZA next to OSLO SPECTRUM and just being in the hotel lobby, you were bound to run into 4-5 artists all the time.

I think Eurovision 1996 was also the only year that accreditated journalists could travel for free on taxi’s and several journalists made good use of this. I did not use it as everything was within walking distance.

Another highlight was meeting the Swedish group ONE MORE TIME who a year or two before had a monster hit in South Africa with HIGHLAND – one of the members of this group is the son of Benny of Abba. They were delighted that I brought them a copy of Highland, the South African release.

In Oslo the pigeonholes were open and everybody ould wonder around them and even helped themselves to stuff in your pigeonhole so I rather tried to speak direct to the delegations and artists and get the promo singles. My pigeon hole was not located at a good spot, right next door to the water machine.

I had a fantastic time with Regina from Slovenia and her husband. They had not before met someone from South Africa and she was delighted that I like her entry. She signed it for me and infact 5 more copies for friends of mine in South Africa I took back as gifts.

OGAE Norway had made a special CD for this year called 20 YEARS WITH TURKEY IN THE EUROVISION SONG CONTEST and many fans bought a copy.

Pity the Finnish entry scored so badly, I do like the song Niin kaunis on taivas by Jasmine. On the promo single there is also versions in English, Swedish and French and they even gave us the sheetmusic to the song. I collected sheetmusic especially in the 80’s.

One of the major things of 1996 was the fact that more countries wanted to take part in EUROVISION than time allowed and so all entries were judged by a panel of people and several did not make it to OSLO. One casualty was Hungary; their song Fortuna was one of my top favourites. After Eurovision I rushed by train to Budapest to try and buy it before flying home to Johannesburg from Frankfurt.

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Also the German entry by Leon PLANET OF BLUE did not qualify, making it the only time Germany has not taken part in Eurovision. As Germany is the biggest financial contributor to Eurovision, a new rule was made to allow the BIG 4/5 countries direct access to Eurovision.

The last big loss was the Danish song – it was not selected for Oslo. To be fair, it was sung in Danish, but when the composer wrote English lyrics and got his group to record it, the song became a huge hit as PAINT MY LOVE by MICHAEL LEARNS TO ROCK.

Musically, the best songs were
Belgium – Liefde is een kaartspel – Lisa del Bo
Sweden – Den vilda – One more time
Norway – Evigkeit – Elisabeth Andreassen
Slovenia – Dan najlepsih sanj – Regina

Of course there were a few horrors as well
Iceland – Sjubidu – Anna Mjoll
Spain – Ay que deseo – Antonio Carbonell
Poland – Chce znac swoj grzech – Kasia Kowalska

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Eurovision 1995

EUROVISION 1995 – DUBLIN – IRELAND

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In a series of articles, I will report on all  my Eurovisions leading up to Kyiv which I have attended with accreditation.

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This ranks as one of the most special years at Eurovision for me because for the first time I got accreditation and so I could be at the venue meeting the participating artists. It was the first time that I came face-to-face with some of Europe’s top performers. The biggest highlight however was getting the Eurovision CD promo singles. No more travelling around the European capitals after Eurovision to try and buy the entries.

The trip to Dublin was however a slight nightmare. I decided to travel with Sudan airways as that was the most direct route. Well, imagine my shock when we landed at Khartoum airport and their only truck delivering fuel to the planes was broken and around 2000 individuals were carrying fuel in buckets to the plane. We sat there 3 hours while they did that – not being allowed off the plane as we had no visas.

The most outstanding for me was meeting the singers of Iceland, Sweden and Bosnia. All three were big names in their home countries, yet they seemed so down-to-earth and sitting in the cafeteria with them having coffee was such a treat. They did not act important. They really cared for their fans and it was such an eye opener for me.

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That year Sweden brought us SE PA MEJ by Jan Johansen, which became a monster hit in Sweden. Also in South Africa it was a big hit in English as ANOTHER NIGHT. I was also able to pitch this song to BMG South Africa on my return and that was the start of my involvement in getting SA artists to cover Eurovision songs in a big way.

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1995 also had a horror incident – I wanted to meet the Danish singer Aud Wilken but she refused to meet me because right at that moment was the big scandal of Allan Bossak from South Africa who stole Danish charity funds.

Nils Kristiansen, a Eurovision fan who tragically passed away in 2000, made a banner for OGAE Norway as a gift and Morten Thomassen, the current president of OGAE Norway took this
to his very first Eurovision in 1992 in Malmo. Finally the banner worked in 1995 when Norway won in Dublin. This was the first banner ever shown on screen in a Eurovision-show and it has been on screen many times since 1992. In 1992 the
legendary commentator from UK Terry Wogan even said when the banner was shown after the Norwegian song: Victory for Norway – I don’t think so.

Musically the highlights for me were
Russia – Lullaby for a volcano – Philipp Kirkorov
Iceland – Nuna – Bo Haldorsson
Croatia – Nostalgija – Magazin & Lidija
Sweden – Se pa mej – Jan Johansen

1995 brought some horrors in the shape of
Poland – Sama – Justyna Steczkowska
Austria – Die welt dreht sich verkehrt – Stella Jones
United Kingdom – Love city groove – Love city groove