01 Belgium
B: I have no real appreciation of Dutch, but it seems to me that every line here might as well be “Tralala lalala lala lalala”. Deuntje has a nice ring to it though. Seems very much of its time with the whole Technicolor street scene thing.
A: You can almost see the Walt Disney bluebirds darting about during that whistle intro. The music lends it more of a Wallonian than a Flemish feel I would have thought, or indeed Parisian. Mr Schoepen does a good job of making Dutch sound attractive. Overall it’s a little dusty, but is pretty enough, and harmless, like some old aunt sitting in a corner.
V: Pull your hands out of your pockets man! Mind you, it suits the feel of it. If you’ve ever seen really early Doctor Who, he looks like science-teacher-companion-to-the-1st-Doctor Ian Chesterton, only with history-teacher-companion-to-the-1st-Doctor Barbara Wright’s hairdo.
02 Luxembourg
B: Unremittingly bleak lyrics in which the rhyming couplets don’t do a lot for me. The idea of someone’s lips imprisoning his lover’s fever is romantic.
A: As I expected, the music here lends the lyrics a lighter touch, although the strings are great in underscoring the maudlin bits. There’s something of the chanson about Ms Dupré’s voice, but not something all that convincing.
V: She’s a little starlet, isn’t she. For what is essentially still a radio contest at this point, she puts in a fantastic visual performance.
03 United Kingdom
B: This holds the record as the shortest ever Eurovision entry, doesn’t it? “These are all to me” is very clunky as an anchor line and looks like something you’d scratch your head about trying to figure out quite what the non-native speaker who said it actually meant. These are all for me? This is all I have?
A: How odd that so many of these songs never got a proper studio recording. Not worth the effort perhaps, back in the day. Ms Bredin has a wonderful voice, but it makes the song come across as a bit artificial. The composition enjoys moments of freedom but is generally reined in by the delivery.
V: She’s certainly an accomplished vocalist and gives a charming performance.
04 Italy
B: The lyrics go for a poetic feel with the use of the passato remoto, the literary past tense; either that or the lyricist was Sicilian, where AFAIK it’s still used in the spoken language. I love the almost unfinished conditional of “Se la mano trema sull’accordo / ... / Nell’indifferenza di uno sguardo” answered, at length, by “non vi fermate”. There’s real heartache in these words. Reading them makes me feel like a hapless onlooker.
A: Odd that a song called The Strings Of My Guitar doesn’t actually use one as its main musical hook, or indeed at all as far as I can tell. In fact the arrangement is nothing like I expected it to be, sounding altogether Spanish (albeit without a Spanish guitar either). Our Nunzio has a controlled tremulousness to his voice which suits the song perfectly.
V: From one extreme to the other, at almost three times the duration of the UK’s entry. What wonderful fado this would make. Glad to see it got the acoustic makeover it needed prior to the big night. The strings add to it enormously. Perfectly pitched if slightly shifty-eyed performance.
05 Austria
V: From one extreme to the other, at almost three times the duration of the UK’s entry. What wonderful fado this would make. Glad to see it got the acoustic makeover it needed prior to the big night. The strings add to it enormously. Perfectly pitched if slightly shifty-eyed performance.
05 Austria
B: Who was this guy kissing on the moorland? His pony? Is ‘pony’ the pet name he’s given his missus or is it all some strange metaphor?
A: Another no-show from the studio version. That opening makes it sound like the theme tune to some American family-values comedy featuring a talking animal, and after the glorious solemnity of the Italian entry that’s probably what’s needed. Competent, but not very exciting.
V: Oh, he’s been given a special backdrop for his pony song. Or does it keep changing each time? I haven’t noticed if it has. Mr Martin looks like he’s enjoying himself, but his bobbing up and down is a bit half-hearted.
06 The Netherlands
B: Fantastic lyrics! So direct. I particularly like “'k Ben toch je vrouw en ik eet uit je hand / Maar ’k eet niet van de bedeling” and “Ja, je wordt dik en je haar wordt al grijs / ... / Ach, je bent soms nog zo’n kind, zo onwijs / Nurks en baldadig om beurten”.
A: Just lovely: a song that sounds like it was composed to have a melody rather than just suit the orchestra (which it does in any case). That last blast of brass is a bit much for my liking. Does she namecheck her next entry midway through the song?
V: What a wonderful performance. She’s singing in some theatre in Germany in Dutch in 1957 but she’s talking to me and me alone. Love the fiddle solo and the kick along, which gives the more intrusive brass finale of the studio version more context.
07 Germany
B: Only the second edition of the contest and appropriately enough it’s Germany who gives us our first true gimmick. And the lyricist is called Ralph Siegel! Still, it’s a bit early for a question like “Sag, wann werde ich zum Lohn endlich glücklich sein?” given they’d spend another 25 years reinventing the cheese wheel before winning with a girl sitting on a stool playing the guitar.
A: I like the jazz touches to this: the piano and the double bass plink-plonking away in the background. The arrangement is quite playful at times and yet also in tune with the lyrics. Listening to it, it’s funny how the likes of German and Dutch are so much more palatable when sung like this.
V: This could have been very tacky but is actually very classy, underplayed the way it is by the lovely Margot. The arrangement of the live version is great. And is that Eurovision’s first key change? I love the way she clutches the phone like an Oscar for most of the song!
08 France
B: “C’est le bal des feuilles mortes” would rival Luxembourg if the rest of the lyrics weren’t quite so cheerful. As usual, the French makes them sound so much more poetic than they actually are.
A: Cornet! (I think.) Delightful multi-layered arrangement. There’s a slight... sneeriness to Ms Desjardins’ delivery though that puts me off.
V: She sounds much sweeter singing live, and does her best to sell the song in a crick-in-the-neck kind of way. She has surprisingly expansive facial features.
09 Denmark
B: This takes a rather downbeat turn, too. Was life and love in the late ’50s really so depressing? It makes for some great lyrics: “Vi menn’sker bestemmer så lidt / Den lykke, vi tror er fast og solid / Den er kun på landlov på ubestemt tid” and the last few lines bringing the whole metaphor together.
A: Charming. I love the way they can both sing, but neither of them really sound like singers, if you know what I mean; like they really are just two lovers standing on the wharf bidding each other farewell. Actually, Birthe Wilke sounds a bit like Björk.
V: And the performance completes the package. Perfect.
10 Switzerland
B: Mixed fortunes for Lys Assia as there were for Corry Brokken. This would be a fairly straightforward ‘lost youth’ song if it wasn’t for lines like “Mensonges dorés, j’étais riche à l’envie” which lend it more weight.
A: Ms Assia has a lovely voice for this kind of song, which is accomplished but generally unremarkable.
V: The arrangement comes to the fore live, or at least seems to, perhaps because the vocals are indistinguishable from those in the studio version. One question: is the backdrop they’ve all been standing in front of framed by giant hands?
A: Another no-show from the studio version. That opening makes it sound like the theme tune to some American family-values comedy featuring a talking animal, and after the glorious solemnity of the Italian entry that’s probably what’s needed. Competent, but not very exciting.
V: Oh, he’s been given a special backdrop for his pony song. Or does it keep changing each time? I haven’t noticed if it has. Mr Martin looks like he’s enjoying himself, but his bobbing up and down is a bit half-hearted.
06 The Netherlands
B: Fantastic lyrics! So direct. I particularly like “'k Ben toch je vrouw en ik eet uit je hand / Maar ’k eet niet van de bedeling” and “Ja, je wordt dik en je haar wordt al grijs / ... / Ach, je bent soms nog zo’n kind, zo onwijs / Nurks en baldadig om beurten”.
A: Just lovely: a song that sounds like it was composed to have a melody rather than just suit the orchestra (which it does in any case). That last blast of brass is a bit much for my liking. Does she namecheck her next entry midway through the song?
V: What a wonderful performance. She’s singing in some theatre in Germany in Dutch in 1957 but she’s talking to me and me alone. Love the fiddle solo and the kick along, which gives the more intrusive brass finale of the studio version more context.
07 Germany
B: Only the second edition of the contest and appropriately enough it’s Germany who gives us our first true gimmick. And the lyricist is called Ralph Siegel! Still, it’s a bit early for a question like “Sag, wann werde ich zum Lohn endlich glücklich sein?” given they’d spend another 25 years reinventing the cheese wheel before winning with a girl sitting on a stool playing the guitar.
A: I like the jazz touches to this: the piano and the double bass plink-plonking away in the background. The arrangement is quite playful at times and yet also in tune with the lyrics. Listening to it, it’s funny how the likes of German and Dutch are so much more palatable when sung like this.
V: This could have been very tacky but is actually very classy, underplayed the way it is by the lovely Margot. The arrangement of the live version is great. And is that Eurovision’s first key change? I love the way she clutches the phone like an Oscar for most of the song!
08 France
B: “C’est le bal des feuilles mortes” would rival Luxembourg if the rest of the lyrics weren’t quite so cheerful. As usual, the French makes them sound so much more poetic than they actually are.
A: Cornet! (I think.) Delightful multi-layered arrangement. There’s a slight... sneeriness to Ms Desjardins’ delivery though that puts me off.
V: She sounds much sweeter singing live, and does her best to sell the song in a crick-in-the-neck kind of way. She has surprisingly expansive facial features.
09 Denmark
B: This takes a rather downbeat turn, too. Was life and love in the late ’50s really so depressing? It makes for some great lyrics: “Vi menn’sker bestemmer så lidt / Den lykke, vi tror er fast og solid / Den er kun på landlov på ubestemt tid” and the last few lines bringing the whole metaphor together.
A: Charming. I love the way they can both sing, but neither of them really sound like singers, if you know what I mean; like they really are just two lovers standing on the wharf bidding each other farewell. Actually, Birthe Wilke sounds a bit like Björk.
V: And the performance completes the package. Perfect.
10 Switzerland
B: Mixed fortunes for Lys Assia as there were for Corry Brokken. This would be a fairly straightforward ‘lost youth’ song if it wasn’t for lines like “Mensonges dorés, j’étais riche à l’envie” which lend it more weight.
A: Ms Assia has a lovely voice for this kind of song, which is accomplished but generally unremarkable.
V: The arrangement comes to the fore live, or at least seems to, perhaps because the vocals are indistinguishable from those in the studio version. One question: is the backdrop they’ve all been standing in front of framed by giant hands?
And so to the points...
1 point* goes to Austria
2 points go to Belgium
3 points go to the United Kingdom
4 points go to Switzerland
5 points go to Luxembourg
6 points go to France
7 points go to Germany
8 points go to Denmark
10 points go to Italy
and finally... not that it should take a genius to work it out...
12 points go to…
The Netherlands!
*No wooden spoon awarded this year
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