I love the orchestral ushering in they all receive! One of only two years in which the wooden spooner also gets a point; awarding it could be optional. In the event, I choose to.
01 Italy
B: “Ma tutti i sogni nell’alba svaniscono perché / Quando tramonta, la luna li porta con sé / Ma io continuo a sognare negli occhi tuoi belli / Che sono blu come un cielo trapunto di stelle” – just lovely.
A: As one of the best known songs ever to have competed in Eurovision, and indeed one of the most widely known songs in the world, this is incredibly difficult to judge. The wonderfully remastered version makes it sound amazing, highlighting all the clever touches to the arrangement that really work with the lyrics.
V: Good performance, too, although it feels like he’s reining himself in somewhat when he should really go nuts with it. Backing vocals are conspicuously absent.
02 The Netherlands
B: “Maar heeft deze wereld het niet te druk? / Wie heeft er nog tijd voor geluk?” Ms Brokken raises the question in 1958 and Mrs Einstein are still banging on about it almost 40 years later!
A: Delightful if slightly prim arrangement.
V: Corry reintroduces some solemnity to the occasion after Mr Modugno’s comparatively flippant opening. She has a truly lovely voice and makes Dutch sound so enchanting. She gives some wonderfully coy looks and is a joy to watch: she seems more determined to put herself into the performance than Domenico Modugno was.
03 France
B: I love the sense of fragility and only just holding onto something so precious in “Je suis un roi qui tient tout son royaume en ses doigts / Et qui tremble de voir s’écrouler ce royaume enchanté” and “Ma princesse enfermée dans sa tour”.
A: Does that timing make this a waltz? Whatever it was, it certainly won over the Danish jury, who were responsible for a third of its victory. It does everything a song like this ought to without impressing me overly, as it’s a tad more playful than I’d like it to be given the lyrics. I can see why it proved so attractive though.
V: Monsieur Claveau gives a performance of great control, without expression suffering. Completely charming.
04 Luxembourg
B: Delightful lyrics. I’m taken with the idea of love ‘imposing itself’ so benignly here and with “On ne vit plus l’amour en prose / On la transporte en poésie”.
A: The orchestra is marvellously restrained; I hope they explode into a flurry of emotion at some point.
V: Solange is a lovely name. What a silhouette! Very attractive performance.
05 Sweden
B: Yet another of these girl-at-the-window numbers, a genre all their own in the 1950s it seems. Quite an indictment of the period actually that 15-year-olds were already subject to peer pressure about finding the right man and settling down.
A: A bit slow to get started really with all those la-la-las, but I like the way the orchestra conducts a dialogue with her. I love the sweeping strings as we pan up to the star-filled sky. The entire arrangement is engrossing; the double bass plinging away as the star twinkles is inspired.
V: Bouncy little entrance from Lil Babs in her national costume for Sweden’s maiden entry. She puts in a lovely, simple performance with appropriately sparkling vocals.
06 Denmark
B: I love the idea of being ‘snowblind’ in “Fejlen var min – fornuften, tja... den snød mig”. There’s a lot of honesty in these lyrics.
A: The music’s inevitably cheery. I’d much rather it were brooding and remorseful.
V: Cute little routine with the diary giving Germany a run for their money in the twee stage-act stakes. Another very personable performance.
07 Belgium
B: I like the idea of putting “tout ce qu’on n’peut pas dire en chansons” into a song like this when it’s allegedly about falling in love with a prostitute.
A: The snare is great here: you can see Mr Leclerc skipping along the road to it in yet another very Technicolor feature kind of way. Everything in the arrangement is in keeping with the story it’s telling.
V: Fud sounds good but looks slightly uncomfortable on stage, like he doesn’t know what to do with his hands. Consequently he comes across as a bit fidgety and furtive, and would probably have been better off sticking them in his pockets if he wanted to look a bit less louche. Still, it brought him the best result of his four entries.
08 Germany
B: The lyrics here are quite meaningful in there way for something built around such a glaring conceit – another that proves Germany’s lifelong love of Eurovision gimmickry.
A: Much as I would expect it to do what it does here musically, that doesn’t make the fact that it does it any more satisfying. Maybe the name of the song is meant to be an indication of the expense spared on it, in terms of inspiration at least. It’s perfectly listenable, but does go on.
V: The audience doesn’t seem to know what to make of Ms Hilescher when she emerges. She has a lovely smile, but overall the routine looks a bit daft, and the point is made after about 30 seconds. Good camerawork though, for the time.
09 Austria
B: Despite the determined negation of the question, the repetition of “Soll’s bei mir anders sein?” highlights the loneliness at the heart of this song.
A: As expected, there’s none of that angst in the composition, or at least only the briefest of moments. Lovely again, but not very effective.
V: Ms Augustin gives a competent performance, but looks a little like she really needs to go to the toilet and is not in the best of outfits to facilitate crossing her legs, so she just bobs up and down a bit to keep her bladder in check. She nevertheless gives us some great sliding notes.
10 Switzerland
B: It’s not often you get words like ‘risotto’ and ‘polenta’ repeated ad infinitum in Eurovision lyrics. Innumerable moving pictures were built around stories like this.
A: I love the way the bookends of the 1958 contest are such flamboyant pieces blowing raspberries at the more staid efforts between them.
V: This could easily have been little more than comedy relief if it wasn’t for Lys Assia’s wonderful delivery of it. Her performance brings a smile to the face so effortlessly: you can tell she’s having fun with it and not taking it super-seriously, but without taking anything away from it either.
And so to the points...
1 point goes to Germany*
2 points go to Austria
3 points go to Denmark
4 points go to Belgium
5 points go to Luxembourg
6 points go to France
7 points go to Italy
8 points go to Sweden
10 points go to the Netherlands
and that only leaves 12 points for...
Switzerland!
*As does the wooden spoon
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