1969

Really rather a splendid year, all told, and one in which I can understand why there was a four-way tie for first: if I could, I’d probably give 12 points to all of my top six for one reason or another.

01 Yugoslavia
B: Quite possibly the tackiest lyrics Croatia (and Yugoslavia) has ever produced at Eurovision, total lowest common denominator stuff. Do they get through the entire list of ‘good days’ represented in 1969?
A: Good harmonies.
V: Great song to open the competition in Spain, with vocals like that. Gets pretty tired pretty quickly though; perhaps that’s why Ivan’s eyes seem so far down his face.

02 Luxembourg
B: Sweet, innocent lyrics, although “Je vous offrais mes tartines et mes chocolats” would make a worthy double entendre.
A: The more entries I hear from Luxembourg the more I’m convinced they never once intended to win back in the day, and only ever did by accident. The arrangement here does nothing for me with its awkward blend of coquettish glockenspiel and farty brass. The last couple of bars sound like a different song completely, which is rather nice, since the rest of it lacks anything much in the way of character.
V: The least successful of Romuald’s three evenly spaced outings: he should have stuck with Monaco. He sounds kinda sexy when he lets rip, and gives a decent performance.

03 Spain
B: I can associate with “Desde que llegaste ya... / Vivo cantando, vivo soñando”.
A: Lovely moody opening. The explosion into the chorus is not really the kind I was expecting, but is all the better for it. The percussion’s fantastic. It’s relentless once it gets going. Fab!
V: My mum had hair like that. Love the outfit and the upright epilepsy masquerading as choreography. Salomé is great with the cameras.

04 Monaco
B: Lovely lyrics encompassing many of the feelings of what being a child is about.
A: Monaco gives us our first ever Junior Eurovision entry. I’d like the Fernando bits to bear more weight than they do, but then I suppose he is just a kid: best not overegg the gravitas. It’s all just a bit too cheery for a song whose lyrics seem somehow more serious.
V: I was prepared to write off Jean Jacques as a little upstart, but he gives a good performance and has a great (and well-developed) voice for a kid of 12. Looks like he’s wearing the son part of the mum-and-son outfit he shared with Salomé too, sans wibbly bits.

05 Ireland
B: These lyrics are so predictable you’d think they were written by a non-native speaker (or, in this day and age, AI) – rendering the title pretentiously over-reaching at best. Muriel Day is the kind of name no one has heard for the better part of 40 years.
A: How I’d rather this were a Welsh entry sung by Shirley Bassey. Love the guitar adding a very ’70s twang to what is essentially a completely ’60s production. It takes an awfully long time to say very little; the key change could have been excised altogether.
V: The backing vocals are a bit on the perhaps-not side, but our Muriel does her country proud, giving a note-perfect and energetic performance.

06 Italy
B: More wonderful lyrics from Italy.
A: Very familiar-sounding vocal arrangement here, with an air of timelessness about it that could see it set to music today and sounding like it had been written especially.
V: I love Eva Zanicchi: what a voice! However, she looks like she’s reading the lyrics off a prompter.

07 United Kingdom
B: I suppose Lulu is more catchy a stage name than Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie.
A: Easy to see the appeal of this: it owes a lot to past entries, but is quite accomplished in its own right. The vocal arrangement in the chorus is just different enough to make it truly interesting.
V: Very colourful. I love the “olé!” at the end.

08 The Netherlands
B: Lovely lyrics again, telling a story from start to finish, with great alliteration in “Zo zong hij heel zijn leven lang / Zijn eigen lied, zijn eigen zang / Toch gaat de dood gewoon zijn gang”.
A: Rich composition, too, which Lenny Kuhr’s vocals suit perfectly, directing our emotional response to it all.
V: How wonderfully Dutch she looks! She wasn’t the old one in Treble, was she? Commanding performance.

09 Sweden
B: That screen grab on Diggiloo must be the bit where Tommy sings “Believe me, it was more than a mouthful”. “Kanske jag ändrar mig, då hörs jag av / Då ska jag presentera mig som din Mister Medel-Svensson” is a lyrical gem, both amusing and scathing.
A: Unassuming, this, on the whole, with some impressive stuff happening here and there, although again the key change is unnecessary. We were still getting stuff like it in Melodifestivalen 40+ years later, so there must be an enduring affection for it.
V: Very laid-back performance, with impressive awareness of the microphone cord.

10 Belgium
B: Catherine, Judy, Jennifer... Running theme, anyone? I love the “Hopeloos voorbij” coda, but why choose a name as clunky as Jennifer Jennings?
A: How very daring of them to write a song with no obvious catch in the chorus. If it had one, considering the straightforward strength of the rest, it would be textbook late-’60s pop.
V: Nice vocals live, but the sudden arms in the first chorus are odd, and he looks a bit shifty generally.

11 Switzerland
B: The rather banal early lyrics in this are offset a little by the ‘but I know it will all turn to shit’ take later on in the piece.
A: Very Swedish in the way that the chorus and verses seem to have been shackled together from different songs, albeit without the Swedish finesse that allows them to get away with it. The whole slow-down-speed-up thing can be seen a mile off.
V: Inoffensive in every sense, but hardly a showstopper (apart from the final note). Sounds much more cohesive as a piece of music when played live.

12 Norway
B: Wonderfully, uncomfortably honest in places.
A: Unlike Switzerland, this sounds like all of the bits of the song came from the same place, but they still don’t sit together very happily.
V: What a shame Kirsti Sparboe didn’t spit this one out with the drunken venom it needed! Instead she just looks like she’s having a bit of a laugh.

13 Germany
B: Yet another entry about a music box, but the lyrics aren’t as interesting here as the Norwegian ones from whenever it was. The metaphor gets a bit obvious, too, when you’re presented with it more than once.
A: Gosh, this is familiar. I know someone did an Estonian version of it, probably the day after the 1969 contest. I wonder if that’s where I know it from. Wonderful vocals, and the arrangement has some fantastic touches to it. It’s slightly too classy to be accused of aiming for the same tone as the likes of Puppet on a String. Certain bars could almost be Greek.
V: Nice performance, albeit one that drags a bit.

14 France
B: The French [lyricists] have a thing for these ‘welcome to the world’ songs, don’t they.
A: Stands out a mile from everything else for how seriously it takes itself, without being too po-faced.
V: The orchestral arrangement is divine, as are Frida Boccara’s vocals: she puts in an impassioned performance. Under later rules, this would have been the outright winner. For what it’s worth.

15 Portugal
B: Portuguese poetry in motion once again – where else could something like ‘love in every husked corn cob’ possibly come from? “Ó, minha terra... / Casca de noz desamparada” is depressingly beautiful.
A: Fado with a ’60s arrangement, and yet the pop concessions take nothing away from it.
V: Simone de Oliveira’s earrings prove that what we saw in the eighties was the history of accessories repeating itself. They are almost as powerful and expressive as her voice.

16 Finland
B: Try saying “enempää mä nää” and convincing anyone Finnish is a beautiful language.
A: The trumpet (or whatever it is) is like the disembodied third singer in this. There’s a lightness of touch to the vocals that I like – especially on Jarkko’s, since Laura’s aren’t the most convincing – but I’m not overly taken with the comedy approach to the music, which would make it a perfect Muppets number.
V: On which note, Laura looks a bit like an owl in a wig.


And so to the points…

1 point goes to Belgium

2 points go to Sweden

3 points go to Ireland

4 points go to Germany

5 points go to the United Kingdom

6 points go to Portugal

7 points go to Italy

8 points go to the Netherlands

10 points go to Spain

and finally...

12 points go to...


France!


The wooden spoon is awarded to Luxembourg. Again.