CD tip: From Brasil To Greece - BossaVision

Bossavision is a collection of Eurocovers in Bossanova-lite style by Brasilian singers. It's a Greek project (hence the large number of Greek entries) coordinated by Easy Coutiel & Nektarios Tyrakis.
It has all your favorite winners Ding-A-Dong, Waterloo, L'oiseau et l'enfant and Diva and unevitably Volare, the oldest entry in the collection. It's great to see modern Eurovision back in Brasil (they sort of lost interest after the 70's), although I haven't found any Brasilian website mentioning this collection.

Barbara Mendes for example has released several CDs in Greece including a live collection recorded in Greece in 2001.

The laid back bossa collection is a bit monotonous at times, but it's the perfect soundtrack for a romantic night on the beach or dinner party with the neighbours. The CD is released in Greece on Mercury/Universal and is available through some Greek webshops like Yupi, Greekbooks, GreekMusicShop.

Tracklist:
1. Barbara Mendes (pic) - My Number One (Greece 2005)
2. Carol (Assad) & Zeca Rodrigues - Every Way That I Can (Turkey 2003)
3. Marcela Mangabeira - Ding A Dong (Netherlands 1975)
4. Saloa Farah - Die For You (Greece 2001)
5. Eliza Lacerda - Waterloo (Sweden 1974)
6. Barbara Mendes - Secret Combination (Greece 2008)
7. Rachelle Spring - Diva (Israel 1998)
8. Marcela Mangabeira - Shake It (Greece 2004)
9. Flavio Mendes - Save Your Kisses For Me (U.K. 1976)
10. Marion - Tell Me (I Anixi, Greece 1991)
11. Daniela Procopio - Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu (Volare) (Italy 1958)
12. Rachelle Spring - Solfege Lesson (Mathema Solfege, Greece 1977)
13. Marion - L' Oiseau Et L'Enfant (France 1977)
14. Guilherme Ge - Tornero (Romania 2006)
15. Marion - Apres Toi (Luxembourg 1972)
16. Carol (Assad) & Zeca Rodrigues (pic) - Where Are You Now (U.K. 1998)

Check out Planetworks and here is a Youtube promo

Brasil is the non Eurovision country with the most Eurocovers to its name.
From the first contest in 1956 (with at least 7 versions by Brasilian artists)* to well into the 70's Eurovision songs have been covered by artists from Brasil.
About every Italian entry, most of the songs from the U.K. and many of the winners and hits from other countries.

If you use this search link you'll get all the Eurocovers posts that have (or mention) Eurovision coverversions from Brasil.

Also check out the Janelão Eurovision blog for a Brasilian look on Eurovision.

* Winner Refrain was covered in Brasil by at least three artists: Carlos Augusto, Aracy (Araci) Costa and Arthur Murat.
Italian entry Amami Se Vuoi was covered by Zézé Gonzaga, Wilma Bentivegna, Vicente Celestino and pianist Britinho. Most have been released on good old 78rpm records.

Monaco 1965 - Ann Lee + Spain 1989 - Amante Del Amor

While glorious Eurovision 2009 winner Alexander Rybak is busy conquering the world it's time for Eurocovers to travel back to the olden days. Here's a Dutch coverversion of Monaco's 1965 entry Va Dire A L'Amour, originally by Marjorie Noël.
I don't know anything about Ann Lee, except that she's not the Europop singer that gave the world the 1998 hit 2 Times. So this is a short post. --- 

MySpace YourSpace OuttaSpace
I've been browsing MySpace so you don't have to.

Amante Del Amor - Nacida Para Amar
The title Amante Del Amor may not ring a bell straight away, even with Eurovision diehards, but it's a Eurocover.
The lyrics to the 1989 Spanish entry Nacida Para Amar by the Lovely Nina (6th place) were rewritten by the original writer Juan Carlos Calderón for the South American market. The new lyrics were also created to suit a male singer better and the most famous singer who had a go at the new version was , Mexican megastar Luis Miguel (YouTube).

Luis Miguel recorded it for his 20 Años CD from 1999. A few more covers were recorded and my favorite version is by Wichy Camacho. This Puerto Rican salsa singer has a great voice and his Amante Del Amor from 1996 is a slice of romantic Salsa that will sex up any party. (CD Amante Del Amor, WEA 1996)

I found two nice Amantes on MySpace. The first one is by Alex Llanos from Chile, who's version has only been listened to 46 times.
The second one with double the amount of listenings is Christian Sulas from Argentina. Go on, pay these guys a visit.



I'm looking for a version from Venezuela by Maricruz Quintero. (From the album Niebla and Lluvia, 1993). Thanks in advance!

Vaida Genyte ir Renata Razanauskiene - Meiles balsas

Lithuanian live version of La Voix, Swedens 2009 entry for Moscow

Portugal 2009 Streets Of Love - Todas as ruas do amor

This is a coverversion of this years Portuguese entry originally by Flor De Lis. It may be amateur, but you can't tell. Very well done.

Netherlands 2009 - Mesjieu Maurice - Sjien

Charity Coverversion of the Dutch 2009 entry. Mesjieu Maurice recorded the song in Dutch and Limburgian (this clip). Proceeds of the cdsingle are going to the Toon Hermans foundation who support people with cancer. Also check http://www.mesjieumaurice.nl/. Now we eagerly await the Albanian coverversion.

Eurovision 2009 - Whose Time Is It Anyway?

This years entry for the U.K. is It's My Time by Jade. It's a slightly OTT musical score written by Andrew Lloyd Webber with lyrics by Diane Warren. Think The Greatest Love Of All or My Impossible Dream.

Jade at The Moscow Collection

A coverversion for the clubs is recorded by Almighty Divas. A 4-track promo is issued (Almighty Records ALMY 246) and digital release will follow soon.
You can hear an excerpt in the player at the Almighty Records website (skip some songs and then it's there)

Another (definitely much better) release is by Clubkidz Featuring Sam Solace. This one also includes 4 dance mixes of Jades Eurovision entry.
Check out Remixarchive for more. (click the pic)

I wonder how this all fits in Andrew Lloyd Webbers plans for World Domination. Especially since the U.K. release of Jade's single is postponed until after Eurovision.
Although the Russians can get the cd single with the Russian O.K. Magazine.

Эмиль Горовец - The Moscow Weeks - Emil Gorovets

Here's a re-hash of an older Eurocovers post, but I think the Moscow Weeks can't go by without mentioning Emil Gorovets, who recorded some of the great 60's Eurovision entries in Russian.
I know I promised a feature story about the Russian Jewish singer, but even after much research I wasn't able to write a coherent story that does his life story justice.
Emil Gorovets was born in Ukraine in 1927, moved to the US in 1970 and died in 2001 in New York.

So for The Moscow Weeks you'll have to make do with his Eurovision covers discography and the songs (♫) most songs are in Russian but there is also one from his rare Yiddish LP Emil Gorovets sings the worlds songs in Yiddish.
Эмиль Горовец - Eurocovers discography
Austria 1966 - Merci Cherie - Udo Jürgens
Мерси, Шери - on Russian Flexi 00019601-2
A Dank (in Yiddish) - LP (LPG 1003)
Luxembourg 1967 - L'amour Est Bleu - Vicky
Тень и свет (Ten I svet) - on LP Poet
U.K. 1967 - Puppet On A String - Sandie Shaw
Я не кукла (Ya ne kukla) - on flexi EP Melodija 0001183-4
U.K. 1968 - Congratulations- Cliff Richard
Сто поздравлений (Sto Pozdravleniy) - on flexi EP Melodija Д 00025771-2
Israel 1979 - Hallelujah - Milk & Honey
Hallelujah (English/Russian) - on CD Luchshie Pesni (1996)

The Russian compilation 2CD Emil Gorovets - Zolotaya kollektsiya retro 2004 features all 60's tracks in Russian.

A good discography of Gorovets' Russian work is here.

Details and tracklist of the Yiddish LP are here

Динь-Дон - The Moscow Weeks - Ding A Dong

Eight winners of Eurovision Days Gone By have been recorded in Russian. (also see below)
Ding A Dong, much loved, ridiculed by some. Of course the 1975 Eurovision winner is flowerpicking genius and the Russians agree. The song is covered by Russian artists and it's regularly performed on various CIS states Idols / Eurovision / Kids shows.

Teach In enjoyed some popularity in the Soviet Union in the mid 70's and in 1976 Getty Kaspers, Teach In's singer at Eurovision had a USSR #1 hit with I'm Alone.
Teach In are doing a bit of a re-union tour and they also visitied Russia, playing for 40.000 people at two sold out cencerts. The band will be performing at the opening show welcome party extravaganza in Moscow on the 10th of May.

Ding A Dong Russian coversAlena Apina & Murat Nasirov's version of Ding A Dong is titled Лунные ночи (Lunnye Nochi) and can be found on a 1998 CD The Best Of Alena Apina.

Assorti (Ассорти) gave it a shot in the Russian preselection with Keep On Shining in 2005 and their Динь-Дон (Din Don) from 2003 appeared on their website and various compilations. (pic right)
(This one was already featured in this Ding A Dong Eurocovers post)
The most recent Russian version I know is from 2006 by Havana (Гавана) - Novy god v platie novom (Новый Год В Платье Новом). It was released on various Christmas compilations.


The Moscow Weeks - Dschinghis Khan
More Eurovision Winners In Russian At Eurocovers:
1964 - Non Ho L'Eta - Tamara Miansarova
1965 - Poupée De Cire, Poupée De Son - Muslim Magomaev
1967 - Puppet On A String - Emil Gorovec

Чингисхан - The Moscow Weeks - Dschinghis Khan

The Moscow Weeks have finally arrived. The delegations (and Teach In!, more about that later) are arriving in Moscow and the first rehearsals for Eurovision are this weekend. I've been digging for some Russia Related Eurocovers to relieve the unbearable tension and I'll present them here in the coming weeks.

Link-o-rama in Eurovision 2009: Ralph Siegel, German composer has his 19th song in the competition this year. Just Get Out Of My Life by Andrea Demirovic (singing for Montenegro) is written by Siegel with lyricist Bern Meinunger (for whom it is his 12th Eurovision song).

Bye Bye I Love You
Siegels first Eurovision effort was Bye Bye I Love You by Ireen Sheer which ended 4th in 1974 for Luxembourg. Most of his songs were for Germany including the country's only winner and international #1 hit Ein Bisschen Frieden (Nicole 1982) and a few of the biggest German Eurovision hits like Johnny Blue (Lena Valaitis, 1981) and Lass Die Sonne In Dein Herz (Wind, 1987).
Russian lyrics were written for Ein Bisschen Frieden but I don't know if Nicole ever recorded that in the studio. However she did perform the Russian version Nemnogo Mir on a TV show (Der Goldene Einz 1992)

Huh, Hah, Dschinghis Khan
The first one Siegel and Meinunger wrote together was the biggest hit of them all. Dschinghis Khan by Dschinghis Khan (2nd in 1979) was a #1 hit and stayed on the German charts for 29 weeks.
Dschinghis Khan, the band, went on to have a succesful string of hits and hitalbums serenading a colourful collection of historic mostly dead villians and often fictional heroes (and gnomes). Mata Hari, James Bond, Billy The Kid, Rocky Marciano, Tut Ench Amun, Pablo Picasso, Ivanhoe and on….. They were also very fond of their geography with titles like Himalaya, Israel Israel, Madagaskar, Rome, Sahara, Machu Picchu, Goodbye Hawaii and their 2nd biggest hit Moskau. And all this in a 5 year - 5 album span. Tacky? sure, Corny? of course, Fabulous? Yes!!. Do yourself a favour and buy a greatest hits CD.

The circle is round if you check out the remixes of this years Montenegro entry (all versions here at Limark, official). The Moscow remix is spiced up with samples from the old Dschinghis Khan hit about this years Eurovision host city Moscow, Moskau, Москва.

Dschinghis Khan, the song, is currently #19 in the top 20 most covered Eurovision songs with 121 versions listed. Given the subject of the song (check yer wiki) it's no surprise that many of the coverversions are from Asia with versions in Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean and Thai. In 2008 a version by Berryz Koubou (see this post) was a hit in Japan)

Чингисхан
Владимир Девятов и Амархуу Борхуу
But it's the Moscow Weeks, so here is a Russian version of Dschinghis Khan. It's by
Vladimir Devyatov & Amarhuu Borhuu. I don't know much about them, but I know they toured performed together in a musictheatre show. Amarhuu Borhuu is from Mongolian descent and has spent some time in Premier Ministr, the band that represented Russia in Eurovision in 2002 with Northern Girl. But Borhuu wasn't in the band at that time.
I don't know if the song was ever released on a CD but it can be found on several Russian mp3 discs like the one pictured.

We Can't Live Without Music
Another Siegel/Meinunger entry that was covered in Russian is I Can't Live Without Music from 2002, originally by Corinna May who ended 21st for Germany.
It was recorded by Anastas!a Stotskaya (Анастасия Стоцкая) who participated in the 2005 Russian preselection with Shadows (Dance All Around Me). The song is titled Музыка и я (Music & Me) and was released on the album Anastas!a Stotskaya from 2003 (limited edition only)

On a personal note: Ralph Siegel and Bernd Meinunger's body of work has made them the absolute top of the who is who of Eurovision. They deserve unconditional respect for all the good stuff. Don't let the cheesy mishaps like Switzerland 2006, Germany 1992 or Luxembourg 1985 stand in the way of the absolute pop-brilliance of Dschinghis Khan, Johnny Blue, Theater, Le Papa Pingouin, Wir Geben 'ne Party and Just Get Out Of My Life.
Extra cudos go to Ralph Siegel for founding Jupiter in 1974, a record label that brought us many Eurovision releases over the past decades often including the not so obvious hits.



More Dschinghis Khan at Eurocovers.
Buy Dschinghis Khan CDs and collectables at BeaRecords
Dschinghis Khan Official site  and fansite