Eurovision def. needs more sequins

and more people on stage, really
More A Ba Ni Bi's from Thailand are here


K-Popsters GOT7 also got their pretty hands on the Eurovision classic. It's as crazy as it is amazing.

Eurovision 2020: The Rotterdam Collection is on!

The Kids Are Alright 2011

Avid contest fanatics know that next to the Eurovision Song Contest for the grups there's a version for the kids. The Junior Eurovision Song Contest is going into its 9th edition this year in Yerevan, Armenia.

Loads of fun to be had for the kids.
The kids of 13 countries will sing their pretty little hearts out for their homeland on the 3rd of December.

To celebrate, here's some kids covering some of your favorite Israeli Eurocovers.
The kids on the right are Ensemble Theila, a group of kids doing song and dance through their school (St. Petersburg School № 274 Yerushalayim, Russia).
The happy bunch made an album My Little Land (private issue) covering the classics from Israel, including some Eurovision songs. Some surprising choices and some obvious ones.

The Eurovision songs are:
A Ba Ni Bi, Israels first winner from 1978 (Izhar Cohen and the Alpha Beta).
Hallelujah, the follow up and a home win for Milk and Honey in 1979.
Kan, Duo Datzes #3 from the 1991 contest and still the best example of a classic Israel entry, choreography and all. Love.

Ze Rak Sport (The Theila's call it Rak Sport). This is a bit of a surprise, as I have never before come accross a coverversion of this 1992 entry. Ze Rak Sport was a sunny and poppy ode to the Olympics to be held in Barcelona, Spain that year. Dafna Dekel and her handsome conga boys reached 6th place at the Stockholm contest. The English version of the song was titled Viva Sport.
Amen, Liora's 1995 effort to make a new Hallelujah didn't quite achieve that, but still ended 8th.

Israel has never participated in the Junior, but they sent a 12 y.o. to the grown up contest back in 1989.
Russia has been doing Junior since 2005. They won in 2006 and ended 2nd in 2009 and 2010.


Special thanks to StPeters78

A few years back Eurocovers featured some more kids stuff to celebrate the JESC: The Kids Are Alright 2007.
Part 1: The Girls - Marisol, Tatiana, Teresa Strobl
Part 2: The Boys - Robertino, Demis, Hákon Guðni Hjartarson
Part 3: The Angels - Little Angels of Korea, Les Petits Chanteurs A La Croix Du Boix, Les Petits Chanteurs D'Aix En Provence 
Another wonderful kid is Jacques Aylestock in this Eurocovers post.

The 2011 Junior Eurovision CD (2CD with original an karaoke versions) will be available through BeaRecords. They also stock a host of other Junior ESC CDs and cdsingles of past contests.

愛你的只有一個我 - A new A Ba Ni Bi from Taiwan

Thanks to a tip from Anonymous from Hong Kong here's some details on a great new version of Israels 1978 Eurovision winner A Ba Ni Bi.
Taiwanese singer Harlem Yu, (庾澄慶, Yú Chéngqìng) has recorded a version sung in Mandarin for his latest CD.
The title 愛你的只有一個我 translates as I Am The Only One Who Loves You. This version has been released as the lead single for his new album Lady's Night which was released on Linfair records earlier this month.
Singer, Songwriter & TV-show host Harlem Yu is a pioneer of Taiwanese RNB and he is responsible for the first ever Mandarin rap song (source: Wiki)
You can hear the song here and see the video here.(YT)


Very Special Thanks to Anonymous from Hong Kong.

An updated version of the Chinese and related Eurocovers list is here / here (word doc)
And a highly recommended blog for Chinese all kinds of coverversions is Favorites In Original.

If you missed the Thai version of A Ba Ni Bi, check out this Eurocovers post or this one for the video. A grungy version can be found in the post Push The Button, Noisy Israeli's from 2006.

Push The Button - Noisy Israeli's (UPD)

Israel will be represented by the band Teapacks this year and I for one am happy it's a change from the usual sugary peace and harmony stuff from recent years.
Teapacks give their 12 points to Trinidad & Tobago, compare peace with a salami and Push Buttons the Sugababes never even heard of. I'm sure the new Israeli entry Push The Button will cause some disturbance amongst the people of Israel and the Eurovision army. Teapacks MySpace

UPDATE: Well controversy indeed, the calls for disqualifying Teapacks because of the political content of the song are already heard and it seems Eurovision has a hard time keeping up with the modern era (except commercially). Here's some news from the BBC and ESCtoday.

To the covers:
Unfortunately I can't present any Eurovision cover by Teapacks, so here's some other Israel songs that have had a makeover in a less conventional style. To be played at full volume but not for the faint hearted.

First up there's a version of the Ping Pong Song Same'ach. Ping Pong opened the 2000 Eurovision Song Contest with this memorable song, jumping around, not hitting a single note and doing some serious political flag-waving. The song was later voted the most embarrasing Israel entry and I'm not sure if the Ping Pong people are allowed back in temple yet.
Beer-7 (Beer-Sheva) took the song a made a ska-punk version which is on their 2003 album 'Skandal'. at Beer-7 MySpace you can download all tracks from the Scandal album for free.

YIDcore must be the winners of the Eurovision Songs In A Punk Style Contest. The noisy bunch make the Israeli party classics bearable by giving them a punk rock makeover.
Of course the classic Hallelujah couldn't be spared but even better is their version of Olé Olé, the lesser known Izhar Cohen song that was wasn't half as brilliant as A-Ba-Ni-Bi. Also here is their party mix of Hora (1982), Hi (1983) and Hava naguila. It's been released in several versions, one of them on the Adam Slander EP which includes a song about one of my pet hates Adam Sandler: 'Why Won't Adam Sandler Let us Do His Song?'
To top it all, YIDcore are from Australia. YIDcore home page

If you need a downer after all the jumping around I recommend A Ba Ni Bi by K.O.B. It's a bit emo-lite and certainly way too long, but it'll get you back in your depression guaranteed.
Their new album is called A Glorious Ending At A Push Of A Button, coincidence?
K.O.B. have their own MySpace and are not to be confused with the French band of the same name.

Same'ach - Beer-7 - CD Scandal (2003 RA records)
Hallelujah - YIDcore - CD YIDcore (2001 Swell Records)
Hora/Hi medley - YIDcore - CD The Great Chicken Soup Caper EP (2002 Swell records)
Olé Olé - YIDcore - CD Scrambles (2003 independent release)
A Ba Ni Bi - K.O.B. - CD Time is sweating (2003)





related post: For a groovy Thai movie version of A Ba Ni Bi check out this Eurocovers post. and this one for some more.

OST The Possible: A Ba Ni Bangkok [UPD]

OST - The Possible
If you happen to be in Thailand for Christmas, just be sure to check out the hit movie 'Gao Gao - The Possible'.

It's a comedy adventure movie about a band (The Possible) from 2512* accidentally being zipped to 2549, but there's one main reason why it's possibly the Coolest Movie Ever Made: It has a cover version of A ba ni bi! - In Thai !!

The song, now 'Ai bah Ai bee Ai bo Ai be' is performed by the band (a spoof version of popular 60s Thai band The Impossible) with main actor Joey Boy as the lead singer.
The soundtrack is released on a CD and also on a karaoke DVD.
Also includes Thai cover versions of Ring My Bell (Anita Ward) and You're my world (Cilla Black), Linda Linda (Tee Set) and a track called Wan-kerd (Del Shannons Runaway)

The CD and karaoke DVD are available from http://www.ethaicd.com/ . I bought a CD from them once which arrived in 10 days and was shockingly cheap.

The movie has it's own website http://www.possiblethemovie.com/. It's in Thai, but you can look at the pictures.

Can't wait? here it is
ไอ้บ้า ไอ้บี้ ไอ้โบ้ ไอ้เบ้ 

* According to the Thai calender it's 2549 A.B. (Anno Buddah) today
2512 was 1969 a.k.a. 14 A.E. (Anno Eurovisio)

More A Ba Ni Bi in these Eurocovers posts:
Noisy Israeli's, Harlem Yu, More A Ba Ni Bi's from Thailand