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

The Kids Are Alright, Part 2: The Boys

This Saturday (december 8) the 5th Junior Eurovision Song Contest takes place in Rotterdam.
You can read more about the history of kids in Eurovision in the introduction to this 3 part article (Part 1 has the Girls). Here's part 2, with some boys who haven't been close to a razor yet, but sing their lungs out in their Eurocovers.

The Kids Are Alright -
Part 2. - The Boys

1960 Romantica
Robertino Loretti was discovered by Grethe Sønck.* (wife of Danish producer Volmer Sørensen) when the boy was singing in an Italian café. The discovery resulted in performances on Danish TV and Robertino recording his first LP in Copenhagen. European and Asian fame followed soon afterwards and in the early 60's Robertino scored hits with O Sole Mio, Ave Maria, Santa Lucia and most notably Mama. It was only after these hits that Robertino got an Italian record deal. In 1964 he scored his first hit in Italy with SanRemo song Un bacio piccolissimo, one of the best selling records of the year. A few hits followed but after Era La Donna Mia (1967) it slowed down. But Robertino kept on touring the world and he's still a welcome performer in Eastern European countries.
He recorded Eurovision entry (and evergreen) Romantica (Italy 1960, originally by Renato Rascel) when he was 14 years old. Robertino also recorded Uno per Tutte, Italy's 1963 entry.

* Grethe Sønck, we all know and love her from her version of Puppet On A String, to be found in this Eurocovers post.

1984 Ik Hou Van JouThe Dutch classic entry from 1984, originally by Maribelle, lost big time at the contest despite the orchestra's applause for the singer.
The Dutch evergreen has since been covered by Cilla Black, Engelbert Humperdinck, José Carreras, Bold & Beautiful actor John McCook and every second singer from South Africa. Here's a wonderful junior version by Demis from his CD Het Leukste Moment (The best moment, Discosound 1995). Demis' (actually named after Mr. Roussos) biggest hit was Ga Dan (Just go, Youtube) from his second album Met Jou (With you, 1996) and it seems his singing career ended when his voice dropped.
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The music he makes today as DJ Demis H. is mostly instrumental and he's co-founder of Dynamik Traxx.


1991 Draumur Um Ninu (a.k.a. Nina)A huge ballad for Iceland in 1991 by Stefan & Eyfi here by Hákon Guðni Hjartarson. He performed in a kids show Stóra Stundin Ykkar (2006) with this song. The CD Stóra Stundin Ykkar (Sena records) also includes karaoke versions and is probably still available in Iceland. Hákon is the one top left on the pic.



Junior Eurovision Song Contest official website

Junior Eurovision related CDs are available at BeaRecords. OUT NOW: The 2 CD with all entries for the Rotterdam contest + all karaoke versions.

VII: Year Of The Puppet - Shout!

Shout! The Mod Musical.

What is the soundtrack of your life? Forget Mamma Mia (I mean: Meryl Streep...??) here's SHOUT!.

Shout!, named after the Lulu classic, is the off Broadway musical in the form of a magazine for the modern woman. Modern in the 60's that is. All the great girl power songs from the 60's are there: To Sir with love, You don't have to say you love me, Goldfinger, Son of a preacherman, Shout!. It's a vibrant fashion show to the tunes of lovely Lulu, devine Dusty, pretty Petula and of course our sweet Sandie.

The musical originally started out in 2001 but a new version opened in New York at the Julia Miles Theatre in july 2006, and closed last december after 176 performances.
Starting Februari the musical will tour the U.S.. Find out the tourdates at the Shout! homepage

The cast recording of the musical is available on CD and includes Puppet on a string performed by Denise Summerford in her role as 'the Red Girl'. The album is available from most regular webshops.
The musical also features Boom bang a bang, but it's not on the CD.

Shout! The Mod Musical, original Cast Recording (2006 US Rhino Records 479121)

http://www.shoutthemodmusical.com/
http://www.denisesummerford.com/ (not very up to date though)

Dum Dum Diddle, to be your fiddle

This week Orchestral genius André Rieu releases a double album with one disc dedicated to the ultimate legends of pop: ABBA.

It includes Eurovision winner Waterloo but the absence of Dum Dum Diddle is a missed opportunity of philharmonic proportions.

The ABBA CD includes the following tracks:

1. Chiquitita
2. Mama Mia
3. Fernando
4. Money, Money Money
5. The Winner Takes It All
6. Waterloo
7. I Have A Dream
8. Arrival
9. Dancing Queen
10. The Way Old Friends Do
11. Thank You For The Music
12. Thank You Abba

The other CD features timeless classics like Yesterday (Beatles), I Don't Know How To Love Him (Jesus Christ Superstar), La Vie En Rose (Edith Piaf, Grace Jones), Arriverderci Roma (Renato Rascel, Mario Lanza) and Hymne A L'amour (Edith Piaf)

More details at André Rieu's website or in a CD store near you.

André Rieu and his orchestra have recorded a few other Eurovision covers in the past.
Volare (Italy 1958, with Russel Watson) on CD Zauber der Musik 3 from 2003.
Zwei kleine Italiener (Germany 1962) on 2009 CD Ich hab mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren 
Puppet On A String (Details wanted)

German Classics - Die Zeiger Der Uhr - Reggy van der Burgt

I remember having this Reggy van der Burgt single in my collection for many years before I found out that the b-side is an actual Eurovision cover.
Teddybeer, the a-side, I remember from my childhood. A much told tale about a young girl whose hormones are raging and she's ready to trade her stuffed cuddly for a real man.

The b-side is De Tijd Staat Niet Stil  (Time doesn't stand still) which is a coverversion of the 1966 German entry Die Zeiger Der Uhr (The hands of the clock) by Margot Eskens. She ended 10th.

Reggy van der Burgt also covered the 1967 Eurovision winner Puppet On A String. Find out more about that one in this 2007 Year Of The Puppet post at Eurocovers.

Düsseldorf 2011

For the latest news on the releases, versions and charts of the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest, please check out The Düsseldorf Collection.

VII: Year Of The Puppet - Brasil

Brazil may be famous for the rainforests, caipirinha's and futeball magic, but most of all Brazil is the country with the most Eurovision cover versions to its name, without ever setting foot on the Eurovision stage.
Although they lost interest after the 70's, the amount of coverversions from the land of the Carnival far outnumbers any other. The selection is limited though, it mainly includes the songs from Italy, the U.K. and Udo Jürgens.
Domenico Modugno's entries 'Nel blu dipinti di blu' (Volare) and 'Dio come ti amo' seem the most popular of all, but also the late 60's British songs have been Brazilified by the Brazilian greats and less greats.
Puppet on a String is no exception and I know of five versions made in the land of Pelé.

Don't expect any exotic samba rhythms, the Brazilians surely knew Pop back in the 60's.



My favorite version is the one by Ed Carlos, at the time a child star, who's youthfull voice gives the song the innocent identity it never was supposed to have.
Katia Cilene, another Jovem Guarda star sticks closer to Sandie's original in both sound and looks.
Vocal group Os 3 Morais, three siblings of the Espírito Santo family, recorded the song for their first LP as Os 3 Morais. This also includes a version of Tell The Boys, the song that finished 2nd in Sandie Shaw's Song For Europe selection and that was Sandie's own favorite.

Discography of Brazilian Puppets:
All songs are titled Estou Feliz and are sung in Portuguese.
Ed Carlos - 7" (Fermata FB 33320)
- also on LP Ed Carlos (Fermata FB 209, pictured)
UPDATE Ed Carlos rerecorded the song in 1977 for an LP and EP (CBS) with his voice dropped a few octaves.
Katia Cilene - EP (CBS 33500)
Suzy Darlen - EP 'Oh Johnny' (Odeon 7 BD 1134)
João Luiz - EP (Polydor 555 008)
Os 3 Morais - LP 'Os 3 Morais' (Premier PRLP 1087)

I haven't heard the versions by Suzy Darlen or João Luiz and there may be more too.
Discographies of Brazilian young 60's artists - http://www.jovemguarda.com.br/

Jan Johansen - Kedvesem

Jan Johansen loves Kedvesem (and so do I).
In case you missed it, ByeAlex finished 10th with Kedvesem (Sweetheart) in saturdays Eurovision final in Malmö, singing for Hungary.
Jan Johansen is the singer of the 1995 Swedish entry Se På Mig (3rd place in Dublin).

Kedvesem at the Malmö Collection has all the details and links to the versions of the lovely ByeAlex song. There's even one with a bit sung in Swedish by ByeAlex himself..

Jan's soundcloud
Jan Johansen has a book out (in Swedish)

Also check out everything about these Hungarian entries:
2014 - András Kállay Saunders at the Copenhagen Collection
2013 - ByeAlex at the Malmö Collection
2012 - Compact Disco at the Baku Collection
2011 - Kati Wolf at the Düsseldorf Collection
2009 - Adok Zoli at the Moscow Collection
You'll find versions, CD info, charts and other trivia

Update: Jan also recorded an English version She's The One, lyrics by Gabi Knoll.


Eisenhauer also covers ByeAlex' Eurovision hit.

cdsingle

Above video is a coverversion of the Hungarian 2013 entry Kedvesem by ByeAlex

It's sung in English by Eisenhauer and is titled One For Me.

The track wass released in May 2014 in Germany. The cdsingle includes four versions of the song.

One For Me - single version

One For Me - Thomas Lizzara mix

One For Me - "One Love" remix

One For Me - Karaoke

Out on Rhingtön (Universal Music), also available at your usual digital outlets.

Kedvesem ended 10th in the final in Malmö.
Read all about the original song and its versions here at the Malmö Collection.
For a coverversion by Swedish Eurovision singer Jan Johansen go here at Eurocovers.

Special thanks to Ivor Lyttle.

And here's a Swedish version by Mona Ersare

Here's a new Swedish coverversion of Kedvesem.
The singer is Mona Ersare. The track is released as a digital single.

More Hungarian stuff

Paprikajancsi (Puppet on a string)

Marika Késmárky a.k.a. Edina Pop

Zoller Zsolt - Szerelem miért múlsz

Toldy Mária -Viaszbaba - Poupée de cire, poupée de son

Blog tip: Asian Mission To Eurovision -UPDATED-

Eurovision is everywhere.
Just found this great Eurovision blog: Asian Mission To Eurovision
You must check out their funny Eurovision Phrase Book In Chinese.

related posts: Asian Eurovision coverversions
A Ba Ni Bi from Thailand
Le Dernier qui a parlé - Cantonese version
Puppet On A String from Singapore
Dschinghis Khan - Korean offspring
Indonesian version of Al Di La (Italian Eurovision 1961)

Another recommended site:
The website of composer Jean Paul Cara, the man who brought us L'oiseau et l'enfant (Marie Myriam) features a new coverversion of the French 1977 winner sung in Corsican, by Alain Abad. (l'accelu e u zitellu)

If you click Quelques mp3 and scroll down on the mp3 page there's a link to L'oiseau et l'enfant autour du monde which features several versions of the song, either by the original artist or coverversions.
Interesting is the French-Arabic version by Leila and the USA version which is a modern rnb- light version (No idea who sings it, do you?). You can also find a demo and various videos of the song

The version Chinois is actually not Chinese, but I think it's the Vietnamese version by Khanh Ha and  Thanh Lan - Chan chim tuoi tho.
The site also features versions of Cara's other songs including Humanahum by Tahitian singer Teva Tetuani.

Picture Sleeves, Moscow 2009

The Moscow Weeks
In a week the delegations of the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest will be boarding their private jets for Moscow. Watch out for a few Moscow Weeks posts soon at Eurocovers. In the meantime getting Moscow 2009 sorted is taking up a lot of time, so today you'll have to do with some picture sleeves only. I found these over the years at the net, e-bay etcetera, but I don't have the records or even recordings. But I think they're worth having a look at so I though I'd share them to kill the time to 12 - 14 - 16 May.


The Moscow Collection
As you have noticed by now, over at my other blog you can find all details on the releases of the 2009 contest. Versions, Picture sleeves, Release info, Charts, Links, it's all there and constantly updated.
The latest updates include:
Greece - Sakis Rouvas This Is Our Night Album info
Moldova: Three remixes online at Nelly Ciubano Website
Andorra cdsingle out now, remix
Macedonia - English and Serbian versions online, promo info
Ukraine: Anti Crisis Girl, Russian version
Bosnia Hercegovina: Bistra Voda, download Russian and English
Serbia, Cipela!, more versions: French, Russian, Greek, English, Hebrew & Finnish!
Turkey: Hadise in the Belgian charts (and out again)
Russia, new Eurovision version online
Malta: Chiara promo

The picture seeves above feature coverversions of Puppet On A String (U.K. 1967), Yo Soy Aquel (Spain 1966), Congratulations (U.K. 1968), I Belong (U.K. 1965) and Sol De Inverno (Portugal 1965).

VII: Year Of The Puppet - Florbela Queiros - Boneca Articulada

Florbela Queiros is a Portuguese actress who starred in several movies of the Nouvelle Vague variety. Now you can say a lot about Puppet On A String, but not that it's Nouvelle Vague, so I don't think the song is from any of her movies.

This song is from an EP titled Folclore Americano (Tecla TE 1013)

UPDATED with picture sleeve and release details 01-07-07

VII: Year Of The Puppet - Has anybody seen my dachshund?

The Year Of The Puppet continues with this seminal version from Tirol, Austria.
Some versions don't need further explanation. So for this utterly fantastic coverversion by Sepp Viellechner I present you this picture and I will mention another of his unforgettable evergreens: Zum jodeln,da brauch i mein Dackel da. (For jodelling I need to have my dachshund around)


The Year Of The Puppet celebrates the 40 year anniversary of Sandie Shaw's Eurovision victory with Puppet On A String. Introduction to the series in this Eurocovers post.
Other versions already featured are from France, Singapore (Mandarin-Chinese), Jamaica. Yugoslavia, Estonia, U.K. (Comedy), Iceland, Lithuania, USA (Musical), Spain, Brasil, UK punk, Norway (gloom) Norway, Turkey, Portugal Basque country, Organia.

R.I.P John Holt

Jamaican singer John Holt passed away October 19, aged 67.
Here's an audio of his coverversion of Warum Nur Warum by Udo Jürgens (Austria's entry of 1964), maybe better known as Walk Away made famous by Matt Monro.

Holt also recorded Sandie's Puppet On A String.

John Holt had several hits with coverversions of other peoples songs, but his biggest claim to fame probably is The Tide Is High which Holt wrote and recorded with his band The Paragons. The song was covered by Blondie and by Atomic Kitten who both took it to the Number 1 spot of the U.K. charts.