Eurovision 2008 - Eurocovers from Icelands preselection stars

Iceland are still at it. After 12 weeks of pre- pre- semi semi's there's 12 songs left which will compete in a new series of heats to create a final final. You can hear all songs still in the competition at the RÚV website.

Last year there were some interesting Eurocovers by the Icelandic hopefuls (see this Eurocovers post), this year only two of the artists have recorded Eurovision songs.

This Saturday (19-1) is the first round and the third song, Lullaby To Peace, is performed by Ína Valgerður Pétursdóttir, Seth Sharp og Berglind Ósk Guðgeirsdóttir. Ína Valgerður who has recorded a Eurovision winner. It's Non Ho L'Eta, originally by Gigliola Cinquetti.
Valgerður's version however is a straightforward coverversion of the coverversion by Elly Vilhjálms, Heyr Mína Bæn, who recorded the Icelandic version in 1964. You can find Elly Vilhjálms' version in the Eurocovers post 10.000 coverversions: Non Ho L'Eta. (updated with gorgeous picture sleeve!)

Valgerður's version is from Icelandic Idols but her solo album hasn't substantiated yet. More details here.

The second Eurocovering Icelandic singers are Eurobandið (Friðrik Ómar and Regína Ósk). They have been featured recently at Eurocovers (here). Their song Fullkomið líf is in the third semi heat (02-02).
Their Myspace features a live Eurovision medley and they have recorded an Icelandic version of 1981 winner Making Your Mind Up (Bucks Fizz) titled Við Sigrum Að Ári. (also available for dowload at their MySpace)
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No CD is released yet, but I'm hoping this year will the Eurobandið year! (starting with a few new promo pics??)

And Eurocovers readers may have noticed my personal campaign to promote Dr. Gunni. Well, it worked, and he has one song in the third round. Hvar ertu nú? by Dr. Spock. It won the wildcard round and it's loud!


UPDATE 19-1: - Lullaby To Peace by Ína Valgerður Pétursdóttir, Seth Sharp and Berglind Ósk Guðgeirsdóttir is eliminated.

Anno Domenico: Volare for Ethiopia (1985)

Do They Know It's Christmas, We Are The World. The 80's saw a host of allegedly well meant millionselling songs aimed to raise money for the starving and to Feed The World. I can try to be as PC as possible, but after 20 years people still are quite hungry. What's Going On?

Every European country had it's own version of the charity explosion and that's where Volare comes into the frame. In 1985 a host of Italian stars recorded Modugno's song to raise some cash for Ethiopia: Musica Italiana Per L'Etiopia. You know the images: priviliged people in casual daywear, headphones in check, eyes closed, passionately acting and singing one whole line to do their bit for the needy.

The Italian effort featured the popular recording artists at the time, some has beens and even the occasional Eurovision artist* (or to be). And lovely Milva! (her solo version of Volare is here)
Angelo Branduardi, Banco, Claudia Mori, Dik Dik, Dori Ghezzi*, Enrico Ruggeri*, Eugenio Finardi, Fabrizio De Andrè, Gianna Nannini, Gianni Togni, Giuni Russo, Ivano Fossati, Loredana Bertè, Lucio Dalla, Maurizio Fabrizio, Milva, Patty Pravo, Riccardo Fogli*, Ron, Rossana Casale, Tony Esposito and Vasco Rossi.

The song was released on a 7" inch single (Ricordi ET 0100) at 3500 Lire and a 12"inch with an extended version (Ricordi ETX 0100) at 7000 Lire. Both discs also have the instrumental version. It was a #2 hit in the Italian charts in may 1985 and was the 27th best selling single of the year. We Are The World was the best selling hit in Italy that year.

----Ethiopia is here

2008 welcomes Azerbaijan to the Eurovision stage.

The list of countries for Eurovision 2008 counts 43 and there's again two newcomers on the Eurovision stage. San Marino and Azerbaijan*. Austria opts out for 2008.
Eurocovers of course tries to find any excuse to present some songs here but so far I haven't been able to find any version sung in Azerbaijani (or Azeri-Turkish, check your wiki's).
If anyone knows any, just let me know….

But this is close, Muslim Magomaev (Müslüm Maqomayev, Муслим Магомаев, 1942-2008) is a classical singer (baritone) who was born in Baku, capital of Azerbaijan, in 1942, USSR times.
He shares his name with his grandfather, legendary composer Muslim Magomaev (1885 - 1937), who was a pioneer of Azerbaijani music. His father was a painter and war hero, his mother an actress. Magomaev Jr. started as a classical singer but after a performance in Italy he also turned to popular music. Since he has recorded Italian and Russian versions of many Italian songs including several San Remo entries and (other) songs by Domenico Modugno. Later he was dubbed the Soviet Sinatra.

In 1966 and 1969 Muslim Magomaev performed in Paris Olympia with great success. The director of Olympia Bruno Coquatrix offered him a contract, and Muslim Magomaev was seriously considering an opportunity to pursue international career, but he didn't get the Ministry of Culture's permission, who claimed that it needed Muslim Magomaev to perform at governmental concerts. In 1969 he received MIDEM Gold Disc Award in Cannes for the album sales of over 4,5 million units. In 1973, at the very young age of 31, Muslim was awarded the Soviet Union's highest artistic title: People's Artist of the USSR. Muslim Magomaev is also known as a composer of songs, film soundtracks and music for theater performances. In addition, Magomaev played in films and acted as a host in television and radio broadcasts.

Muslim Magomaev has been living and working in Moscow since the early 1970s. In 1997, in recognition of Magomaev's professional successes, a Russian astronomical society named two planetoids of the solar system in honor of him and his wife, Tamara Sinyavskaya, a prominent Russian opera singer who was also awarded People's Artist of the USSR and worked as a soloist at the Bolshoi Theater. (source: Magomaev Website)
At his website (in English and Russian) you can read more and listen to a large selection of his songs: classical music, songs by Azerbaijani composers, western popular songs, film themes and many self composed works.

UPDATE: Muslim Magomaev died on October 25, 2008.

Magomaev Eurocovers.So far I have found two Eurocovers by Muslim Magomaev. Both are entries from 1965, the year of his visit to Milan, Italy.
Se Piangi, Se Ridi (Italian)- Italy 1965, originally by Bobby Solo
Voskovaya Kukla (Восковая кукла, Russian)
- Luxembourg 1965, France Galls Poupée De Cire ... ***
I don't have any details on the release of Se Piangi Se Ridi, but Poupée…. was issued on a Melodija 4 track EP (33ГД-0001045-2 see picture) and a compilation LP of the same year, Vsem kto lyubit pesnyu (#3)
The third song featured here is Non Pensare A Me, the 1967 SanRemo winner that was replaced at the rehearsing stages of the Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna.**



*Where's Azerbaijan? (Azərbaycan): On the west side of the Caspian Sea with Russia to the North and Iran to the South. On the west Azerbaijan shares borders with Armenia (disputed) and Georgia. Capital city Baku is at the Caspian coast.
Azerbaijan seceded from the USSR in 1991 and has a populuation of 8,5 million.
The Eurovision Song Contest broadcast will start at 02.00 hours as in summer there is a 5 hour time difference.

** Non Pensare A Me was the 1967 San Remo winner by both Iva Zanicchi and Claudio Villa. Villa was supposed to sing it as the Italian Eurovision entry but the song had to be replaced just days before the contest because it broke the release rules (i.e. it was released to early). Instead, Claudia Villa represented Italy with Non Andare Piu Lontano, but Non Pensare A Me was the hit (mainly for Zannichi) and is covered by most artists that were in the business of covering popular Italian songs (Connie Francis, Andre Hazes, Yukari Ito, Agnaldo Timoteo, José Guardiola).
Of Non Andare Piu Lontano I only ever found one coverversion (by Los Catinos)

*** Can't get enough of Poupée De Cire, Poupée De Son?, for more check these Eurocovers posts: Tatiana in The Kids Are Alright part 1, Les Sans Culottes in Eurocovers 1st Birthday, Shimatani Hitomi video, Arcade Fire (info only), My Tam (Vietnam) and Minami Saori (Japan) in the top 10 most covered Eurovision songs, Estonian Star Sisters and Swedish Anne Lie Rydé.

2008: ANNO DOMENICO - Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, it's 2008 and I wish all Eurocovers readers a fantastic year. May some of your wishes come true and may there always be something to wish for.

Anno Domenico ©
2008 at Eurocovers will be Anno Domenico ©. After last years celebration of the 40 year anniversary of Sandie Shaw's Puppet On A String in The Year Of The Puppet we go back 50 years this time to pay hommage to the best selling Eurovision song Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu (Volare) written and performed by Domenico Modugno. By now you know many details about the history of the song already but there's more in 2008, and of course a host of interesting, cool, rare and odd coverversions of the Italian evergreen.
And there will be info on Volare celebrations held in Italy this year: There will be a Volare stamp, TV shows, concerts and releases spread all over 2008.

2008 will also see a new Eurovision, in Belgrade, Serbia and a record 43 countries will participate in this edition. National selections will see hundreds of artists trying to get a ticket to the Balkan and several of them have recorded coverversions of Eurovision songs. They will all be here.

I have prepared several Anno Domenico © posts already but I had a hard time to start somewhere. Currently the list of Volare coverversions counts 1060 (and rising). The famous and the forgotten, the obvious and the obscure, the polka, the punk & the philharmonic, so much to choose from.

I decided to kick off Anno Domenico © with a favorite version from 1958. Several American artists have recorded the song before Modugno had his breakthrough with his song but none of them stole his thunder. One of them is featured here.

Jesse Belvin (1932 - 1960)
Jesse Lorenzo Belvin was a soul singer from Los Angeles (but born in San Antonio, Texas) and he only spent 28 years on this earth, but not without leaving his marks on 20th music history.
His first chart hit was in 1953 with Dream Girl (Jesse & Marvin). He co-wrote Earth Angel, a 1954 hit for the Penguins, and later for the Crew-Cuts and much much later for New Edition (1986). His second band The Shields, also featuring Johnny Guitar Watson, scored a hit with You Cheated (1958). The most successful Belvin hits were Goodnight My Love (1958) and Guess Who (1959) from his first solo LP Just Jesse.
Tragedy struck when after a concert with stars like Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson, Jesse Belvin and his wife Anne died in a car accident in Arkansas. It was just before his third album Mr. Easy (his nickname) was released.

Jesse Belvin's wonderful soul-voiced version of Volare, sung in English and Italian, was released on a 7" single in the US in July 1958 (RCA Victor 47-7310). It was his 30th single.

Jesse Belvin recorded for various labels like Specialty, Imperial, Modern, RCA-Victor, King and Knight. His RCA recordings (including Volare) are collected on the recommended 2CD Guess Who - The RCA Victor Recordings (ACE records, UK) which was released in 2004 and is available in any good music store and in most internet CD shops.
♫ Jesse Belvin / Jesse Belvin

You can find a detailed Jesse Belvin discography here.

Also check out these 2007 Eurocovers posts that feature versions of Volare:
Jazz legend Oscar Peterson, Brasilian superstar Leny Eversong, Chorrujumo, 10.000 Eurocovers featuring Milva, Wayne Newton, Dolores Duran, Gery Scott & Earl Grant. Ella Fitzgerald, Luciano Pavarotti & G4 , Lithuanian Mino and La Grande Dame De France: Juliette Greco.


Some facts about Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu (Volare)
The song was written by Domenico Modugno (music) and Franco Migliacci (lyrics). The most used English lyrics are written by Mitchell Parish.
The song was written in 1957 but was first launched at the eighth San Remo contest (Final Februari 1st) where it was performed twice. Once by Domenico Modugno and once by Johnny Dorelli.
Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu won the San Remo song contest and Modugno represented Italy in the third Eurovision Song Contest in 1958 in Hilversum, The Netherlands at the 12th of March.

The contest was won by France's Dors Mon Amour by André Claveau and Modugno ended third with 13 points. 2 times 4 from Belgium and Germany and five times 1 point. And zero poing from Denmark and Luxemburg.

But Modugno laughed all the way to the bank, as his song , soon known as Volare (after the refrain) became one of the top 100 best selling singles of 20st century, a US #1 hit, A grammy winner and one of the most covered songs with several lives in most decades since the original recording.
Volare won the first ever Grammy for a song in 1958. Both for song of the year and record of the year.

More facts to come….

Oscar Peterson 1925 - 2007

To commemorate Jazz Legend pianist Oscar Peterson who died last week, listen to his interpretation of Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu (Volare), The Italian Eurovision classic from 1958. (below Youtube)
The recording is by the Oscar Peterson Trio: Oscar Peterson (piano), Ray Brown (bass) and Ed Thigpen* (drums) and is from december 1962. ------------
Oscar Peterson even performed at the Eurovision stage: In 1978 (Paris, France) he was a guest performer in the interval together with Stéphane Grapelli, Yehudi Menuhin, Kenny Clarke and Nils Pedersen.
* Ed Thigpen not pictured above.

Happy Holidays

The Kids Are Alright, Part 3: The Angels

So, Congratulations to Alexey Zhigalkovich and to Belarus who won the Junior Eurovision Song Contest last night in Rotterdam. The voting was exiting like in olden days, although the field and the 12's were very leaning very much to the East. Just one piece of analisys from me: Don't bother sending slightly older kids, even with good songs (Sweden, Serbia), it's always a tiny one that wins.

That was the last word about the JESC at Eurocovers for now, If you want to find out more I recommend ESCKaz. But here's the third part of The Kids Are Alright, that sort of ties in nicely with the Next Big Event: Christmas.

The Kids Are Alright - Part 3 - The Angels
Hark! The lists of Eurocovers is riddled with childrens (mostly boys) choirs from France all named Les Petits Chanteurs De Something, Something.

France 1960 - Tom PillibiLes Petits Chanteurs A La Croix Du Boix from Paris (pictured above) do a mean Tom Pillibi (France's 1960 winner by Jacqueline Boyer). This boys choir celebrated it's 100th anniversary with a star studded (Nadiya, Mireille Mathieu, Lara Fabian, Charles Aznavour etc….) christmas show last December. And at the 14th of july they sang at the military parade, le defilé militaire, at the Champs Elysees.
The Petits Chanteurs have recorded many singles and albums since the 50's, mostly religious music, and they still tour the world. A bit more about their 100 year history is here (in French).
Israel 1979 - HallelujahLes Petits Chanteurs D'Aix En Provence is a boys choir with 45 years of history. On a 4CD collection Les Plus Grands Airs De Chorale (pic) they perform the Eurovision winners of 1977 and 1979. (although some of them don't seem so petit on the picture sleeve).
Hallelujah is the Israel entry of 1979, which was originally performed by Milk & Honey and won the contest on home ground.

At composer J.P. Cara's site you can find some kids choir versions of the 1977 winner L'Oiseau et l'enfant (France) by Les Petits Chanteurs D'Aix En Provence and by Les Fans and of Le Papa Pinguoin (Luxemburg 1988, Sophie et Magaly) by Le Top des Tout P'Tits.

1973 Eres TuThe Little Angels Of Korea are an all singing and dancing troupe from the Little Angels Performing Arts Centre in Seoul.
And their version of Mocedades' Eres Tu (Spain 1973) is truly angelic and should be featured on any Christmas mixtape.




Related Eurocovers PostsMocedades' Eres Tu in the top 10 most covered Eurovision songs
Hallelujah - almost in the top 10 most covered Eurovision Songs

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.

Mamma Mia, It's Udo!

Yesterday the musical "Ich War Noch Niemals In New York" opened at the Operettenhaus at the Reeperbahn in Hamburg.
The show, with already 150.000 tickets sold in advance, is based on the songs of one time Eurovision Winner and 100 million record seller Udo Jürgens.

It seems the crowd, including celebrity red carpet huggers (Peter Kraus!, Wenche Myhre !!) loved the show, the critics are mixed. The musical is a thin story about an ambitious TV show host Lisa (Kerstin Marie Mäkelburg) who neglects her mother Maria (Ingeborg Krabbe) who's life in an old folks home bores her to tears and she flees to New York with her old-folk home amant Otto (Horst Schultheis).
Lisa, with Otto's son Axel (Jerry Marwig) needs to get the parents back to the home in a week otherwise their residences will be cancelled. Neither of them want to take care of their parent at home so they'll try everything possible to get the runaways back home in time.
Lisa is nominated for a TV award she desperately wants and at crunch time it's either the award, or getting Mutti back in time.
But it's not only the story that makes this musical interesting but it's the music. The musical is created using 23 songs by Eurovision legend Udo Jürgens. (He wrote over 900!) All his big hits feature in the show including 1966 Eurovision winner Merci Cherie, Aber bitte mit Sahne, Mit 66 Jahren, Griechischer Wein, Siebzehn Jahn - Blondes Haar, Buonas Dias Argentina and much more.

Udo Jürgens was involved in the casting for the show himself. The direction is by Christian Struppek & Glenn Casale and the production is by Maik Klokow. It's the first German only production for Dutch music theatre company Stage Entertainment.
The IwnniNY cast CD will be released in februari 2008 by Ariola/Sony.

Watch a trailer video here. More information is here (in German) and more about the cast is here.
Udo Jürgens participated for Austria in the Eurovision Songcontest in 1964, 1965 and 1966. He won in 1966 (Merci Cherie) but the 1964 entry Warum Nur Warum became an evergreen and a worldwide hit as Walk Away for Matt Monro. Find out about Walk Away covers in this Eurocovers post.
Udo Jürgens official homepage
Some reviews of the show (all in German)
Jetzt.de (Süddeutschen Zeitung)
Welt Online (Die Welt)
Tagespiegel
and an amateur Youtube excerpt

The Kids Are Alright !!

Junior Eurovision, the JESC, who needs it?
The Kids do!
The Eurovision spin-off for the under 16s has proven to be a popular tv show for the youngsters aspiring to be the next singer/songwriter (they're supposed to write the songs themselves).
Fun for all the family to be had and the 5th edition taking place in Rotterdam, Netherlands next Saturday (8th December) is no exception.

Junior Eurovision is for the kids, so it's not really Eurocovers material, although there was this one time winner for Spain (2004) with the superbly titled Antes Muerta Que Sencilla (Rather dead than common) by Maria Isabel that wouldn't have been out of place in the adult competition and even got covered by some adults in Mexico (see comments) (Horoscopes de Durango, pictured), in the Dominican Republic (merengue by Juliana) and in Spain by Las Supremas De Mostoles.
You can also find the Youtube of the original version by Maria Isabel.

Eurovision history has been littered with pre-pubescents. Gigliola Cinquetti was too young to love in 1964, 1986 winner Sandra Kim (J'aime la vie) lied about her age to get in the competition and 1989 saw two toddlers on the stage. Israels barely potty trained Gili Natanel singing along with Galit (Derech Ha Melech) and Nathalie Pacque (J'ai Volé La Vie) for France, who was like 4 months or something. (She just got a baby, congratulations Nat!)

To get to the point, here are some youngsters doing cover versions of your favorite grown up Eurovision songs. They will melt every mommy's heart and make you want to make / adopt some of the critters yourself. And there's three parts!

The Kids Are Alright - Part 1. - The Girls
1961 Estando Contigo
Spains debut entry was performed by the ever fabulosa Conchita Bautista but it was the version by Marisol (a.k.a. Pepa Flores) that made the song really famous in Spain. She sang it in the hitmovie Ha Llegando Un Angel (An angel has appeared) and you can watch a clip of it at Youtube (Check out the guys in the backing!)



1965 Poupée De Cire,
----------------Poupée De Son
Considering the fact that the original song allegedly is about an activity unmentionable at this decent family blog, it's a bit unsettling to hear a 6 year old infant sing it. She must have been lured by all the little dollies.
Tatiana (Tatiana Eva Marie) recorded the song in 1992 on her first album Tatiana Chante when she was 6, and has since made name as a comedian, model and singer. Her latest (rather beautiful) CDs with Compagnie Zorongo: Narandilé and Rhapsodia are influeced by her Romanian, Greek, Dutch, French, Swiss, Turkish and Gipsy heritage and you can hear some of her music at her MySpace and website.
Tatiana Chante includes covers of songs by celebrated French songwriters like Gainsbourg, Michel Polnareff, Françoise Hardy and Guy Beart.
The CD also includes a song Ah! Quelle Histoire which could be Cliff Richards Congratulations or not. (Anyone knows?)

2006 Girls and Horses
In 2006 Germany sent Texas Lighting with their perfect slice of country pop No No Never, which failed to get Europe televoting (even though it's really really quite good).

Teresa Strobl loves horses, she even caught horsefever, as she is singing in her version of No No Never, Pferdefieber. It's from the Kiddy Contest 2006 CD, from an Austrian TV competition in which kids sing hits in their own style, and with kid-proof lyrics. Previous Kiddy Contests (& CDs) have featured a few Eurovision covers:
- Kiddy kids - Jungs (Love Shine A Light, UK 97, from CD Kiddy contest 3, 1997).
- Nicki Freiberger - Mein superstar (Zusammen Geh'n, Austria 92, from CD Kiddy Contest 9, 2003)
- Teresa Strobl - Pferdefieber (No No Never, Germany 06, on CD Kiddy Contest 12, 2006)The 2007 edition CD did not produce any Eurocovers.

Another hippic version of No No Never, Mein Kleines Süsses Fohlen (My sweet little foal) was recorded by the Lollipops, two girls who have released a zillion records but remain in their mid teens. The Lollipops CD with the song is Reiterferien sind der Hit, but they also have a new CD out Zusammen sind wir doppelt stark on which they cover the German 2007 entry Frauen regier'n die Welt (Roger Cicero) as Kids Regiern Die Welt (Kids rule the world).



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.

Related Eurocovers Posts:
Gigliola Cinquetti - Non Ho L'eta in the top 10 most covered Eurovision songs.
France Galls Poupée De Cire in the top 10 most covered Eurovision songs.
Boom Bang A Bang (UK 1969) - By Pippi Lookalike Anne Mette