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

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).

Spring is in the air: Street version of O Julissi Na Jalini

Today i bumped into an unexpected Eurocover on the streets of Utrecht, NL. And after a little browse, I found a similar recording already on YouTube.
Belgian 2008 entry 'O Julissi Na Jalini' wasn't a triumph for Ishtar at the Belgrade contest, but the song turns out to be immortal anyway.
I'm sure this clip is not the same organ as the one I saw today, but I do know the lady in this clip is Soetkin, Ishtars lead singer.

From Matterhorn to Mount Kenya: Swiss Lady

Eurocovers likes the world and the unlikely pairings of music styles coming from all over it.
One I could never have dreamt up myself is Swiss Lady by Them Mushrooms.
Pepe Lienhard and his band sang Swiss Lady back in 1977 and it was a bit of an horny affair, as the Lady in case is the ever popular folkloristic instrument from the Alps: The Alpenhorn. It was of course the Swiss entry and it ended 6th at the contest held in London.

Them Mushrooms are from Kenya and the band has been around since 1972.
After a good decade of hard work performing in hotels and clubs they have released 16 albums since 1980 (in various line-ups). They were (and are) a popular band, but superstardom in Kenya didn't mean immediate unlimited richess. They even had to borrow their instruments in the early years.

Their most popular song is Jambo Bwana (Hello Mister) from 1980. It was covered by many bands including Boney M., although Tha' Shrooms have never received a penny from Frank Farian for Jambo Hakuna Matata (insert the word allegedly at your own convenience)

The 2005 album Kazi Ni Kazi (Kelele records KE 31011) subtitles as Tribute To Bob Marley which is probably only because there is a track with that title on it.
It's this album that sports Eurocover Swiss Lady and it's an odd mellow journey from the Matterhorn to Mount Kenya, via Jamaica.

The band have ditched the name Them Mushrooms and go through life as Uyoga now. You can read more about them at Big Entertainment .

'When you play your music I'd like to be an Alphorn too': Swiss Lady is sung in English with a small part in Swahili.
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picture: Giant spliff prooves to be a hard draw.





Blog Tip
Treasure trove Faintly Blowing features an interesting LP. It's The Jet Liners at the Taj Mahal Bombay. The band is from Ceylon (Now Sri Lanka).
The LP has a gorgeous sleeve and there's 15 coverversions of popular songs like Zorba The Greek, Georgy Girl, This Is My Song (anoraks: written by Charlie Chaplin) and Eurocover Puppet On A String, the Sandie Shaw Eurovision winner from 1967.
(Avid readers know there's 1000's of Puppet On A String versions at Eurocovers).


Eurovision 2009 - The Moscow Collection
The Latest 2009 News At The Moscow Collection Blog:
Serbia, Cipela, Dance version now at RTS.
Albania: Carry Me In Your Dreams - promo sleeve
Azerbaijan: Always, single release details, sleeve
Bulgaria: download old & new versions, Deep Zone remixes
Iceland: Is It True promo sleeve
Spain: Soraya promo info.
U.K.: Jade: It's Time For Remixes, promo info
Lithuania: Sasha Song (!) Love to Moscow, Russian version
Finland - Lose Control remix info, cdsingle out now, # 1 hit

Que Bueno, Que Bueno !!!

Que Bueno, Que Bueno (Spain 1965 - Conchita Bautista)A great coverversion Mexico style by Los Tenientes and a cooler than cool garage beat version by Los Sirex. Both versions were released in 1965, the year of the original.
The Los Tenientes image is the Dutch edition picture sleeve, the Los Sirex single is from Spain.

An English version by Grethe and Jörgen Ingmann is in this Eurocovers post.

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Que Bueno, Que Bueno (utube) was Conchita Bautista's second Eurovision attempt. The first one was Spains debut entry Estando Contigo. You can find all Estando Contigo Eurocovers posts here.

Blog Tip: Favorites In Original - 杜德偉- 抱緊我

A blog I love to visit frequently is Favorites In Original.
Here you can find coverversions in Cantonese paired with their originals including picture sleeves.
It features originals from all over the world and if you browse around you'll find a few Eurocovers and some non-Eurovision songs by Eurovision stars like Patricia Kaas, Anna Oxa, Julio Iglesias, Celine Dion, Carola, Kirka, Nicole and Celine Dion.
One that I didn't know yet is by Alex To. 抱緊我 is a Cantonese (Chinese) coverversion of Johnny Logan's Hold Me Now, the 1987 Eurovision winner for Ireland.
Alex To already recorded it for his 1987 debut album Alex To (杜德偉). Great to find another Eurocovers treasure 22 years after its release. (the post is here) --


Eurovision 2009 - The Moscow Collection
The Latest News At The Moscow Collection Blog:
U.K. promo Spain promo
Lithuania: Sasha Song, Russian version online
Montenegro - Andrea's remixes
Macedonia - Next Time, English, Serbian versions.
Finland - Lose Control - Remix info, cdsingle Out Now
Romania: The Balkan Girls - CDsingle out now!
Armenia: Ինգա Անուշ Արշակյաններ, audio, video, dance!
Germany: Tracks cdsingle, Digital release, Spanish version
Switzerland: Lovebugs The Highest Heights, cdsingle out now!
France - Patricia Kaas - Kabaret CD, new version, Live CD Out Now!.

Eurocovers releases roundup: South Africa

I'm currently working on an updated version of the South Africa coverversions list, as it has been a few years since I last published that (actually pre-Eurocovers blog). It'll take some time, but I hope it's here in a few weeks. (it's here now)
For now: you'll have to do with an update on the Eurocovers that have been released in South Africa fairly recently.

Steven Sterling III
Steven Sterling has released his 3rd album Steven Sterling 3. (Sterling Musiek STERCD002)
There's one new Eurocover of interest there and it's the opening track Mama Afrika. This is a great Afrikaans version of Mama Corsica, the French entry of 1993 by Patrick Fiori.
The album also includes a re-recording of Lief Vir Alles Hier (Für Alle, Germany 1985), which Sterling recorded for his Debut CD.
Third song of Eurocovers interest is Glimlag (Smile), a coverversion of Under Your Spell (Sweden 2006 pre-selection - Evan)
The album is for sale at Kalahari*.
Lief Vir Alles Hier (In love with everything here) is technically an André Schwartz ♫ cover, who was the one who made the song hugely popular in South Africa.

Casanova Shaun Tait
Shaun Tait's second album Ek Se Kom Ons Doen Dit (I say let's do this) is out now and features the first South African coverversion for Andorra. He recorded Casanova (2008 - Gisela). The album also features two popular pre-selection songs.
Gee Jou Hart Vir My (Give your heart to me) is Lay Your Love On Me (BWO, Melodifestivalen 2008) and Viva La Musica was Man Meadow's song for the Polish 2008 selection.
Title track Ek Se Kom Ons Doen Dit is a cover of Charlotte Perrelli's Bullet, her follow up single to Eurovision hit Hero (CD Out now on Sony SA) (Kalahari)
On his debut CD Shaun Tait recorded Sing 'n liedjie (Sing a song) as a duet with Patricia Lewis, Queen Of South African Eurovision Covers. It's Shame On You (Denmark 2004 - Thomas Thordarsson)

Let's Rage At The Club Kung FuCharl Smit's last CD Lekker Jol (Great party, Ramkat RAMCD001) features two tracks of Estonian origin.

Kom Ons Raas (Let's rage) is a coverversion of Estonian entry Let's Get Loud by Suntribe. Even better (imho) is the title track, Lekker Jol. It's Club Kung Fu, a pre-selection song from 2003 that was originally by Estonian superstars Vanilla Ninja. That song was the audience favorite, but their vote only counted for like 10% or so. The professional jury hated it, but Vanilla Ninja did quite well for themselves, especially in Germany. They were invited to represent Switserland in 2005 and with Cool Vibes they ended 9th.
Charl Smit's version of the song is about traffic. Smit is currently working on his new CD which will have some more Eurocovers surprises.
The album is available at Kalahari*. The track Lekker Jol was also released on the VA compilation Kuier In Afrikaans (Ramkat RAMCD004)

Another version of Club Kung Fu was recorded by Nicholis Louw: Welkom By My Party can be found on his CD Hier Naby Jou (Close to you).

I noticed a download site where you can preview the tracks (Rhythm Online)*. They sell legal mp3's internationally and are currently working on an easy payment system (it's too complicated now for my liking)
http://www.nicholislouw.co.za/

Juanita ForeverJuanita Du Plessis celebrates her career with a double CD of her best hits and new tracks. Opening track of CD1 is 'n Ewigheid, (An eternity) a new coverversion of Carola's 2006 entry Invincible (Sweden). It's already the 2nd Afrikaans version of this track, after the boys of Hi-5 recorded it on their CD Versoeking.

Juanita's 2cd 10 jaar Platinum Treffers is also available at Kalahari*. You can listen to all songs at her homepage (here) http://www.juanita.co.za/

Juanita's 1997 album Young Hearts included a coverversion of Gina G.'s Ooh Aah Just A Little Bit (U.K. 1996) in a hits medley

Moet My Nie Vergeet Nie

Rian Ungerer's CD Moet My Nie Vergeet Nie (Don't forget me) features the track Agter Moes Laat (Had to leave behind), which is a coverversion of Vukovi Umiru Sami (Croatia 2005 - Boris Novkovic)
Girl band Shine 4 have split up, but they have released a best CD with some new tracks. One of these is Je t'Adore (Belgium 2006, Kate Ryan) which is sung in Afrikaans.
Leandie Lombaard. I mentioned her CD here. Now she has her own website where you can listen to excerpts of the songs.
Some other recent releases are tenor Jannie Moolmans CD Ek Kom Huistoe (I'm coming home) which includes Vandag (Today) (Le Grand Soir, Belgium 2005), Jaycee Crauses CD Ek Weet with Steeds Verlief (Everything, Greece 2006) and Waar Is Jy (Tornero, Romania 2006) and the previously mentioned albums by Jennifer Zamudio and Patricia Lewis.

Special Thanks to Roy and to Juan.
*Please note: I haven't tried any of the shops mentioned recently and I advise you contact them first about postage, payment and delivery information if you're interested in buying any of the CDs.
If you want to hear Mama Corsica in Lithuanian check this Eurocovers post.
All South-Africa related posts at Eurocovers are here. The Document is here.

Eurovision 2009 - The Moscow Collection

The Amsterdam Eurovision 2009 Concert.

If Moscow is too far, the crisis hit your bank balance or you were planning a long overdue trip to Amsterdam anyway this is the 2009 event for you:

On April 18, Marcanti Amsterdam will host a concert with many Eurovision Stars of the 2009 contest. Already a very impressive list of artists have confirmed: The entrants of Denmark, Belgium, Spain, Iceland, Lithuania, Cyprus, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Albania, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Slovenia, Poland, Moldova and Armenia will attend, more artsist to be confirmed. The show is hosted by Marga Bult and Maggie MacNeal. TICKETS, Video promo. More Info