Sven-Olof Walldoff 1929 - 2011

Sven-Olof Walldoff, Conductor, Producer, Eurovision Icon died this week at the age of 82.

His unforgettable appearance as the Napoleon dressed Maitre d'Orchestre at the 1974 Eurovision helped propell ABBA into the worlds minds forever.

Before ABBA he worked with Agnetha on her solo hits and albums and he has also worked with Frida (Anni-frid Lyngstad) and Björns band the Hootenanny singers.

Waterloo at Eurocovers: here and here

Kathy Kirby (1938-2011)

Eurocovers bids a sad goodbye to Kathy Kirby, Eurovision singer and a True Pop Star.

Kathy Kirby Official website

CONGRATULATIONS AZERBAIJAN - TEBRIK EDIRIK AZƏRBAYCAN

Eldar and Nigar a.k.a.  Ell and Nikki have won the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest with Running Scared written by Stefan Örn, Sandra Bjurman and Iain Farquharsondur.

Raphael Gualazzi finished 2nd for Italy with Madness Of Love and Sweden took 3rd place with Eric Saades Popular.

Check Out The Düsseldorf Collection for all the release news of the 2011 Eurovision entries.

Updated with all the points and places, the latest news in order of results.

Sjonni's Friends - What's Another Year

This years Icelandic Eurovision singers Sjonni's Friends have recorded a version of the 1980 winner What's Another Year (Johnny Logan for Ireland).
You can download the song here at the Sjonni's Friends website and watch the videoclip.

Their Eurovision song Coming Home was written by the late Sjonni Brink and his wife Þórunn Erna Clausen and will be performed in the Tuesday May 10 semi final.
Update: Til Hamingju Ísland!
Sjonni's Friends made it to the Eurovision final on March 14! After an exiting result-draw the last finalist announced was Iceland. Congratulations guys!

source: Coming Home - Sjonni's Friends website
More about Sjonni's Friends here at the Düsseldorf Collection.
More about Johnny Logans first winner at the Eurocovers post What's Another 30 Years: Here.

Ready Steady Girls

Yours truly is a guest editor at Ready Steady Girls, the website about all the gorgeous sixties girls singers.

With Eurovision round the corner I was invited to select my pick of the pops, six sixties girl tracks with a Eurovision connection. And write a bit about them too.

Please take a look here at Ready Steady Girls and vote for your favorite.

Düsseldorf 2011

For all release info, versions and chart adventures of the 2011 Eurovision stars, please check the Düsseldorf Collection.

German Classics - Die Gruppe Wind - Astrid & Kingston

Wind, die Gruppe Wind, entered Eurovision three times.

Twice they ended up in second place but their third effort didn't really go anywhere.

Featured here is Alleen Bij Jou  (Only with you), a dutch coverversion of the first Wind song Für Alle (For Everyone) by Astrid.

The second entry by Wind was Lass Die Sonne In Dein Herz  (Let The Sun In Your Heart) in 1987. The summery reggae-lite feel of the song is a departure of the schlager ballad from 1985. Lass Die Sonne even became a minor hit in several countries, and a Eurovision hit was quite an achievement in the 80's.
Here's a Slovenian version by Kingston titled Pusti Soncu V Srce  (Let The Sun In The Heart).

The third Wind song was titled Träume Sind Für Alle Da (Dreams are there for everyone) in 1992 which ended 18th. I don't know of any coverversion of that song.

Ready Steady Girls

Yours truly is a guest editor at Ready Steady Girls, the website about all the gorgeous sixties girls singers.

With Eurovision round the corner I was invited to select my pick of the pops, six sixties girl tracks with a Eurovision connection. And write a bit about them too.

Please take a look here at Ready Steady Girls and vote for your favorite.

Düsseldorf 2011

For all release info, versions and chart adventures of the 2011 Eurovision stars, please check the Düsseldorf Collection.

Hungary - Kati Wolf,Gábor Deutsch remix, Story CD
Moldova - So Lucky, listen to 6 versions
Slovenia - NoOne promo tracklist
Cyprus: Christos Mylordos, promo updates
Denmark - A Friend In London, promo updates
Poland - New english version, promo updates
Norway - Stella Mwangi updates, versions
France - Sognu cdsingle out now.
U.K. - Blue release updates, UK Top 10 Hit ???
Iceland - Coming Home, Website launched
Croatia : Celebrate 10 versions on cdsingle
Azerbaijan - Download Remix and Acoustic versions.
Italy: versions updated
Turkey: cdsingle in the shops, tracklist. - Belarus - Мая Беларусь, updates

German Classics - Theater - Karel Gott

Another German Classic, here’s a coverversion of the 1980 song Theater. Fabulous Katja Ebstein scored her third top three result for Germany with the song.

The version here is by popular Czech singer Karel Gott, a Eurovision star in his own right. He participated for Austria in 1968 with the Udo Jürgens penned Tausend Fenster (Thousand windows), a song which Gott recorded in German, Czech, French, English and Italian.

Karel Gott is no stranger in Eurocovers world, he recorded German coverversions of Wunder Gibt Es Immer Wieder (Germany 1970) and Ein Lied Kan Eine Brücke Sein (Germany 1975) plus Czech versions of Se Piangi, Se Ridi (Italy 1965) and Eres Tu (Spain 1973).

Žít Stokrát, the Czech version of Theater wasn’t released at the time of recording but it appeared later on a re-issue of Gotts 1980 LP Dnes (Supraphon).

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.

German Classics: No No Never - Päris Anny

No No Never, the 2006 German entry by Texas Lightning finished rediculously low in the Athens contest.
The song is a fine slice of Perfect Pop Country which would have been a world wide #1 hit if it was by Katy Perry and about oral sex. The Texas Lighting boys and girl had to make do with a German charttopper. No No Never sold over 300.000 cdsingles in Germany and also was a top 10 hit in Austria and Switzerland.
Päris Anny from Estonia recorded a quite straightforward version of the song. Except it is in Estonian and titled See On Tema. 

Special thanks to Margo.

German Classics : Ein Bisschen Frieden - Jeon Young

Pic nicked from Maniadb.kr

A German classic for Easter couldn’t be any other song than Nicole’s 1982 winner Ein Bisschen Frieden (A Little Peace). It was Germany’s first winning song and the song became an almost worldwidehit, a U.K. #1 even.

Nicole recorded the song in a variety of languages herself, but since she didn’t do Korean here’s a version by Jeon Young titled Jag Eun Pyeong Hwa. The song was recorded in 1983.

전영-작은평화

More Ein Bisschen Frieden at Eurocovers:
Norwegian at The Oslo Weeks, and a Korean dance version at the Eurocovers Summer Break.

Düsseldorf 2011

For all your release news, versions info and chart updates on the 2011 contest, please check out The Düsseldorf Collection.:

U.K. - Yes Blue Can! Tracklist
Recommended: Handbook for Düsseldorf
San Marino - Stand By in German and Russian
Germany: TBAS coverversions to avoid.
Croatia : Listen to German, Russian, French versions
Austria: Nadine Beiler, remix out now
Cyprus: Listen to the song now! Updates
Sweden - Eric Saade new digital releases
Latvia - Musiqq cdsingle out now, remix.
Macedonia - update, more versions recorded.

Bulgaria - Poli Genova updates.

Finland - Paradise Oskar single and album

German Classics: Zwei Kleine Italiener - Lauku Muzikanti

Todays German Classic is a Latvian coverversion of Zwei Kleine Italiener, made famous by Conny Fröboess in 1962.

Lauku Muzikanti (Country Musicians) are a Schlager band from Latvia founded in 1987. They have recorded hundreds of songs since then and are still going strong, although the line up has changed on many occasions.

Zwei Kleine Italiener becomes Vecie Draugi (Old friends)  in the hands of the Muzikanti and it is from the 1997 album Šeit Un Šonakt (And here tonight). 

Latvian coverversions of Eurovision songs seem almost non-existant.  There's not even a hand full and most (2) are by this band. They also recorded Julie (Yugoslavia 1983)

More Zwei Kleine Italiener at Eurocovers:

Norwegian, and at Conny's Birthday post.

I have also updated the Zwei Kleine Italiener document.

You can find all info on Conny's own versions and 120 coverversions here (word document).