Juan Carlos Calderón 1938 - 2012

Spanish musician and songwriter Juan Carlos Calderón has passed away yesterday.
Eurovision fans know him for writing four wonderful entries for Spain, and one of those is an evergreen he will always be remembered for by everyone: Eres Tú.

Eres Tú was performed by Mocedades in the 1973 contest and ended second. It became one of the biggest Eurovision hits of all time. Mocedades (even) took it to the US top 10 as Eres Tu / Touch The Wind and many artists covered the song over the years. A few names are Bing Crosby, Eydie Gormé, Tish Hinojosa, The Kelly Family, Perry Como, Petula Clark, The Shirelles, Rika Zaraï, Byron Lee and Acker Bilk.
Below is a wonderful video of Johnny Mathis singing Eres Tú with Calderón at the piano.


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The 1989 entry Nacida Para Amar is also known as Amante Del Amor, a version with different lyrics which has been recorded by several Latin American singers most notably Luis Miguel.

Calderóns Eurovision entries:
1973 - Eres Tú - Mocedades (2nd place)
1975 - Tú Volverás - Sergio Y Estibaliz (10th)
1985 - La Fiesta Terminó - Paloma San Basilio (14th)
1989 - Nacida Para Amar - Nina (6th)

More about Eres Tú, #8 in the top 10 most covered Eurovision songs in this Eurocovers post.


Juan Carlos Calderón website.

Smurphoria!

Just a bit of news from the Little Blue Men With White Pointy Hats:
The German Smurfs (Schlümpfe) have been shaking their tiny booty's to Euphoria just as we all did. Their version of Loreens Eurovision winner is titled Ein Schlümpfentag (A Smurf day) and it can be found on their new German market CD Die Hits Der Schlümpfe Vol. 2 out now. (Universal 0602537225903)

As we all know The Smurfs are cunning multilinguists. The critters also released a new album in Dutch and that also includes a version of Euphoria. This time it's titled Mooi Smurfenland (Beautiful Smurf country). 
The seasonal album Winterpret Met De Smurfen (Winterfun with the Smurfs) is released on November 30 and also includes covers of Gangnam Style, Call Me Maybe, Little Talks and some other 2012 hits. And it has Last Christmas too (EMI 5099997954828).

And as a bit of coincidental trivia, Euphoria singer Loreen provides the voice of Smurfette (Smurfan in Swedish) in the 2011 Smurfbuster movie The Smurfs (Smurfarna). I don't know if Loreen is on the books for the new film The Smurfs 2, expected in July 2013.

I don't know if any other regional Smurfs have recorded 2012 Eurovision songs. The French guys (Les Schtroumpfs) just have a new album out but just as the French grown up disque buying publique they have ignored Euphoria.

If you want to find out about the 2011 Smurftastic coverversions (Popular, Haba Haba) in Swedish, Danish and Norwegian check out this Eurocovers post.
For older Smurfocovers, here's another post for you.

Please note, the Eurocovers posts don't include any audio material / downloads.