| The language rule was dropped
this year. And the sound engineering was terrible (the strings are
barely audible). But there were some great entries. Norway came up with an elaborate soft-jazz number sung (in French and English) by a male/female four-piece with echoes of Manhattan Transfer but considerably more Math Rock. Finland on the other hand reverted to the lingua-franca of nonsense onomatopoeia (and also English), for the charmingly cheery, up-beat and furiously energetic "Tom Tom Tom". It was sung by Marion Rung who had previously represented Finland in 1962 with the similarly onomatopoeic "Tipi-tii". Spain's "Eres tú", accused at the time of plagiarism (though considerably better than the song it may have ripped off), would itself become something of a prototype for future entrants. A building power-ballad with a fantastic chorus-line and oddly poppy moments for such a folksy looking outfit. Monaco gave us the diminutive Marie (a sort of female Roy Castle) and her amazing, brassy, stabby runaway train: "Un train qui part", while Portugal had a Richard Beckinsale lookalike doing a stomping, relentless, giddy march that put us in mind of the theme-tune to the children's television series "Chorlton and the Wheelies". And then there was the Belgian pairing of Nicole & Hugo. Resplendent in their purple bell-bottomed flying suits and platform heels, and backed by a trio of vocalists in grey bubble-perm wigs. "Baby, Baby" is not just visually stunning, with some cracking dance-moves, it's a fantastic piece of music too. It is our winner. How could it not be? Europe, as is generally case, failed to see the obvious, and chose instead to give the title to Luxembourg for the second year running. As with the previous two winners, it was a rousing power-ballad to which anyone with a lighter might meaninglessly participate. Again, it was by no means a bad song and it is easy to see how it won. But everything else we've mentioned above was better. For each year's songs we apply our points in the 12-10-8 style of the modern contest, irrespective of how the voting functioned at the time. In brackets is the position the song came on the night:
Europe had the UK (Cliff Richard again) in third place, Israel's debut entry in fourth, Ireland joint-tenth, Switzerland twelfth, Italy 13th, the Netherlands 14th, and France joint-15th. Our winners came last.
|
 Our winners, Nicole & Hugo.  The Spanish entry: "Eres tú"  Monaco's entry: "Un train qui part".  Fernando Tordo takes a sideways glance at the Portuguese government.  Marion Rung: the mother of onomatopoeic sing-along.  Europe's winner, Anne-Marie David. |
