| After two pretty rubbish years,
1987 makes for a welcome oasis of fun. Yugoslavia (John Peel's favourite entry this year) give a flighty candy-floss cod-rock performance, harking back a little to Bobbysocks. We overlooked the singer's unfortunate physical similarity to Anthea Turner. Marcha, the Dutch entry, dressed in a white, spangly, space-age costume, fooled us by starting a power-ballad but then going into an electro-pop chorus (a wise move). It's hard to believe the chorus and the verse were originally one and the same song. Perhaps Song for Holland resulted in a tie. The chorus could do with a bit more energy but that Commundard-ish bit at the end makes up for it. Finland's entry (translated sloppily as "100 Lightnings") sounds like the uplifting power-rock theme to a film about a man who must balance his twin passions of boxing and dancing. The crossfades are almost tangible. Finland have a proper talent for this sort of thing, it is clear. On very similar ground, but putting on more of a show were Belgium. Liliane Saint-Pierre, wearing what can only be described as 'an outfit', sang "Soldiers of love" flanked by two men (one looking suspiciously like Rochdale Cowboy Mike Harding) carrying fake electric guitars fashioned as some sort of futuristic space weaponry. During the epic chorus, and never failing to bring a smile, these guitars are raised aggressively into the air (well as aggressive as a man with a perm, glasses and a moustache can muster). With a brazen key-change and no shortage of the magical ingredient "umph" this could be an entry in any year between then and now, and would probably benefit from a more powerful arrangement these days. Turkey gave us a somewhat Israeli entry; very up-beat and frenetic. In their white frilly jackets and fru-fru skirts they looked a bit like chickens, and their animated, almost vibrating performance made us worry for the state of their hearts. One wonders where they might've found the energy for a reprise had they won. Not that that was ever likely: the song was too interesting to win. In fact it came last on the night with nul points. The real Israel dramatically confounded expectations. No white outfits and slick dance routines this year. Oh no. In a brave move they tried something different... very different. And it could all too easily have gone terribly terribly wrong. Datner & Kushnir are a sort of Jewish Blues Brothers. Their song, "Shir Habatlanim", begins rather delicately with some polite chamber orchestration. Then the chorus arrives. It bears some resemblance to the "Hokey-Cokey", if the "Hokey-Cokey" were about hula-hoops. The second verse is decidedly more "Carry-On", and the duo become increasingly animated (and excellently choreographed). You could try to join in with the finger actions, but it's harder than it looks. In summary, a risky choice, but one that paid off excellently because it's one of the greatest Israeli entries ever and an easy winner for us. That makes it three in a row for Israel, equaling the record set by Portugal at the start of the decade. Of course, the real prize on the night went to Ireland's Johnny Logan making him the first singer to win twice. His straining power-ballad "Hold Me Now" has a hint of the Crimewatch transcript to it. The thing is by no means dreadful, but we find him so terribly annoying and it's hard to get past his nauseating performance. 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, as already established, voted Ireland the win. Italy came third, Denmark joint-fifth, Cyprus seventh, Norway ninth, Greece tenth, Sweden twelfth, the United Kingdom 13th, France 14th, Iceland 16th, Austria 20th and Luxembourg (in the form of Plastic Bertrand) 21st. |
 "Hupa hule hule hule..." Our winners, Israel.  Liliane Saint-Pierre and her "Soldiers of Love".  Marcha sings the cut-and-shut Dutch entry.  Yugoslavia's entry, Novi Fosili.  Finland's
Vicky Rosti. Turkey's entry, Seyyal Taner & Locomotif.  Click on his irritating face to make it go away. |
