Long silver boots stride onto the stage. A glittering star-shaped guitar is poised to play. The dinner-jackets and ball-gowns in the audience stir uncertainly. A Swedish female duo clasp their mikes, and launch – ‘Waterloo!’ A new name enters history: Abba.
That was 1974. 50 years on, the full Eurovision programme was recently re-broadcast. What a step back in time. The crisp BBC accents. The polite audience. Bow-ties. Hand-driven score boards (entertainingly making occasional errors). Only 17 countries. Due to the death of President Pompidou, France had withdrawn, perhaps providentially with ‘Waterloo’ the winning entry.
Pleasingly no artist got ‘nul points’.
It’s Eurovision month. Probably you either love the annual bonanza of music and merriment, the
blitz of light and languages, or you hate it. Maybe you’re one who scores at home, struggling by the end even to recall the early entries, and finding there’s no accounting for others’ music taste. Some Eurovision things have changed since 1974. Eastern European countries were notably absent then. Yugoslavia featured, now multiple countries. The staging and lighting now give sensory overload.
Other things remain the same. The event continues to be a swirl of cultural change. 1974 artists
split between the ball-gowned/DJ-ed majority and ‘pop’ dress – times they were a-changin’. The
equivalent in today’s Eurovision scene is perhaps the LGBT dimension. The dreaded ‘nul points’
still stalks the score-board; writer Tim Moore tells in a humourous 2010 book of tracking down all
artists who’d scored zero points – some bounced back, others never recovered. All Eurovision
artists are brave.
Midst the cultural changes, you can still detect religious echoes reverberating in seemingly secular
lyrics. “That’s where I found my kingdom come,” bookies’ favourite, Swiss artist Nemo, will sing.
If nothing else, Eurovision seeks to be uplifting. It falls in the Easter season (something only a vicar
would think of!). The uplifting song ‘You Raise me Up’ (most famously sung by Westlife) wasn’t a
Eurovision entry, but (music trivia alert) its composer won the competition twice. “When I am
down and, oh my soul, so weary, When troubles come and my heart burdened be, Then, I am still
and wait here in the silence, Until you come and sit awhile with me… You raise me up to more
than I can be.” The song resonates with resurrection. Aptly it was played at a recent funeral.
Whether you do Eurovision or steer well clear, may ‘You raise me up’ be our Easter song.
