Eurovision ~ WHAT?

Last week I mentioned that ABBA had won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974. I've had several people ask what on earth the Eurovision Song Contest was. So, here's the answer.

The Eurovision Song Contest is an international music contest held in Europe every year. In a way, I suppose it's kind of like American Idol, if each state brought in a competitor. It began in Europe in the '50s. Some people in the European Broadcasting Union which happened to be based in Switzerland, thought that the continent needed something to bring its people together. They devised a contest where each participating country would submit one song, and through a complex system of points, a winner would be announced. Unlike American Idol, all of these performers were professionals, some already established in their countries, some just getting started, but all pros. 

I thought about giving you a sampling of each decade's music, but I really couldn't find any from the 1960s that I liked, and there are several from the 1970s. (Like the guy said, "no plan survives contact with the enemy.") But, we can look at some performers who got their international start with Eurovision, whether they won or not. 

Let's start with the very first contest: 1956. The host country that year, (the hosting country changes from one year to the next) was Switzerland, since they were the ones who came up with the idea. And the winning song was also from Switzerland. I thought at first that this is only the refrain (chorus) of the song in question, but then I realized that Refrain is the title. Note her dress, the orchestra, and the backup singers. The kids have flowers for her presumably because she's just won. And even though she's representing Switzerland, she is singing in French. The language rules have changed over the years, but at this point the song could be in whatever language they wanted.

There are some recognizable names during the 1960s: Lulu, whose big hit in the US was To Sir, With Love. Even she knew that her 1969 Eurovision selection, Boom bang-a-bang,  stunk. In a later interview she said, "I know it's a rotten song, but I won, so who cares? I'd have sung Baa, Baa Black Sheep standing on my head if that's what it took to win." Even so, she had to share that win with three other countries. (That year saw an unusual four-way tie.)

But, the 1970s saw more than their share of notables. We start out with 1970, and the 4th place contestant. Julio Iglesias. 

Julio was just at the beginning of his career here. The clip starts with a brief look at his country, Spain, and then we see the backup singers and the full orchestra. Keep in mind that some countries, like Belgium, have several official languages, but at this point, each singer had to sing in an official language of the country they were representing.

This next one has always been a favorite of mine. Eres tu only made it to 2nd place in 1973, but it is much better known than the winner of that year: Tu te reconnaitras. Mocedades, the rather large group that recorded Eres tu, actually made this a hit in the US, and it remains the biggest hit in this country to be sung entirely in another language. Although there is an English version; Touch the Wind that was the B-side of the single, but it did not do as well. And just for the record (so to speak), the Spanish lyrics have nothing in common with the English "translation."

But, now we come to 1974 and the biggest band that Eurovision has ever launched: ABBA. Although ABBA had made the charts in Sweden and the US (ranking 114 with People Need Love) the year before, this was their big international break. This year songs could be performed in any language, and the orchestra was optional. Pre-recorded background music was allowed, but no singing could be on the pre-recorded tracks. Since the conductor came out dressed as Napoleon, I'd thought at first that this could be used as proof that ABBA had chosen to perform with the orchestra. But, now that I think about Napoleon and Waterloo, I'm not so sure. 

I still say that the '70s have a lot to answer for from the fashion police. What outfits!

Of course, the 1974 contest had another star performing. Olivia Newton-John only came in 4th, with Long Live Love. Like Lulu, she later admitted that she hadn't liked the song, but never admitted to a willingness to stand on her head. Olivia had already made a splash in the US with Let Me Be There. So, while not a new-comer, she was not yet the huge star she was to become. And, her gown is better than spandex. Maybe.

I'm going to breeze through most of the 1980s. Nothing terribly memorable happened. But in 1988, we find a 20-year old French-Canadian singing for Switzerland. She'd already had a gold record in France five years before, so we can't say that she was unknown when she won the Eurovision title. But, she had yet to break into the English-language market. And this song would do nothing to help that along. It needed a vocal breakdown the following year, English lessons, dental surgery, and voice lessons before that would happen. So, here, just before her big break; Celine Dion singing Ne Partez San Moi (Don't Leave Without Me).

In retrospect, the late '80s fashions weren't great, either. That skirt is awful! And check out the shoulder pads! And the poodle-hair! Oh, and at this point, they'd reinstated the rule that the song had to be sung in one of the official languages of that country. By 1997, this rule had changed (again) to allow the song in whatever language the singer prefers, and remains in place today. So far. And note: no orchestra. The last time an orchestra was used was 1998, ten years after this, but clearly already on the way out. How sad.

And finally, I'm going to show you last year's winner. Not because I've ever heard of her, but just to show you how far the production has come. We were first introduced to the Eurovision Song Contest when we lived in Germany, through the BBC. Now, I understand that it's available on this interconnected series of tubes called the Internet. Apparently, Loreen came in 4th in the Swedish Idol 2004 series. (Remember how at the beginning I said this was sort of like American Idol?) Although she's singing in English, I have no idea what this song is about. I was far too distracted by her dance moves. At :55 she shows that it can still be Hammer-time. I think she got some of her fashion sense from Mr. Hammer, too. And she's barefoot. Why? All in all it's an interesting performance, I suppose.

So, I think, we've come to more of a Eurovision Performance Contest, as opposed to a Song Contest. Clearly, the song has become secondary to the overall look. In between her Hammer-time moves, I think she's doing a tai chi workout. Shame about the song.

Waxing Nostalgic

Sitting in my doctor's waiting room earlier this week, I overheard some people waxing nostalgic over the 1970s. I was baffled by this. I was a teenager during that era, and I remember gas rationing, the energy crisis, clunky platform shoes, and disco. None of this makes me think, "Ah, those were good times." Even though there was a series named "Good Times". It was not dy-no-mite!

Maybe it's me. Not long ago some friends were waxing nostalgic for the 1950s, an era that none of us were around for. They described it as a time when people had respect for one another. Now, my friends were born in the aforementioned '70s, so since I was born in 1961, I at least came a little closer to the time in question. I couldn't let them get away with what I saw as a gross misrepresentation of the truth. So, I brought up Jim Crow laws; the lack of women's rights; how my grandfather, a rather wealthy man, thought that his daughter, my mother, had married beneath her, since my father's family was relatively poor. None of this put a dent in their belief that the 1950s were a golden time to be missed.

Nostalgia is defined by Mirriam-Webster as: 1. the state of being homesick. (I don't think that quite applies.) 2. a wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for return to or of some past period or irrecoverable condition. (Yup, that sounds like the one we want.) Excessively sentimental yearning for a past period: the good old days. 
Now, I will admit that some of the music from the '50s was better than a lot that came out of the '70s. In fact, there was a lot of '50s music and fads that came back in the '70s. "Happy Days" had a lot to answer for.


Of course, we also need to keep in mind that when we look at any decade, like the '70s, what we think of as typical of the decade, didn't start until the middle years, say 1974. Those earlier years were more like what we think of as the '60s. And the '60s didn't really start until somewhere about 1964. So when we talk about a decade like this, we are actually talking about a span from the middle of one decade until the middle of the next. Have I lost you yet?

Anyway, I got to thinking about what we think of as music of the '70s. I've arbitrarily chosen 1974 as my year to start the '70s. Why? That was the year that saw us pull out of Vietnam. It was also the year that gave us the oil crisis. Bonanza and Lassie went off the air in 1973. LIttle House on the Prairie and Happy Days both started in 1974. That sounds to me like the end of one era and the beginning of another. 

What was happening in the music world in 1974? Well, KISS released their first album, although it wasn't until 1975's Rock and Roll All Night that they really made a hit. This is KISS live from 1977. 

I just found out that KISS's second appearance was on The Mike Douglas show, a mid-day talk show, mostly watched by housewives and children home sick from school. That must have been odd, to say the least. Of course, Mike Douglas also had John Lennon and Yoko Ono as guest hosts for a week.

 I didn't understand the KISS fascination at the time. I thought that they weren't really that good, and that the only reason they were selling records was the whole makeup thing. But, I was not above using this song when my kids were potty training. You know, I wanna rock and roll all night, and potty everyday. Hey, it was a big hit in the 2 year old crowd. And yes, we had potty training songs. We had songs for everything. But that's another blog.

What else happened in '74? Sonny and Cher got divorced. The Ramones played their first concert. As did Van Halen. Queen got their first North American gig, opening for Mott the Hoople. ABBA won the Eurovision Song Contest starting their rise to fame and stardom. Mama Cass Elliot died. John Lennon performed live with Elton John in Madison Square Garden; it was Lennon's last stage performance. And at the every end of that year, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks joined Fleetwood Mack.

Oh, yeah, one other thing started in 1974. Rock the Boat by The Hues Corporation, Kung Fu Fighting by Carl Douglas and Gloria Gaynor's remake of Never Can Say Goodbye marked the beginnings of the disco music craze. Disco, yuck. 

Although there were some good songs out of the '70s. I'm actually a big fan of ABBA. The Eagles were starting out, Elton John was big, we had John Denver, Paul McCartney and Wings, Cher's solo work, The Carpenters, Billy Joel. I owned every album that Barry Manilow made. 

Rats. Now I'm feeling all nostalgic.

People playing rocks

Long, long ago (late 1980s), in a mythical land (northern California) I was a part of a group called the SCA. Those letters stand for the Society for Creative Anachronism. The SCA is an international order that began in Berkeley CA in 1966 with a bunch of friends having a party. It has grown massively since then. Members recreate the Middle Ages, as those years should have been. Meaning that people can still wear their glasses, and are clean, among a lot of other points. Being in the organization was a lot of fun, and I look back on my years with them with fondness. 

If it was so much fun, why am I speaking of the organization in the past tense? We continued to be in the SCA while living in Germany. Events there were held in actual castles and other buildings that had been around in the actual Middle Ages. After that, coming back to the States, and attending events on a college campus seemed to lack luster. And it can take up a lot of your time, and my days were quite full with performing and teaching.

So, why am I talking about it now? Well, I had a choir in CA that I founded, that was a part of the local SCA group. We were called (depending on who you asked, and what kind of mood they were in) the Champclaire Singers, The Mongrel Horde, or DeathTongue. We won awards within the regional SCA for our songs. And our minstrelsy fire pit became the stuff of legends. One of our members fabricated a safe fire pit out of an abandoned washing machine tub. I made gallons of wassail to serve to our gathering. I played the guitar, a friend played the autoharp, and another played recorder, and we all sang. People would come to our campsite and sit and play and sing until late into the night. It was a blast. 

But, as I said, that was long ago. I put up what medieval music I had, and focused on operatic repertoire. 

As a voice teacher, I find myself learning many different styles of music. I've been introduced to Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, One Direction and Pink. I've learned more about Country music than I ever thought I'd need. I've delved into the rich musical cultures of India and the Orient. And, now, I am returning to the music of the Middle Ages. (The things we do for our students!) I am deep into the different modes - Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian,  Lydian, Mixolydian, Aolian, and Locrian. What on earth am I talking about? Modes are different scales. We tend to think in just major and minor modes; think about the song Doe a Deer, from "The Sound of Music". Maria and the kids are singing a major scale. But, there are a lot of other types of scales, we just don't use them as often. In the Middle Ages they were more popular. 

A lot of the music from that era we still remember. We just finished listening to Christmas music, but that does give us some medieval music that remains popular. The hymn O Come, O Come Emmanuel probably dates from somewhere between the 8th and 12th Centuries. That's quite a time span, but records from then are really scratchy and hard to listen to. I was going to just give you this link, but this is so beautiful that you get the video. There's not much to look at, but the choir is amazing. It's worth a listen.

Another Christmas carol that comes from this era is Deck the Halls.It probably dates to the 16th Century, but some parts may be older. Why can't we be sure about these dates? Well, music back then wasn't written the way we write it now. This is an example of early notation.  It's quite lovely, but somewhat difficult to read. (I actually sort of know how to read this, but it would take a little work.) 

Of course, the music notation was only part of the problem. Not many people could read at all. So, if you don't know how to read the music or the words, what is a poor minstrel to do? They would sing the songs from memory. Have you ever played that game sometimes called Telephone? In this game you whisper a message to one player, who then whispers it to someone else, who then whispers it . . . you get the idea. By the end of the line, the message has usually morphed into something very different from the original. So way back when, you have professional musicians traveling about, performing songs that they've heard along their ways. Do you think they performed them exactly the same way that they'd heard? Of course not! They forgot bits, added bits from other songs, or just sang nonsense lyrics along the lines of Fa la la la la, or Hey, nonny nonny. There were almost as many different ways to sing these songs as there were people singing them. And eventually some poor person was stuck with the job of notating these songs so that the Victorians could sing them. 

The singing style then was a bit different than now, too. Vibrato was frowned upon. We like a bit of vibrato, it adds warmth to the tone. Too much is bad, it can make it hard to tell what note someone is singing. But, some is nice, and in operatic singing, it is a requirement. So, going back to no vibrato is difficult for me, but works for the student I'm doing this research for. (And I'm looking into costume fabrication, too!)

In looking for a good video to leave you with, I remembered the group called SAVAE (San Antonio Vocal Arts Ensemble). I got to see them perform a few years ago and loved them. This particular song is from the right period, and contains a great many of the structures of the music from the Middle Ages. The singing is right, and the sound is amazing. But it's from Central America and combines Spanish and Native American concepts and instruments. I kind of doubt that any troubadours played rocks. (Yes, he really is playing rocks!) 

According to one of the Wikipedia articles I was reading, one of the newer songs that best reflects the medieval styles is House of the Rising Sun. Which, if you think about it, is just another type of rock music.