Andy Brook

As we near the end of the competition I’d like to take the opportunity to thank a few people.

For the last three months most of my spare time has been taken up with organising the contest, and it has been a pleasure throughout.

Winning last year was a complete surprise. We had really struggled to record the song the way we wanted it to sound, and in the end the vocals and harmony were all taken from the original demo, recorded in a couple of hours. I didn’t have high hopes. The voting show was absolutely nail-biting, and when the final result came in and we had won, my legs actually gave way beneath me. At the same time I felt terribly disappointed for Christa, who had been in the lead all the way through. So I was very pleased when she decided to enter again this year, and with a beautiful song in Estonian, which is my personal favourite of the year.

From the start I had a very clear idea of what I wanted to achieve with my time at the helm of the competition: to raise the profile of the contest,  and  to give the best showcase possible for current and past entries. Stefan Engel set a very high standard in 2008, and on winning, he told me that the real prize was the opportunity to host the contest. Just like Eurovision, then…

I decided to incorporate as many elements from Eurovision as I could, but to re-interpret them for the internet. So we have a press centre, a green room for the artists,  interval guests and, of course, the postcards.

I am eternally grateful to Kasia Nowak for providing the pictures, as well as for making the 2012 calendar possible. I asked for 30 photos, thinking this would be more than enough. In the end, of course, we needed more, and by sheer luck, the UK was blessed with an Indian Summer, and Kasia went out and took some new photos. The postcards for the final songs are some of the most stunning photography I have seen. Recently it was reported that the Stag in Bushey park had started charging towards anyone taking photos of him. Thankfully, that didn’t include Kasia.

Kasia also went out into London  especially to take some photographs for me to choose one that would be framed as the trophy for this year. At the moment it is hanging on my wall…  it will be with mixed emotions that I package it up and send it on to the next winner.

The little waving flags  and “from Albania” etc. are a homage to my favourite Eurovision – 1991 from Rome.

Last year’s show included voting for songs which were disqualified when the contestants didn’t send in any votes, and I didn’t want this to happen again. It would have been awful to have a winner shown that was disqualified, and that is why everyone taking part ranked all of the songs. This also proved  a blessing when 38 songs were entered – too many to fit on a scoreboard – and it enabled us to extract a top 24 for a voting show and then use the original rankings to work out the top 10 choices for each of the contestants for the final. (So if you voted top marks to a song that didn’t qualify, your next favourite will take the douze points in the final instead, for instance).

In the end only one team didn’t send in their votes, and I hope that isn’t due to anything more serious than baulking at the task of judging 38 songs. Anyway, we wish them well. Voting was a mamouth task (which Holger completed from underneath a parasol on a beach in Spain!) but the standard of songs was well up to scratch, and I hope everyone enjoyed listening to the entries this year.

In my opening video I said that we were still awaiting entries from Iceland, Ireland, Belgium, Russia, Hungary and Azerbaijan. Well, we are still waiting…. but it was great to welcome Ainhoa from Albania and Lavi from Romania.

We welcomed back previous winners in the shape of Tony Søgaard Olsen, Stefan Engel and of course the home entry. We tried very hard to contact Morten Boldt Hansen, but he proved rather elusive. Right up until the deadline, that is, when he submitted an entry, making it the biggest contest to date (by one song) and completing the line-up in the best possible way.

JP from Radio International has been a huge supporter of the competition over the years, and I was very keen to have him on board again this year. I remember jumping up and down the first time I heard a song of mine on the radio, during his show, in 2008. I imagine a few others felt the same way over the last few weeks.

Up until this year I had never published a website, nor had any real idea of how to go about it. An evening spent with Adrian Murphy set me on the journey, as he talked me through, step by step, how to go about the task. I was told that last year’s contest website had 27,000 hits. My aim was to double that. In fact, to date we have had over half a million hits on the website. My internet provider threatened to cut the connection three times during the last few weeks!

More importantly, our songs have been listened to over 8,000 times. That’s quite an audience!

It has been quite a job to collate all of the votes, and then to do the whole job again for the top 24 finalists, and I am grateful to Tristan White for a very long evening he spent pouring over the figures.

I hope you have enjoyed reading the articles and interviews over the past few days. Thanks go to all of the guests and the writers for their time and efforts.

The voting shows, which I know you are going to love, would not have been possible without Scorewiz, the creation of Ben Tumminaro. It’s a great piece of software.

I would like to thank two people in particular.

Liam Jarnecki, the presenter of the four shows, has been a star in every sense of the word. I asked him to present the shows almost a year ago, when it was easy enough to say yes. But he has brought absolute dedication and professionalism to the task. His only worry was whether his hair would be the same length in the two reveals (it was…) and he only had one rider: proper tea, not sissy Earl Grey, and in a mug full to the top. Not half a cup.

My partner, Donald, is used to living with Eurovision for three months of the year, but this year had a double dose, as  I spent night after night clicking away on the computer. He has shown infinite patience, and for that I am very grateful. The Clapham jury was made up of everyone who helped make the show, and Donald joined in the voting. Well, he knew all the songs like the back of his hand by then! He certainly got into the swing of things, and I think we have a new fan, on the quiet.

The photo for the ‘reveal’ of ‘Let me see the impossible’ was taken by Donald when we took a moonlight paddle through St Mark’s square in Venice, last year.

Of course, without the contestants, there would have been no competition, so many, many thanks to all 34 teams. To those who didn’t qualify, I do hope that you will go away having made friends and musical contacts, and come back very soon. My first year in the competition was in 2007, when I entered two songs. They came almost last, and almost last. So never give up on the dream!

I hope everything goes smoothly over the next couple of days, and that you all enjoy the excitement of the final reveal and then the voting shows. In the meantime, here is a small taster to whet your appetite:

NF: Hi Chris – lovely to be here, and thanks for asking me! Yes, this is ‘virgin territory’ for me, so please be kind….

NF: Oh definitely!! I try to write songs, and have done a few that have gone out to the public, but I’m in awe of those who find it so easy! I’m better at co-writing I think – but it’s a great feeling when something works.

NF: A bit of both – the rhyming tends to get a little beyond me from time to time!! But generally I think of a few phrases – of both words and music together – for a song, then work from that.

NF: Ooooh that’s difficult! There are a few on the ‘French Revolution’ album that I’m pretty proud of – but I wasn’t the main writer on those really. I don’t know – they all tend to be quite different I think – but hey, perhaps the best one is yet to come…. watch this space, as they say!

NF: Well Katrina and I did write a song together some years ago, which we entered for Eurovision! That was back in the days when anyone could submit a song to BASCA. It didn’t get past the first round though unfortunately! I’ve worked with Hussein Ramadan quite a bit in past years (I often use his studio to record vocals), and we’ve discussed recently the prospect of writing together. Hopefully that will happen quite soon.

NF: Not then, no – although he DID send a message via the record company (Love This Records), saying he loved our version, and wished me continued success, which was amazing! A few years later though, just before Eurovision 2000, HE approached ME to record a couple of tracks for his new company, Ravenous Records. There then followed quite a surreal experience – I was recording the vocals in London, he was then listening to them over in the States via a ‘down the line’ type setup, making comments and suggestions, and we did two songs that way – ‘Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad’ and ‘Lovers Again’! It was strange having the executive producer commenting by remote – but it seemed to work! Sadly he couldn’t commit to working with me for at least another two years, so nothing really came of it. A great experience though. As my ex-husband said to me at the time, ‘You’ve always dreamed of being a backing vocalist for Meat Loaf – now you’re singing LEAD vocals for the man who MADE Meat Loaf’!!!

NF: All I can really suggest is that they should never give up trying. We all know of so many people who have been writing songs all their lives, with limited success, then that one break comes – and everyone wants them to write for THEM! Also, accept that what may be the perfect song for one person or act won’t be right for another. That’s not to say you should write specifically for one style or act – but be careful you choose who you think it suits best. Then again, I’ve had times before where I’ve been given – or have written – a song that I think makes a great ballad, then someone else will take it on and it becomes a dance-floor filler, so I guess it’s always good to have someone else’s opinion too!!!

NF: Oh, always! I’m frequently surprised at what a great reaction it still gets – and I love singing it to an enthusiastic Eurovision audience particularly!

NF: I really did enjoy this year’s Contest, not least because I was there the night before the Final (performing on the Euroboat)! I thought it was all SO well put together this year, and the standard was pretty high too. I have to say, I absolutely loved Romania’s entry (‘Change’) – Hotel FM performed at the UK’s Preview Party in London, which I co-hosted with Paddy O’Connell, and I decided then and there that it was my favourite! There were some really good performances all the way through – I even have to hold my hands up and say I enjoyed Jedward!

NF: Oh absolutely, definitely – just tell me where!!! I would dearly love to be a part of the whole Eurovision experience again. I hated being officially ‘the lowest ever placing’ for the UK until (thankfully) Jemini came along, and would love the chance to do better. I would LOVE a nice big ballad to get my teeth into….!

NF: Well, I’ve been trying to move more into the theatre world, as well as keeping up with the live singing gigs. I was part of the UK tour of ‘Annie’ the musical for nine months, which was great fun – playing seven different roles, most of which required me to wear varying degrees of hideous wigs! In previous years I have taken part in a couple of pantomimes in the UK, and this year am set to play the character of ‘Dandini’ in Cinderella at Kettering, Northamptonshire. Hopefully I will be off to do a short tour of shows over in Brazil towards the end of October – I always love going there, as I get to work with a live band, and Nicki French is quite a big name over in Brazil, which is rather nice! Apart from that I’ve just been working on my house – it’s never-ending of course! Oh, and I suppose I SHOULD really say ‘and taking time to sit and focus on writing songs at the piano….’!!!

NF: I absolutely loved singing in ‘Annie’ because it was I was required to do a more ‘classical’ style of singing. I was using my soprano voice, and could do that with a cold, fever – anything! As Nicki French the singing artist, I’m known as more of a ‘belter’ – but I enjoy both. I tend to warm up my voice in a more classical sort of style, but then – anything goes (ooh, cue for another show)!!!

NF: Ha ha! Me too!!! Well there are two quite recent tracks that are available – ‘Love to Call My Own’ and ‘In the Heat of the Night’. The first is quite a solid, club-type number, and the second has quite a Latin-American, salsa-type feel. They’re quite different – but have both been pretty popular I believe. Both these, and I think all my previous releases, are available from Amazon/itunes etc. I’m hoping to go into the studio and record a few more tracks very soon – although with the trip to Brazil looming, then panto, I’m not quite sure when we’ll get the chance to sort it! By the way, thanks for the compliment – a stint in the role of Liz Imbrie in High Society would do me VERY nicely, thank you! Someone else mentioned about the possibility of putting on a production of ‘Gypsy’ recently – and wanted me to play Mama Rose – imagine that!!! WOW!

NF: Well, first I’d like to thank them for reading this interview all the way through! Thank you as well Chris – you’ve been very patient!!! To the composers I would say I wish you all the very best of luck – and keep persevering! If you don’t win, it’s not the end of the world, and that lucky break IS just around the corner! To the voters – I recommend listening to a song at least three times. Some of the best songs I’ve sung and/or listened to have not grabbed me on the first, or even second, hearing – and many times my opinion has changed dramatically by the third listen. Don’t ignore your initial instincts, however give things a CHANCE!!! Good luck to everyone!!

NF: Thank you so much!

 Nicki’s official website

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Chris Poppe

Chris Poppe is an avid theatre-goer and his blog is an excellent place to discover new talent and hidden gems from the arts scene in England.

Chris is also a regular contributor to the weekly Eurovision show on Radio International

Jose Abreu

HCSC2011 – Song 11: Amanhecer, by Jose Abreu                                                                     
Congratulations to the Portuguese team. An anxious couple of days now awaits them, until they find out if they have made it to the Grand Final. If they have, they bring with them the first 12 points of this year’s contest!

The full results will be published after the end of the competition, and of course you will hear the top ten during the voting show on Monday

SBs: How did you get involved in the Home Composed Song Contest? What’s your “history” with the HCSC and what have your songs been like that you have entered?

JG: I actually don’t quite remember how I first got involved in it. After all, it was almost ten years ago, back when I was still just an innocent teenager. But I think I probably got to hear about it because a friend of mine had been participating in it for years already. And around that time I had just recently made up my mind that I wanted my future career to be as a songwriter. So I wrote some songs with some friends, did some quick demo arrangements, and submitted them. They were rather straight forward pop songs, although I think one of them had something like 8 (!) key changes in it.

Anyhow, the production quality of my songs then was quite horrible, but somehow they still scored well in the contest. And it was a fun experience, and I remember really liking the Bosnian song that ended up winning.

SBs:  Would you consider writing another schlager anthem for Hera Bjork? She was cruelly robbed in 2009 and deserves another go at representing Denmark.

JG: Cruelly robbed indeed, haha! But of course I’d consider writing her another schlager anthem! It’s always so much fun working with Hera. She’s not just a fantastic artist, but also a good friend of mine. (And we’ve both got great hair!). I don’t know if she’s ready to have another try again just yet, or where it would be – but who knows!

SBs: What was it like in the Green Room in Dansk Melodi Grand Prix? Did DR provide you with lots of free vodka and chocolate chip muffins to help calm the nerves in between voting rounds?

JG: No vodka, and no muffins! But we did get wine. Lots of it. A little too much, perhaps, some might say. Well, actually, they brought over three massive jars of wine to where we were sitting. Probably because we were nine people around the table (most of the other entries had much less people in total). Or maybe because they knew we knew how to party properly. But six people were obviously going to be on stage, singing, so we gently moved the drinks away from their direction. (Didn’t want anyone falling off the stage!). So it might have been that the three of us left in the greenroom when the others were on stage, got just a tiny bit tipsy. But that’s the benefit of only being a songwriter in these things!  Apart from that, the greenroom was first a bit intimidating, being situated in the middle of the audience and all, with people around us being able to see everything we did. But it also meant we really felt the energy of the crowd when they cheered for the songs – and it wasn’t until there and then that I began to realise that “Someday” might even stand a chance of winning.

SBs: What did you say to Brinck after he had won?

JG: Nothing, actually. Well, after the show was over he was clearly quite busy with all the journalists, and I didn’t see him at the afterparty. (Might be because us in the Someday gang were busy making the dancefloor dangerous together with Sukkerchok rather than checking out who else was actually there). But there were certanly no hard feelings or anything, people were generally quite satisfied with the results. Though I did get the chance to talk briefly to his songwriters after the show, and congratulated them and wished them good luck in Eurovision.

Although, of course, it was a bit ironic when this year in the Irish final I was once against up against the same songwriters, as they wrote the Jedward entry, and once again ended in 2nd place behind them! By just a small margin. I think I need to avoid competing against them, they seem to manage to beat me every time!         

                            

SBs: You’ve written songs for Eurovision in lots of style (big ballad for Niamh, schlager anthem for Hera, horrible guitarry noise for Ireland in 2009 and what can only be described as utter bonkersness in the Maltese final last year). What’s your favourite style of song? Do you write songs according to what is asked for? Or would you prefer to be like Thomas G:Son, who can’t help but churn out schlager stompathons (even though he secretly wants to be a rock god)?

JG: Well, I probably do have a bit of the G:son syndrome in me too! A schlager stomper always tends to come quite naturally. It doesn’t require that much effort either, I could probably chuck out a few just in my sleep. But I definitely enjoy the fact that I get the opportunity to work with lots of different styles of music, and I do like to surprise!

Quite often singers have pretty specific things in mind that they ask me to do, and it tends to often be a fun challenge. Especially the song in Malta last year. When the singer and his team described the kind of song and style they were after, it was something I’d bascially never done before. But it was fun creating what we did, and Ian (J.Anvil) was just the right type of performer for a crazy song like that.

My favourite style of song… I don’t have a favourite genre, a good song is always a good song no matter what style it is, but I tend to prefer songs with drama in them, rather than too happy or too sweet stuff. But it is so different from case to case. And all my songs are a bit like their my babies, I can’t for the life of it decide which ones I like the most.

SBs: Will you be entering any songs for Eurovision 2012? Can you give us a sneak preview of any of them?

After missing out on Eurovision this year, I’d definitely love to come back in 2012. Even though I do so much other stuff these days, stuff that sometimes might technically be more profitable, I do think that Eurovision is one of the most FUN things you can do as a songwriter. It’s a great chance to get one’s music noticed on an international level, but the experience of it is also a good reward for all the hard work we put into it.

I never understood why some Eurovision songwriters stay at home. Why turn down a week (or even two) full of parties, free wine, free sightseeing trips, mingling with other music biz people from all over the world, wardrobe malfuction dramas … and oh, did I mention the free wine?

I can tell you as much as that I have worked on some projects for some various national finals for next year. Time will tell what will become of it. But for now the details have to remain a secret.

Jonas Gladnikoff

SBs: Have you considered getting a haircut? Or is having enormous hair the hallmark of a fabulous schlager songwriter (see also Thomas G:Son)?

JG:  Certainly not! When I’m older and might start getting bald, then it’ll all have to go. But for now, the hair is defintiely staying. I don’t know if it’s my trademark, but having hair is just so much more fun than not having hair. And it’s quite interesting that because of it, people often compare me to Thomas G:son. Which is flattering, cause he’s a great songwriter and someone I looked up to even before I started my career! Even though mine is definitely a lot bigger than his. (Still talking about the hair, by the way)

SBs:  Do you have a message for the readers of Schlagerblog?

JG: Keep reading the Schlagerblog, and keep enjoying Eurovision!! And a special “Good Luck!” to those of you participating in the Home Composed Song Contest, of course!

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Many thanks to Jonas and to the Schlagerboys.

Martin Faulkner

HC: How did you get involved in the contest?

MF: It was in mid-1993, at the tender age of 14, that I spotted an advert in the OGAE UK magazine placed by Ace Frehmen, the UK’s first representative in the Home Composed Song Contest, asking if anyone was interested in being on his jury that year. I was just getting involved in playing and writing music for the first time, and the idea of an ESC-style contest for amateur composers around Europe appealed to me. I remember listening to the cassette on my Walkman while delivering free newspapers around my neighbourhood in Newcastle upon Tyne to earn a bit of extra pocket money. When I went for a walk around south-east London a few nights ago with this year’s songs on my mp3 player, the parallels suddenly occurred to me – who’d have thought I’d still be doing more or less the same thing nearly two decades later? Without the newspapers, of course!

HC: How many songs have you entered?

I made my debut in the contest in 1994, with the first of what eventually became several different bands – but a constant figure throughout has been my regular co-composer Ray Holt. It’s crazy to think that we’ve now been writing and entering the contest together for more than half our lives, from the schooldays of Jaded and B.G.H.B. through to our current and longest-lasting band, Vulnerable, a trio that is completed by Andrew Donaldson. Our 2011 entry “Weltschmerz” is my 30th entry in the contest – so far. It’s been quite an adventure, and long may it continue!

HC: Which is your personal favourite out of all of your songs?

MF: The teenager inside me is still proud of getting the lines “Pingu up my arse” and “Amputate all my limbs tonight” into HCSC entries. You can get away with more when you’re hosting the contest! More seriously, though: It’s a bit of a cliché, but my personal favourite is the song that got us our best result to date, “Lecture Over” from 2008. Our sound has improved so much over the years, mainly thanks to computer technology becoming widely (and affordably) available and the talents of our friend Guy Perchard in his home studio, but even we didn’t expect to ever finish as high as 4th with a ‘difficult’ style of music like ours! It just goes to show that it’s always worth persevering.

HC: Which is your all time favourite song from the contest?

MF: There are so many I could mention, but I still have a huge soft spot for the winner of the first HCSC I ever followed, Bengt Carlvik’s “Stop Me (I’m Running Away)” from 1993. Obviously the production sounds a little dated nowadays, as you’d expect, but the melody and the dark atmosphere intrigued me then and still intrigue me now – with added nostalgia value.

Very many thanks to Martin for looking after the contest over the years. You can listen to many of the Home Composed entries from the last 20 years at homecomposed.net, and here’s Vulnerable, with their cover version of Oh My Father, by Bert Jansch, who passed away earlier this year.

Our host this year Liam Jarnecki is a massive Eurovision fan whose deep knowledge and friendly style has seen him called on regularly by the media.  He has appeared on BBC News, BBC Breakfast, ITV News, Radio 5 live and many other news outlets. Usually he can be found in the newsrooms on the Sunday morning after the Contest deconstructing the events of the night before.

In 2002 he was the expert guest on BBC Choice’s Liquid Eurovision a five hour marathon alternative live coverage of the contest working with Jenny Eclair.  In 2003 and 2004 he served the same role for Lorraine Kelly’s post-show review “Eurovision, a little bit more.”

In 2011 he featured in the BBC1 documentary “Your Country Needs Blue.”

Liam has been a fan of the Home Composed Song Contest for a few years. He says his favourites were “A ritmo de tango” in 2008, “Ein Stuck des Wegs” in 2009, and “Running on empty” in 2010. He won’t tell us who his favourite is this year yet though he says he has one.

Here’s the video of the song….. enjoy!

Seth Sharp

Listen and vote here

OneVoice - Ylva and Linda

Twin sisters Ylva and Linda Persson first entered Home Composed in 2006, taking both the 2nd and 3rd  places with their entries that year.  Three years later they returned to take the title with ‘Här kommer solen’. The song has the distinction of winning by the biggest margin in the history of the contest, with 50% more votes than the runner up.

HC: Do you come from a musical family, and when did you start performing in public?

Y&L: There has always been an interest in music and instruments in our family. But we independently started our musical careers and performing in public by joining different choirs, focused on folk ballads and church music, and taking piano lessons, at around the age of 7. Then we went on to solo singing classes, show schools, music/singing competitions and cover bands.

HC: How does being  twins affect your writing and singing?

Y&L: When we started taking piano lessons we realised that we had a talent for playing piano by ear and from there we developed a creativity to compose our own songs, which we’ve done for 20 years. Being two and having a close bond to each other helps us feeling secure and supportive on stage and when writing our own music, which we always do together. But it is also a way to develop our singing. We now understand that this is a great gift that we must cherish. We often hear people say that we have a special sound as our voices are so alike and in perfect harmony.

HC: How did you come to enter Home Composed?

Y&L: We first heard about the HCSC through our participation in Melodifestivalklubben in Sweden and their website. We first entered in 2006 with two of our songs, Always in my heart, that came 2nd, and Finns här för dig that came 3rd. Then in 2009 we gave it another try with Här kommer solen, which was a co-operation with Dan Attlerud, who wrote the lyrics, and Martin Klaman , who produced the song. We were the composers of the song. We had earlier tried to send this entry to Sweden’s Melodifestival and Norway’s Melodi Grand Prix, so we were very happily surprised to win the HCSC that year and received a quite heavy trophy in the mail!

Här kommer solen was also chosen one of the 15 best in the Swedish Radio Stockholm singing/music competition called Svensktoppen nästa.

Ylva and Linda performing ‘Här kommer solen’

HC: Your Home Composed win was a classic Schlager. Is this your favourite musical style, and what other types of music do you like to sing?

Y&L: We mostly compose melodic pop/country music, influenced mostly by Swedish and European Schlager music. But we listen to almost all kinds of music and are very open to different musical styles. We regularly have gigs with our cover band at private parties, weddings, clubs and other events and therefore perform different covers such as pop, rock, soul and slow dance.

HC: Do you have a set way of writing together?

Y&L: As we have a background of singing in choirs, voice and harmony play important parts in our musical productions, as well as a catchy melody. Usually, one of us starts with the chorus or verse and then the other one helps out to finish the song when we sit by the piano or keyboard. We both write the lyrics, but recently Linda has focused on lyrics and Ylva has finished the productions with keyboard and sequencer programmes.

HC: Tell us about your experience in Melodifestivalen last year

Y&L: We entered the TV web contest, “Melodifestivalens webbjoker” last year and took the 11th place with our own composition “Varje steg”. It’s an uptempo pop schlager with lots of energy that makes you want to dance and sing and we recorded an English version as well called “My destiny”. We’ve had a lot of publicity since our participation in the Webbjoker and it’s given us the energy to take a step further into working more with music in the future.

HC: What are your favourite Melodifestivalen / Eurovision songs over the years?

Y&L: We have many favourites, but some that remain through the years are: Un jour, un enfant, Michelangelo, Sti Fotia, Once in a lifetime, Not a sinner nor a saint, Shake it, Era stupendo, Tornero. We discovered the Eurovision Song Contest in 1983 and Carola Haggkvist that competed for Sweden that year. She was a role model for us and this contest will always have an important place in our hearts. 

OneVoice - Ylva and Linda

HC: Do you have any tips for aspiring musicians about how to promote your music?

Y&L:  The web is an outstanding way to get people to hear your music and there are several sites such as MySpace, Reverbnation, Youtube and Facebook. At the moment we are number 2 on ReverbNations Pop charts for Stockholm! 

Here John talks about how opportunities to get involved in the contest have grown in recent years

photo: @11 www.robertbengston.com

The days of the rather stilted Eurovision Song Contest’s are long a thing of the past. Small audiences of dapper ladies and gentlemen in formal evening wear, politely clapping for each country have been (thankfully) replaced by thousands of enthusiastic fans, some dressed in outrageous attire, waving flags and banners to support their favourites. The fans have certainly made a huge impact on the broadcast; and not just in terms of the atmosphere in the arena. Fan websites, blogs and reports throughout the year do much to keep the contest alive for the 9-10 months of the year when there would otherwise be little activity.

But other than unofficial activities, have the fans made any impact on the actual song competition itself? It would seem that the answer is yes! Of course, within the music profession, fans of the show have been taking part as both singers and songwriters for many years. In the UK, ardent supporters of the contest such as Nicki French and Daz Sampson have both fulfilled their dreams and sung on the Eurovision stage. The format for the show has always allowed amateur writers to submit entries for consideration and some fans have thus seen their work reach national finals as well as the Grand Prix itself. But away from the actual song competition, it does seem that there are ways for fans to get involved even if singing or writing is not their primary skill or interest.

I myself long held a desire to write a definitive history of the Eurovision contest, tracing its development from concept to the mega-event it is today. Having been told numerous times that nobody would ever read a book about Eurovision, I persevered anyway and starting writing in 1999, ending up with a vast manuscript a couple of years later to hawk around to various publishers. Having written the text, I did try and get the EBU involved in the concept quite early on. Back then, the organizers had little enthusiasm for commercial off-shoots of the show and although supportive of the concept in general, they didn’t see how they could get involved. But things change and it’s largely thanks to the ever enthusiastic fans that that change came about. Websites such as esctoday.com began to become the ‘must read’ source for all Eurovision news. CD’s began to appear containing many (if not all) of the entries, projects driven by passionate fans of the show. Eventually, the EBU began to appreciate the possibilities of building their brand further and developing new outlets for the show and the fans that drove so many of those ideas deserve full credit. My own project eventually got the green light as the 50^th anniversary of the contest arrived, by which time, official CDs and DVDs were commonplace and webmasters such as Sietse Bakker had developed close relations with the EBU, eventually joining their ranks.

The Official History of The Eurovision Song Contest

The Home Composed contest is another logical step for any fan wanting to further their song writing skills and take that step into the Eurovision competition. A chance to have your work compared and judged by an international panel and audience, helping to hone songwriting and lyric creation skills is a great opportunity for any potential Eurovision writer. As long as any fan follows their dream and goal without getting discouraged by the inevitable set-backs, anything is possible. After all, it took Benny Anderson & Bjorn Ulvaeus a few attempts before they met their Waterloo. Everyone starts somewhere.

© John Kennedy O’Connor, 2011. All rights reserved.