Well, another Eurovision contest is over with Denmark gaining the first prize. The song is typical Eurovision material, with Emmelie De Forest performing “Only Teardrops”, singing in English, of course. English has become the “official” world language and Europe has adopted it with a vengeance, especially where Eurovision is concerned. The lure of international success in the big markets of the Anglophone countries is too great to ignore. A country has to be very brave to sing a song in Eurovision in its own language – and bravo to all of those do sing thus. The singer, who looks very beautiful, struggles to sing, I think, especially in the lower register.
The only concession to a differentiation from the standard “pop” material is the accompaniment, which contains the fife and drums of battle, in reference to the spat between lovers described in the song. The song could have been deeper if there was a pointed reference to a war, contrasting it with the first part, giving it much more relevance to current world situations (and justifying more the fife and drums):
“The sky is red tonight
We’re on the edge tonight
No shooting star to guide us.
Eye for an eye, why tear each other apart?
Please tell me why, why do we make it so hard?
Look at us now, we only got ourselves to blame
It’s such a shame.
How many times can we win and lose?
How many times can we break the rules between us?
Only teardrops…”
In any case, here is the winning song:
Compare that to
the 1983 Eurovision winner for Luxembourg, “Si La Vie Est Cadeau” sung in French by
Corinne Hermés, one of my favourites. It concerns the precious gift of life.
I was gutted that Malta didn't win! Gianluca Bezzina singing 'Tomorrow' had me hooked after 30 seconds!
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