Today’s Top Eurotastic Song By Kikki Danielsson

Bra vibrationer (Good vibrations), written by Ingela Forsman and composed by Lasse Holm, was the Swedish entry to the Eurovision Song Contest 1985, performed by Kikki Danielsson.

At the end of judging that evening, Bra vibrationer took the third-place slot with 103 points. Finland and Norway both awarded Sweden 12 points that night.

Sung in contemporary schlager music style, the singer relates her strong emotions upon falling in love with a man with whom she had just met. She is concerned about things moving too fast, but in the end, she feels good vibrations and is very happy with what has transpired.

After Eurovision, the song was placed at #12 on the Swedish charts, and it stayed in the top 50 for eight weeks.

Ann-Kristin “Kikki” Danielsson (born 10 May 1952 in Osby, Sweden) is a Swedish country, dansband and pop singer. Sometimes, she also plays the accordion and she has also written some lyrics. She is also famous for yodeling in some songs. Kikki Danielsson gained her largest popularity in the Nordic region from the late 1970s until the late 1990s. She also gained popularity at the US country stage during the 1980s. In 1986, she had the “Kikki i Nashville” TV show.

Today’s Top Eurotastic Song By Amina

Le Dernier qui a parlé… (English translation: The last one who spoke…) was the French entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1991, performed in French by Amina as C’est le dernier qui a parlé qui a raison.

The song – the full title of which is one of the longest in Contest history – was written by Amina herself (of North African ancestry) and composed by Wasis Diop, resulting in an African feel to the music.

Lyrically, Amina sings about the truth of the saying referenced in the title. She also extends it to It’s the loudest one who spoke who is right.

At the close of voting, the song had received 146 points, placing 2nd in a field of 22 (she tied with Carola for the win, but the tie-break rules gave the crown to Sweden).

In 1991 Amina won Le prix Piaf as Best Female Singer of the Year, then she went on to get involved in Peter Gabriel’s peace project during the Gulf War. Joining a host of international stars in the studio, Amina took part in the recording of an EP which featured a new version of Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance”.

Today’s Top Eurotastic Song By Domenico Modugno

Nel blu dipinto di blu (In the Blue Painted Blue), popularly known as Volare (Italian for: to fly), is Domenico Modugno’s signature song and Italy’s entry in the 1958 Eurovision Song Contest.

At the end of the voting, Volare had received 13 points, placing 3rd in a field of 10.

Modugno’s recording became the first Grammy winner for the Grammy Award for Record of the Year and Grammy Award for Song of the Year in 1958. It is the only foreign-language recording to achieve this honor. It spent six weeks atop the Hot 100 in August and September 1958 and was Billboard’s number-one single for the year. It is one of only three one-hit wonders to become single of the year in the history of the Hot 100 (followed by Stranger on the Shore by Acker Bilk in 1962 and Bad Day by Daniel Powter in 2006).

Domenico Modugno (9 January 1928 – 6 August 1994) was a twice Grammy Award-winning Italian singer, songwriter, actor, and later in life, a member of the Italian Parliament.

21 years after Volare’s release Chrysler brought the song back – remember this:

 

Today’s Top Eurotastic Song By Toto Cutugno

Insieme: 1992 (English translation: Together: 1992) was the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 1990, in Zagreb, Croatia (then SFR Yugoslavia), performed in Italian by Toto Cutugno for Italy, that country’s second and final (to date) victory in the Contest.

Cutugno sang about bringing the disparate nations of Europe together. The 1992 of the title refers to the year in which the European Union was scheduled to begin operation, thus bringing the hope of the lyric to fruition. Cutugno sang the song with a backing group of five singers from Slovenia, the group Pepel in Kri, who represented Yugoslavia in 1975.

At the close of voting,  the song had received 149 points, placing 1st in a field of 22.

Today’s Top Eurotastic Song By Tommy Körberg

Stad i ljus (Town in light) is a ballad, which was the Swedish Melodifestivalen 1988 winning song and entry to the Eurovision Song Contest 1988, where it finished 12th.

The song was written by Py Bäckman performed by Tommy Körberg.

Stad i ljus was also released as a single in 1988. It peaked at #8 at the Swedish singles chart.

Tommy Körberg is a Swedish singer, actor, and musician. In 1969, he won Swedish Recording Industry Award Grammis in a category Best Debut Performance.

English-speaking audiences know him best for his role in the Benny Andersson–Björn Ulvaeus–Tim Rice musical Chess. He was the first to play the role of “The Russian” on the 1984 concept album Chess, and performed the same role on stage in the 1986 world première West End production in London, for which he was nominated for Laurence Olivier Award in category Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Musical.

Today’s Top Eurotastic Song By Gérard Lenorman

Chanteur de charme (English translation: “Crooner”) was the French entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1988, performed in French by Gérard Lenorman.

At the close of voting, it had received 64 points, placing 10th in a field of 21.

As befits the title, the song is a ballad, with Lenorman singing about the subject matter that crooners traditionally sing about. That is to say, he sings about the subject matter itself, rather than singing the type of song usually associated with the style. Indeed, he likens the songs themselves to “these stories of three times nothing, which rhyme badly, which do good” and later adds that “Nothing has ever prevented us from setting to music, those endlessly repeated clichés, romantic feelings” and remarks that his heart “stupidly proposes on the first page of a paper”.

Today’s Top Eurotastic Song By Srebrna Krila

Mangup (English translation: Rascal) was the Yugoslav entry to the Eurovision Song Contest 1988, composed by Rajko Dujmić and Stevo Cvikić and sung by Srebrna Krila in Serbo-Croatian.

At the close of the voting Mangup had received 87 points, placing 6th.

Srebrna Krila was a Croatian pop band from Zagreb that was popular across Yugoslavia.

The band was created in 1978, with Vlado Kalember as the lead singer. Most of their Kalember-era hits were written by Đorđe Novković.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s the band went through a series of different incarnations. Kalember left the band after their 1986 album 30 u hladu. The band disappeared after the death of its founder Muc in 2000.

Today’s Top Eurotastic Song By Lara Fabian

Croire (English translation: Believing) was the Luxembourgish entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1988, performed in French by Belgian singer Lara Fabian, an at the time 18 year old up and coming artist, and some twenty years later an established performer in all of Europe, the U.S. and Canada, South America and Japan.

The song is a ballad, with Fabian singing that she wants to believe in the good of humanity, rather than its dark side. She sings that “we have love within us”, which is her central belief.  Fabian also recorded the song in English and German language versions, as “Trust” and “Glaub’” respectively.

At the close of voting, this song received 90 points, placing a very respectable 4th in a field of 21.

Today’s Top Eurotastic Song By Rikki

Yes – we’re still adding 1987 songs as they keep on getting better! 

Only the Light, written and composed by Richard Peebles, was the United Kingdom’s entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 1987, performed by Peebles himself, who was credited at Eurovision as Rikki.

At the end of judging that evening, Only the Light took the thirteenth-place slot with 47 points. It came as a huge disappointment to the United Kingdom as it was the lowest placement any of the country’s entries had received up to that time.

Like the previous year, a rock song was in the offering, with an unclear theme (it is never explained what “the light” is, what kind of metaphor it is, why “the light” is after him or why he is avoiding it). On-stage that year were three backup singers and dancers, dressed in white, in addition to a keyboardist. Rikki, a native of Scotland, also accessorised with a tartan cloth slung over his shoulder.

The song placed at #96, not charting on the UK Singles Chart (the Top 75 songs) but as an addenda on the “Next 25″ version of the charts. This was the second year of dismal sales for the UK’s Eurovision entrant.

Today’s Top Eurotastic Song By Lotta Engberg

Fyra bugg och en Coca Cola (Four chewing gums and a Coca Cola), also called Fyra bugg, is a Swedish language song, written by Mikael Wendt and Christer Lundh. Swedish dansband and pop singer Lotta Engberg won the Swedish Melodifestivalen 1987 with this song.   Because of international advertising rules, the song was renamed to Boogaloo in the Eurovision Song Contest 1987.

At the close of voting, the song had received 50 points, placing 12th in a field of 22.

Lotta Engberg is a Swedish dansband and pop singer, born Anna Charlotte Pedersen on March 5, 1963 in Överkalix, Norrbotten County and grew up in Laxå, Örebro County.

On October 2, 1999, Sweden issued a postage stamp with her portrait.

For three years now Lotta has sung in the Diggiloo festival show. Every mid-year, the tour plays all over Sweden performing Melodifestivalen favourites, along with ESC hits.