Vote! Your favourite Eurovision song from Ireland - Round 5!

The vote continues to Round 5. This round is the Something of Something round. Now, I'm not suggesting Irish songs are formulaic, but these 4 have titles structured blah of blah. But which is your favourite?

How about Ireland's first ever Eurovision winner? Wee Dana from Derry with All Kinds of Everything. Bless her little cotton socks!

Or what about Pat McGeegan's effort from 2 years earlier? He sang about his Chance of a Lifetime.

Ireland really were on a Something of Something roll in the late 60s when 1 year later, 1969, we sent the lovely Muriel Day with The Wages of Love. What a great name! Amazing dress! Brilliant key-change bit!

Next up, a jump of 30-odd years to 2000, and the very timely Millennium of Love by Eamonn Toal and his hair.

So! Vote vote vote for your winner. NB: Should nobody vote (cough), Muriel Day will win this round hands down.

Icelandic map by Thor

I've collected Iceland for my 'Globe' Project. This is Iceland, as drawn by Thor, a Retro Bar Douze Points regular.

Realising Thor was Icelandic - I don't meet many Icelandic people - I grabbed my chance.

It's also made me realise - I'm unlikely to meet many people from Vanautu, Tonga, and a huge wealth of nations... So I'm going to change this project to be a collection of European countries maps. It will henceforth be EuroRevision.

London Eurovision Party

Last night's UK Eurovision Party was an amazing night - how could it not be with that line-up? My highlights:

• Passing Ani Lorak on the stairs as I went in.
• Seeing Malta's Morena on the VIP balcony bopping along to Eurovision hits
• Seeing Nanne Gronvall on the VIP balcony finger-clicking and singing Making Your Mind Up
• Cheryl Baker - Queen of Advertising - advertising Bucks Fizz's Greatest Hits
• Malta's Morena bouncing up and down to perform Vodka
• Iceland's Euroband doing a medley of Eurovision hits, and then the fantastic This is my life
• Nanne Gronvall bringing on backing dancers.
• The Armenians that showed up to support Sirusho

• The sheer bonkers-ness of Bosnia's Laka
• Ani Lorak performing Shady Lady
• Ani Lorak's topless buff dancers - she knows her audience.
• Dancing to Hero again and again and again

Here's Ani Lorak performing Shady Lady

And here is Nanne doing Hall Om Mig. Brilliant!

Vote! Your favourite Eurovision song from Ireland - Round 4!

This is a random round - if you can find a common thread in these songs, you're something of a genius (aside from being Irish and in Eurovision, obviously).

So, in chronological order, first up, from 1967, is Sean Dunphy with If I Could Choose. Sadly, youtube doesn't have the whole performance, so you'll have to make do with a mini-soundclip in this Contest roundup (he pops up around the 6 minute mark).



Next, from 1975, it's The Swarbriggs - minus their 2. Here's That's What Friends Are For.



And now, from 1979, here is Cathal Dunne with Happy Man.



And, lastly, from 1993, the second of Ireland's famous three-in-a-row victory, Niamh Kavanagh with In your eyes. This was voted Ireland's favourite Eurovision entry a few years ago - will it be your favourite?



So, Millstreet calling, etc. Please leave your votes in the comments.

Vote! Favourite Irish Eurovision song - Round 3

Onwards from the losers of the last round to some of Ireland's glittering winners. This is the "Oh, it's you again!" round - those entrants who know when they're onto a good thing, and come back to the Eurovision stage.

First up, the man dubbed Mr Eurovision, Johnny Logan. Here he is, second time round for Ireland, in all his white-suited glory.

Hot on his heels is the singer of his song Why Me?, the one and only Linda Martin. She's quite the celebrity in Ireland these days, but this is her first Eurovision attempt - the fantastic Terminal 3. Linda came second with this (and seems to be wearing Johnny Logan's suit). Will she win your votes?

Next up, former showband boys The Swarbriggs. Having come 9th in 1975's Eurovision, they came back (with 2 lovely ladies) to compete in 1977. The brilliantly-named Swarbriggs Plus 2 sang It's Nice to be in Love Again and came 3rd.

Finally for this round, an entrant who has not done Eurovision twice, but has tried. Marc Roberts, our representative in 1997, entered our national final this year but couldn't compete with Dustin. In 1997, Ireland had won 4 of the previous 5 Eurovisions - nobody wanted another Irish win. This came 2nd.

So, your votes please! 12 for favourite, 6 for 2nd, 3 for 3rd (or just whatever you like, and I'll work it out!). Remember: all the previous rounds are open until the end of the first 10 semi-finals, so vote on those too!

Vote! Favourite Irish Eurovision song - Round 2

Ireland have won Eurovision 7 times, making us the most successful Eurovision countries (if you just count wins).

However, we have finished quiet spectacularly badly on more than one occasion. 2007 was the nadir, when we finished last in the final.

This round is the Paddy Last round. Which of these losers is your favourite? 12 points for your fave, 6 for 2nd favourite, and 3 for your 3rd.

First up, Kiev Connolly & Missing Passengers from 1989. You might rightly ask 'who?' as surely nobody remembers this. It came 21st and was Ireland's lowest placed entry until then. Poor Kiev.

Next, from 2004, Waterford man Chris Doran. He won You're A Star, but wasn't popular with the Euro-voters. Maybe it was his sub-Westlife oversized white jacket? As an aside: I love the stage for this song, it's all shimmery.

And next, 2007's Disaster Dervish. I still maintain Dervish are a good act, but not on TV. It's painful to watch.

Next, from 2002, is Gary O'Shaughnessy with Without your love. I don't think this is all that bad, but it came 3rd last. Its failure led RTE to rethink our entrants and invent the You're A Star competition.

And last of this motley crew is 1999's The Mullans. Their song was called When You Need Me, and clearly nobody did as they came 18th. Oh dear.

So which of this likely lot is your favourite? This is Millstreet Calling, leave your votes in the comments.

Vote for your favourite Irish eurovision song!

Inspired by the delightful Chig, who last year ran a vote to find the favourite UK Eurovision entrant, I'm going to start a vote to find the most popular Irish entrant.

Ireland are sending a turkey this year, whose ditty is gently ribbing the Contest. Has the Irish love affair ended? If so, what will be the swansong? Let's find out.

Eiresong Eurosong: Round 1

Here's how it will work: there are 40-or-so songs, divided into 10 groups. A winner from each group goes to semi-final stage with two automatic byes to the final. A Final of 4 songs will then battle it out. Exciting stuff. So let's go.

The first round are Songs That Are Acediscovery Favourites. They're all a bit poptastic. Leave your votes as follows: 12 points for your favourite, 6 for middle, and 1 point for number 3 in your selection.

Song 1, from 1974, is the lovely Tina with Cross Your Heart. Irish women everywhere were wearing that Criss-Cross Playtex number come summer 1974.

Song 2, from 1982, is the Duskeys with Here Today, Gone Tomorrow. The Duskeys weren't all Duskey by name. One was Sandy Kelly who went on to release many a country album in Ireland.

Song 3, from 1981, is the band Sheeba with Horoscopes. Marion Fosset, the woman who is shown last, was a circus ring-mistress, and Maxi (her in the middle) is still broadcasting in Ireland. Maxi is a legend, and was part of the trio Maxi, Dick & Twink. Brilliant.

So that's it! This is Millstreet Calling - what are your votes please?!

(You can vote right up until the end of the 10th round, so there's nothing stopping you.)

I Got Around

Just over a year ago, I went to see ace synthpoppers Dragonette play their showcase. They gave out Oyster card holders emblazoned with "I Get Around", one of their song titles.

Sadly today, I have to decommission my Dragonette Oyster holder as it has fallen apart.

Eurovision in London

It's not often that Eurovision performers come to London, but when they do, I fizz with excitement

Billed as the biggest Eurovision event in London since the 1977 Contest, the UK Eurovision party have the strut-tastic diva that is Ani Lorak, the 90s dance-a-thon poppers from Iceland, and I'm sure many more to come. Colour me excited.

More details at: http://www.ukeurovision.com/

Random Ani Lorak fact. Her name is really Karolina, which spelled backwards is Ani Lorak. And, to whet the appetite, here she is being fierce and fabulous with a veritable army of dancers at this year's Russian National Final.

Place Quote: Gypsies & Communism

'Most Gypsies liked communism because it gave them houses, paid them to have children,' adds Henry, who grew up in East Germany. 'They don't see the faults in the communist system as we do. Censorship never affected them as they had no desire to read Western literature or talk of politics. And when the revolution came Gypsies were the first to lose their jobs in the factories'.

• Garth Cartwright, Princes amongst men, p.209

Place Quote: Yugoslav immigrants in New Zealand

Many Yugoslav immigrants shared my West Auckland suburb, relieved at escaping a nation that had known so much grief during the first half of the twentieth century. Yet they surely missed things - cafés, markets, farm smells, local humour, weary blues, old buildings, the ruins of history, messy everyday stuff that knits a community's soul. And the Gypsies. I bet, tucked up in their suburban comfort, hearing the sound of lawnmowers and sprinklers, radios and TVs, they missed the chatter and music and nuisance of the Gypsies.

• Garth Cartwright, Princes amongst men, p.146-147

Place Quote: Corruption in ex-communist countries

...the corruption continues. Maybe for people in Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, life is better now communism has ended. But in Bulgaria, we have never had good government and life is so much more difficult. OK, we have more freedom and it's much easier to buy things. You used to have contacts to get certain things. But beyond that, everything is worse. Before, Sofia was a clean city. They had lots of people employed to keep the city clean. Now, well, someone has a contract to keep the city clean but the money vanishes rather than is spent on employing cleaners. And before you never worried if you could feed your children, what you would provide for dinner that night. Now, it can be so tough. Before, life was very easy. We used to take two holidays a year. One on the Black Sea and one in the mountains. Now we can't afford to take holidays.

• Garth Cartwright, Princes amongst men, p. 274-275

No Walk in New York

Protests were staged at New York's St Patrick's Day parade yesterday to highlight, yet again, the parade organisers' refusal to allow Irish and Irish-American gay groups participate in the parade.

In amongst all the shouting and chanting in the US, however, are a much smaller group - the Northern Ireland Gay Rights Association who picket offices and the American Embassy in London.

NIGRA president PA MagLochlainn told reporters, "Gay women and men can take part in St. Patrick's Day Parades in Dublin, Cork and Belfast - but they cannot in New York. This bigoted ban is long since out of date."

Most people see St Patrick's Day as a celebration, but New York's goodwill does not extend to all men and women.

Polski-pop

A compilation album of the best Polish music is released next week in the UK - evidence of the growing market for all things Polish in the UK, due to recent arrivals, but hopefully the songs will gather some British fans also.

This is fantastic: part geography, part europop.

The album has a whopping 76 songs, with many Polish Eurovision acts appearing - Edyta Gorniak features multiply, as well as Blue Café, Kasia Kowalska & Justyna.

One song title jumped out at me - Natalia Kukulska's Sexi Flexi. It turns out to be a slice of funky pop, with a simple but ace video. This song is from her tenth album - how many UK popstars achieve such an accolade?

• Check out The Best Polish Songs Ever

Let's get quizzical: the answers

We have a winners: International pop blogging sensations PopPosterGirl & RobbingTheDead. Well done! & thanks to all who replied!

The answers are:

Song 1 - Netherlands - Jim Bakkum - Altijd
Song 2 - Spain - dancetastic Rosa Lopez - Más
Song 3 - Poland - Gosia Andrzejewicz - Nidgy Juz
Song 4 - France - the legend Mylène Farmer - Libertine
Song 5 - Finland - Antti Tuisku - Levoton
Song 6 - Ukraine - Ruslana - Kolomyika
Song 7 - Sweden - Amazing Lena Philipsson - Stopp! Nej! Gå Härifrån!*

(*Amazing pop song name. It means Stop! No! Go Away!)

Let's Get Quizzical

Every week, in my office, we have a quiz. The quizzes usually have a geography theme (we're nerdy like that). This week I provided the EuroPopQuiz!

Now I'd like to offer the quiz to the dear readers of acediscovery. I may make this a regular occurance as quizzes are the ace fun.

So - listen to or download the mp3 and reply. The mp3 has 7 sound clips - each from a different country. The task is to identify which country the songs come from - hint: all the countries are in Europe.

I'll select a winner, and there will be a prize! (most likely a CD)

Reason to love Sweden #83

During Melodifestivalen, at all Statoil petrol stations, drivers can fill their tank with soemthing called a schlager mix...

Each petrol pump will be equiped with a magic button called the schlagerbutton. Press the button, and the sounds of schlager can be enjoyed while refilling.

How amazing. Get me a car and a Sveriges road map, and I'm there. No pyrotechnics allowed, mind.

Deutsch schlager

Today, I made a gift CD of German pop and schlager. What a gift! Here's are two songs - from the very same year.

Joy Flemming gives it some welly at Eurovision 1975. I'm in awe of the dress, her punching the air, the soaring chorus, and the wonderfully rousing brassy sound. It's brilliant. Also loving the composer doing a leap between verses, and Joy's cheeky line of English at the end of the song.

And German favourite Marianne Rosenberg in another fabulous frock sings the gay disco classic Er gehört zu mir, trying out to represent Germany in Eurovision - but Frau Fleming beat her to it!

Tokyo musicians, Swedish pastoral, Romanian river

This week, I saw three exhibitions:

• Marco Bohr's photographs of Tokyo riverside musicians at Mummery & Schnell
• Sigrid Holmwood's paintings of Swedish peasant life at Annely Juda
• Serban Savu's paintings of contemporary Romanian life at FA Projects

Marco Bohr's photographs of Tokyo show musicians on the banks of the Tamagawa river. The open spaces are the opposite of the modern, neon image of Tokyo. With usual Japanese respect, the musicians practise their music on the river banks, rather than disturb their neighbours who are so close due to Tokyo's density.


Sigrid Holwood's paintings shine with colour: neon yellows, fluorescent oranges and greens. The colour seems at odds with the subject: Swedish rural landscapes and scenes of peasant life. The paintings are alluring - my favourites were the landscapes. I saw them glowing with atmosphere. The colours express the joys of being in the landscape.

The paintings of humans, however, play with reality - many of them were painted in folk museums, so their inauthentic colours match the inauthentic nature of the scenes.

Most of Serban Savu's work saddened me: painted from a distance, and with dull, oppressive colours. They show people on the banks of a river in Romania. The painting above seems to sum this up: the scene looks very jolly, a family or group enjoying a day by the river, a holiday. But the colours have no fun. Perhaps this is to suggest that social life in Romania oppresse, but I found this to be sombre, sad, depressing.

Maps with borders, by Katharina and Jaan

My project to collect a map of every European country drawn by a citizen of that country is ongoing.

I recently asked Katharina from Denmark & Jann from Estonia to draw their countries.

Both their efforts are interesting, as they differ from what comes before.

Whereas other maps have shown just the country in question, Katharina and Jann's place their countries in context. Thus, Katharina's map shows Germany and Jann's shows Finland, Latvia, Lithuania.

All countries are placed in their bordered contexts, but Jann & Katharina's inclusion of these highlights how those before them had not done this.