Retro Sunday: Portugal 1996

We suppose you'll have to be a hardcore Eurovision fan to prefer old ESC classics over Christmas carols these days, and we have been searching really hard to find something sufficiently Christmassy in this week's Retro Sunday. The most obvious choice must be this pearl from the first time Oslo was the Eurovision host city:



Not only is this Portugal's best result so far, and a wonderful, happy celebration of Portugal's versatile historic roots. It has also connections to one of the best feelgood Christmas movies of all times, Love Actually. Lúcia Moniz portrays Colin Firth's (aka Mr. Darcy, we forgot his character's name in this movie) love interest Aurélia. Their encounter makes us almost start to think that Portuguese, not Italian, is the language of love and it's so very romantic when Aurélia mumbles something in her own language while Mr. Darcy keeps blabbering away in his own stiff upper-lip Oxford English. It's all extremely stereotyped, but what the heck, it's Christmas and we will allow ourselves to become mushy and sentimental.

Thanks to the Portuguese for keeping it real and almost always singing in their own language in Eurovision. We look forward to the Festival da Canção and hope to God they choose a decent entry for Düsseldorf. Because there's no other country we more wish success and a long awaited victory. And we wouldn't mind spending a couple of spring weeks in Lisbon either.

Feliz Natal a todos!

Well played: Fabulous frocks

There were some fabulous frocks on display on the Eurovision stage this year. And if you show up representing your country with a grandiose and pompous ballad it's simply demanded of you to go for a glamourous prom dress. This can be all wrong with an up-tempo song though, and it's basically about choosing an outfit that matches both the song and your own personal style. So why 18 year old Sieneke chose to appear on stage looking like a frumpy middle aged housewife is better left unmentioned...

Sofia Nizharadze from Georgia looked absolutely stunning on stage. Before the final the Georgian delegation went to Paris to sort out the choreography and sent Sofia on a shopping spree in Milan to find the perfect dress. This really paid off in Oslo as the whole act was a sight for sore eyes, with Sofia as the centre of attention. GEE were skeptical towards the busy gymnastics routine in the beginning, but Sofia and her crew proved us wrong and pulled the whole thing off with style and grace. Well done!

Omg, who on earth will pay the bill after our party in the Opera-house?








Portugal's Filipa Azevedo was every 10 year old girl's princess dream in her beautiful evening gown. The scenography was a real princess worthy and she was just so pretty and her vocal was flawless. She kinda deserved a ticket to the final even though GEE fell asleep twice, both at the semi-final and the final during her performance.

Wake up GEE blogger girls, I'm singing my heart out here!






We did of course know beforehand that the prettiest girl in Oslo during ESC would be our very own Haddy N'jie. Regardless, we were gobsmacked from the moment we saw Haddy on stage in the first semi-final in a creation by Leila Hafzi. She filled her role as host to perfection and even though she would probably look amazing wearing a potato sack, her beautiful outfits were the icing on the cake. Haddy for President and a cherry on top of that!

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's prettiest girl here in the hall?
















Yup, that's me all right!

Two steps forward, one step back

In ESC, Portugal is pretty much known for one thing only, for participating like a million times without winning the competition. In fact, they have not even come close! In 1996 Lúcia Moniz reached sixth place, with one of our all time favorite Portuguese entries. Ukulele can never be wrong in our opinion, especially when the instrument seems to be glued on to Lúcia´s frock! Kudos to the Portuguese for always singing in their own language, and of course for their stamina and for never giving up on us.

So will Europe finally understand Portugal and award them with a top 5 or podium finish? It didn´t start out very well this year when the jury overruled the public votes in the Festival da Canção and chose Filipa Azevedo and her buffed up power ballad over Catarina Pereira´s up beat latino number. Yeah, probably a mistake in terms of achieving a decent result in Oslo, but lets face it, Catarina can´t sing. At least she struggles with the singing while trying to cope with a rather intricate dance routine. Filipa on the other hand, can definitely sing, but we´re starting to overdose on little Miss Perfect 18 year old girls by now, and we miss some... substance. It´s amazing what a lived life and being born before 1990 can add to an otherwise plain number. Hey, from this perspective, we´re even starting to reconsider our views on Ireland´s entry this year!

We find it rather amusing that the piano guy vanishes into thin air half way trough Filipa´s performance, where he´s off to is something we need to investigate in Oslo. Is he too bored to finish the song, or is he simply underpaid and has agreed to take some time off? The misplaced wind machine is also a bit funny. Besides this we rate the entertainment value as quite low.

Portugal was really on to something with great entries both in 2008 and 2009. This is two steps forward, one step back.