Worst Eurovision Winners Ever – Hundreds of people have voted for their personal Top 5 of the Worst Eurovision winners ever. The 5th place of each voter got one point, the 4th place 2 points and so on, the first place thus getting 5 points. The result is a ranking of all 60 Eurovision winners. In the coming days we will reveal the Top 15 of your voting. Today we continue with one of the first winners: André Claveau.
It was France’s first victory: The Grande Nation sent André Claveau to the third Eurovision Song Contest in 1958. He performed a lullaby-chanson. “Dors,mon amour” (“Sleep, my love”) is a lullaby for Claveau’s lover. He tells her that they have “all the time to love, tonight” and that she is “protected by his arms” that surround her. (Although, judging from his thank you speech and his way of performing that may not have been a mademoiselle…) While many of today’s Eurovision fans may say that the lullaby did its job for them, the jurors in 1958 liked it a lot and awarded it 27 points. However, the song is one of the least popular and known Eurovision winners.
Here is the winner of 1958:
So you agree, that André Claveau is one of the worst winners ever? If you voted for him, why did you?
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Je love this classy song. I do not understand why it is here. :/
The song was old-fashioned already in 1958, but it doesn’t matter to me, since the song is my favourite of that year. Smooth, romantic and classy – what more can you ask for? And as I’ve said before; “Volare” is the weakest of Mudugno’s ESC songs. I would not have minded if he had won with “Dio, come ti amo”, but “Volare” doesn’t get me.
In the E.T. 1958 summary it was said this was a one of the most disliked winners I’m wondering if that might have influenced people??? I’ve no real opinon it, but I will admit it is a boring song.
Strange choice – I thought people like this kind of music here. It’s hard to evaluate this song because it’s been more then 50 years since it took part and these days standards of music have changed.
When I first listened to this song, it indeed succeeded in making me fall asleep. Over time, however, I’ve grown to appreciate it…
It’s called “sleep my love” for a reason…
Haha, I haven’t expected such an old Song here, since most of us haven’t seen it live. Okay, it’s very boring, but I thought, such a boring Song is forgotten very fast, especially after 54 Years:D
Yes, the song is gentle and classy and mellow and probably a lot of other laudable things too but at the end of the day it just bores me and leaves me utterly cold. It is not hateful just bland imo.
I agree!This should be even higher.But the title is very precise.Indeed,je me suis endormi..:D
So you are his “amour” then? ^^
Lol!I wouldn’t go that far.
It’s my #1 for that year. Usually I don’t like this kind of stuff in music, but I consider it among the best material we could have come up with for those years; anyway, the 50′s is my least favourite decade in the ESC.
“anyway, the 50′s is my least favourite decade in the ESC”
I would agree if it wasn’t for the great 1956 contest which does not have a single song I do not like. With an average of 7.93 1956 is still in 2nd place on my list of all contests.
Hi togravus,
I agree that 1956 is the best esc edition of that decade; here is some stuff from the 50′s that I like:
-1956: ITALY: Franca Raimondi-Aprite Le Finestre, GERMANY: Walter Andreas Schwarz-Im Wartesaal Zum Großen Glück, LUXEMBURG: Michèle Arnaud- Ne Crois Pas
-1959: ITALY: Domenico Modugno- Piove (Ciao, ciao bambina)
Cronologically the first song that I REALLY like in the ESC is François Deguelt’s-Ce Soir-là
Hi oxi,
Chronologically, my first 12/12 song is the 3rd song that was ever performed in ESC, Fud Leclerc’s “Messieurs les noyés de la Seine”.
“Ne crois pas” and “Im Wartesaal zum großen Glück” have 12/12 on my list too. The other contests from the 50s did not add another song to my pantheon. In fact, the next 12/12 song on my list is Nora Brockstedt’s “Voi-voi” (1960). “Ce soir-là” has 10/12 on my list.
Yes, 1956 is probably one of the best years in ESC history ever. Ironically, even though France is my favourite country in ESC, I do think that their songs in 1956 were the two weakest of that year. I know that “Il est là” is very popular among fans, but it’s in my last place of that year. Instead, I think Luxembourg had a great opening and I love both “Ne crois pas” and “Les amants de minuit” (probably my favourite song of the 50′s).
And of course “Ce soir-là” is a real gem. Perfect in every sense.
I agree, ‘Ce soir là’ is probably the best song ever sent by Monaco.
My fav monegasque entries:
03. Sophie- Une Chanson C’est Une Lettre 1975 (I love the orchestration in that one)
02. François Deguelt-Ce Soir-là 1960
01. Françoise Hardy- L’amour S’en Va 1963
Indeed. Hardy and Darly are not far behind. Darly has recently become my 2005 number 1. It did not even reach the final. Oh well…
Lise Darly is up there in my 2005 top too. The other 2005 songs I really love are Slovenia, Croatia, Ukraine, Denmark and Andorra. Marian’s live was a bit weak though … I tried to remain in denial for as long as possible and had ‘La mirada interior’ as my winner until last year … but now she has dropped to 5th place and is threatened by Belgium which has recently rushed up on my list.
I also love the 2005 Bulgarian entry. It is my current nº2. These lists can be tricky.
Yes, and they keep changing all the time. They are like the love child of a jellyfish with a chameleon …
LOOOL Good night, everyone!
That honour belongs to Françoise Hardy on my list but I really love both Romuald songs and “Ce soir-là” too … 5th place would probably go to Lise Darly. All ballads … LOL … but Monaco sent mainly ballads and was never good at up-tempo anyway imo. (Btw, I hope that I can use present perfect when talking about Monaco again in the future …)
Lise Darly with “Tout de moi”, the most undeservedly eleminated song in the semi-final history (if we don’t count 1993 and 1996 in it, then it’s Janika Sillamaa).
I love this song. It’s not very good, but what can I do? I’m flawed! LOL. Dors mon amour… whoever you are.
“Dors mon amour… whoever you are” I love this comment! Hi Shevek
Olá, Oxi!
Thanks.
I don’t think that “Dors mon amour” deserved to win in 1958, but it isn’t amongst the worst ever winners of ESC.
By the way, I have always been wondering, how Greece would do score-wise, should we had ever participated back in the 50′s and 60′s with sth like this:
…or this:
…or this:
Who knows?I don’t think we would win though.I think “Μυρτιά-Μυρτιά” is my favorite out of the 3.
How well do you think Giota Negka would do,nowdays?An amazing live performance!
Indeed Dimitri
I don’t think that we would stand a chance winning, but certainly it’s worth trying sending someone like Yota Nega
I could not agree more. It’s high time Greece sent something similar.
Thanks for the links, Oxi. Great songs! I would have voted for them, but ‘Song of the sirene’ is my favourite.
Glad you like them Shevek
That’s freaking fantastic. Thanks a lot!
Televoters would probably think that it is terribly boring … no easy to tap along to beat, no shaking hips, no flying breasts or ripped shirts …
You are probably right.But it would be a great change for us.I have no high hopes though.
I could only listen to the 1st 2 songs and loved them both. Thanks a lot for sharing.
ESC was dominated by northern and central European taste in the old days and those songs, beautiful as they are, would probably have crashed, burned and perished in ESC.
That is the reason too why countries like Portugal, Spain and Yugoslavia did pretty badly in the early years of ESC. Most songs these countries sent probably sounded somewhat strange to in particular German, Benelux and Scandinavian ears.
Even Domenico Modugno could never win ESC although two of his ESC songs became big hits, and I firmly believe that this is due to his very Mediterranean style of performing which probably struck people up north as melodramatic and over the top. Even a culturally huge country like Italy needed Gigliola’s very restrained (and anti-stereotypically Italian) performance to reach the cold hearts of Europe’s northern regions.
I agree with every single word of your comment togravus.
Re: Domenico Modugno in particular, I love both his song and performance in 1966 (#11 on my all time favs’ list)…and strangely enough “Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu” is my least favourite among his three esc efforts.
Yes, that’s probably the sad truth. One can see a clear split between Northern and Southern European countries when it was about Austria 1966. And we did also have Finland, which maybe was cursed by their language which doesn’t belong to the Indo-European language family, and therefore did sound too odd in many European ears.
Funny though, that Gustav Winckler and Birthe Wilke did blame their kiss as the reason why they didn’t win in 1957. They thought it was too much for the Catholic south.
Exactly. Austrians love their melodramatic stuff once in a while … well, here in Germany we think of Austria as belonging to the Balkans anyway.
Most people think that Austria 1966 was just another ballad winning but I have always argued that it was an exceptional winning song (irrespective of my personal taste. It is ok but nothing I would listen to if it wasn’t an ESC song … except for the one passage you all know I love …) because it was the first time a melodramatic ballad and an even more melodramatic performance won ESC. Quite expectedly, the south liked it and the north hated it. Even the German jury gave 0 points … Udo Jürgens became immensely popular in Germany nevertheless.
yes but ironically that year, extravagant Sweden won points from the North and subtle Norway too… I don’t agree with you though, I do believe that most esc winners have been doing amazingly on stage as soon as Corry and for instance Isabelle’s mimics in 1962 are pretty over the top “et toiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii”
I also really dislike “Merci chérie” and to be fair, I don’t even like a single Udo’s song (though “Merci chérie” is by far his worst)
No brothers feeling between Germany and Austria, then?
When I was in Budapest in a couple of years ago, I visited a guided tour in the Budapest Opera House. The guide was talking about that the Austrian Emperor did only visit the opera house once, and that was because he was envious that Vienna didn’t have such a grand opera (well, that was what he said). Later, in Vienna, I visited their Staatsoper, and they did talk about how it was the greatest opera house in Central Europe. Got the impression that most countries of former Austria-Hungary did have a quite tense relationship with Austria. Well, aufrecht geh’n, I suppose.
Oh, the Vienna Opera House, One of my fondest opera memories are linked to that place. I went there with a friend from Munich a couple of years ago because we wanted to hear Ruggero Raimondi sing Felipe in Verdi’s Don Carlos. My friend had a very elegant and glossy leather handbag, and when I looked at her during Felipe’s “Ella giammai m’amò’, a dear dropped onto her shiny black bag and slowly ran down there …
Definitely no brothers feeling between Germany and Austria … they think of us all as Prussians, which is pretty insulting if you are from Ba-Wü. Prussians love potatoes, cabbage and beer whereas we were romanised and are cheese and wine country … And they still lived in clay huts when we already had baths and theatres …
sounds like a wong kar wai scene
LOL … and good night for good.
But surely sauerkraut must be a uniting thing for all Germans?
I think we Scandinavians are closely related to Prussians when it comes to cuisine. Sausages, potatoes, pork and beer, instead of wine and cheese. And that we fry our food in butter, rather in olive oil.
Wiener Staatsoper is magnificent. And not to mention that they have Hotel Sacher with its wondeful sachertorte just around the corner.:)
Yeah the weakest of the French entries and one of the weakest 50s winners (still “Refrain” is even more old fashioned than this, but people love Lys coz she came back with better songs) but if you look at 1958 (Sweden, Switzerland and Italy are the only ones that could have done better) and at all winners, I don’t think it deserves the top 15
When you say “!better songs” do you mean polenta polenta polenta rissotto rissotto ^^
Signore! Signorina! Un espresso por favor… No! Vino!
If Lys Assia turns up in Malmö next year, I’ll command that she will sing that song together with the male host. Risotto, polenta e vino!
I’m so tired of seeing her every year though… I get for special occasions, but every year…
Togravus, Shevek, Dimitri, everyone, have a good night
…and what a night it’s gonna be here! hot as hell; it’s already 01.43 and we have 31 degrees outside.
As we say in Greece: I can’t stand even my own skin with all this heat!
Good night oxi, Shevek and everyone else going to bed.
Good night!
You lucky bastards, how about sharing your heat with us in the cold North?
Good night Oxi and everyone!Indeed!I can’t wait for this heat wave to end!
ahah it’s pretty cool here in France and I’m fine with that, I don’t like the heat much, g’night
Certainly not among the worst ESC winners. I can understand that many may be annoyed that “Nel blu dipinto di blu” didn’t win, but in its own right, “Dors, mon amour” is a truly beautiful song. As for the performance, I’ve always found it a bit comical.
Definately overshadowed over the years from the Italian entry but its a good enough song for the 50′s. Nothing particularly wrong with it and a deserved winner IMO. If there is one truly horrendous winner in the 50′s is that awful dutch entry in 1957 (which I hope will be featured in the list).