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 a the first victory of a former East Bloc country in 2001:
Estonia’s win in 2001 was a big surprise to many. They were not considered even minor favorites. The hip-hop band 2XL provided backing vocals, while the lead vocals were sung by a male duo (the third in Eurovision history and the second in a row to win Eurovision). Tanel Padar is an Estonian rock singer, who rose to fame in a Tv singing contest. Dave Benton was born on the Caribean island of Aruba. He then moved to the US and worked as a backing singer for known artists such as Tom Jones. He later met his Estonian wife on a cruise ship and setteled in Estonia. The unusual duo presented a fun song, without much lyrical (and some say musical) depth, that apparently charmed the televoters (Some see this win as a negative turning point for quality in Eurovision). Benton is the oldest person and to date the only Black person to win the contest.
Here is their winning performance:
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That is no surprise but totally unjustified imo. Considering the very weak 2001 contest this is a deserved winner. I only think that Russia and France deserved to win more. Moreover, on my list of post 2000 winning songs, Estonia 01 is in 3rd place behind Serbia 07 and Germany 10.
I think it deserves a shared number one in the worst ever list with latvia, but like always, tastes differ…
I have to say I can see why it’s 4th. Wouldn’t have put it so high myself but I understand.
Tbh, I fail to see anything that bad in this particular song; though I ‘d rather seen Greece or France or even Russia winning that year, Estonia 01 is definately not among the worst winners imho.
I don’t dislike the song that much either.. I think its mostly because most people didn’t expect it..
Indeed it is not bad but most gays hate such stuff. Who remains for Top3 now? I would say Latvia 2002, Russia 2008 and either Sweden 1991 or Germany 2010.
germany 2010? you’re dreaming …. it would be on top of the listof the best winners
Each to their own.
Come’on everybody! This is a total non-song like a fill-up of space and time, nothing more, it’s the type of song that’s not even memorable, at least Diggy-Loo was. If this song didn’t exist it wouldn’t have changed anything in the world.
Certainly not the best year, but I don’t see another song from 2001 that wouldn’t fill the #4 at the WEWE list just as nicely. I (kind of) liked Germany, Slovenia, the Netherlands, Lithuania and Denmark, but I couldn’t consider any of these songs as “well deserved winners”.
Frankly,i would expect this to be even higher!What an uninspired c**p!Greece was much better in 2001 and so was France.This is so bad and anonymous.
After having read all those very critical comments, I watched the live performance again … and sorry, I still enjoy it a lot. It is a straightforward party song among all the cheese and irrelevant stuff ESC 2001 was full of (Sweden, Malta, Croatia, Ireland, Iceland, Norway to just name the worst ones …)
The other 2001 songs I enjoy listening to / watching are: Denmark, Greece, France, Germany, Russia, Lithuania and BiH. I like Spain (the first real shake it! in ESC …) and Turkey too although I know that I shouldn’t … The Netherlands, Slovenia, Israel and Portugal were ok but nothing more.
A groovy song, definitely better than most people say. Though I must say it was the weakest Estonian entry at that time, since Estonia imo send so many great songs during the 90′s, my favourite country of that decade. Interesting to note that Estonia during these years used 100% FOREIGN expert juries. It was the least favourite song of Jørgen Olsen (Denmark 2000) but the favourite of Moshe Datz (Israel 1991) for example.
http://www.eurovisioon.ee/eurolaul.php?id=2001
I wouldn’t call it bad, but week. I think, we all expected this;)
I love it, it’s my #2 of 2001 behind Russia (and only Bosnia, my third, is as good). Great song, amazing performance and a definitely well deserved winner. I’m actually glad it’s “only” fourth and not in the top 3, I expected it to win even above Latvia, which will now be a clear winner of this!
My fav in 2001 was France but said at the time Estonia would win and actually had them 2nd and still like the song.
The only songs I remotely liked in 2001 were Germany, France, and Bosnia. Estonia was one of the few others that I found tolerable. In that way, Estonia was a worthy winner. Would Estonia 2001 be on my fifteen worst winners? Probably, but closer to 15th-13th.
I think this is the best winner – the music is very uplifting, great entertainment, it gets my 12 points.
I actually like it. It’s a very happy song, and especially Dave Benton has a great voice. The music is groovy, reminding me a little of soul music from the 70′s. Maybe not the best winning song ever, but it’s far better than songs like “Belive”, “Diggi loo diggi ley”, “La la la” or “I wanna”.
Definitely deserving a place among worst winners !
Russia is my 2001 wiiner followed by Greece , Spain and Slovenia !