Best Last Place – 90 songs have come last or shared last at the Eurovision Song Contest. Over the last weeks hundreds of our readers have voted for their favorites. Each voter submitted his personal Top 5. In the next days we will reveal your Top 15. We start with your place 15: Thomas Forstner from Austria!
In 1991, Austria sent a man to Rome who had proven he could achieve a good result. Thomas Forstner had come 5th in the Eurovision Song Contest 1989 with “Nu rein Lied” (“Only a Song”) and thus achieved Austria’s best result since their win in 1966. However, in Rome his luck changed. His entry “Venedig im Regen” (“Venice in the Rain”) in which he sings of the possibility to meet a beautiful woman in said city, came last without a single point. It may have been Forstner’s blue jump suit that irritated the judges.
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Not my cup of tea, but, imho, “Venedig in Regen” is not that bad as a song and it definately didn’t deserve to be a zero pointer (I prefer Thomas Forstner’s 1989 to this one). But in a great year as 1991, with so many other amazing songs, it didn’t stand any chance I’m afraid.
“Venedig IM Regen” of course
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It’s quite a nice song, so it probably deserved more indeed.
I’m rather surprised to see this. Of course a lot of the most recent last places (plus in recent years, there are 3 last per years) will show up in this top 15 so seeing not only an old song in, but of all the old songs this one is rather surprising. And a nice surprise too. The song is in my 1991 top 10 (admittedly, only 10th) as I’m not that fond of 91 and even though he did look rather bad, the song’s charming and definitely harmless. But then again, most last places are not the worst, just th ones that are too bland to raise any votes. It’s better to be extremely bad, like Yugoslavia 1991, to get at least one crazy vote (and as usual, Malta’s). Good way to start this top 15! Hurrah!
Haha, I like the ESC version of “Brazil”. The Jugovizija version is horrible but the ESC version is good. And it’s all about the string arrangement. It creates an almost haunting atmosphere that somehow enchants me. Actually, YU 1991 and DK 1997 have made me realise that I can appreciate everything if it just has strings. A weak spot I have that must be fixed in some way.
really? im a huge sucker for brass instruments (we already mentioned Berlioz earlier this week :p)
The jumpsuit is definitley appalling but the song is quite nice. I’m also pleasantly surprised it made the list!
This is a surprise indeed but not a pleasant one, at least not to me. I have never liked the song because it is one of those generic German schlager ballad things (sh*ts). We had tons of them in the 80s and they all sounded exactly the same. 1/12 (because of the decent vocals) and 20th place on my 1991 list. I only like German and UK songs less which both have 0/12 on my list.
You’re right about it being generic, but after all 91 is filled with them (Sweden, Israel, Spain or Switzerland: generic swedish schlager, israeli typical pop one-syllable-repeated, overheard shouty spanish ballads and the stereotypical innocent italian girl…) and I just find Austria 91 good in its own simple and charming way: at least it did not pretend to be anything than it was and Thomas is a good singer and imo he has lots of charisma (reason why he got 5th in 89 to begin with)
You are right … but then I do not mind generic songs in a genre I like. I love both Spain 1991 and Israel 1991.
In fact, ‘Kan’ is where my virtual ESC fan life began. One night back in 2004 I went online in order to find Duo Datz’ ESC performance. That was the first time ever I searched the www for sth ESC-related. Well, I got hooked, signed up on ESCToday a year later and are here today. 
i don’t think i mind either way, generic or not: if a song is good, it’s good, it does not compute as great or amazing if it’s nothing but a “generic but well crafted put together and genuinely good” but at least that’s better than “creativity that stinks” like Georgia 2012… I really don’t like any I mentioned, except Switzerland 1991 which is ok, but Spain, Israel and Sweden all bug me. France 1991 is unique. Never did France ever send something like that again, nor anyone else: and in all technical aspects, it’s perfect. What more to ask? I have Greece and Portugal in the rest of my top 3, for all the obvious reasons :p
Our 1991 lists are obviously pretty different (except for France on top of the whole bunch of course …). Here are my top 10:
1st France – 2nd Israel – 3rd Spain – 4th Portugal – 5th Cyprus – 6th Italy – 7th Greece (I love all these songs …)
8th Malta (I don’t really like the song but probably the best vocal live performance by a duo ever) – 9th Luxemburg (don’t know why … I just like it …) – 10th Ireland, Switzerland, Turkey or Finland … they are all OK.
Finland is great and my 4th, just a bit odd :p
to be thorough, i have Finland 4th and Belgium 5th, then come in all the typical entries, so I have Switzerland, Italy, Norway, Uk and Austria to close my top 10… Spain, Israel and Sweden are outside the top 10 with Luxembourg, Iceland, Cyprus, Denmark and Malta, all so lame… I really hate the Irish, Yugoslav and Germany songs (my bottom 3)
What is lame about Cyprus except the lyrics perhaps? It is a truly singluar composition. I don’t know any similar song in particular with regard to the orchestration.
well the composition is fine, though a tad over the top, but the lyrics are quite awful imo and the vocals just don’t do it for me, I admit that, without hating it at all, I spend 3mns thinking “huh?” and just overall think it’s lame co it never uplifts everything it’s set to do
1. France
2. Italy
3. Portugal
4. Malta
5. Iceland (best Icelandic entry ever)
6. Spain
7. Switzerland
8. Sweden
9. Israel
10. Cyprus
Really dislike the German and Danish entry. ESC 1991 was probably then the best Eurovision since the black-white era.
I’d say that song-wise 1991 was the best contest since 1971 … or perhaps 1974.
true that the 80s were really bad, but then 93-97 will be all better than 91 imo
I always listen to the studio versions to know if I really like/don’t like a song for this particular year because the orchestra mass-murdered most entries
And the countdown begins!
Austria 91 is a charming song as Morgan has written. His suit is simply ugly. The hair does not help either. I would not have chosen it as one of the 15 best last places, but I can live with it.
P.S.: France 91 should have won by a landslide, btw. However, the glossy magazine readers who acted as jurors went for the very perky (to the point of being annoying) Carola. To be fair they were split between the French and the Swedish entries.
Poor Thomas. Just as Eurovision seemed to have built up his career two years earlier, and now did it suddenly destroy all his chances to follow it up. The song is not the worst but at least one of the worse songs in the strong year of 1991. A bit nice but at the same time tacky.
It’s a harmless little song.Rather generic i would say.
Poor Thomas Forstner siging “Venice in the rain” thought that he should be dressed like taking part in the Venice carnival.
Re: Yugoslavia that year: it contains sort of everything I would originally dislike in music. Still, I can’t help not liking it
For me it’s the definition of: guilty pleasure
Indeed.Bebi Dol is like a character taken from an Almodovar movie..:)
Yes, it could be, Dimitri. The whole act reminds me the heroin in “Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown”
And you like Paparizou in 2005?
Really no comment, she (and all other recent Greek entries) are so slutty and you speak about Yugoslavia LOOOL:D
I’ve always considered her as a Lady Gaga before Lady Gaga. I just love the way she was sitting in the green room in the Yugoslav final during the voting, constantly waving her sunfeather and with a completely uninterested look in her face…
Thanks for the link.I admit that i haven’t watched this particular moment from their national final but i can easily picture her.
Btw, here is another one I have as a huge …guilty pleasure:
The attached microphone on the tie, is simply …epic!!!
Wow, when I voted this Song, I thought, it will never have a Chance to reach Top15 & that I may be the only one. Now I’m satisfied:)
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Well, it doesn’t sound bad, and it’s ok performed, but the song doesn’t really stand out. I don’t think it deserved zero points, though.