Macedonia (who else?) kick off my top 10 with this brilliant entry. I loved it from the start, in its original Macedonian version 'Angel si ti', but it was only on stage in Istanbul that I fell head over heels for this song. From the start it has a funky beat, but as soon as Tose grows 4 extra hands then it became something truly special. The stage is great, even his outfit works ok, and the backing singers being all in black is a good touch, though the chairs and ribbons are less successful. I love Tose's voice, his "Mala" is one of my favourite songs ever, and last year was the only time I've ever been affected by a singer's death, it took me by surprise how sad I was. A very fitting start to my top 10.
[#9] Austria 2002 - Manuel Ortega - Say A Word
This one even came as a big surprise to me that it found its way all the way up to the lower reaches of my top 10. The best of all pure pop songs to have been in ESC, I adore this in studio version, and the performance was alright, though Manuel was wearing possibly the ugliest t-shirt of ESC history. It is simple, catchy and good to dance to, and the bridge is fantastic.
[#8] France 2006 - Virginie Pouchin - Il Etait Temps
And now we have my favourite French entry, the beautiful but criminally underrated Il Etait Temps. Sure the pretty Virginie gave a slightly nervous perfromance on stage, but the simple presentation was otherwise very impressive, and France deserved a top 5 position for this stunning entry. I'm not sure whether preceding Moja Stikla is what helped this become such a serene oasis of calm for me, but it has helped me through many a hangover!
[#7] Bosnia-Herzegovina 2008 - Laka - Pokušaj
If this was from a few years ago it would probably be in my top 3, if not at the very top of my list, but because of it's recency I tried to be a little more objective. I adored this song right from the start, and my love hasn't showed any signs of abating up til now. My favourite part of the Eurovision Preview In Party in London was the performance of Laka and his sister, I just giggled away like a little child all the way through, and all my mates are well aware of how much I love this song after my party. The NF performance was brilliant irreverent fun, with the chicken and especially when Mirela fell over; and the ESC performance was just as good with the washing line, wedding dresses, and Laka appearing from a washing basket. But muiscally the song is fabulous too, with the great 'rap' from Mirela followed by the brilliant ambient music backed verses, but when the chorus kicks in it is tremendous, not to mention the "wooo!" bit. The fact that it came from my adopted ESC country Bosnia-Herzegovina just made the whhole thing even better!
[#6] Andorra 2005 - Jenny - Sense tu
Jenny has the accolade of receiving the worst ESC result of all my top 10 at ESC, but it didn't affect my enjoyment of the contest one bit (especially since Lordi won!). But damn I just lost The Game! Reading the lyrics I've just discovered that Jenny plays The Game too, and is so into it that she even sang about it at ESC! Now I love it even more! Thankfully Jenny decided to put some clothes on for the final performance, but no-one who saw it could ever forget those rehearsal pics! Some great chair usag and the typical OTT show with weak live vocals from Europe's favourite principality.
[#5] Estonia 2003 - Ruffus - Eighties Coming Back
And so my top 5 kicks off with the closest ESC has come to Britpop, from one of the best years of ESC. Estonia's best entry has a great title, fun lyrics, a good if not eyecatching performance and a catchy chorus, and is much better than the overrated entry from their neighbours Latvia by Brainstorm. Great mix of piano, guitars and drums, it gives a brilliant one to add to the diversity of ESC. I'm glad it beat fellow top 25ers Vanilla Ninja to the Eurolaul victory back then.
[#4] UK 2002 - Jessica Garlick - Come Back
Before Jessica got herself up the duff with some bloke's baby she'd have probably been top 2 on my countdown, but since there's no longer much chance of me allowing her to marry me, she'll have to settle with 4th place. The UK's best ever entry, a true singalong swayalong ballad, and just what the UK needs to send to even have a shot at making the top 10 these days. A good performance from the fittie Jessica Garlick, dressed as a cavewoman, even if a few notes weren't quite perfect. A powerful song aided by the brilliant backing singers, the song has a great ending and deserved every point it got.
The most recent discovery to have made it to such a high position on my list, and composer Serge Gainsbourg's second entry in my top 15, this is an amazing gem of a song from the 60s that I absolutely love. Minouche uses her great voice to produce the loudest ESC entry of all time, and it makes it all such overblown over the top fun. Add in the little countdowns in French every here and there and you have a remarkable explosive ESC entry.
[#2] Poland 1997 - Anna Maria Jopek - Ale jestem
A terrific folky entry from Poland that is heads and shoulders above everything else they've produced, I think this song is magnificent, and not only because it has "ale" in the title. Great use of instruments combined with the language and the dark stage gives this a really mysterious and ethereal feel, which is there right from the creepy intro. The lyrics are really nice, but sound even better in Polish, and Jordi and srg performing it in Berlin was a great highlight! Jeeeeesteeeeeem!
[#1] Slovenia 2005 - Omar Naber - Stop
So here it is, my absolute favourite ESC entry ever. This is less an ESC song and more an ESC album, with there being 7 versions of it (Stop, Go, Stop slow, On My Own, Stop Cro, Stop extended and Stop bilingual), and therefore Omar Naber is responsible for the most represented ESC song on my ipod. The NF version is a beautiful ballad that is slow and touching, and good to listen to when hungover, whereas the ESC version starts like the NF version before kicking into gear and powers up to produce a much stronger and more impassioned finish. Both versions make great use of a solitary backing singer to add an interesting dimension to the song, but the slow refrain at the end works much better in the original version with Omar getting up close to her, in the ESC version this bitwas rather rushed, and Omar had a terrible outfit on. I voted for this 17 times but it still didn't clear the semi final, which was a travesty of epic proportions! The English versions are both rather good too, and the little goat bleat in the ESC version is a cool highlight as well.
And that's it!! It took a while, but now my top 250 (well 249 after the Colette Dereal debacle!) has been revealed. I hope you enjoyed the countdown as much as I enjoyed compiling it.
Check out the full table ordered by country and year too.
