France Gall, who has died recently, won the Eurovision Song Contest for Luxembourg in 1965. She was French as was the song’s composer Serge Gainsbourg. I believe this video is of her performance on the night.

France Gall: Poupée de Cire Poupée de Son

Gall was apparently the subject of a particularly cruel trick by Gainsbourg when he persuaded her to record the song Les Sucettes (Lollipops) about whose double meaning Gall claims she was unaware. (Though the Guardian obituary linked to above says that when requested to lick one for a TV performance, she declined.) The film below makes the lyric’s inference obvious.

France Gall: Les Sucettes

This video outlines the story, along with Gall’s viewpoint.

Isabelle Geneviève Marie Anne “France” Gall: 9/10/1947 – 7/1/2018. So it goes.

I can just about remember when Terry Wogan wasn’t a fixture of British public life but that memory was fading. In recent years he had himself receded a little from the public eye, retiring from his braekfast show and from commentating on the Eurovision Song Contest but he still popped up with an intermittent weekly radio show on Radio 2 and the annual Children in Need telethons (all in a good cause certainly but usually so laced with embarassing performances that I found it difficult to watch so I hadn’t done so for years.)

Despite his failure to appear on last year’s Children in Need in November due to illness – a warning sign as it turned out – it was still a shock to wake up to the news today that he had died.

I also noticed there were retrospective clip shows from his thrice-weekly 80s chat show on in the afternoon in the run-up to Christmas 2015. Maybe there was a hint there too.

I wasn’t one of his listeners in the 60s – or indeed in the 70s – but in later life I found his breakfast radio show congenial listening in the short interval between being woken by the alarm clock and actually getting out of bed. Perhaps it took reaching a certain age to appreciate his charms.

He always seemd perfectly genial – a great trick to pull off in the early morning – but by all accounts this was simply him; there was apparently no difference between his public and private persona.

The world feels diminished by his death. I fervently hope it doesn’t turn out he had feet of clay (as others of his vintage had) but if all that has been said of him is true there may be no need to fear.

Michael Terence “Terry” Wogan; 3/8/1938 – 31/1/2016. So it goes.

I missed marking the Eurovision Song Contest last week so thought I’d make up for it now.

Vicky Leandros, as Vicky, sang L’amour Est Blue in the year Sandie Shaw won the contest, 1967. However she triumphed with this belter in 1972. A song in French by a Greek singer representing Luxembourg. Only at Eurovision.

By the way, is there anyone else who hears a resemblance in the tune for each verse to a certain work composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber?

For some reason it must have been thought no-one in the UK would buy a song with a lyric in French, as Vicky’s UK chart entry came with the reworking of Après Toi as Come What May.

Vicky Leandros: Après Toi

Vicky Leandros: Come What May

Another Eurovision song.

This was Vicky, representing Luxembourg in 1967.

Vicky: L’Amour Est Blue

In the contest that year Vicky came fourth. Puppet on a String won. However, unlike most non-winners of Eurovision, L’Amour Est Blue, as Love Is Blue, became a world-wide hit – particularly the Paul Mauriat instrumental version below.

Vicky, as Vicky Leandros, became a serial Eurovision contestant – even winning once in the 1970s.

Paul Mauriat: Love Is Blue

It’s the Eurovision Song Contest this week so I’m posting one of my memories of it from the 60s. Gigliola Cinquetti was only 16 when she sang this for Italy.

This recording is apparently Cinquetti’s actual performance from the Eurovision night in 1964. It’s from the radio broadcast, though, as the TV tapes were wiped apart from the (short) reprise the winner then gave which is where the pictures come from. She is given a great reception afterwards.

The song received the highest ever percentage of Eurovision first place votes (8 out of the 15 available – equating to 53.3%.)

The title means “I am too young (to love you)” – the literal translation of non ho l’età  is “I have not the age.” It’s about waiting for fulfilment, rather than rushing into things.

It’s fair to say the Eurovision standard has fallen since then.

Gigliola Cinquetti: Non Ho L’età  (Per Amarti)

This video has 40 secs worth of footage from the night (which starts at 2.39 in.)