With a year of delay, Euro 2020, the European soccer chiampionship, has started. The fun thing for a Eurovision fan is that a lot of matches remind us of Eurovision Songs, because it’s with (partly) the same countries.
Yesterday, Italy won the match from Turkey. Many people on the internet mentioned Måneskin (of course) and Sertab (of course). But the match reminded us of another performance. You see Italian host Toto Cutugno (1991) learning Turkish. The Turkish contestants are Can Uğurluer, İzel Çeliköz & Reyhan Karaca singing “Iki dakika”. That is a hard one to pronounce for Toto.
Today, Wales meets Switzerland. Wales is a part of the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest. But did you know that a Welsh woman almost won Eurovision? She became 2nd in 1970 and her name was Mary Hopkin. Also for Switzerland we chose someone who became 2nd: Daniela Simons in 1986. Both ladies have in common that in their years, one contestant could impossibly be defeated. In 1970 it was Dana and in 1986 Sandra Kim.
Denmark meets Finland this year. Opposites attract, that’s what people say. We have a Eurovision winner from both countries. A ballad, sung by two man in their 40s from Denmark: “Fly on the wings of love” by the Olson Brothers. And a rock song from Finland, sung by Lordi, dressed as monsters: “Hard rock hallelujah”.
And last but not least, Belgium meets Russia. They did so too in 2003. Turkey (as mentioned), Belgium and Russia struggled for the first place. Belgium became 2nd with Urban Trad, with a song in a non-existing language. Russia became third with the famous duo t.A.T.u. and their “Ne ver’ ne boysia”.
Who is going to win? We put our money on Måneskin. Or were you talking about soccer?
