Euro-Vision
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"Euro-Vision" was the Belgian entry in the Eurovision Song Contest of 1980, performed in French by Telex. At the close of voting, it had received 14 points, placing 17th in a field of 19.
The song has become known as one of the landmarks of the Contest, as it was the first entry ever to mention the Contest by name as part of what is generally agreed to have been a send-up of the whole event (previous entries such as Schmetterlinge's "Boom Boom Boomerang" had parodied the Contest without actually naming it). Further, in contrast to the upbeat and generally living entries submitted from other entrants, Telex performed from behind synthesisers and in a robotic - somewhat Kraftwerk-esque - manner.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the song remains controversial among fans. One school of thought is that, much as in the musical mainstream, robotic techno beats were still ahead of their time at the Contest. Another school of thought is that the time to send the entire institution up has still not arrived.
A similarly controversial song, sending up the process of Eurovision, was entered by Lithuania in 2006, when LT United performed "We Are The Winners", which repeatedly used the lyrics "We are the winners, of Eurovision ... So you've got to vote, vote, vote, vote, vote for the winners". This song joined an exclusive group of Eurovision songs to be booed by the live audience, but managed to reach 6th place in the final results.
