Sadly LUXEMBOURG has not taken part in Eurovision for many years but they have had some great songs. Their 1973 winner is a classic TU TE RECONNAITRAS sung by ANNE-MARIE DAVID who will be at the London celebrations. In the 70’s GE KORSTEN covered the song in Afrikaans and it is also a classic here with many other singers covering it in recent years.
We are now over to my most loved song from the last 10 years, LATVIA’s 2008 song WOLVES OF THE SEA from PIRATES OF THE SEA. WILLEM BOTHA did the Afrikaans cover.
Next in line is ITALY and their great duet from 1984 I TRENI DI TOZEUR sung by ALICE and FRANCO BATTIATO. The Afrikaans cover is by MICHELLE KUYPER and KEVIN LEO.
We are getting closer to the end and song 50 is IRELAND 2006, EVERY SONG IS A CRY FOR LOVE by BRIAN KENNEDY. I absolutely love this song. The Afrikaans cover is done by JASMYN & BRANDON OCTOBER.
Today is the turn of one of my favourite songs from Eurovision, ICELAND 1991 and their song NINA by STEFAN and EYFI. The Afrikaans cover is my favourite of any cover done in South Africa. It is sung by BLES BRIDGES who tragically died 15 years ago, Until recently this was the biggest seller of any cover in South Africa and compared to the Icelandic population, it accounts to that 1 out of every 2 Iceland people would have bought a copy.
It’s a Eurovision winner next – GREECE 2005 MU NUMBER ONE by HELENA PAPARIZOU. The Afrikaans cover is by boy band Hi 5.
Surely Eurovision the our number one when it comes to music.
It is GERMANY now and their 2009 entry MISS KISS KISS BANG, originally sung by ALEX SWINGS, OSCAR SINGS. The South African cover has an international connection with PATRICIA LEWIS doing it in duet with American celebrity DAVID HASSELHOFF. This is quite interesting as David had several number one hits in Austria.
It is now the turn of FRANCE, normally a country who’s euro entries I do not like. But their 1993 entry was a Major surprise, MAMA CORSICA by PATRICK FIORI. It is one of the best songs and among my top 10 of all time. The Afrikaans cover by STEVEN STERLING is called MAMA AFRIKA and it is the second best cover ever.
Onto ESTONIA and their 2011 song ROCKEFELLER STREET sung by GETTER JAANI. The Afrikaans cover, with the same title, is by CHRIZAHN.
Now we are getting to CYPRUS and their 2012 entry LA LA LOVE sung by IVI ADAMOU. The group CORTINA was chosen for the Afrikaans cover.
