#eurovision 2000

[weaversweek]

"My star" and "IDGAF"

Another part of the #FearOfMu21c project, crowdsourcing the greatest singles of the 21st century. Here’s an index post.

My star - Brainstorm

The first of five songs from the Eurovison Song Contests; something like sixty songs come out every year, enough to fill three CDs, I make no apology for including five of the 650 songs from Eurovision - it could have been so many more.

"My star" is the oldest song in my 50, older than a few of the performers on the list. It was first presented at the end of February 2000 in LTV's selection show Eirodziemsa. It's a post-grunge song, offers cautious optimism for the future while being honest that life can be a bit shit.

Renars Kaupers, the singer and songwriter, is an affable and geeky chap. Made a connection through the screen, enough to have the song rise to an unexpected third place, and got a small release over here a month or so later.

Like the best songs, it has made itself at home in my brain, the gentle lifts, the possibilities never get tempered by too much optimism, so I associate it as a song of the realistic. Brainstorm continue to record - Prata Vetra in their home language.

IDGAF - Dua Lipa

Dua Lipa gave me difficulty. Which is the best track to summarise her career? Dua has cornered the market in disco pop, with any number of songs to soundtrack the last few years.

In the event, "Idgaf" continues to be the strongest point in Dua's catalogue. It's a song about your own personal contradictions and battles, and how they can leave you stronger.

It's a breakup song, it's an empowerment anthem. You speak, I don't have to listen. It's a song about how you're never alone with friends: Dua stands with a phalanx standing in fierce solidarity.

The song was originally written by MNEK, re-written by Dua Lipa, with input from Larzz Principato,Skyler Stonestreet, and Whiskey Water. Lots of songwriters is a hallmark of modern pop; when the result's as sharp and incisive as this, I don't give a fig.

[vintageurovision]

Tell Me! , August & Telma | Iceland, Eurovision Song Contest 2000

12th place with 45 points

[aijamisespava]

The New Millenium!

The year 2000 was a wild year to some, marking the end of the 20th century, but also going into a new millenium. But after the Y2K panic settled down and we saw the world not end, the Eurovision Song Contest continued on with the next edition.

The contest had 24 songs fight it out, with the Olsen Brothers winning for Denmark with "Fly On The Wings Of Love," which after a contest held in Sweden, kept the contest in the Nordic area for another year.

Latvia also debuted in 2000 with Brainstorm and "My Star." That song would top my ranking. Sweden took my 2nd close by with "When Spirits Are Calling My Name" by Roger Pontare. Both songs took my breath away for different reasons and should be mentioned and honored.

[wardrobeoftime]

Eurovision Song Contest + Costumes

Joost Klein's blue suit and white shirt when performing Europapa for The Netherlands in the 2024 contest.

[betweenthetimeandsound]

I love the whimsy and charm My Star brings. It reminds me of riding a bicycle on a warm, summer's day.

2000 Stockholm - Number 17 - BrainStorm - "My Star"

Back to Latvia and for a performance that is one of the most popular of Eurovision 2000 among Eurofans. It's one of the best-performing debut songs for a country ever and is from a band that is possibly Latvia's biggest. Latvia may have been the last of the Baltic countries to enter Eurovision, but here they are showing Estonia and Lithuania how its done.

Brainstorm (aka Prāta Vētra) are a band of school friends who by 2000 had been big in the Latvian music business for at least seven years. Later in 2000 they released their first best-of album. My Star is (unusually for 2000) a straightforward love song. The genre is alt-pop/folk and stands out a mile from absolutely everything else in Eurovision that year. It's a gentle, almost whimsical song lead by jangly guitars and the unmistakable voice and dancing style of singer Renārs Kaupers, more of whom later.

At Eurodziesma 2000, the first Latvian national final, this won by a large margin although the scoring was heavily weighted in favour of juries over the televote. Perhaps not surprising for one of the biggest bands in Latvia. At Eurovision, it had a good draw and went on in what was the far stronger second half. Even if it had gone on in the first half, it would have done well, purely because of how much it stood out.

Brainstorm subsequently have had a stellar career. They've released more than 15 albums in Latvia, more than 10 in English and at least 5 in Russian. They seem to be constant writing and recording new songs and touring, sometime simultaneously. They're huge across the Russian speaking world which has lead to some controversial concerts in Russia, especially after the invasion of Crimea in 2014. More recently however, they cancelled all planned tours and concerts in Russia and have made clear their support for Ukraine.

In the Eurovision world, they're the band that launched Latvia on the Eurovision scene and Renārs would go on to co-host Eurovision 2003 after Latvia's win in 2002. The band have also played Glastonbury (second on the John Peel stage on the Saturday in 2013!) making Renārs the only Eurovision host to have gone on to play Glasto. Please correct me if I'm wrong!

[yujkuro]

Joost Klein Blinkies

[newwavesylviaplath]

okay here are my 2025 ins and outs: 

OUT: men, vaping, "i'm in my ___ era", being american, micro bangs, moon boots, the bop house, lo fi bedroom pop, dasha nekrasova, oily makeup remover

IN: not shaving, nicholas hoult movies, polaroids, obnoxious statement accessories, full glam as everyday makeup, slime, super jingly keychains, europop

anyway

[dita-vt]

Dita Von Teese performs on stage at the Eurovision 2009 Song Contest with German entry Oscar Loya Moscow, Russia on May 16, 2009.

[useless-catalanfacts]

Why does Andorra not participate in Eurovision anymore?

Andorra participated in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009, but it has never come back since.

-

What happened?

In 2004, ATV (Andorra’s public TV channel) sent Marta Roure, who sang in the Catalan language for the first time in Eurovision history. Catalan is the native language of Andorra, but also of the rest of the Catalan Countries: Catalonia, the Valencian Country and la Franja in the state of Spain; Northern Catalonia in the state of France, and the city of l’Alguer in Italy. ATV didn’t have enough money to send a participant alone, but Andorra wanted to take part in the contest and to promote their language (Catalan) and culture.

For these reasons, they decided to partner with TV3, the public TV channel of Catalonia. This makes sense, given that it’s part of the same nation, with the same language, and Catalonia has a bigger population and a music industry that’s a bit more developed, and TV3 has more money than ATV because of its population and size. The contest to choose who would be sent was made in collaboration between ATV and TV3 and aired simultaneously in both TV channels.

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Spain’s threat to not air Andorra’s song

When TVE (the Spanish TV) saw that Andorra was working with Catalonia and one of Andorra’s purposes for participating in ESC was to promote Andorra’s language (Catalan), the director board of TVE threatened that they would not air Andorra’s performance because they considered it was a way for Catalan people to be present in Eurovision, which they didn’t think should be allowed. Basically, TVE would air the whole contest as usual, but cut to commercials when Andorra performed as if they did not exist.

After negotiations, the directors of TVE did not change their mind, but for unrelated reasons the director was changed in April 2004. The new directors didn’t care as much about Andorra’s participation and they decided to air the whole festival.

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Andorra’s results and TVE’s meddling

Andorra’s songs never did well in the classifications, they never had enough votes to pass to the final. The change arrived in 2009, the song chosen was “Get a life / La teva decisió” by the Andorran-Danish singer Susanne Georgi. After its release before Eurovision, the song was a success in Andorra and in the state of Spain. The hopes were high for the song receiving many votes!

But, last minute, TVE (Spain’s TV) decided to not air live the Eurovision semi-final where Andorra was taking part. TVE decided to record the semi-final and air it on a different day. This means that Spanish citizens (including most Catalan people), who could have voted for Andorra, had no way to watch the semi-final and, as a result, they could not vote.

Once again, Andorra didn’t get to the final. And this was when they thought they had a chance with a successful song! After this, Andorra has never come back to the song contest. The fact that they never qualified for the final, Spain’s continuous meddling, and the high economic cost of participating in ESC (which is very difficult to afford for a microstate’s TV) grew even more difficult with the economical crisis that was starting in all the continent.

However, Andorra has always maintained that they would like to come back to ESC.

Andorra has been the only country to sing in the Catalan language in ESC. Even though most Catalan-speaking territories are under Spanish rule and about 10,000,000 Catalan speakers live in the state of Spain, Spain has never sent a song in Catalan. In fact, when they chose the Catalan singer Joan Manuel Serrat in 1968, he said he would sing the song (called “La, la, la”) in Catalan. Then, the Spanish TV decided to take him out of the contest because they would only allow songs in Spanish. The song was given to the Spanish singer Masiel, who sang the same song in Spanish and won the Eurovision Song Contest 1968. Spain has never sent a single song in one of the languages of the territories its state occupies, even when some like Catalan and Galician have millions of speakers, and Basque has hundreds of thousands.

[yourdailyqueer]

Ethan Torchio

Gender: Male

Sexuality: Queer

DOB: 8 October 2000  

Ethnicity: White - Italian

Occupation: Musician

Note: Won Eurovision 2021 for Italy as part of Måneskin

[arconinternet]

Nul Points (Book, Tim Moore, 2006)

A big strange Eurovision journey to interview everyone who got zero points. You can digitally borrow it here.

[vintageurovision]

The Moon, Taxi | Romania, Eurovision Song Contest 2000

[moyokeansimblr]

I mean, I joke all the time about having only 3 hobbies/interests and my mom really covered all of them in my Christmas presents this year 😂 She actually got me two eurovision books and two survivor blankets, but only the one sims cookbook.

I told her I need to do my research on sims 4 recipes but I'm pretty excited to make some of the ones from 2 and 3.

[wardrobeoftime]

Eurovision Song Contest + Costumes

Baby Lasagna's white blouse, red & golden vest and white pants when performing Rim Tim Tagi Dim for Croatia in the 2024 contest.

// requested by @because-its-eurovision

[betweenthetimeandsound]

Truly an epic song! I like how Roger incorporated his background more here than in 1994, which makes it shine.

2000 Stockholm - Number 6 - Roger Pontare - "When Spirits Are Calling My Name"

A Swedish icon performing in Sweden. He's already been to Eurovision once in a duet, and now he's on his own in front of 13,000 fans representing Sami people. Even if he's singing in English for the final and not in Swedish as he did when utterly dominating Melodifestivalen.

This is the third time that Roger entered Melfest, and winning it twice out of three attempts ain't bad. When Spirits are Calling My Name (or När vindarna viskar mitt namn in Swedish) is a full strength blast of bombast. It could be the theme tune to an immensely successful 1980s, US, 60-minute TV drama series about a man alone against the world, forging his own path and determined to do right by his people. Which is what the song is actually about.

In fact the US connection isn't too remote either. Roger's staging incorporates elements of Native American imagery alongside that of Sami culture. It's one of the songs that is on the path to realising that incorporating traditional cultural sounds and images alongside a more modern musical sensibility, is immensely popular with Eurofans and Eurovision voters alike. It makes connections among a wide swathe of the audience across the continent. For instance the bastion of traditional Eurovision performance, Türkiye, gave this the full douze.

Ultimately, Roger finished a respectable 7th and this is one of those songs that live long in the fans memories. He, of course, went on to have a long musical career in Sweden with two more Melfest entries. He also uses his position to promote causes associated with vulnerable peoples and environmental issues.

[xemocatgirlx]

I FINALLY FINISHED COLOURING IT :D

This is Mikleo if he's a Myspace Scene King and idol (human form)

I use Procreate btw