esctoday.com award categories: Most traditional Europop song

The third annual esctoday.com awards are currently being held. While you can still cast your votes until 23rd December, we will take a closer look on the nominees and the categories every day in random order. Part two is dedicated to the Most traditional Europop song category.

History

This category was introduced in 2007 and it even became the one with the closest result: at the close of voting, the entries from the Netherlands and Spain were tying for first place. After a second poll, the result was again close but the award eventually went to the Dutch entry. The complete results were as follows:

First poll:

1. I love you mi vida (Spain) – 23%
   On top of the world (Netherlands) – 23%
2. Yassou Maria (Greece) – 21 %
3. Drama queen (Denmark) – 19%
4. Flying the flag (United Kingdom) – 14%

Second poll:

1. On top of the world (Netherlands) – 51.6%
2. I love you mi vida (Spain) – 48.4%

2008 awards

1. Shady lady by Ani Lorak of Ukraine
2. This is my life by Euroband of Iceland
3. Hero by Charlotte Perrelli of Sweden
4. Vrag naj vzame by Rebeka Dremelj of Slovenia
5. Casanova by Gisela of Andorra

According to wikipedia, in Continental Europe, "the term 'Europop' is used to describe non-English language hits of the late ’50s, ’60s, and early ’70s, mostly from France & Italy, before the ’70s Euro disco era … . Since the late ’90s, the term has been more widely used to describe mainstream pop. This includes mainstream hits from all around Europe (influenced by ’90s Eurodance, a.k.a. Euro-House), boy bands and girl bands (especially from UK, Germany and Sweden) and low-tempo pop ballads." So, which country in 2008 sticked most closely to the formula?

Shady lady from Ukraine and Vrag naj vzame from Sloveniaare the first song from Eastern Europe nominated in this category, while This is my life from Iceland and Hero from Sweden once again prove that Europop is a genre which is typical for the Nordic countries. Andorra's Casanova, which was the first song to be partly presented to the public, completes the line-up.

Ukraine has previously taken part with songs in differentkinds of music including ethnic pop (2004), rap (2005) and dance/comedy (2007). Ukraine was the first country to finish second two years in a row since theUnited Kingdom did so in 1992 and 1993 – remarkably,those entries were up-tempo Europop, too.

As a Nordic country, Iceland had previously had a series of Europop entries in the competition, most notably in 1999, when Selma finished second in Jerusalem and in 1990, when Stjórnin came fourth in Zagreb. Generally, the country seems to do better with up-tempo songs as no Icelandic ballad has ever finished in the top ten.

Sweden is often seen as the home of modern Europop. Charlotte Perelli had previously won the Eurovision Song Contest with a song in that particular style in 1999. In fact, all four Swedish winning songs in the contest can be considered Europop, among them of course Waterloo by ABBA in 1974.

The Slovene entry is the only song nominated which is not performed in English. Slovenia faced a major change of style when this song followed the operatic entry in 2007, which made Slovenia qualify from the semi final for the first time at all.

The Andorran entryshares thetitlewith another Europop entry in the competition: the Norwegian entry in 1977, Casanova by Anita Skorgan.In 2007, Andorra had been closer to qualifying from the semi final than ever with a rock entry, but nevertheless the country went for a moretypical Eurovision Song Contest entry again in 2008.

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