The 15th edition of Varto-Vision, the Eurovision Song Contest Parody show, took place in Paris last Monday. This year's lanslide winner was Marcel, the parody of the 1963 German entry by Heidi Bruh, performed by Marcel und dieKartoffel Schwesters.

The 15th edition of the Varto-Vision show took place last Monday in Paris and saw the overwhelming victory of the so-called German act, a comic version of "Marcel", by 4-member group "". The quartet includes Friedrich, Loulou, Dominique Guilbert and Eric Mathiot, these two being members of the OGAE France board.

The show was born thanks to comedian and singer Vartoche, a fan of the ESC, who managed to get together, once a year, more than 60 artists – professional or not – plus real musicians on stage, each giving a funny performance of a Eurovision classic. The show takes place in Parisian theatre Le Gymnase and proceeds go to AIDS research.

This year's edition had 19 songs competing, from The Poor Girls covering Terminal 3(Ireland) to The Chyprolatas singing Comme ci, comme ça (Cyprus). After the show, Eurovision-style voting takes place by juries in which we always recognise former French-speaking participants. Naturally, the song and the singing are not really what is jugded. But the craziness of the performance.

47 points behind Marcel placed the French entry La vie à 25 ans and a version of this year's Israeli entry Push the button came third.

More information and photographs can be found here.

A very special thank you to Dominique Dufaut for the submission of the article.