Another year, another Eurovision. It’s faced controversy this year for including Israel, and justifiably so. Indeed, last year saw the UK host in Liverpool, in lieu of winners Ukraine, for obvious reasons.
The seventies heyday was pure camp, so bad it was good. Funkless songs with questionable lyrics, uncoordinated dance routines, even worse outfits. I loved that aspect of it. Nowadays, it’s splashy, high-concept graphics, attractive, pouting singers and earnest songs about global understanding (Croatia and Finland’s gleefully ridiculous entries for this year notwithstanding).
And for a while in the eighties, Johnny Logan was the Irish winner. His warbly ballads had all the romance and subtlety of a hastily purchased Hallmark card. So, leave it to the late, great Shane Macgowan to deconstruct Logan’s first hit, What’s Another Year as only he could. Enjoy.
Hit The North 