- The Eurovision final should have been held on Saturday in Rotterdam (Netherlands). But the event was canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
- The 41 songs that should have competed this year are therefore deprived of Eurovision.
- In the past several other selected pieces ended up withdrawing before the competition. 20 Minutes reviews some of them.
This week should have been the 65th edition of Eurovision. However, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the song competition to be held in Rotterdam (Netherlands) has been canceled. The 41 songs selected for the occasion by as many countries will therefore not experience the joys of competition. They will still be honored during the Europe Shine A Light special broadcast on Saturday around the world - on France 2 from 9:05 p.m. - instead of the final. They can also console themselves by saying that they are not the only ones to have been deprived of Eurovision. Since the creation of the event in 1956, a good half-dozen pieces have had to forfeit when they had been selected to compete. 20 minutes put a coin in the jukebox of these unhappy songs.
Dani's double punishment
In 1974 Dani was to represent France at Eurovision in Brighton (United Kingdom), with La vie à 25 ans . The singer will not finally take part in the contest, in accordance with what a clairvoyant had announced to him. A prediction of which the artist told the story on Franceinfo in 2017: "She touches her crystal ball, she draws a piano for me and says to me:" You have an exam, you have to cross the sea, but you don't do the displacement. " The day before leaving for Eurovision, she calls me and says, "Danièle, do not make the trip". (…) I insult him loudly (then) I will meet my sister at L'Aventure (the Parisian nightclub that Dani managed at the time). Half an hour later, someone comes in and says "Pompidou is dead". "
The death of the Head of State prevents the artist from packing his bags: the national day of mourning is fixed for April 6. Or the day of Eurovision ... For the first time since the creation of the competition in 1956, France had to withdraw from the event. Ironically, in this year of tricolor withdrawal, the competition is won by the tube of ABBA, referring to a Napoleonic defeat ... Waterloo .
A year later, rebelote, Dani must again give up his dreams of Eurovision. While Antenne 2 (now France 2) offers to participate, the singer contacts Serge Gainsbourg, who has written several songs for the competition in the past. He composed a song for him entitled Boomerang .
Alas, as the artist remembered at the microphone of Europe 1 four years ago, the persons in charge of the chain found the song "too aggressive", due in particular to the presence of the word "gun" in the lyrics. The singer will therefore remain in France and the song in a cupboard. Dani will eventually record it as a duet with Etienne Daho in 2001. We know the following: As a boomerang has become a success, more than 25 years after its creation.
Lebanon's withdrawal
Contrary to popular belief, the Eurovision song contest is not limited to European countries. If Australia participates on an exceptional basis, several countries in the running such as Russia, Azerbaijan or Israel are wholly or partly on the Asian continent. The competition is open to all member states of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) - which oversees the organization of the event - among which are, among others, Egypt and Morocco - which participated only once, in 1980 - or Jordan. This is also the case of Lebanon which wants to try its luck during Eurovision 2005. Aline Lahoud must sing, in French, Quand tout d'enfuit .
But, less than two months from the final, Télé-Liban announces its withdrawal. The channel is unable to retransmit the performance of the Israeli candidate because Lebanese law prohibits the promotion of products and works from the Hebrew state. Private to Eurovision, Aline Lahoud does not end her career as a singer and actress. In 2014, she will participate in the third season of The Voice in France, making her way to the battles .
Georgia stings Putin
In summer 2008, Georgia is in conflict with Russia, which supports the separatist province of South Ossetia. The war lasted nine days and ended with a Russian victory. Tensions will find an echo in the Georgian bid for Eurovision 2009. The group Stephane & 3G must sing We don't wanna put in . A song whose title is the quasi-homophone of "We don't want Putin" ("We don't want Poutine"). Faced with this barely subliminal political message, the EBU asks Georgia to modify the song or to choose a new one. A proposal refused by the former Soviet republic which prefers to withdraw from the competition.
Six years later, Armenia will face the same demand. In 2015, the centenary year of the commemoration of the Armenian genocide, the country is represented by a group created for the occasion and composed of artists from the diaspora. His song is titled Don't deny , and is interpreted as a message addressed in particular to Turkey and Azerbaijan, which do not recognize the genocide. The Armenian delegation defends itself from any political subtext but agrees to change the title of the piece to Face the shadow ("Affronte / Fais face à l'ombres").
Romania muted over debt
An almost premonitory title. With Moment of silence , “An instant of silence”, therefore, Ovidiu Anton was selected to defend Romania's chances at Eurovision 2016. But, at the end of April, less than a month before the competition, the EBU decided to '' exclude the Romanian candidacy due to a debt of the public channel TVR amounting to some 14.5 million euros. "We deeply regret having been forced to take this action and we are disappointed that the Romanian government has not responded to our efforts to resolve this issue," said Ingrid Deltenre, the Director General of the EBU. .
Poor Ovidiu Anton finds it difficult to accuse the blow, writing on his Facebook page: "I try to keep smiling and not to be put down but ... It's unfair. (…) I have to declare myself defeated. By who ? And why ? Is it right ? I don't know how to answer this kindly, better shut up. Beyond participation in the musical competition, it is access to all the EBU services which Romania is deprived of, including the right to retransmit the Euro football in which the country must participate. The country will however return to Eurovision a year later and take a good seventh place.
Russian and Ukrainian couacs
Battle song. In recent years, tensions between Ukraine and Russia have had repercussions until Eurovision. In 2017, when the competition was to be held in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, the country of Vladimir Putin appointed the singer Yulia Samoïlova to represent him with the song Flame is burning .
The artist, suffering from Werdnig-Hoffmann disease, uses a wheelchair. “It is clear that negative reactions to Yulia Samoïlova's performance would not do the public any credit. Conspiring a disabled person is despicable in itself, "argued the Russian news site Gazeta, quoted by Courrier international . But Ukraine did not care about these considerations since it prohibited Yulia Samoïlova from entering its territory for a period of three years on the grounds that it gave a concert in Crimea in 2015, ie one year after this territory, which Ukraine continues to claim, was annexed by Russia. A fact perceived as a political position violating Ukrainian law. Russia will end up withdrawing its candidacy and renewing its singer for the 2018 edition with another song - Ioulia Samoïlova will be eliminated in the semi-final.
In 2019, Maruv won the Ukrainian selection for Eurovision. The catch: the singer is very popular also in Russia. And even if during a surreal sequence before the telecrochet jury she declared that Crimea was Ukrainian territory, the young woman did not have the confidence of the public channel. The latter conditioned her participation in Eurovision to the signing of a strict contract requiring in particular that she cancel her concerts in Russia and renounce any improvisation on stage. Maruv refuses, explaining on Instagram: "I'm not ready to perform with slogans, making my show at the competition a promotion for our politicians. I am a musician, not a tool in the political game. "
The Ukrainian delegation then tried to rescue other artists who participated in the selection for Eurovision, but all of them refused. The country then had no choice but to withdraw. Siren song , Maruv's song will become a hit with fans of the contest. There will remain the frustration of not knowing if this title would have had its place in the final top 10 which seemed to it promised.
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