Euro-Vision

"Euro-Vision" was the Belgian entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1980, performed in French by Telex.

The song was performed nineteenth on the night, following Spain's Trigo Limpio with "Quédate esta noche". At the close of voting, it had received 14 points, placing 17th in a field of 19. The band were moderately pleased with the outcome of the Contest, but for a somewhat unusual reason. At the time lead singer Michel Moers was quoted as saying: "We had hoped to finish last, but Portugal decided otherwise. We got ten points from them and finished on the 19th (sic!) spot". [1]  In hindsight their participation in the Contest however seems to have served its marketing purposes; some thirty years on "Euro-Vision" still remains one of the band's best-known songs, both in Belgium and internationally.

The song has in fact become known as one of the landmarks of Eurovision, as it was the first entry ever to mention the Contest by name as part of what is generally agreed to have been a send-up of the whole event (previous entries such as Schmetterlinge's "Boom Boom Boomerang" had parodied the Contest without actually naming it). Further, in contrast to the upbeat and generally living entries submitted from other entrants, Telex performed from behind synthesisers and in a robotic - somewhat Kraftwerk-esque - manner.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the song remains controversial among fans. One school of thought is that, much as in the musical mainstream, robotic techno beats were still ahead of their time at the Contest. Another school of thought is that the time to send the entire institution up has still not arrived.

Telex released the song in French and English language versions and the band subsequently re-recorded the track for their first 'greatest hits' compilation More than Distance, also released in 1980, then retitled "Neurovision". Furthermore, in 1993 Telex released their first CD box set, once again with a reference to their Eurovision participation back in 1980; the album was entitled Belgium...One Point.

It was succeeded as Belgian representative in the 1981 Contest by Emly Starr singing "Samson".

A similarly controversial song, sending up the process of Eurovision, was entered by Lithuania in 2006, when LT United performed "We Are The Winners", which repeatedly used the lyrics "We are the winners, of Eurovision ... So you've got to vote, vote, vote, vote, vote for the winners". This song joined an exclusive group of Eurovision songs to be booed by the live audience, but managed to reach 6th place in the final results.