So, first day back from Cordoba, working from home.
Cordoba is a beautiful little city in Andalucia, Spain. Well worth a visit.
Björn
Etikettarkiv: Spain
August 2021
Here in France we close summer now, more and more people return from vacation so also at my office. It reminds me of the fact that I hate to work in an open office space, and how nice it can be to work from home. But let me elaborate the home working thing.
Right now, in the time of Ebola, Covid and Plague we can still work from home 1 day a week, based on how many people who is in that week. But this is where the home working idea fails. Home working works perfectly and is wünderbar when you can work for a while at home. Not carry material home and back on an almost daily basis.
So, during those conditions home working just “F” things up. But gosh what I wish I can get my own office, the department I work in is worth our own office space – wish list for the Christmas…
And now something else, born from a discussion yesterday, Eurovision entries failed to place well in the year they entered but if they entered now would be hits (with a modern production). Yesterday we talked about Remedios Amaya “Quien maneja mi barca” – SO last in 1983 just cause it was before it’s time.
With that, have a nice Tuesday
Björn
With chalk on asphalt
Either some parents will get a chocking inoice to pay for the cleaning of their kids practicing their artistic side, or this is the premonition of digging up my street and make my life hell for a long time. Noise and excavated street and side walks. Or the city of Paris actually finally found out where I live and will now offer me a house with a moa, so I am safe. And no, I do not have exaggerated image of my own importance to the world 2021.
But let us go back in time, today, 12 years ago the site Gylleneskor.se (re named Poplight before it died) invited that years Eurovision artists to Stockholm and I was interviewing the ones signed by Warner.
Unlikely 29th of April 2021, this was a sunny & extremely hot day, so running around in Stockholm between venues, resulted in a really shiny face (shiny a nice way to say I sweated like a waterfall).
So welcome to a walk down Memory lane:
Alexander Rybak (Norway)& Björn Nordlund 
Soraya (Spain) and Björn Nordlund 
Svetlana Loboda (Ukraine) & Alexander Rybak (Norway) 
Jonathan Fagerlund (Sweden selection) 
Jade Ewan (United Kingdom) 
Arash, Björn Nordlund and AySel (Azerbaijan) 
Edward af Sillèn & Björn Nordlund
Monday anxiety
Sunday evening and the Monday anxiety kicks in, I repeat, weekends? Too short. Friday, you are tiered as any other workday, Saturday, the only day in the week you actually can do a lot of different things you have to do, so it’s not relaxing. So Sunday the first day of the week you can relax, feel up for some fun, then work brain kicks in and it can’t be a late evening.
But from this weekend we learned that its easier to send flowers from Paris too Madrid than within Paris… MLM (my former manager) got her birthday flowers in time and on the right date. And purple… All worked out fine.
Björn
It was a bit early
This morning I Tweeted that: “wow, it looks like France actually managed to keep the figures down”. I said low amount of new Covid cases, low in brackets, but it looked good. Then all of a sudden at 21h00 a new report and we faced more than 32.000 new cases… Up from around 22.000 in the morning.
I went from “maybe Christmas” to, “Fuck, I will sit inside my apartment for ever”.
So I needed to do something I like to do. Ended up tagging mp3 files, I know, Im a nerd…
Today I throw myself on Azucar Moreno, the Spanish duo I keep so close to my heart, and I wish I will be able to see them live someday. I don’t care if it is a arena concert in Spain or a smaller venue in France or Sweden, I really want to see them live.
But during my tagging I actually noticed that the ladies really benefited from growing older. Look at the two girls in 1986 and the Divas of 2020 (Divas in a positive way), 2 women at the peak of beauty. Amazing.
Björn
Azúcar Moreno 1986 
Azúcar Moreno 2020
Last most played eurovision blog
So now its time to finalize this week of most played blogging, as you know the entries in 2020 Eurovision comes from:
Albania, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Moldova, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Ukraine and United Kingdom
Albania
Not a country usually on my radar so there are not many of their entries making my private playlists.
- “Carry me in your dreams” Kejsi Tola
- “Its all about you” Juliana Pasha
- “The image of you” Anjeza Shahini
Belgium
Up and down like a roller coaster, and often when they have really good entries they end up on the wrong side of the score board. No one votes even if the song is good. Belgium is a mystery that way.
- “EuroVision” Telex
- “1 Life” Xandee
- “Love kills” Roberto Bellarosa
France
Oh, my old love in Eurovision, France. Still going strong and has a stream of lovely songs throughout the years.
- “J’ai Cherché” Amir
- “L’oiseau et l’enfant” Marie Myriam
- “Il faut du temps” Sandrine Francois
Germany
Big in Germany, a phrase in the music world that is looked upon a bit like someone look at Mona Lisa, famous but isn’t it more than that. But in Eurovision they have some good times.
- “Dschinghis Khan” Dschinghis Khan
- “Telegram” Silver Convention
- “Frauen regieren die welt” Roger Cicero
Ireland
Still the Kingdom of Eurovision with their wins in the 90s, kind of they won all of the 90s, but not often on my top 10 in Eurovision.
- “Cross your heart” Tina Reynolds
- “Why me” Linda Martin
- “In your eyes” Niamh Kavanagh
Italy
Wow, it is amazing that Italy don’t win every year. Yer after year they present amazing songs climbing the charts outside Italy and many of the artists actually become famous in Europe after the contest.
- “No degree of separation” Francesca Michielin
- “I Treni de Tozeur” Alice e Battiato
- “Grande amore” Il Volo
Portugal
Sadly forgotten in the Eurovision history, but finally won 2017, and well deserved.
- “Amar pelos dois” Salvador Sobral
- “Danca comigo” Sabrina
- “Um grande, grande amor” Jose Cid
Spain
From Portugal to their neighbors Spain, also a country sadly forgotten today. But so many fantastic entries coming from Spain. At their best when they sound 100% Spanish.
- “Bandido” Azucar Moreno
- “Quien maneja mi barca” Remedios Amaya
- “Dile que la quiero” David Civera
Switzerland
Not a favorite country for me in Eurovision, and their 2020 entry will be heavily discussed in tomorrows blog post on the 2020 contest entries. But they have had their good times as well.
- “Ne partez pas sand moi” Celine Dion
- “Mikado” Simone Drexel
- “Era stupendo” Paolo Meneguzzi
The Netherlands
It feels like Netherlands and Sweden had a lot of the same vibes in the Eurovision in the 80s and 90s, a kind of Swedish Schlager over many of their entries (or if you are Dutch the opposite). But they did not manage to win until 2019 with one of the more , for me, uninteresting winners in Eurovision, “Arcade”.
- “I see a star” Mouth and Macneal
- “Ding dinge dong” Teach In
- “De eerste keer” Franklin Brown and Maxine
United Kingdom
One of the biggest music markets in the world and still not able to score better in Eurovision, UK is a sad story lately and it seems like whatever path they take its a fail. A it unfair really cause they often better then their placing.
- “Ooh Aah Just a little bit” Gina G
- “Where are you” Imaani
- “Cry Baby” Jemini
So, that was the most played songs from each country in the Eurovision Song Contest history, all to try to keep some Eurovision feeling in 2020 when the Eurovision Song Contest been cancelled caused by the Corona Pandemic.
Tomorrow I will discuss my ranking of the 2020 entries and wrap this Eurovision week up on Sunday with my personal points on the development of Eurovision. Whats good and what can EBU change to make it more interesting for me. Not everyone will agree but as said, it’s my own opinions.
The former blog post on the most played can be found:
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday
Take care
Björn
Time for Spain
After Sweden and Malta it’s time to look at one of the big five, Spain! Again, the most played Eurovision song list is not the same as the “best” songs, but again, why listen a lot to a bad song?
Compering the countries I previously posted here Spain is a bit of a strange bird cause only 2 songs are from the 2010 – 2018 and you find songs from the 60s 70s 80s 90s on the list.
- 1990 Azucar Moreno “Bandido”
- 1983 Remedios Amaya “Quien maneja mi barca”
- 2001 David Civera “Dile que la quiero”
- 2003 Beth “Dime”
- 2012 Pastora Soler “Quedate conmigo”
- 1995 Anabel Conde “Vuelve conmigo”
- 1985 Paloma San Basilio “La fiesta termino”
- 1997 Marcus Llunas “Sin rencor”
- 1998 Mikael Herzog “Que voy a hacer sin ti”
- 2004 Ramon “Para llenarme de ti”
- 2011 Lucia Perez “Que me quiten to bailao”
- 1988 La Decada “La chica que you quiero”
- 2007 D’Nash “I love you, mi vida”
- 1993 Eva Santamaria “Hombres”
- 1979 Betty Missiego “Su Cancion”
- 2008 Rudolfo Chikilicuatre “Baila el chiki chiki”
- 2005 Son de sol “Brujeria”
- 1973 Mocedades “Eres tu”
- 1969 Salome “Vivo cantando”
- 1974 Peret “Canta y se feliz & 2009 Soraya “La noche es para mi”
Place 20 cause they have the same play count
So now lets see how the Spanish Eurovision fans react on that list…
Björn
Country update
Countries I visited
Just to update the world on my travels. Looks good from an European point of view but Asia, Africa and South America will need some future attention for sure.
Björn
This is how it looks
No Spanish fingers
So this is how it looks when you are boss free. No Spanish fingers
Björn
Eurovision boardgames
O la la
Today it arrived, the new version of the Eurovision boardgame, so now we will find out if the old or new version is the better version. Yes, if I find anyone to play with. A few rounds of games and a stock of Casal Garcia?
Björn