Everyone look. A Hockey Player Is Showing Personality.

I think one of the unfortunate things about Americans and Canadians is that many Canadians have a relatively easy-going, dead-pan sense of humor. As such, we, as Americans, don't always get the joke. We don't have patience for subtlety. As a result, hockey players don't have the same ease of marketing themselves in this country as they do in Canada, but it's not their fault. It's ours. Often we don't want to take the time to find them funny. We want something loud and obnoxious like Penny Hardaway yelling as a marionette or LeBron James pretending five different people.

Those commercials are, well, really stupid, but the unfortunate thing is that you never get to see hockey players in them because we just don't find them as funny. But today we got a reprieve from the totally amazing in every way Zach Parise. Now, it's odd that I bring up the whole bit about us not understanding the Canadian sense of humor because Parise, who just might be my favorite player in the NHL these days, is, as any hockey fan would know, American. But he grew up in Minnesota, which may as well be Canada, has a Canadian father, played hockey at the University of North Dakota, which I kind of assume is what Canadian prairies are like, and having spent so much time playing organized hockey at a high level for most of his life, he almost certainly has cultivated that Canadian sense of humor to relate to his teammates.

But in addition to Parise's barrier from making some headway into the American market, he plays for the Devils, a team that I have loved dearly since I was eight years old, but that has built it's entire era of success around a team-oriented game that can sometimes have superior talent lost among the smoothly-functioning machine. Parise is not as famous in this country as he should be. Granted, the appetite for hockey players being marketed wildly may not be the same here as it is for, apparently, the class act known as Stephon Marbury, but Parise is a brilliant and remarkable athlete, despite missing most of last season due to a torn meniscus. Aside from last season his injury history has been nearly impeccable while he's put up offensive numbers that, in the Devils' system, are truly remarkable. Factor into that his two-way play and you've easily got one of the top ten and maybe top five players in the game. That right there should mean his face should be plastered all across TV, but for some reason it's not.

In this country.

But thank God for Canada's insatiable appetite for hockey in all things, and thank God for the creative marketers at Easton who decided that the best way to pump up the Parise marketing machine is to make a Starsky-and-Hutch-esque detective parody with the highly skilled forward.



Apparently this video came out in March, but somehow I didn't actually come across it until today. I don't know what took so long, though I feel better knowing the Devils apparently didn't find it until yesterday, but thank goodness I've seen it now, because it's not brilliant, but, well, it's pretty funny. And it's way less awkward than some of the other commercials some of my favorite hockey players have been in.

I doubt this is any gateway to Parise breaking into the American market, and the ending may be a little morbid, but with the dog days of summer starting to bear down and the Mets season effectively over after yesterday's demoralizing loss to Atlanta, I'm glad this 45-second bit of 1970s minutiae came into my life this morning. In fact, it was the best bit of Devils-centric news I came across today other than Martin Brodeur going back to his old mask.

It isn't exciting, but this is what keeps me going during the dark days of August, particularly since I'm not in Europe enjoying my vacation anymore. And just to think, if I had come to Berlin three weeks later I would have gotten to meet a dark lord of the Sith. Either way, the point remains that clever, fun commercials like these don't show up with hockey players enough, in this country or any other.

I would love to see more players in goofy situations like this one, and while there are a fair number of commercials with hockey players doing goofy things and showing a sense of humor -- just do some YouTube-ing if you don't believe me -- we don't see them on TV enough in the United States, particularly when there's an opportunity to do so with an American-born star like Parise. Hopefully, it won't be the last time he gets to market himself like this.

I just hope that stunt over the car in the beginning isn't how he actually tore his meniscus.

Back To Your Regularly Scheduled Programming

Alright everyone, you can stop worrying. I'm back in the U.S., we can all breath sighs of relief, the world is back to normal. You'll have to excuse the lack of updating over the last three weeks, but as I mentioned before leaving, I was busy running around Europe for a while. Over an 18 day stretch that ended with an interesting 24-hour period in which I dragged a 25-pound bag of chocolate through four countries, I saw five countries, 11 cities, some 25 museums, 20 Cathedrals and spent more money in ATM fees than I'd really like to admit.

Naturally, as you can imagine, this trip left me somewhat out of the loop as far as the sports world is concerned though I kept as regular tabs as I could on the major things, namely the Women's World Cup, the NFL lockout resolution (which, if you pay attention to logic, should have been no surprise whatsoever), the Mets and the Carlos Beltran trade. At least those were the events important to me. So in between my attempts to figure out how screwed I would be on the exchange rate if the U.S. debt talks continued to go south, whatever twitter could tell me is whatever I got.

But what I want to talk to you about is a particularly interesting phenomenon that I experienced on Sunday night, July 17, and that was the experience of watching the United States in a national sporting event among fellow citizens in a foreign country. You with me? I speak of course about the positively brutal experience that was watching the U.S. Women come up short in the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup. For a while I had started to believe the Women's World Cup might be a defining aspect of the trip in general. Sitting in the Airport in Boston I saw the U.S. take an early 1-0 lead in its quarterfinal against Brazil and then boarded a plane. Then I landed in Philadelphia, walked off the plane and right up to a sports bar as this thing happened.



Not that I want to tell any sort of tales out of school, and I don't want to give the impression that I'm a soccer expert by any means, but that just may have been the most dramatic moment in a American soccer that I've seen -- and maybe ever -- which is a tough slot to take given Landon Donovan's amazing goal a year ago and the U.S.'s dramatic penalty kick-victory over China in the 1999 Women's World Cup Final. With the eventual win in penalty kicks against Brazil to move on I was in an upbeat mood on my way to Europe (though a disastrous plane experience would change that) and I knew there was a chance I'd have to watch the U.S. potentially win the World Cup while on Germany soil.

I was in Berlin the night of the Final, not in Frankfurt where the game was being played -- and I would have bought tickets if I were -- but I and my cadre of American cohorts numbering a total of four found an American bar in the ground floor of a Belushi's hostel in northeast Berlin off the Rosa-Luxemburg Platz U-Bahn stop to watch the game in hopes we would be among friends, or at least countrymen. For the most part, this went off without a hitch as we were indeed among Americans, many sitting in chairs in front of a big projection screen, and we managed to snag a booth with our own TV. To boot, the beer and food were stunningly cheap for Europe, though hamburgers in Germany have a bizarre, overseasoned meatloaf-like quality to them.

What we saw was, for the most part, a dominant display of chances, goal posts and an awful lot of bad luck for the U.S., but we thought we had finally reached our deliverance when Alex Morgan finally slotted the Americans ahead in the second half. This, understandably, brought up many cheers in the bar, and some camaraderie among the patrons, but what was interesting was that when Japan would equalize, there were more cheers coming from around the bar. Were they Japanese this might have been understandable, but it was actually a group of Brazilians who had gathered to watch Brazil's men's team face off with Paraguay in Copa America. After Wambach's extra time header put the U.S. ahead again there was more cheering, which was responded to by even more cheering from the Brazilians after Japan's dramatic equalizer four minutes from time.

Whether the Brazilians were doing this out of vengeance for the quarterfinal loss or pure schadenfreude I couldn't say, but when Japan stunned the world by taking the championship in penalty kicks, thanks in no small part due to the U.S.'s shocking difficulties from the penalty spot, there was uproar from one side of the bar, and it wasn't ours. It is a sobering feeling. One that is particularly unique when you're in a highly charged group of several nations in a foreign country. With alcohol. I had been looking forward to the moment of watching that game all week in hopes that we would drunkenly be singing the Star Spangled Banner through the streets of Mitte, but it wasn't meant to be. And being in a place that wasn't decidedly friendly to your jingoist sporting aims was an unusual experience.

We got a measure of some revenge when Brazil dropped its own penalty kick showdown to a lesser foe, and considering they didn't even cash in on one spot kick, one American patron casually pointed out that the American Women's team must be better than Brazil's men's team. We cheered obnoxiously to each foul-up, attempting to deliver the same cruelty, rewarding hubris, but for me the same zeal was not there. I don't generally take the same joy in the pain of others -- unless they play in Philadelphia I suppose -- but even then it's not out of joy so much as relief that I won't have to hear about the conquests of a foe.

It was a new sporting experience for me, and while it will stick out prominently, it won't define the trip -- there were dozens of other great, positive experiences. But that might have made the trip just a little bit better.

As for the Mets, some of you may have noticed the last blog post I wrote where I described how the Mets always seem to do well when I'm in Europe. Prior to my trip they were 16-2 all time when I was on the mainland continent. They did not repeat the success this time around, or at least not to the same lengths. The Amazins were 7-6 while I was on European soil, which is not terribly impressive, but still a winning record nonetheless. The far bigger news was the Mets playing for the future (though as of today they've won five straight and are only 6.5 back of the Wild Card) by sending Carlos Beltran to the San Francisco Giants.

Supposedly, Zack Wheeler, the prospect received in the deal, has the potential to be a solid Major League starter, but watching Beltran go is an odd feeling for some of us. His legacy will inextricably be linked with Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS, a game that featured the greatest defensive play in franchise history, but also Beltran striking out looking on an impossible curveball to end the game. To much of the fanbase this has made him look like a whimpy disappointed who couldn't deliver on his seven-year $119 million contract. But lost in that is that during his tenure as a Met he made four All-Star Games (including both his first and last season with the team), won three Gold Gloves, two Silver Sluggers and finished fourth in MVP voting the same year he struck out to end New York's World Series dream. As a Met he hit .280, had a .369 OBP and an .835 OPS.

In short, he was the most underappreciated player in the franchise's history, almost entirely because of one strikeout, which, ironically, happened in his finest year with the team. One day, Mets fans will realize how lucky they had it.

Now that you've all stopped reading, I will leave you with one final note. I like Aussie Rules Football, and in particular, I like a team called Geelong FC, or the Geelong Cats. They are pretty good, having won two of the last four AFL Grand Finals, most recently in 2009 when they beat St. Kilda, 80-68. Last night, or early this morning, more accurately, they played Melbourne, a team not quite as good as them. Geelong won, but that wasn't surprising. What might have been surprising is that they outscored Melbourne by 114 points.

In the first half.



Yeah, you read that right. Most of you, I know, have no real grasp of just how many points that is since you don't watch much Aussie Rules Football, but let's try to hammer out a rough equivalent to the final score which was 233-47. Granted, this was the second-highest halftime margin and fifth-highest total score in the League's history, but that doesn't quite do justice to the dominance. AFL is somewhat more prone to high wild scores than American sports but not quite on this level. So for Geelong to beat Melbourne 233-47, were this American football let's take a guess at what it would be like. My guess is that you'd be looking at something like the Giants beating, oh, let's say the Browns, by a rip-roaring score of 140-10. Or perhaps it would be like the Marlins falling to the Mets 35-1. It's that kind of dominance.

I doubt we'll ever see anything quite like it in American sports, but perhaps we can hope. In the interim, now that I'm back in the States, I'll be watching for it. At least until the next Women's World Cup when I might leave the country again. Fortunately, that one is only in Canada.

Scotty Doesn't Know

As many of you know, and really considering how much I've talked about it as all of you should know, I will be going to Europe tomorrow for my first hop across the pond in five years and my first wild youthful-indiscretion filled backpacking trip, well, ever. As a result, I've basically been playing the movie Eurotrip in my head for the last several days and quoting some of my favorite lines in it like, "You brought a guide book to a party?" and "I saw a gay porno once. I didn't know it until halfway in. The girls never came. The girls never came!" And to think, the only reason I saw the movie when it came out was because it was the only one playing after Starsky and Hutch that we could sneak into.

Oh college.

In any event, this wild whirlwind trip will take me through Rotterdam, Antwerp, the Hague, Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Munich, Aachen and Brussels in roughly two and a half weeks, so I'm going to be out of the loop a little bit and sparsely updating here if at all.

But that's not the real concern that is weighing on all of our minds. The real concern, obviously, is "How will Dave's wild Eurotrip impact his favorite baseball team, the New York Mets?" It's a question we've asked ourselves for ages, with great minds often going mad in the process. In fact, it was St. Thomas Aquinas who at one point said, "A Met has free choice to the extent that he is rational," which one has to assume that the Amazins and myself, really, operate independently of one another.

However, a look at some of the evidence argues otherwise. See in my last few entries I noted this impending concern by expressing relief that I won't be in the U.S. to see what I can only assume is likely to be the Mets' inevitable downfall and tumble in the wild card standings. After all, I had mostly mentally checked out before this season began expecting an 82-win season at best (which is about what they're on pace for at the moment), but that doesn't take into account how well they've played over the last month and since the first 18 games in particular, which would indicate an increasing rate of productivity and wins. Essentially, their likely win output over a broader sample size is hampered by their horrendous start, but if we take a derivative of the data set, we'll see that the rate in change in the function when X=July 9 is obviously much higher than it was on April 16.



Did I lose you? I got all calculus-y on you for a second. It's been a few years. Essentially, what I'm saying is the increased rate of change means that if they continue to improve exponentially, they're likely to win more than 82 games. Unless this is a parabolic function. I think. I was a history major, what do you want from me.

I'm getting off track.

Here is the key information you need to know. I was wondering if I stood a chance to miss out on the Mets' season free fall by being in Europe but if the past is any indication that chance seems... not so likely. This will be the third time I have traveled to mainland Europe. My first trip was in April of 2000 when I went to France with Madame Said's French class in 9th grade. The second was in April and May of 2006 when as a junior in college I went to an academic conference in Metz, France and Saarbrucken, Germany to discuss Germany's national identity at the 1936 Berlin Olympics as compared to the 1972 Munich Olympics.

If you're a Mets fan the years 2000 and 2006 should clearly stick out to you as the last two times the Mets went to the NLCS, in the case of 2000 they reached the World Series and in 2006 they should have (and I'm convinced would have won the whole thing if they did). Of course those teams were far better than the one playing now, but here's the real question. How did the Mets do exactly while I was in Europe?

I don't remember the exact dates of my trip in 2000, but I do know that every morning I went to a news stand to get a copy of the International Herald Tribune so I could see the score of the Mets game and every day they seemed to win. In fact, over the nine days I was in Europe, the Mets won nine games.

In 2006, my trip took me to Europe from April 25 to May 4, and if we glance at the Mets' schedule that season we find that they went 7-2 over that span.

So essentially, in the 18 days I've spent on mainland Europe, the New York Mets are a combined 16-2, good for a sparkling .888 winning percentage. I'm about to double those 18 days and I guess we'll see if the Mets can double that impressive mark. I'm assuming they probably won't but all in all a man can dream -- particularly since going 13-2 in the 15 games they'll play while I'm out of the country will seriously thrust them into the middle of the Wild Card, and possibly divisional, race. And that would be something wholly unexpected when the season began.

If it happens, I think it's pretty clear they'll have me to thank.

Enjoy the rest of your July everyone. I'll try my best to check in while I'm prancing around Europe. If I don't, you can be sure I'll write a follow-up to see if my trip actually helped the Mets chase a pennant.

They're Still Equivocating And I Can't Take It

There we were on Sunday afternoon, one strike away from having some clarity and relieved anxiety. The Mets were losing to the Yankees in the bottom of the ninth, 2-1, facing the greatest closer in the history of the game and potentially, their season was on the brink. A loss would have given the Mets a demoralizing sweep at the behest of their crosstown rivals, and a fourth-straight loss overall, dampening any of the positive feelings we had gotten from a recent and surprising offensive outburst against the Tigers.

Then it happened.

The Mets rallied off Mariano Rivera, won the game in extra innings, and have since responded with two impressive wins to open their west-coast road trip in Los Angeles, which brings them to a season-high two whole games over .500 (although they've actually lost some ground in the Wild Card, where they're 6.5 back). Either way, the Mets haven't rolled over and died just yet, which is surprising to many for a few reasons and is also making me wonder about a few things.

A) Is this team for real? Like, are they going to make us think they're in the race longer than just the All-Star Break?

B) Is this the real Jason Bay? The outfielder was a disappointment last year up until he spent the latter part of the season, and the first part of this one out with a concussion. But in the last 10 games, he's hitting .359 with 13 RBIs, 8 runs scored, 3 homeruns and 2 stolen bases. Oh and his six homers this season are equal to his total from last year. Maybe the last three years of that contract won't be quite the albatross we all feared it was.

C) Why am I so damned anxious about this team?

That last one is the real question. I'll chalk it up to my Jewish neuroticism, but it makes me uncomfortable to not know if this team is going to suddenly get my hopes up only to dash them again or if I can comfortably ignore what's happening on the field. That's a terrible perspective to take. What I should be saying is, "I expected nothing and I'm getting something. It's all gravy."

And really that's quite true. This is an unexpected joy to watch all things considered. The Mets are a scrappy bunch exceeding expectations that you want to actually root for, which is a pretty stark contrast from years past. And let it also not be forgotten that if the team falls apart in the midst of its three-game series against the Phillies after the All-Star Break, I won't have to witness it first hand because I'll be off in Europe for two and a half weeks.

Yes, on a side note, I'll be off in Europe in approximately four or five days depending on where you want to draw territorial lines. I'm going to be in the Netherlands, Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria and Belgium, and it should be a hell of a time and there will be lots of pictures, but the catch is that updates may be few and far between. I'm not sure if you can all manage without my writing a new blog post for roughly three weeks but you're going to have to manage and get your Mets-centric neuroticism elsewhere.

In the interim I should note that while I do plan to take a look at the Berlin Olympic Stadium, site of such events as Jesse Owens' performance at the 1936 Olympics and the 2006 FIFA World Cup, I will not be seeing any sporting events. A bizarre notion considering that I almost always see a sporting event while on vacation and that during my stretch in Europe I will just be missing the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup, where one team has blamed a loss on lightning -- guess who, and the American Football Weltmeisterschaft in Austria. Oh, how I wish I could see a bunch of men from France and Austria compete on the gridiron so poorly that my high school team could have beaten them.

Well maybe we couldn't have, but at least saying so still isn't the dumbest thing anyone has said in a public forum this week.

At the very least those people are actually playing football, which, I suppose, is still theoretically up for debate in the U.S. this fall what with all that lockout business. Of course, I've never really believed the lockout would last long enough to cancel the season and I figured most of it was harmless sabre-rattling and if you need a curious sign as to why, here you go:



This is a pretty funny little parody here with high production values, but the intrigue lies in that several NFL players, members of the NFLPA, are in this video. So are Rich Eisen and Marshall Faulk, who are commentators for NFL Network. That is to say, they are employees of the NFL, which means that during this lockout, technically, they're not supposed to be associating with members of the NFLPA. But here we are. Why would the NFL approve letting these people associate with the enemy? I suppose in theory it could be because they don't want to take it too seriously or get any bad press for taking protectionism to an extreme, but maybe, just maybe, it's because they all know the lockout isn't really that serious and it's only a matter of a week or two before the big, bad millionaires decide how to appropriately split up their billions.

Either way, I suspect there will be football. Rant over. Back to vacation talk.

The only real sporting connection I can find to my trip beyond the Berlin Olympic Stadium is that the Women's World Cup Final will be Sunday night July 17th, when I will be in Berlin. The game, unfortunately, is in Frankfurt, but with Germany the host nation, favorite and two-time defending champion, I'm hopeful that there will be some fun outdoor square with a public viewing area for us to watch in and feel the crowd. If that's the case, I will write something long and poetic about watching sports in another country.

Kind of like everything else I write. If you take out the whole part of it being poetic.

An Azerbaijan Victory but Moldova the Moral Winners!

It was an amusing European Song Contest and thanks to my friends on Facebook who made it an on-line 'community' event!

I must admit that having been underwhelmed by the opening few entries, I suddently found my home with the absolute randomness that was the Moldovian effort!

It reminded me of Madness in the early 1980s. It was over-the-top, wholly irreverant and 110% ridiculous which for me, made it brilliant!

Here they are in the semi-final...

Congratulations to the winners Azerbaijan but for me, with unicycles, monocles, pointy hats and trumpets, there was only one real winner for me tonight - Moldova!

A Tribute to Eurovision (Part II) - The Greatest Hits (1956-2011)

It's that time of year again.

The Eurovision Song Contest is here to bring us its annual dose of hillarity, incredulity and sheer randomness that manages to infuriate and illuminate us all at the same time.

I don't watch it as much as I used too as the shine has been taken off the contest in recent years in my mind. Is it because the UK have fallen back to regular also-rans since the turn of the millennium? Quite probably yes. Also, the loss of the talismanic (and indeed manic) commentating style of Terry Wogan has meant that to me the competition in these isles have lost that mavaric, irreverant care-free voice that made it a 'must-watch' every May.

But whilst I may just tune in to see if Blue manage to improve the UK's lot this year, I can still look back in my own memory and in the memory of the televisual archives to some stand-out moments in Eurovision history.

So here is my run-down of the 20 greatest songs from Eurovision's 55 year history to date since it began in 1956...

No.20 - Rock Bottom (Lynsey de Paul and Mike Moran) UK - 1977

It may be rock bottom of my top 20, but this playful melody brought the UK one of many 2nd places in the competition over the years. I love the mix of having two pianos being played along with an orchestra. A catchy sound.



No.19 - La Det Swinge (Bobbysocks) Norway - 1985

Norway's first Eurovision winner was an old-fashioned homage to the rock'n roll era of a generation earlier. Its retro sound struck a chord as it won the 1985 contest for the double act Bobbysocks!



No.18 - Ding-a-Dong (Teach-In) Holland - 1975

The 1975 Eurovision winners followed in the footsteps of their illustrious predecessors from 1974 by becoming the second entry to win having not sung in their native tounge.

No.17 - Puppet on a String (Sandie Shaw) UK - 1967

The UK's first win at Eurovision by Sandie Shaw was with a song that she didn't even like! She was also nearly dropped before the competition by the BBC because she was the 'other woman' in a divorce case! But she did sing and made a a piece of history by winning by a then record margin.

Key Change!



No.16 - Nocturne (Secret Garden) Norway - 1995

Norway's second winner was another classic but this time for a different reason from its rocky attempt of a decade earlier.

Secret Garden's performance consisted of only 24 words with a violin solo at the heart of the piece. It reminds me of the music used years later in the popular Shrek movies.



No.15 - Boom-Bang-A-Bang (Lulu) UK - 1969

The UK's second Eurovision winner actually tied for the honour with 3 other entrants in an era when shared victories were permitted.

Like with any Eurovsision hit, it had a catchy hook that is rememebred 40 years on.

No.14 - Poupée de cire, poupée de son (France Gall) Luxembourg - 1965

This catchy song composed by Serge Gainsbourg and sang in French by France Gall was the first non-ballad winner of Eurovision.

No.13 - What’s Another Year? (Johnny Logan) Ireland - 1980

Johnny Logan gave Ireland its second Eurovision win in 1980 with this ballad. He would return 7 years later to win the Eurovision for a second time. He also composed the winning Irish entry by Linda Martin in 1992.

No.12 - Tu te reconnaîtras (Ann-Marie David) Luxembourg - 1973

In 1973, Luxembourg became only the second country to win back-to-back contests after Spain in 1968 & 1969 (indeed, only Israel in 1978 & 1979 and Ireland in 1992, 1993 & 1994 have matched that feat).

Big band time!

No.11 - Save Your Kisses for Me (Brotherhood of Man) UK - 1976

A classic Eurovision hit, it just misses out on my Top 10.

Before we break into the Top.10, it's time for an interval.

What better way of taking a break than with the greatest interval act in Eurovision history? In 1994 in Dublin, the Irish event organisers gave us what would become a world-wide sensational hit - Riverdance.

No.10 - Fly on the Wings of Love (Olsen Brothers) Denmark - 2000

It's a simple but catchy number that begins my Top 10. This rather old-fashioned love ballad was sang by the oldest performers to enter the contest and became the first song since 1974 to lead the competition from start to finish.



No.9 - Congratulations (Cliff Richard) UK - 1968

This perennial Eurovision hit was the favourite to win the contest in 1968 but was pipped by a single point by Spain. It reached No.1 in the UK charts.



No.8 - Diva (Dana International) Israel - 1998

This was and remains, a huge Eurovision success story, being sang as it was by one of the most well known transexuals in the world.

I remember it clearly and it took the world by storm.

No.7 - Take Me To Your Heaven (Charlotte Nilsson) Sweden - 1999

This is a fantastic, up-beat Eurovision favourite which celebrated the 25th anniversary of a certain Swedish band's win in 1974 in style.

No.6 - Love Shine a Light (Katrina and the Waves) UK - 1997

It remains the last British victory at Eurovision to date and is a beautiful anthemic hit. With 227 out of a possible 288 points, it created an Eurovision record which stood until 2004.

No.5 - Making Your Mind Up (Bucks Fizz) UK - 1981

Katrina and the Waves' win was Britain's first in 16 years since this hit from 1981.

The immortal Eurovision 'key change' was noticeable here in a song that epitomised the Eurovision sound with a strong beat and catchy lyrics. It will always be remembered of course for the legendary whipping off of the girls' skirts to reveal even shorter skirts by the boys.

No.4 - Nel blu dipinto di blu (Volare) (Domenico Modugno) Italy - 1958

A surprise entry at No.4? Certainly not.

Although it only placed 3rd for Italy in the 1958 competition, it has become famous the world over with over 100 covers of the song over the past 50 years - most famously being made its own by Dean Martin.

No.3 - Ein bißchen Frieden (A Little Peace) (Nicole) Germany - 1982

The winning song in the year of my birth, this is a simple but gentle ballad describing a wish for world peace, with the lyrics sung in first person, and also describes the beauty of the natural world.

Nicole was only 17 when she performed what would become Germany's first ever Eurovision winner.

Key Change!

No.2 - All Kinds of Everything (Dana) Ireland - 1970

Another easy on the ear ballad (noticing a trend here?!), 18 year old Dana won Ireland the first of a record 7 Eurovision titles.

She proved that she was capable of all kinds of everything as she moved from the entertainment arena to politics. In 1997, she stood as an Independent candidate or the Irish Presidency and though she failed in that endeavour, she was elected to the European Parliament for a single 5 year term in 1999 - again as an Independent.

It all began with that appearance on the Eurovision Song Contest in 1970!

No.1 - Waterloo (ABBA) Sweden - 1974

It has to be really, hasn't it?

They had released singles before this appearance but it was winning the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest that brought ABBA to world-wide attention and would eventually lead to their fame and fortune.

So I thank Eurovision for giving us ABBA and their music but also, all of this weird and wonderful music which we have had to put up with over the years!