When the Cheshire emerges...

This is the third post in a series about the Eurovision Song Contest. If you don't know what that is I strongly suggest you follow my posts. You'll learn a lot.

I was originally under the impression that any artist could only enter Eurovision once, and took a while to realise this wasn't the case. In the nine contests I've seen, there have been a few repeat offenders which have proven to be some of my favourites overall. Plus my examples are all actual winners.

Helena Paparizou, who won in 2005, had entered as part of duo Antique for Greece four years before. I still hear My Number One and have it in my head for days. Come to think of it, Kalomira's 2008 offering of Secret Combination even more so.


Lena Meyer-Landrut won for Germany in 2010 with her strange drawling voice in Satellite before being chosen as the 2011 representative to attempt back-to-back victories. I actually liked Taken By A Stranger a bit better - more on that another time.



Then there was Dima Bilan. The Russian that could do no wrong. This guy sticks in my head more memorably than anyone else for reasons I cannot explain.

He came second in 2006 with Never Let You Go, and then returned in 2008 to take the Eurovision trophy with Believe. While his winning song was nice, it's Never Let You Go that I still seek out on my iPod. After the contest I listened to this song every day walking to and from school for pretty much the rest of my senior year.

It's my all-time favourite Eurovision song.

I don't know what draws me to it so much. I guess that I've always thought it seemed pretty epic for Eurovision; it could easily have crossed into cringy but it's just so sad, and catchy, and GOOD. I truly think part of the reason he won for Believe is that a lot thought he should've won two years before. To be fair, his winning performance did have support from Evgeni Plushenko as an on-stage performer.

You be the judge.


*If there's something you want me to write about within my Eurovision series, I would love any suggestions. Otherwise please share my stories or provide some feedback if you can :)
**Next Eurovision post is on Sunday night

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*I have two photos entered in the current Qatar Reflections competition. Please show your support for me by voting for either photo! Short backstory and links here.