OIKOTIMES ON THE SPOT LIVE FROM TURIN 🇮🇹 Statistics: composers and compositions

EDITORIAL – Every year the EBU official Eurovision website published vital statistics about the contest and the participants.

How many songs this year were written or composed (at least partially) by the performer? (34!)

• Albania, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom

How many of this year’s entries include a songwriter who had taken part in Eurovision as a performer (including returning artists)?

• Armenia: Tamar Kaprelian: Part of the group Genealogy, Tamar was one of five singers to represent Armenia in 2015 with the song Face the Shadow.
• Cyprus: Arash Labaf: As one half of the duo AySel and Arash, he represented Azerbaijan in 2009 with the song Always.
• Denmark: Ihan Haydar: Now part of the group Reddi, Ihan was part of Soluna Samay’s backing band in 2012 with the song Should’ve Known Better.
• Italy: Mahmood returns to Eurovision after his 2019 performance of Soldi.
• Moldova: The crew from Zdob și Zdub are returning to Eurovision after their performances for Moldova in 2005 and 2011.

Other notable names among the songwriters? Any previous Eurovision songwriters among them?

• Austria: Italian DJ and producer Gabry Ponte is best known as a member of the dance group Eiffel 65. Sophie Alexandra Tweed-Simmons, a singer and songwriter in her own right, is the daughter of Kiss frontman Gene Simmons. Sophie appeared with her family on the reality TV show Gene Simmons Family Jewels from 2006 through 2012.
• Azerbaijan: Anderz Wrethov was also one of the songwriters behind Always, the Azerbaijani entry at Eurovision 2009, Too Late For Love, which represented Sweden in 2019, and Voices, the Swedish entry last year. Andreas Stone Johansson was also part of the team for Too Late for Love. Thomas Stengaard has written many Eurovision entries over the years, including Denmark’s winning 2013 entry Only Teardrops, Germany’s You Let Me Walk Alone and Sister, and both San Marino’s Adrenalina and Cyprus’s El Diablo last year.
• Cyprus: Alex Papaconstantinou, also known as Alex P, has been a familiar name in Eurovision songwriting circles for quite a while. He contributed to Greece’s 2007 entry, Yassou Maria, 2009’s Always for Azerbaijan, and Cypriot songs La La Love, Fuego, and Replay. Giorgos Papadopoulos has previously been involved in the songwriting for a number of Greek Eurovision entries, such as 2009’s This Is Our Night, 2012’s Aphrodisiac, and 2021’s Last Dance. Viktor Svensson was part of the songwriting team for a number of Cypriot Eurovision songs, including 2012’s La La Love, 2018’s Fuego, and 2019’s Replay. Robert Uhlmann was also involved in the songwriting for 2009’s Azerbaijani entry Always.
• Denmark: Lars “Chief 1” Pedersen had a hand in previous Danish entries Stemmen I Mit Liv, Should’ve Known Better, and The Way You Are. Remee Jackman, best known as Remee, contributed to 2008’s German entry, Disappear, as well as Danish songs Should’ve Known Better and The Way You Are. He also co-hosted the inaugural Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2003.
• Finland: Desmond Child is the writer of global megahits like Ricky Martin’s Livin’ la Vida Loca, Bon Jovi’s Livin’ on a Prayer, and Aerosmith’s Crazy, among many others. Closer to Eurovision, he also wrote Bonnie Tyler’s Believe in Me. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2008.
• Iceland: Lay Low (born Lovísa Elísabet Sigrúnardóttir) has been active on the Icelandic scene since 2006. She’s toured globally, often supporting other Icelandic acts like Emiliana Torrini and Of Monsters and Men, and has also played at the Glastonbury Festival.
• Montenegro: Including Breathe, Darko Dimitrov has written a total of eight Eurovision songs for four countries. For North Macedonia, he contributed to 2006’s Ninanajna, 2013’s Pred Da Se Razdeni, 2014’s To the Sky, 2018’s Lost and Found, and 2019’s Proud. Also in 2019, he wrote Kruna for Serbia. In 2020, he was on the team for Albania’s Fall from the Sky, as well.
• North Macedonia: Songwriter Aleksandar Masevski was a backing singer behind the late Toše Proeski in 2004 for the song Life, where he sang alongside two-time North Macedonian representative Tamara Todevska. He was also part of the songwriting team behind North Macedonian Junior Eurovision entries Love Will Lead Our Way and Dancing Through Life from 2016 and 2017, respectively.
• Poland: River marks the sixth Eurovision song for Ashley Hichklin, who also contributed to Belgium’s Me and My Guitar (2010) and Mother (2014), Lithuania’s Run with the Lions (2019), Spain’s Universo(2020), and Austria’s Amen(2021).
• Spain: Leroy Sanchez was one of the songwriters behind Voy a quedarme, Spain’s entry for 2021.

Songs changed/modified/revamped/translated from original winner/announcement/release?

• Albania: The original version of Sekret underwent a revamp to get it ready for Eurovision. The song was shortened to the Contest’s maximum regulation length of three minutes, lyrics in English and Spanish were added, and some production was tweaked.
• Czech Republic: Between the Czech National Final and the release of the official video for Lights Off, the song underwent some minor edits.
• Iceland: Með Hækkandi Sól didn’t go through any changes, but the name of the group performing it did! The trio formerly known as “Sigga, Beta & Elín” are now known simply as “Systur”, Icelandic for “sisters”. They’ve also released music under the name “Tripolia”.
• Israel: With the official video release of I.M. came a revamp of the song, as well.
• Italy: At 3:19, the original version of Brividi was slightly too long for Eurovision.
• Latvia: A mild bit of editing had to be worked into Eat Your Salad in order to avoid some saucy language.
• Malta: Soon after Emma Muscat’s National Final win with the song Out of Sight, the Maltese delegation opted to change their song to I Am What I Am.
• Moldova: A slight revamp in arrangement and instrumentation was applied to Trenulețul, and a few more lines in English were added, as well.
• Romania: WRS’s Llámame was slightly rearranged prior to taking the stage in Turin.
• United Kingdom: The original version of Space Man was 3:37, so it had to be trimmed to 3:00 to comply with the EBU’s rules.

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