Nov 17, 2024
This historic old house off Locust Lane in Farmers, Pa., is where Confederate Brig. Gen.
Amazing story of General John B. Gordon and the surrender of York, PA.
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This historic old house off Locust Lane in Farmers, Pa., is where Confederate Brig. Gen.
Amazing story of General John B. Gordon and the surrender of York, PA.
Eurovision 2010 - Number 51 - Lena - "Satellite"
Already back to Lena!
I could write an entire essay about this song and Lena’s performance. I think it’s one of the weirdest Eurovision winners of all time. More so than Lordi. There’s lots going on in these three minutes, so much to say about why it won and how it won and what Lena is doing here, I’m not going to be able to cram it all into a 400 word blog. So apologies if this is a little off-piste.
This is the opposite of Alexander Rybak in 2009. That was a song that looked backwards to the comfort and safety of fairy-tales and fairy-tale romances. This is a song and a woman looking only ahead towards what she’s becoming and what she wants to become. Alexander is a man fixated on the weight of his love and its impossibility. Lena is thrilled and so excited about her feelings that she might just explode. She can barely keep still. She’s squirming and fidgeting throughout Satellite, as the butterflies flutter so vigorously inside they may burst out. She’s unable to calm herself when thinking about the man she’s in orbit around.
That’s whether he’s sweet or cruel.
2010 in Oslo was a Eurovision all about making the best of what was available. Cutting back everywhere. Its warehouse chic and minimalism can seem empty and a little cold, however at its heart is Lena’s uncontrollable desire and sheer delight at her own besotted state. She’s happy to be on a precipice, dancing on a dangerous edge - equally thrilled at the prospect of making it to the other side safely or plummeting helplessly into the chasm below. It’s a song that makes light of the woes of the world, and only looks ahead. Not just happy to accept the future whatever happens, but is positively giddy-headed about it all.
Where Eurovision 2009 ended on a note of order, stability and security, and the sense of problems being set straight (even if that was copium), Eurovision 2010 instead delighted in fear and peril. Instead of seeking to deaden the pain, embracing it, accepting the precariousness of the present and looking straight ahead with a giggle. Worrying was just so boring.
There’s a whole lot more here to talk about including Lena’s approach to singing in English and just how affected her accent is as well as the song’s focus on soft romantic imagery studded with erotic lyrical hooks, but that’s an essay for another time. For now let’s look at the journey Satellite took to win Eurovision.
It was written by John Gordon and Julie Frost. He is Danish song-writer who was also in the band Steam with his regular song-writing partner Lene Dissing. They’ve written for many artists, including some Eurovision stars including DQ from Denmark. Julie Frost is an American song-writer who was at the start of her career, but has gone on to write for Beyoncé, Sabrina Carpenter and Madonna.
What they came up with, is a rather tragic song about a tormented woman desperately in love with someone. I think what they had in mind when writing it was the version performed by Jennifer Braun, Lena’s opponent in the final of Unser Star für Oslo. Here it is.
It’s a melancholy song of devotion and desperation that got knocked out before the final for Jennifer. It’s a bleak and helpless situation, mirroring that state of the world in 2010, that I don’t think the public wanted to be reminded of.
Lena took it and rendered the torture of the inescapable, internal barbed butterfly wings of obsessive love, of all things, cute.
Lena’s version was so popular that not only did it with Unser Star für Oslo, but sold over 100,000 copies in its first week on release. It went to number one in Germany almost instantly and also topped the charts in Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland post-Eurovision. It became the first Eurovision song to reach number one in Billboard’s European charts too. It’s a song that has an instant spark, one that found exactly the right conditions to ignite a fire under 2010
At Eurovision it wasn’t a landslide, but then it wasn’t close either. Germany and Lena finished seventy-six points clear of second-place much to the surprise of Lena herself, shocked that she’d have to do a reprise. Germany fell in love with her to the extent that Lena was asked back to represent the country again the very next year.
As with 2009, I understand why this song won and what it represents. However, as a song, it is not my favourite either, as its position of fifty-one in my countdown for the year demonstrates. There’s likely to be a whole lot more of Lena next year though and this song in particular is so fascinating I might have to find an excuse to delve deeper into its peculiarity.
In the meantime, this from German TV in 2024, Loyal to Myself
Do you know You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown (1967) ?
Yes, I’ve been in it
Yes, I’ve seen it
Yes, I’ve listened to it
No, but I’ve heard of it
No, never heard of it
Pigeon Guillemot (Cepphus columba)
© John Gordon
Pigeon Guillemot (Cepphus columba)
© John Gordon
Jokers Wild, February 1966. Clive Welham, Peter Gilmour, David Gilmour, John Gordon, David Altham, Jeff Whittaker. © Peter Gilmour.
“Their breath added mist to mist. Now they had stopped moving they once more felt the silence of the heath. The suddenly their skin seemed to shrink and their flesh went iron-hard. Behind them, in the crawling fog, came a soft gentle sound. Something rustled, pushing towards them.” - The Giant Under The Snow - John Gordon
A little treat to brighten this sad day. John Gordon was a friend of Syd and took the photo of Syd he is holding- back in the Sixties This is what John had to say about it.. '14 years ago today Syd Barrett died. This is me holding a print of a photo I took of Syd back in the 60s at a time his friendship and inspiration changed my life forever The world lost a genius who never realised his full potential. Despite that Syd left a legacy of music, paintings, drawing, writing and creativity that inspired millions and continues to do so. R.I.P. Syd.'
https://www.facebook.com/Syd.Barrett/photos/a.434796161307/10158345453371308/?type=3&theater