Nor does it excuse the decision to dress him and his back-up singers like employees from your local NatWest branch. But that’s no excuse for just how theatrical Michael Ball is in this performance, obsessively mugging and air-punching during every lyric. This isn’t actually that terrible, in a late-80s Stock-Aitken-Waterman sort of way. Michael Ball, One Step Out of Time (UK, 1992) Throw in some Halloween costumes, lots of random cackling and some of the worst aerobics in the world, and you have Eurotrash magic. Performed at the 1979 Eurovision Song Contest, a year after the release of Boney M’s Rasputin, this is pretty much the exact same song, only renamed Genghis Khan. (Altogether now: “I just had sex with your ex.”) Actually, no competition: it was those lyrics.ĭschinghis Khan, Genghis Khan (West Germany, 1979) It’s hard to choose what was worse – Bognibov’s strained vocals, the bafflingly poor production, or the lyrics. And that came courtesy of Moldova’s effortlessly crass contender. Yet even amongst the geopolitical doom, there was room for some light. Last year’s competition was a relatively straight-forward affair, largely dominated by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra’s eventual (and deserved) triumph. And here they are – the most memorable and cringe-worthy acts to have graced the competition’s stage… Sasha Bognibov – I Just Had Sex With Your Ex (Moldova, 2022) Since its inception in 1956, Eurovision has displayed some of the most interesting, unconventional and down-right strange acts that the continent (plus Israel and Australia) has had to offer. All 40 participating countries, including those knocked out in the semis, will get a chance to vote for the winner of the final. The remaining five entries are reserved for automatic byes for the “Big Five”, that is competition’s five-largest financial backers, including the UK and host nation Italy. Twenty-five countries in total will compete in the competition’s grand final this Saturday (May 13), with the 10 best-ranked entries from two semi-finals tonight and Thursday (May 11) going through. Her TikTok-tweaked single I Wrote a Song strikes a similarly arch but memeable note. Can our hope this year – 25-year-old Mae Muller – similarly thread the needle? The early signs are promising. Sam Ryder, Britain’s 2022 entry, hit the sweet spot by being both self-consciously cheesy, glittering in his rhinestone onesie, and a genuinely impressive singer. You’ll never find a finer gathering of Europe’s eccentric pop talent. Oh, and Michael Ball – Eurovision is a wonderful annual showcase of the weird, the wild and the deliciously naff.
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