History of black artists at Eurovision Song Contest

[barese]

Seeing the Hungarian representative the other day I wandered about the history of black artists at Eurovision.

Eurovision is mostly a great TV show, but it was always a platform for political agendas and sociological tendencies within Europe.

In the last 20 years LGBT community managed to use the event to spread its ideas, while the racial tolerance gets a silent acceptance treatment and everyone at Eurovision pretends it is an already resolved issue (despite the rampant racism specially in Eastern Europe and the occasional violent rebellions in the west)...

The event has not been used enough as a platform, apart from one French act in 1990...

I could not find a good list of black entries. The one at http://afroeurope.blogspot.it had only 26 entries and a lot of holes. So, this is my attempt at the task, and the list now has 34 performers.

I will not show all you tube videos. There are too many, and not all survive the test of time. I will attach here only the initial videos, historically important, and final ones that I believe to be fun.

My biggest surprise was the low number of black entries for UK and France. The first French black entry happened only in 1990 (at the 35th edition), and the first UK act in 1998 (at the 43th edition of the contest).

Other surprising facts: Netherlands had the most black entries, 7 in total, and the only winning act was one from Eastern Europe, specifically from Estonia. It would be interesting to make a map of black participation in Eurovision and compare it to the WP map of racial tolerance in Europe.

So, the list of black artists at Eurovision Song Contest:

1. Netherlands 1966 -Milly Scott - Fernando en Filippo - (15th)

1. 
   Milly Scott is a Dutch singer and actress of Surinamese origin.
   Scott had built up a career as a successful nightclub jazz singer, which led to her being given her own TV show, Scott in de Roos, in 1965. As a result, in 1966, she was given the chance to take part in the Dutch Eurovision selection, where her song "Fernando en Filippo" was a clear winner. Scott went forward to the 11th Eurovision Song Contest, held in Luxembourg City on 5 March, where "Fernando en Filippo" ended the evening in 15th place of 18 entries with votes only from the UK and Ireland, continuing a run of poor Dutch results dating back to 1960. Although "Fernando en Filippo" was something of a novelty song (and was performed as such) at a time when ballads dominated Eurovision, Scott would subsequently claim controversially that her disappointing result was attributable, at least in part, to racism on the part of the voting jurors.
   
   

2.Portugal 1967 - Eduardo Nascimento - O vento mudou - (12th)

Eduardo Nascimento, an Angolan singer, was the leader of a five-member band, Os Rocks, formed in Luanda in 1962. The band travelled to mainland Portugal in the mid-1960s, participating in song festivals and releasing a well-received EP, "Wish I May", in 1966. In 1967, Nascimento entered the Portuguese Eurovision selection contest, the Festival da Canção, as a solo artist with the song "O vento mudou" ("The Wind Changed").He won the event by a comfortable margin, and went forward to represent Portugal in the 12th Eurovision Song Contest, where "O vento mudou" finished in joint 12th place of the 17 entries. With Os Rocks, Nascimento released another EP, "Don't Blame Me", in 1968, before giving up his musical career and returning to Angola in 1969.


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3. Germany 1977 - Silver Convention - Telegram - (8th)

Two members of the trio Silver Convention were black: Ramona Wulf (a daugher of an AA soldier and a German) and a New Yorker Rhonda Heath.


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4. Denmark 1981 - Debbie Cameron & Tommy Seebach - Krøller eller ej -(11th)

Deborah (Debbie) Cameron is an American singer of Bahamian descent who has had a career in music in Denmark.


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5. France 1990 Joëlle Ursull - "White and Black Blues"- (2nd)

This seems to be the only song dealing with the racial topic in the Eurovision history. It was also one of its greatest hits at the time (it charted troughout Europe and peaked in France at #2 where it remained charted for 26 weeks). The only reason the entry did not win the contest was the Italian exploitation of European unification with “Insieme: 1992” and the fact that Totto Cotugno was a huge star at the time famous for “L'Italiano”.
Joëlle Ursull is a French singer of Guadeloupean origins. Joëlle Ursull was Miss Guadeloupe in 1979 and had a modelling career. She also worked as a television actress in a sitcom produced by RFO.



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[Capo Dei Capi]

in the 20-29% , neighbors

 

[barese]

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6. France 1992 - Kali - "Monté la riviè".-(8th)

The French entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1992 was performed in Antillean Creole and French (the first occasion on which the French entry was not sung almost entirely in French) by Martinique-born singer Kali.

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7. Netherlands 1992 - Humphrey Campbell - "Wijs Me de Weg" ("Show Me the Way") - (9th)

Humphrey Campbell is a Dutch singer and record producer of Surinamese descent. Campbell's backing singers included Ruth Jacott; the following year Campbell would return the favour by appearing as a backing singer when Jacott represented the Netherlands in the 1993 Eurovision Song Contest. Campbell and Jacott would subsequently become a couple.
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8. Netherlands 1993 - Ruth Jacott - "Vrede" ("Peace") - (6th)

Ruth Jacott is a Dutch singer, originally from Suriname. Jacott transitioned from musical theatre to popular music in 1993, when she represented the Netherlands at the Eurovision Song Contest 1993. Her song, "Vrede" (Peace), was one of the favorites to win, and ended up ranking sixth out of 25. She has since released nine Dutch-language albums, four of which made the Top Ten on the Dutch music charts.
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9. Portugal 1994 - Sara Tavares – “Chamar a música”- (8th)

Sara Tavares is a Portuguese singer, composer, guitarist and percussionist. She was born and brought up in Lisbon, Portugal, as a second-generation Portuguese of Cape Verdean descent. She composes African, Portuguese and North American influenced world music.
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10. Austria 1995 - Stella Jones - Die Welt dreht sich verkehrt. - (13th)

Stella Jones is a daughter of Christine Jones, blues singer, and Carmell Jones, American jazz trumpet player.
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11. Portugal 1995 - Tó Cruz - Baunilha e chocolate - (21st)

Tó Cruz is a Portuguese singer of Cape Verdean descent.
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12. Netherlands 1996 - Maxine and Franklin Brown- "De Eerste Keer" ("The first time") - (7th)

Franklin Brown was born in Rotterdam in 1961 to a Surinamese father and a Dutch mother.
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13. UK 1998 - Imaani - "Where Are You?" - (2nd)

Imaani Saleem (Melanie Crosdale) was the first black singer for the UK.

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[barese]

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14. Netherlands 1998 - Edsilia Rombley - "Hemel en Aarde" ("Heaven and Earth") - (4th)

Edisila was born in Amsterdam and is of Dutch Caribbean descent. For Netherlands this was the best placing since their last win in 1975.
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15. France 1998 - Marie-Line - Oú aller? - (23rd)

Marie Line has French-Caribbean roots and at the event obtained for the time the lowest ranking for France (only this year France got last for the first time in the contest history).
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16. UK 1999 - Precious - Say It Again- (12th)

The single really took off and propelled the girl group. It entered the UK singles chart at the #6 position.
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17. Israel 1999 - Eden - Happy Birthday - (5th)

Half of the group were brothers Gabriel and Eddi Butler, members of the Black Hebrew community in Dimona. Their parents came to Israel from Chicago in 1968 and decided to stay. In 1999 the community hoped their participation at Eurovision would help focus attention on their plight, mostly on the denial of citizenship by the Interior Ministry and the restriction to the temporary-resident status.
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18. Bosnia-Herzegovina 1999 - Dino & Béatrice – Putnici -(7th)

Béatrice Poulot is a French singer, born in Réunion, east of Madagascar, about 200 kilometres (120 mi) southwest of Mauritius, the nearest island.
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19. Austria 2000 - The Rounder Girls - All To You - (14th)

Two singers of the trio were black: Kim Cooper from New York and Lynne Kieran from London. The girls enjoyed major success and popularity in Austria in the 90′s and early 00′s.
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20. Estonia - Dave Benton & Tanel - "Everybody" - (1st)

Dave Benton is the oldest person and to date the only Black person to win the contest. He is from Aruba, but in his 20s he moved to the United States and worked as a backing singer for known artists such as Tom Jones. Later he had a varied musical career in Northern European countries, met his Estonian wife Maris on a cruise ship, and settled in Estonia in 1997. He now lives in Estonia with his wife and two daughters, Sissi and Lisa. He performed in the German production of the musical 'City Lights' after which he was asked to replace Engelbert Humperdinck on his Australian tour.
Though he has released and produced quite a few albums already, one of which in his native tongue, Papiamento, his career to date shows him to be more of a performing artist rather than a recording one.
Benton is octolingual, speaking English, Spanish, Papiamento, Dutch, French, German, Portuguese, and Estonian.
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21. Sweden 2002 - Afro-Dite - "Never let you go" - (8th)

The group consists of Blossom Tainton-Lindquist, Gladys del Pilar and Kayo Shekoni.The father of Blossom is South-African born choreographer Graham Tainton. He is a cousin of Miriam Makeba, and he left South Africa due to apartheid. Gladys was adopted to Sweden from Ecuador at the age of 7. Kayo is a Swedish pop/dance singer, TV personality and actress of Nigerian descent.
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22. UK 2005 – Javine -Touch My Fire - (22nd)

Javine Hylton was born to a white mother and black father and grew up in London. When "Touch My Fire" was released as a single, it became Javine's fifth consecutive Top 20 hit, reaching Number 18 in the UK Singles Chart.


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23. Netherlands 2005 - Glennis Grace – “My Impossible Dream” - (SF)

Glennis started to sing at a young age, at 11 she shared the stage with Julio Iglesias. In April 2011 she reached the top of the Dutch singles chart with a rendition of "Afscheid", originally made famous by Volumia.

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[barese]

24. Israel 2006 - Eddie Butler - "Together We Are One" - (23rd)

This was the second participation for Butler, after 1999 with the group Eden. In 2006 he was still hoping to get a citizenship in Israel, despite being born there (in a taxi that broke down on the road to a hospital in the Negev Desert in 1971) and living his whole life in Israel.
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25. Netherlands 2007 - Edsilia Rombley - On Top of the World – (SF)

This was her second Eurovision for Netherlands, the first was in 1998 when she finished 4th.


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26. UK 2008 - Andy Abraham - "Even If" – (Last)

The last place triggered a response from the BBC commentator Terry Wogan, he blamed the Britain's dismal showing on Eastern Europeans racism.
This is the controversial entry:


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27. Germany 2008 - No Angels – Disappear - (23rd)

The group consisted of 4 female singers, the two black singers were Nadja Benaissa and Jessica Wahls.
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28. UK 2009 - Jade Ewen - "It's My Time" - 2009 (5th)

Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote the song that was the most successful British Eurovision act since 2002. In September 2009 Jade replaced Keisha Buchanan of the Sugababes and has attained two UK top-ten singles with the group and one album Sweet 7. In September 2013 the band had split.


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29. France 2010 - Matador - "Allez Ola Olé" - 2010 (12th)

Jessy Kimbangi, better known by his stage name Jessy Matador, is a Congolese-French singer. The song reached number 1 on the French Singles Chart.


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30. Norway 2011 - Stella Mwangi - Haba Haba (Little by little) (SF)

My personal favorite.
The new face of Norway lol
Stella was born in Murang’a in Kenya in 1986 and spent her first 5 years there before her family moved to a small village in Norway in 1991. The song topped the charts in Norway.


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31. San Marino 2011 – Senit - Stand By (SF)

Senhit Zadik Zadik known as Senit is an Italian singer of Eritrean descent. This year she's the permanent guest in the Italian sunday show "Domenica Live".
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32. UK 2011 – Blue - I Can (11th)

I was wondering whether to include this, but it was already on the other list. One member of the band is black, Simon Webbe. The bend soldover 15 million records. On his own Webbe released two solo studio albums in 2005 and 2006, sold over 700,000 records worldwide and had five UK Top 40 singles.
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33. Ukraine 2012 – Gaitana - Be My Guest (15th)

Gaitana was born in Kiev, during the Ukrainian SSR, a member state of the Soviet Union (in present-day Ukraine), but subsequently moved to the Republic of the Congo where her father, Klaver Essami, was born. She lived there for five years. Afterwards, Gaitana moved back to Ukraine with her mother. She sings in Ukrainian, English, Russian, but she also knows French and Lingala. She composes all her own music and songs, and has a degree in economics.
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34. Hungary 2014 - András Kállay-Saunders – Running (5th)

András Kállay-Saunders was born in New York to Hungarian model Katalin Kállay and American soul-singer and producer Fernando Saunders. He is a descendant of the noble Kállay family from maternal side. In 2011 he decided to visit Hungary to spend time with his grandmother who was ill at the time. During his visit in Hungary he noticed a TV commercial urging talented singers to audition for the nations talent competition Megasztár. Kállay ended up finishing fourth in the contest and shortly after signed to Universal and permanently moved to Hungary.​

 

[Scustin Trillberlake]

Eurovision is Jewish Cultural Terrorism.

 

[88m3]

Eurovision is Jewish Cultural Terrorism.

 

[barese]

Eurovision is Jewish Cultural Terrorism.

Recently the organizers have been Scandinavians. Also the Executive Supervisors:
Svante Stockselius (2004–2010)
Jon Ola Sand (2011–present)
This seems more like Protestant Cultural Terrorism lol

Usually semi-naked ladies is what works


...or a lady in a very tight dress


...but Lady with the Beard is an antient circus act and it also worked lol

 

[wheywhey]

Although I am an Abba fan, I just see Eurovision as a contest for mediocre talent. It is a lot of dated ballads and clunky dance moves. That group from Estonia that won was simply horrible. I can't tell if they are picking the best of the worst or picking names out of a hat.

I think this was an excellent idea for a thread and I enjoyed reading it. As an American I can't really understand the significance of the contest. Different cultures have different tastes, so I would hope/think the show has nothing to do with racial politics because I just see it as glorified karaoke and not very good at that.

 

[Hans Wurst]

that eurovision has always been trash. bad acts, bad show.

 

[barese]

Although I am an Abba fan, I just see Eurovision as a contest for mediocre talent. It is a lot of dated ballads and clunky dance moves. That group from Estonia that won was simply horrible. I can't tell if they are picking the best of the worst or picking names out of a hat.

lol
true, it was horrible and entered some worst winner lists (there are worse winners though lol)

From 1998 the voting has been sms televoting, so everything since has been voted by the people.
This one mainly got a lot of votes from ex-Soviet republics, so I guess that was their idea of a good song lol

As an American I can't really understand the significance of the contest. Different cultures have different tastes, so I would hope/think the show has nothing to do with racial politics because I just see it as glorified karaoke and not very good at that.

The point was always the money lol
The contest is a money making machine for state tv stations and artists.
Even those that don't win get a huge platform...
Hadise and Margaret from my above post did not win, but now perform throughout Europe and have millions of views...

UK artists have other channels to gain popularity, but in the era of more live performing vs. album sales increasing your market can be important for some other countries, like France or Italy...
French artists have mostly scratched non-francophone Europe from their market and I'm not sure why is that. Italy recently came back to the contest (probably for this very reason)...

In the end, you are right about different tastes of different cultures...
One can clearly see it in Eurovision as well, the difference between some winners from the Balkans:





and from Scandinavia:

 

[barese]

that eurovision has always been trash. bad acts, bad show.

it is trash and kitsch, but it is a great show, specially with the BBC commentary
I guess it depends on how seriously you take it lol






I got interested in the show when BBC complained about block voting among ex Yugoslavian countries. To me this block voting after one of the bloodiest civil wars in modern history was a great news. I remember when once a common music industry of ex Yugoslavia broke down the ethnic and new formed countries lines, and there was no cultural exchange for about two years...

Few days ago you had Ukraine and Russia exchanging votes, so I guess the war propaganda is not so strong to dehumanize the opponent (i.e. Russia is probably not preparing for a real full scale war)...

On the other hand you have Armenia and Azerbaijan constantly boycotting each other even if their taste seems to be similar, so one can presume the level of hate high enough to cause some future conflicts...




Now I love the show, all the bad English and flag-waving like at the World Cup... countries in war voting for each other... the diasporas of Europe supporting their home countries and in consequence our most powerful countries with no diaspora (read UK and France) finishing last lol
To me it's just fun...

 

[yoyoyo1]

this thread is trying waaaaaaaaaaay too hard

but i like seeing the old songs

i thought hungary's song was trash but was surprised it finished that high



@ blaming racism for uk finishing last, they ALWAYS finish last

 

[StraxStrax]

You forgot

 

[wheywhey]

NPR had my ears bleeding when they played the winning Eurovision singer. She's Ukrainian but is named Jamala so I had to check if she was black. She's white.