To my siblings: A huge article about the Eurovision song contest. Which SO obsessed us when we were in Ireland as kids. Or – maybe I should say it obsessed Jean and me. Brendan was too busy accidentally putting salt on his corn flakes, and taking naps, and Siobhan was 4 years old, screaming at Irish children who stared at us inappropriately in the library. YOU GO, SIOBHAN! STICK UP FOR YOUR SISTER! You are only 2 feet tall, but you have dignity!!
Meanwhile, Jean and I became so wrapped up in the Eurovision song contest that we would hijack the television at whatever B &B we were staying in. “We have to get back from the monastery we’re looking at by 8 pm because Eurovision is on!!” we would plead with our parents. Monastery shmonastery. Let’s see some pop music! Sung in languages we do not understand!
Our two favorite songs were performed by Sweden and Cypress. We did not understand the language. But to this day, we can still sing the tune … and our made-up lyrics.
Song from Sweden – sung by two blonde hottie women:
“Dag after dag
Goin’ for a long way I can say
Dag after dag
Goin’ for a long way I can say-ayyyy
And when I wake up this mornin’
I know where I am goin’
Who’s got it all?
Neww-ewww Yo-ork
Dag after dag”
What the hell? As our family careened over the Burren in our tiny car, Jean and I, scrunched in the back seat, would sing that “song” at the top of our lungs.
Then there was some gorgeous dark-haired woman from Cypress – who would stand totally still onstage, a la Katherine McPhee …
I only remember the title, and this is in our own butchered interpretation of what she was saying in her native tongue:
Mona ya Guppee
That was her song. Her big hit. Mona ya Guppee. Don’t ask me what it means, but it was very melancholy.
Eurovision is not known by Americans at all – however, it was responsible for launching Riverdance – but the O’Malley kids have HUGE memories of the time in Ireland when the song contest took over our entire lives. We were SO. INTO. IT.
Peteb has made a joke that – because whoever wins the Eurovision song contest (whatever country, I mean) – then has to host the contest the next year – and for the last 30 years (hahahaha, whatever) Ireland has won – for many years, the announcer would open the contest saying, “Here we are, broadcasting yet again from Dublin …”
I have always wished they would broadcast the thing here – and now it looks like that might happen.
And when I wake up this morning
I know where I am going
Who’s got it all?
New-ew Yoo-ork
Dag after dag ….
Words to live by, people, words to live by.
Do you read The Manolo? He loves the Eurovision, and gives daily updates. Plus he is the hilarious.
http://shoeblogs.com/wordpress/category/ayyyyy/
i so remember you guys singing those songs. mona ya guppee, mona ya guppee. what were the other parts to that song? i can only remember the tune to that one part.
i also think…jean will have to back me up on this…but there were little girls whom i thought were making fun of Jean, not me. so i stood up to them, as only a four year old can (“I HOPE YOU DON’T COME BACK IN A MINUTE”).
Have you seen the episode of Father Ted where he and Dougal are Ireland’s entry into Eurovision? Funniest. Parody. Ever. I often sing “My Lovely Horse” around the house at odd times.
siobhan – you were doing battle for your big sister and it is totally admirable.
I HOPE YOU DON’T COME BACK IN A MINUTE!
I mean – what else is there to say after that?
Oh – and I don’t remember the rest of the Mona ya Guppee song – but you know, SOMEWHERE on the planet I have a tape recording of it – I held the damn tape recorder up to the television at a random B&B in County Mayo and recorded the contest. The tape is probably in the attic in a pile or something at Mum and Dad’s.
Wasn’t this the contest that launched Abba internationally?
Yes!!
I believe they won it, too – with “Waterloo”.
Lisa, I just checked out that link and I am so so so happy.
The outfits! The timewarp clothes and hair!! LOVE IT
My family and I were in Dublin last year about this time and went into a pub for a few pints. The pub was very noisy from people catching up with each or just rambling on about the nonesense of the day. Then all of a sudden it got deathly quiet. We couldn’t figure out what happened. Worried, I went to bar to ask the tender what happened. All he did was point to a TV in the far corner of the pub.
Gathered around it were about 50 people intensely watching Eurovision. I could have yelled fire and no one would have even heard me. The first person on was a girl from India. She sang a traditional song from here country. When she was done singing, a flurry of orders for pints came in and the bar lit up immediately with conversation. EVERYONE had an opinion of this girl. Even though nobody could understand what she was singing. It was incredible. Then everyone stopped talking again and focused their attention on to the next band from Norway. I never got addicted to Eurovision, but it was an experience I’ll never forget.
Jon B – hahahaha Awesome!!!