Top 10 Eurovision FAILS

WatchMojo

These songs and/or groups fell flat on Europe's biggest musical stage. Welcome to WatchMojo and today we’ll be counting down our picks for the top 10 Eurovision fails.

Transcript

00:00We're counting down our picks for the top 10 Eurovision fails.

00:19For this list, we're going to be looking at the most disastrous songs and blunders

00:23seen on the Eurovision Song Contest over the years.

00:27Let us know in the comments which one you would give null points.

00:3210.

00:33Piero and the Music Stars

00:36The competition went to Turkey in 2004 for the first-ever Eurovision with a semi-final.

00:49It was during this semi-final that Switzerland saw one of its most embarrassing entries in

00:53history with the song Celebrate.

00:56The performance didn't have too much production value, with the dancers looking like they

01:01were just wearing whatever clothes they rocked up in that day.

01:05Not to mention Piero smacking himself in the face with a mic.

01:13On top of that, the song just wasn't very good.

01:17It wasn't catchy, memorable, and the backing singers in particular were completely out

01:22of tune.

01:31Piero ended up getting null points for Switzerland.

01:34It seemed they celebrated too soon.

01:379.

01:38Diplomatic Incident

01:46Eurovision has a long history of joke entries, where countries will put together baffling

01:51and oftentimes bad performances.

01:54But that wasn't the reason Israel sent a comedy duo to Eurovision in 1987.

02:00That happened because the double act, The Lazy Bums, ended up winning Israel's public

02:05selection process by dressing as the Blues Brothers and singing a nonsense chorus.

02:16Israel's culture minister at the time, Yitzhak Navon, was very unhappy with the choice and

02:25threatened to resign in one of the stranger instances of politics affecting the competition.

02:31However, The Lazy Bums came eighth in the end, a pretty good result.

02:408.

02:44Crazy Radio

02:53The Estonians sent comedy group, Crazy Radio, to the competition in 2008, in another case

02:59of a parody entry, winning the national selection process.

03:03Nobody threatened to resign this time, but it was a disastrous result for the country

03:07nonetheless.

03:16Despite having the backing of Estonia's public behind them, the comedy trio and their

03:21song, Leto Zvet, was the second worst performing song of that year, coming 18th in the semifinal

03:27with a grand total of eight points, most of which came from Finland, probably because

03:32some of the lines were sung in Finnish.

03:35The performance was just too strange, featuring bizarre antics with a piano and other nonsensical

03:40set-pieces.

03:417.

03:53Dust in the Turkey

04:05Again in 2008, this time Ireland sent a baffling joke entry to the contest.

04:11Ireland's television star, Dust in the Turkey, a puppet, was selected to represent the Irish

04:16that year in a controversial move.

04:19It's definitely a bouncy, catchy song you won't forget in a hurry, but that didn't

04:24mean much for Ireland's chances since Dust in failed to get through to the final.

04:34Most of the song involves Dust in saying hello to various other countries, apparently appealing

04:39to them for votes.

04:40While also making digs at Terry Wogan.

04:43Despite these appeals, Dust in was still widely booed as soon as his performance was over,

04:49probably because he was a puppet in a shopping trolley.

04:596.

05:03Backing Tape Fail

05:04The very first entry of the night in 1990 was Spain, with the song Bandido, performed

05:11by musicians Azucar Moreno.

05:13But a catastrophic technical issue could have sunk Spain's chances for good early on.

05:20And going on first is already difficult at Eurovision.

05:31The orchestra and the backing track got desynchronized somehow, which led to the singers completely

05:36missing their cue to start singing.

05:46They walked off stage, leaving their band behind with no explanation, baffling audiences

05:51at the time and creating a very awkward silence.

06:00Since the malfunction wasn't their fault, they were allowed to start over and perform

06:05the song properly, coming in fifth.

06:075.

06:08Alf Peuer Once again, a popular comedian won a national

06:18talent show and got to represent their country at Eurovision, this time Alf Peuer, representing

06:24Austria in 2003.

06:26Alf ended up finishing in a very respectable sixth place with over 100 points, but it's

06:33difficult to see why.

06:45His dancing was incredibly bizarre, and he was surrounded by highly unusual cardboard

06:50cutouts, including one draped in the American flag, despite most Americans having absolutely

06:56no interest in Eurovision since the U.S. isn't involved.

07:01And what was Alf's popular song about in the end?

07:04Animals, for some reason.

07:124.

07:19Latvian Pirates

07:30The final entry from 2008 on our list, strange year as it was, comes from Latvia, when they

07:37attempted to capitalise on the worldwide pirate craze and made a song entirely about pirates

07:43called Wolves of the Sea.

07:45Of course though, this being Eurovision, they submitted more Europop instead of going all

07:51the way with the pirate theme and putting out a sea shanty.

08:05Something so different definitely could have won the competition, as Alexander Rybak would

08:10show the following year.

08:12But despite the gimmick, Latvia just wasn't brave enough.

08:16They came in 12th in the end, despite unprecedented support from Ireland.

08:323.

08:36James Newman

08:45After a year's hiatus following the global pandemic, Eurovision was back in 2021, and

08:51the UK sent a singer whose song was themed around the end of lockdown.

08:56It also happened to be the UK's first entry since Brexit happened in January 2020, which

09:03certainly wouldn't win the Brits any points from Europe.

09:05And that's exactly what happened.

09:18The song was bland and James Newman, despite his best efforts, just didn't have a lot

09:23of vocal range.

09:24Not to mention the fact he was supported on stage by two enormous trumpets for some reason.

09:30It was the UK's second of only two null points results in history.

09:402.

09:41We Are The Winners

09:50It takes a lot of guts to bring a gloating song called We Are The Winners to Eurovision,

09:56a notoriously unpredictable competition.

09:59And that's exactly what Lithuania did in 2006, perhaps hoping that if they said it

10:04enough, they'd actually win.

10:15It was sung by LT United, a supergroup made of Lithuania's best talent, expressly to

10:21win the contest.

10:23They made it to the finals, but it seemed people didn't particularly like their smug

10:27attitude, boasting about having already won that year's contest.

10:39The winners ended up finishing 6th, but although that isn't a terrible result, it's definitely

10:44embarrassing to pin out this song and then lose.

11:121.

11:13Gemini

11:19We said there was only one other time beyond 2021 that the UK received Neil Poire.

11:25That other time was in 2003, when they sent Gemini to represent them on the European stage.

11:32It was supposed to be a standard Eurovision fare.

11:36It probably wouldn't have won, but nobody thought it would do so poorly.

11:47But when Gemini started to perform, it was clear they were incredibly off-key, which

11:52they later blamed on technical issues behind the scenes.

12:03Whatever the reason, 2003 marked the beginning of the end for the UK's chances in Eurovision.

12:08In the decades since, Great Britain has performed consistently terribly.

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