Eurovision Daily

You won't find many 'winning songs' on this blog, but an exception has to be granted to one of the most beautiful melodies the Contest has ever seen: 'Dansevise' by Jørgen and Grethe Ingmann. It should happen today because 27 years ago today, Grethe Ingmann died of cancer. Born on 17 June 1938, Grethe performed with her husband, guitarist Jørgen, since the late Fifties. They met in 1955, married in 1956 and divorced in 1975. They represented Denmark in 1963 with 'Dansevise', written by Otto Francker and Sejr Volmer-Sørensen. The song, quite rightfully, won.

Katri Helena Kalaoja (née Koistinen) was born on 17 August 1945. She released her first songs in 1963 and has since sold over 630,000 certified records, which makes her the second-best-selling female soloist in Finland behind Madonna and places her also among the top 20 best-selling music artists in the Finnish market. She has represented Finland twice in the Eurovision Song Contest: in 1979 with her song 'Katson sineen taivaan' and in 1993 with 'Tule luo'. Katri Helena has been married three times. She had two daughters and a son with her husband Timo Kalaoja, who died of a heart attack in 1988. His death affected her so much that she withdrew from public view and stopped performing and recording for four years. Her only son, Juha Kalaoja, died at age 33 on 29 April 2009.

Jari Veikko Sillanpää was born on 16 August 1965. With over 820,000 records sold, he is the fifth-best-selling music artist and second-best-selling solo artist in Finland. Sillanpää gained fame after winning the Seinäjoki Tangomarkkinat tango contest in 1995. Sillanpää's 1995 self-titled debut album is the best-selling album of all time in Finland, with over 270,000 copies sold. Sillanpää represented Finland in Eurovision Song Contest 2004 and his song "Takes 2 to Tango" (which he wrote the lyrics for) received 51 points in the semi-final, taking the 14th place and not qualifying for the final. Sillanpää participated in the Finnish National Final for the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 with the song "Kirkas kipinä", making it to the final show, but finishing out of the final three.

Rappers always try to look cool and act tough, but if anything, Danish rapper Kølig Kaj was predominantly funny. He appeared on the 1997 Eurovision Song Contest stage with 'Stemmen i mit liv', a love song for a person - or an automated voice - on the directory enquiries service. At the close of voting, it had received 25 points, placing 16th in a field of 25. To date, it is still the last song to be performed in Danish on the Eurovision stage. Kølig Kaj was born as Thomas Lægaard Sørensen in Pindstrup (Denmark) on 15 August 1971. He only released one album, 'Solgt Ud', in 1997.

Until this year, Portugal has been a bit underrated at the Eurovision Song Contest. Despite sending in several marvellous songs, they were often unrewarded. 'Só sei ser feliz assim' (2001) is a good example of this. The song only received 18 ponts (6 from Spain and 12 from France), placing 17th in a field of 23 competitors. MTM was formed in 2001 by Marco Quelhas and Tony Jackson. Their song was written by Quelhas, who was born on 14 August 1957 - exactly 60 years ago today. 'Só sei ser feliz assim' was not his only Eurovision composition: in 1993 he co-wrote 'A cidade até ser dia', performed by Anabela.

Six years ago today, Ellen Winther passed away. Born on 11 August 1933 in Århus (Denmark), she was a Danish opera singer and actress. Winther trained as an opera singer and made her professional debut in 1957 at the Royal Danish Theatre, where she would be employed for 30 years both as a singer and a dramatic actress. In 1962, Winther won the Danish Eurovision Song Contest selection with the song 'Vuggevise' ('Lullaby'), and went forward to the seventh Eurovision Song Contest. The song finished in joint tenth place of 16 entries. In 1983 Winther was awarded the Order of the Dannebrog for her contribution to the arts in Denmark. She was married to pianist John Winther between 1960 and 1966, with two children from this marriage, and to writer and politician Hans Jørgen Lembourn from 1973 until his death in 1997.