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Fourth edition of Official Eurovision history book
John Kennedy O'Connor interview
John Kennedy O'Connor tells about how the book came to, how many copies it has sold so far in various languages and what the process of publishing the book was like. He also talks about his experiences around the Eurovision Song Contest and makes his predictions for this year's edition in Oslo later this month.
John Kennedy O'Connor lives currently in Chigago and London.
The "Eurovision Song Contest": The Official History by John Kennedy O'Connor. Carlton Books, 1. April 2010. 224 pages. Now available in UK and international book stores.
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it's a great book but there are still some mistakes left in it. 'Norway's Wig Wam are described as 'schlager' (with an umlaut!) which is about as wrong as you can be. The UK/Ireland bias isn't as great as some are claiming. After all, those 2 are the top countries in Eurovision history so of course they get plenty of mentions. We're lucky to have this book and the regular updated versions.
I'm voting for Belgium. Love this song: http://www.youtube.c(...)/watch?v=GlRq8E_Teoc
Seamus
I guess that Portugal in ESC is a very special affair. Since the country has never given up on sending entries with a decidedly Portuguese flavour, many fans love Portugal in ESC. Even more (especially from Northern countries) however are completely bewildered by the Portuguese efforts of the last more than 40 years. Unfortunately, John Kennedy O'Commer obviously doesn't know the first thing about Portugal and thus belongs to the second group. On the other hand, I have just finished reading Jan Feddersen's new, informative and extremely witty book Wunder gibt es immer wieder, and he obviously belongs to the first group. It seems very difficult for most fans to be objective when it comes to Portugal in ESC. Btw, I belong to the Portugal in ESC fan group too.
@ Jarko Kuivalainen,
I don't want to get get into a heated argument over this, lets just agree to differ. I have to say that I've never heard of Kato Hansen, so maybe I'm not as big an ESC fan as I thought I was.
& togravus ceterum,
Yes it is much too biased in favour of the UK and to a lesser extent Ireland and poor Portugal is often overlooked. I don't understand when people say that the portuguese language is a barrier to them winning, to me it's much more beautiful than spanish. More than any other country I would love to see them win, but I'm afraid it wont be this year.
Don't worry about the typos, we all make plenty.
LOL. No I am not John. I don't even know him! But I am highly amused by the childish and misleading comments being posted here. All these hundreds of errors, none of which exist. I like the book very much and like that it happened. A book is better than no book in my mind. And if you have the right to criticise, I have the right to defend. Are you perhaps really Kato Hansen? A jealous Norwegian who has just published his own book? Probably.
Sorry for all the typos in my last post ...
Seamus
Yes, it is badly written (and yes, Jarko, I can tell because I am a literary historian), but what annoys me even more is that it is called 'The Official History'. You woudn't expect an official history to be biased, but this book deals with the UK and Irish entries almost every year whereas it ignores other countries's efforts for decades. Moreover, since the auther doesn't seem to know anything about certain countries (in particular Portuguese culture), there is a constant misunderstanding when it comes to his evaluation of Portuguese entries, that is if he doesn't ignore them completely. All he has to say about Tonich's 'Menina' for example is that the singer "wore an outfit that resembled a lumpy patchwork quilt", when the song was a very interesting attempt at blending traditional Portuguese music with more contemporary pop sounds. In fact, entries from other countries than the UK and Ireland are only mentioned if they were either very successful or strike the auther as odd in some waá. I think that the book should be called 'The History of ESC as seen from the UK'.
@ Jarko Kuivalainen
I'm just reading all your entries on this thread and I bet that's not your real name. Would it be John Kennedy O' Connor. You seem to be taking the critisism far to personally.
@ Jarko Kuivalainen
No need to be so bitchy Jarko, all I was saying was that it was badly written (and I'm not the only one to say that). A non english speaking person might not spot how bad it is. I've no plans to inflict my writing on anyone just yet but when I do you will see it stacked to the ceiling in the Academic Bookstore at Puhjoisesplanadi 39 and I'll invite you to the launch. Then you willl see what a nice person I really am!!!
Can't wait to read your book Seamus. It will be a best seller I'm sure. Especially as it sounds as if yours will be written (by an adult) just for the die-hard fans and not for a worldwide audience that doesn't have an obsession with the contest and is interested in trivia - as the author was directed by the EBU. You'll sell, ooh, at least 5 copies. Good luck, but I'll save my money and donate it the children's section of my local library.
I have the original book and fact aside it's a really badly written book, I'm really surprised that he's a writer, it reads as if it was written by a 7 or 8 year old, then there are the useless trivia that even a die hard ESC fan for 40 years like me can't get excited over, like "Winning Colours" and "Shortest gap between wins"!!! give me a break! If you really have some money burning a hole in your pocket donate it to ESCTODAY (and no, I'm not involved with them)
Of course you won't bother to give other examples. You prefer to win arguments using sarcasm and failing to refute facts. Check Monaco's population history online. Or rather don't, because you may have to retract your stupid sarcasm. But as I wrote before, I really look forward to reading your book on Eurovision. I am sure it won't in any part be "crap" and I'm sure it will sell just as well!
I said partly cr*p, and I won't bother to give further examples. And of course Monaco had a population of 100.000 in 1959. I remember know. It was one of those coal mining places, but all the mines had to be shut down since the 60s. Thus, people were forced to leave Monaco to find work elsewhere. In fact, we have quite a lot of Monegasque so-called guest workers in Germany too ...
Mmmmm. I think "crap" was the word you used. Simply because you dispute the population of a country - and you can easily find a reference for the 100,000 figure if you bother to check - that makes a book "crap". Interesting that you're "giving up" having found only one supposed error, which isn't an error at all. A "crap" book indeed!
Oh, they had a population of 100.000 in 1959 and only have 33.000 now? I really wonder where all those people have gone to ... Please, don't make a fool of yourself!
I am giving up, and I think that it should be allowed to point out mistakes. I never said that the whole book is bad, but unfortunately there are some mistakes and the whole thing is rather biased in favour of entries from the UK.
Yes, that is correct. Monaco did only have a recorded population of 100,000 in 1959. Next?
Jarko
Oh yes, the new edition is perfect of course ... and Monaco had 100.000 inhabitants in 1959 (page 14). I could go on and on. Pffffffffffffffff.......
Lusitania is the current name for all former Portuguese colonies scattered worldwide. If this is your best example of a "mistake" that makes the book "crap", then I think you should try harder. I very much look forward to reading your own book as I'm sure that will be excellent. If you listen to the interview here, this guy does talk abour errors in the first edition. I have the latest and can't find a single one.
I found O'Connor's book quite annoying, because of the enormous amount of mistakes (1st edition, haven't bought newer versions) and the disproportional attention devoted to the UK entries.
its a very good book
the only thing - and i know it can't really be helped - is that the new edition always comes out in like march or april - and so only ever lasts up to two months before it goes out of date :/
I had a look at this new edition because a friend ordered it and the book arrived today. It is still partly cr*p ... Sorry. One example from the introduction: "as do songs about European places as well as such far-flung destinations as Colorado, San Francisco, Brazil and Lusitania." And silly me always thought that Lusitania was a Roman province covering most of what is Portugal today ...
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