http://diggiloo.net/

Frequently Asked Questions:

1. What's a diggiloo thrush?
2. What's this site about?
3. How do I navigate the site?
4. How accurate is your site?
5. How come the artist names are not always the same as what appeared on screen during the ESC?
6. What exactly are the other versions of the songs?
7. Why do some songs have two versions in the same language?
8. I know another song that was retired from the ESC...
9. Where did you find the pictures of ESC 1964?
10. You forgot that some Finnish singer recorded "Love shine a light" in Finnish...?
11. The Latin script version of some Russian/Greek/Hebrew song is not correct...
12. This song is not in Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, Montenegrin...
13. When are the statistics updated?
14. How did you arrive at the statistics regarding best/worst result that are listed for each country?
15. How did you arrive at the voting statistics that are listed for each country (most votes received/cast)?
16. Isn't it so that when there's a tie, the country that received votes from more countries ends up higher?
17. Where can I find the songs of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest?
18. How can I contribute to the site?
19. What approaches a successful translation?
20. Do you want a French/Spanish/German/... translation of ...?
21. Can you please send me an MP3/video of ...?
22. Where is Yugoslavia 1992?
23. FYR Macedonia should be Macedonia...
24. Where can I find the April 1st pages?
25. Where can I find the NF Special texts?
26. I have a site of my own and I'd like to link to your site...?
27. How do I get in touch with the webmasters?

1. What's a diggiloo thrush?

It's a song thrush with golden shoes! Or at least, that's the story behind our mascot, the bird you can see on top of each page. The bird itself is taken from the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) of 1992. And in 1984, "Diggi-loo diggi-ley" was sung by the Herreys who wore golden boots on stage. That's why our mascot is wearing golden shoes. And how did we come up with a name like "diggiloo thrush" in the first place? Actually this site is a merger of two different sites. The oldest site, "The Songthrush", listed lyrics of each ESC song and its different versions. The name is inspired by the song "Strazdas" (Lithuania 1999), which exactly means "song thrush". "Diggiloo" - the other site - used to list translations of the ESC songs, and the name was chosen as a paradox because it was a song title that required no translation at all. The merger of the two sites, also meant a merger of the names!

2. What's this site about?

The Diggiloo Thrush lists all songs that participated at the Eurovision Song Contest, as well as all different versions these songs have been recorded in. Also, songs that were supposed to enter the ESC, but didn't for some reason, deserve a place on the site. For most language versions, the lyrics can be found. Also a translation of the lyrics is available, but only for the ESC versions and native language versions. Native language versions are the versions that are sung in the official language(s) of the country that this song represented. And to cheer up our pages, we have added a picture of the artist taken from the live performance at the ESC (if possible). Furthermore, you can find the info pages, by clicking the artist name on a year of country page, or "more info" on a lyrics page. These contain info about the artists on stage (also backings) and the writers of the song. Also, the real name and the website of a person is included, as well as a list of connections. A connection is another ESC song that the same person had something to do with, either as leading or backing vocal and/or writer. Each person is also matched with a picture.

3. How do I navigate the site?

Clicking a year or a country on the frontpage, will take you to a list of ESC songs from that year/country. To see all different versions of a song, you have to unfold by clicking on the "+"-sign next to the song title. If you want to unfold all songs, click on "[show all versions for all entries]" on top of the page. By default, the country pages are sorted by year in descending order, and the year pages by draw. But it's possible to change that by clicking on the arrow next to a column heading.

By clicking on a song title you'll see that song's original lyrics along with an English translation of it. Sometimes though, the way a song is sung at the contest and the way it appears on record are not the same. Some songs may be longer on record, some may contain extra verses and some may be pretty different from what you heard at the contest. To see the live lyrics as they were sung at the ESC, click on "live". To see the lyrics of the studio version that resembles the ESC version the most, click on "studio". When the live version can be reconstructed by means of the studio version, you'll only find the lyrics of the studio version with on top of the page the message that the live version repeats/omits some lines/words.

4. How accurate is your site?

We care a lot about spelling, both in lyrics and people's names. We also try to be as consistent as possible. For example, we only use British English for the lyrics. An exception is the title of a song, for which we use what appeared on the single. This explains why sometimes a word in the title is written differently in the lyrics.

However, it should be noted that not all info can be trusted, as a lot of it is submitted by our visitors. In particular, it's very hard to find out the names of backings, and to sort out who's who on a picture.

5. How come the artist names are not always the same as what appeared on screen during the ESC?

For the names of both titles and artists, we use what appears on the single that was released in the country that the song represented (often the singles that were issued for foreign release carry a different name). So we don't take the names from what appears on screen, neither do we take them from a compilation CD. Luckily too, considering "Dole que la quiero" on the official compilation CD of 2001.

In a few cases it's not possible to do that, because the songs didn't get a single release. Only in these rare cases we use the name that appeared on screen. And then there are also a handful of official titles with horrible spelling mistakes, such as "Good by my love" for Turkey 2001. We've corrected those.

6. What exactly are the other versions of the songs?

Many Eurovision entries have been recorded in more than one language, this to make the song more popular outside of its native country, or for various other reasons. The Dutch version of Finland 1977 for example, was recorded as an advertisement for a wood company: "Wie isoleren moet neemt purplex platen van Opstalan". Besides the original formats of the songs, some have got instrumental, karaoke, remix or other different versions.

A karaoke version is the playback of the song without the lead vocals (the backing vocals may still appear). An instrumental version is the playback of the song with the lead vocals being replaced by an instrument such as a piano, guitar or synthesizer (or even, in the case of Austria 1984, a calypso!). Sometimes an instrumental version has a totally different arrangement from the original version, and sometimes both a karaoke version and an instrumental version exist. Also, a lot of songs have dance remixes. If a song has more than one remix, the names of the different mixes are given.

Some songs have got different versions at different lengths, such as France 1988's "Chanteur de charme" (a 3 minute version as sung in the ESC itself, and a 5 minute version, which is actually the complete song itself). These are known as long versions.

Some songs were recorded more than once in the same language, each time in a different way. This could either be a new version (if the song was not recorded in the same period) or an alternate version, if, for example, the song was recorded with two different instrumentations. Some differ only slightly, but still distinguishably, such as the two different versions of Monaco 1978's "Les jardins de Monaco", both versions sounding exactly the same, only one including backing vocals during the chorus, the other not. Sometimes you can find more info about these alternate versions, by hoovering your mouse over them.

Demo versions are early versions of songs that were not released commercially or promotionally (i.e. on CD or vinyl) but were made available through the internet, whether intentionally or by mistake. One specific exception is Malta where the demo version is always found on the national final CD wheras the alternate versions are those found on the cd-single along with the proper studio version.

You might also see the remark 'never recorded' next to a few titles. This means the song was either never recorded in any version by the original artist, e.g. Belgium 1979's "Hey nana", or the mixed language version was never released, e.g. "Deixa-me sonhar" was sung in Portuguese and English at the ESC, and even though a full Portuguese and a full English version were recorded, the mix was never released officially.

7. Why do some songs have two versions in the same language?

In some rare cases, a song will have not only versions in other languages, but different versions in the same language. This doesn't mean that the song has two kinds of music (ie. rock and classical versions), but rather that it's got two versions with different lyrics. There are various reasons for this, but the point is that the song was recorded with two different sets of lyrics, and both of them are equally important. One fine example of this is Sweden's 1987 entry. It's original version, called "Fyra bugg och en Coca Cola" had to be changed because the name 'Coca Cola' in the title gave the song a commercial aspect, which isn't allowed at the contest. Therefore, a new version was recorded, changing the title into "Boogaloo" and changing some words in the chorus lines of the song. Therefore, two versions of this song exist.

Sometimes, two different versions exist of a different language version of a Eurovision entry. Vicky's famous 1967 Luxembourgisch entry, "L'amour est bleu", was recorded in two different English versions. One, the ultra-famous "Love is blue", the other titled "The colours of love". Therefore, if you see two titles in the same language of the same song, it's not a typo, there actually are two versions. And for general knowledge, the German version of "Non ho l'età" is actually called "Luna nel blu"... it's still in German, though!

8. I know another song that was retired from the ESC...

You can let us know, but we only list songs that were once publicly presented as an entrant for the ESC and was later retired for some reason. If the singer was replaced and not the song, the original singer's versions are considered cover versions, so we don't list these either. There's an extensive list of songs that never made it to the ESC, which also includes a lot of songs that are not legitimate to our standards.

9. Where did you find the pictures of ESC 1964?

There doesn't exist a full recording of the Eurovision Song Contest of 1964, as far as we know. Our pictures were once taken from a TV set. They were published in a French magazine and that's where we got them. On the original pictures you could also see that television set, but we have cut that off. And there do exist some fragments from the 1964 show, you can find that here.

The pictures of 1956 are not taken from the show, except for the picture of the winning song. This was taken from some material that was found only recently. All other pictures are snapshots which we have made ourselves.

10. You forgot that some Finnish singer recorded "Love shine a light" in Finnish...?

This site is only about versions recorded by the original artist, i.e. the one who performed the song on the contest itself. There are literally thousands of cover versions, and it is not our intention to list any of them. Any version by any other singer is considered a cover version, and we don't list those. So also, if another artist was supposed to sing the song, the versions of this singer are considered cover versions. E.g. Nicole Josy & Hugo Sigal (1971 Belgium) and Joan Manuel Serrat (1968 Spain).

11. The Latin script version of some Russian/Greek/Hebrew song is not correct...

On this site, non-Latin texts are transcribed. A transcription is a mapping from sound to script and must be distinguished from transliteration, which creates a mapping from one script to another. Other sites usually have a transliteration.

12. This song is not in Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, Montenegrin...

Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin are very similar and could actually be considered dialects of the same language. However, we consider these as separate languages, since they have official status in their respective countries. It's possible that no language-specific traits can be heard in a song, which means no linguistical distinction can be made. If that is the case, the singer's ethnicity will be taken into consideration and thus the name of the language becomes purely symbolic. Note that the official language of Bosnia & Herzegovina is not only Bosnian, but also Croatian and Serbian.

The distinction is also made for the Yugoslav entries, although Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian and Montenegrin should then be considered dialects of Serbo-Croatian. However, the language/dialect is no indication whatsoever for which Yugoslav broadcaster selected the song. E.g. the entry of 1961 was in Serbian (Serbo-Croatian), but was selected by RTV Ljubljana (Slovenia). Broadcasters can be found in the info pages.

13. When are the statistics updated?

All statistics on the site are updated shortly after the contest final has taken place. In particular this means that the "number of participations" refers to participations in contests in the past.

And, by the way, the number of participations for a country includes the number of songs from that country that have taken part in an ESC final or semi-final. Thus the semi-final non-qualifiers from 2004 onwards count, but so do neither the ones from the Eastern European pre-selection of 1993, nor the 1996 pre-selection.

14. How did you arrive at the statistics regarding best/worst result that are listed for each country?

The best result is found by considering all results that a country has obtained in ESC-finals. The worst result is found considering results from finals as well as semi-finals. The worst results are compared as "distance from last place", ie. coming 20th of 22 is considered worse than 21st of 25.

15. How did you arrive at the voting statistics that are listed for each country (most votes received/cast)?

Only the votes from the period since 1998 are taken into account, because mainly televoting was used during that period and this resembles the current voting system the most. Both finals and semi-finals are included in the calculations, but when a song participated in both semi-final and final, an average is calculated. An example for an imaginary country that only participated in 1998 (12 points) and 2004 (6 points in the semi-final and 12 in the final): [12 + (6 + 12)/2]/2 = 10.5.

Countries that "overlap" for only one year aren't considered. E.g. when a new country gives 12 to a certain country, we can't say yet that this will be a trend.

For the countries that haven't participated after 1998, the votes are calculated over the period 1975-1998 (when the 12 to 1 system was used).

16. Isn't it so that when there's a tie, the country that received votes from more countries ends up higher?

Let's have a look at the official rules of (and until) 2008:

"Should there be a tie for the last position in a Semi-Final or for the first place in the Grand Final, the winner shall be the song which has obtained points from the highest number of countries. If the tying songs received votes from the same number of countries, then the highest number of 12-point scores shall be decisive [...]; if necessary, this method shall continue until account has been taken of the number of times one point has been awarded. In the very unlikely case that [...] there is still a tie in a Semi-Final [...], the tie shall be resolved by giving precedence to the country which was earlier in the running order."

This clearly states that this rule should be used only to decide the winner in the Grand Final and qualifiers in a Semi-Final. The rules don't say anything about ex aequo's for the other positions, so they just end up in the same position.

As of 2009 this has changed, and the rules now specify that the same procedure should be used to resolve any other ties.

17. Where can I find the songs of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest?

We don't do those, they can be found on other sites already. The official site is www.junioreurovision.tv.

18. How can I contribute to the site?

If you have the lyrics or a translation of a song that is marked with an asterisk (*), then please let us know. We are mostly interested in translations of ESC versions and native language versions. Also any correction in lyrics and translations are welcome, however small it may be, as well as corrections to the title of a song, the name of an artist, the name of a composer, etc. Furthermore we are interested in the names of backings (additions and corrections). Also, if you know who's on the pictures, don't hesitate to tell us.

19. What approaches a successful translation?

A good translation accurately renders the meaning of the source text. This means that no words should be added or subtracted. On the other hand, the English translation shouldn't be too literal, it should still sound natural. Your English doesn't have to be perfect if you want to make a translation for the site, but it should be fairly good. An example of a literal translation is "Empty of cigarettes is the packet". This doesn't sound very natural in English, a better translation would be "The packet of cigarettes is empty".

20. Do you want a French/Spanish/German/... translation of ...?

No, thank you. The purpose of the site is to give everybody a chance to understand what the lyrics are about, and that can, to 99%, be accomplished with English translations only.

21. Can you please send me an MP3/video of ...?

This is not an MP3/video site! And it never will be, there are plenty of those already.

22. Where is Yugoslavia 1992?

By the time of the ESC in May 1992 Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, FYR Macedonia and Slovenia had all been widely recognised as independant nations, and the country that participated in the ESC as Yugoslavia was therefore identical to the later Serbia & Montenegro. For that reason the 1992 entry is listed as representing Serbia & Montenegro rather than Yugoslavia.

23. FYR Macedonia should be Macedonia...

Some countries refer to this country as Macedonia, some refer to it as the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (aka FYROM or FYR Macedonia). So far both the EBU and the UN are using the long version, and so are we. [more info]

24. Where can I find the April 1st pages?

Click a year: 2007 / 2008 / 2009 / 2011 / 2013.

25. Where can I find the NF Special texts?

The pages for our NF Special can be found at http://www.diggiloo.net/nfspecial.

26. I have a site of my own and I'd like to link to your site...?

Sure, feel free to put a link to our site. You don't have to let us know, but we'd appreciate it if you did. You can link to http://www.diggiloo.net/ or to a certain page of our site, e.g. http://www.diggiloo.net/?at or http://www.diggiloo.net/?austria. You can refer to our site as "The Diggiloo Thrush" or as "The Diggiloo Thrush - lyrics" to make clear it's a lyrics site.

27. How do I get in touch with the webmasters?

Use our contact form. And actually there are three webmasters. Our names are Hanne, Frederik and Lior.