The lyrical heights of Eurovision songs are often very low (especially over in the Republic of Georgia). But this year’s competitors managed to go even lower by relying heavily on vocal gimmicks. Those are, of course, the vowels, syllables, and sounds—often nonsensical in day-to-day language—that artists repeat to make their songs catchier. Examples that spring to my mind include Malta’s “eh eh eh eh” and Cyprus’s “Lalalalalalalala love.” Bulgarian correspondent Alexander Green has reviewed all 42 entries from 2012 (you can too by visiting our contestants page), and he’s narrowed the field to 12 entries that have la and oo and uh-oh-ed their way into our hearts.
Vote for your favourites in the poll below. You can vote for as many contestants as you would like, but you can only vote ONE time. Be sure to check the box next to each country you want to support. If you can’t remember the acts, then scroll on past the poll to watch the videos. This poll closes on August 19.
[polldaddy poll=”6401522″]Bulgaria: “Do rem dem dem dei” (Sofi Marinova – Love Unlimited)
Cyprus: “Lalalalalalalala love” and “i-i-i” (Ivi Adamou – La La Love)
Greece: “Oh oh uh oh oh” (Eleftheria Eleftheriou – Aphrodisiac)
Italy: “Lalalalalala” (Nina Zilli – L’Amore e Femmina)
Latvia: “Nananananana” (Anmary – Beautiful Song)
Malta: “Eh eh eh eh” (Kurt Calleja – This is the Night)
Norway: “Nananananana” (Tooji – Stay)
Romania: “Zaleilah-leila-lei” and “Ribababababapai!” (Mandinga – Zaleilah)
San Marino: “Oh Oh – Uh – Oh Oh” (Valentina Monetta – The Social Network)
Slovenia: “Ahhh Ah, Ah Ah Ahhh” (Eva Boto – Verjamem)
Sweden: “U-u-u-u-up” (Loreen – Euphoria)
Turkey: “Nananananana” (Can Bonomo- Love Me Back)
@Anthony Yes I understand what you mean, and agree with you about La La Love. But this is a list of vocal gimmicks, regardless of the purpose, effort or intention behind them. I think that you’re assuming that being on this list or being called a “vocal gimmick” is a bad thing. That’s not true–vocal gimmicks can be good or bad and this poll is about which one is your favourite! The line “But this year’s competitors managed to go even lower by relying heavily on vocal gimmicks” was not written by me, it was an edit by Wiwi. Maybe… Read more »
@Alexander Green To make my point easier to understand, I’ll take one of my favourite entries this year, Cyprus’ “La La Love”, here as an example.
I’ve come across several comments (not here) where the person says “there’s far too many “La’s” in that song” and I tend to get annoyed on having to point out that all those “La’s” are actually filler lyrics and NOT because the songwriter is too lazy to write proper lyrics, as accused by the person commentating. So (hopefully) now you understand!
accidently voted for Latvia. sorry everyone
@Anthony Almost all vocal gimmicks are filler lyrics, with a few exceptions, so I don’t really get your point there.
@Alexander Green I’d also like to point out that some of the vocal gimmicks you’ve listed here are in fact meant to be “filler lyrics”. This mainly applies to the likes of Cyprus (before going onto the actual lyrics itself), Norway, Greece and Latvia.
@Anthony Thanks for the feedback! The gimmicks were selected based off of the song lyrics and composition. Backing singer or not, the “Ahh Ah” was a prominent part of the Slovenian entry. Latvia was also on the list and their “Nanananana” was also done by back vocals 😛
I think including Slovenia’s “Ahhh Ah, Ah Ah Ahhh” seems a tad unfair. This part was from one of the backing singers, NOT Eva Boto herself!
@Poppy Originally Albania was on the list, but I wasn’t sure if it should’ve counted or not and asked Wiwi. He decided not to include it.
Can you put Albania’s wailing? Doesn’t that count as gimmicky? and certainly not pleasant. Lol