She’s the French-Tunisian singer that lost out on Eurovision glory in a tiebreak. And yet, despite finishing second to Sweden’s Carola on countback in 1991, Amina Anabi remains France’s most successful song contest act of the past four decades.
And while Amina has no desire to represent France once more, she did try to compete in Sweden’s Melodifestivalen selection during the 2010s. Amina discussed her submission in a recent episode of the Schlagervännerna: Eurovision Legends podcast.
Amina’s rejected Melodifestivalen entry
The song in question is called “Nour – Reborn”.
It was a collaboration between Amina herself, along with Swedish songwriter Jonas Gladnikoff and British producer MaJiKer.
The chanteuse says: “I think today, that’s what we need all over the world”.
The song title “means that the light will be reborn. It’s a really beautiful song with Arabic English”.
Amina doesn’t disclose in which year she submitted the song, although it was included on her 2015 EP Unveil.
“We tried…we tried at least to represent Sweden”, remarks Amina on the venture.
Update 14 June: Producer MaJiKer has confirmed on Instagram that Amina’s “Nour – Reborn” was in contention for Melodifestivalen 2014.
Amina “Nour – Reborn”
Here’s what we said upon reviewing Unveil when it first dropped five years ago:
One thing cannot be denied: Amina’s vocal performance is an enchanting now as it was back in Italy in ’91. The EP might not be something that everyone loves: it definitely fits in to a broader “world music” category and certainly isn’t the type of music you hear from most ex-Eurovision stars.
The album has a real charm to it though. Amina flawlessly changes between languages on “Unveil” and “Nour Reborn” and it’s a real testament to her skill (as well as MaJiKer’s production) that you are kept so enthralled as a listener. It’s great to see this new music coming from such a prestigious artist and it’s another success for Amina.
Amina at Eurovision 1991
If the name Amina Annabi isn’t instantly familiar, then you should probably brush up on your Eurovision history. Amina is perhaps the unluckiest second-place finisher ever. In 1991, she tied for points with eventual winner Carola. The Swede only won on a countback system.
The love for “C’est le dernier qui a parlé qui a raison” has endured. In a recent #EurovisionAgain 1991 rewatch, Amina finished second in the new fan vote — behind “Fångad av en stormvind” once again.
Find the full podcast online, on Spotify and on Facebook.
What do you think of Amina’s Melfest effort? Did it deserve to make the cut? Let us know in the comments.
Wow, I didn’t know she tried to do melfest.
For me Amina will always be the one and only true winner of 1991!!!
Same here. For me C’est le Dernier… is the alltime best song @ESC.
Interesting song but it is not representative of Sweden. Would have been a great entry for Morroco, France or the Lebanon.
It was written with a Swede. Do you have a problem with all the Swedes who write songs for other countries? Read some of the comments down below.
There should be more Songs in Arabic in Eurovision. Period. Stunning Language. It’s a shame that if you speak it no matter the level of fluency, people think your dodgy
Mahmoud for Italy who is ethnically half Arab came 2nd last year with a song that had some of the Arab language.
One of my favourites 🙂 Still listening to this song, especially now after the 1991 contest uploaded recently as a part of the Eurovision Again series
Her 1991 entry is one of my favourite songs ever, from and outside Eurovision. It’s just magical. And this Melfest rejection? Wow, stunning! She should try representing France again.
Too good for MF!
This is just too good… Is there a French-Arabic version of this somewhere?
It sounds very “Kirikou-esque” for the french who know the movies. I’d love a song like this one to represent us, it sounds very modern yet ethnic. ?
I rewatched her performance out of curiosity recently and my God, her song was so enchanting in 1991. She should have won hands down, in my opinion.
This would certainly have made it for the final for Sweden back in 2010:)
I remember she was France’s spokesperson at Melfest 2010 and someone commented that she probably has a grudge against Sweden, but as it turns out all the top three contestants from ‘91 are all still tight. That being said, I could understand her being annoyed at having this rejected.
On a similar note: Skiwalko called it last week – looks like 1988 is next for Eurovision Again. Just saying ahead of time: Yardena Arazi deserved top five!
There were 7 points between third and seventh place that year…
It was a really close year. One of the best top tens ever.
I loooove seeing former contestants back at ESC, but this song is just not good enough to compete against any MELO winner in 2010s lol Even if they let her compete it would be because of her name, not because of a song like this lol Plus, let’s face it, Swed Melos winners are always people who are famous or currently popular in Sweden for some reason, so one FOREIGN singer who participated at ESC loooong time ago (and represented country other than Sweden) would make Swedish people wonder who she actually is lol She doesn’t stand a chance in… Read more »
She is just too good for Melodifestivalen, even though Carola and her song were just simply amazing and a well deserved winner, she was waaay better and should have taken the big prize.
I think it’s a good song. Too bad it doesn’t fit Christer Björkman’s taste.
Perfect song, but it doenst suit the country Sweden, because it is arabic influenced. I think she must represent a country that has arabic sounds, like Armenia, Azerbaijan, or Turkey/Marocco/Tunesia if they come back some day
Yeah, no Moroccan person could ever represent Sweden and do well…oh wait…
IKR! Now Bart has to come up with some other mean comment. Both Amina and Loreen are absolutely wonderful artists and any country should be happy to have them!
Two wrongs there buddy:
Most of those countries aren’t Arabic, and Sweden has already had a person of Moroccan origin to represent us. Hit, it went very well..
Also we have had another Half-Arabian person to represent us who did well. Also an Arabic host who hosted MF three times..
Armenia has Arabic sounds? LOL. Turkey and Azerbaijan are not Arabic either. The languages are not even related either: Arabic is Semitic, Armenian is Indo-European and Turkish and Azerbaijani are Turkic. Chech your facts first!
Yeah: Armenia – the oldest christian country in Europe – has arabic sounds… of course! LOL
The oldest Christian country? They might believe it themselves. But first churches were in Jerusalem, Syria, Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, Roman Empire
It would be weird to see her representing the country that beat her, fairly or unfairly.
it would be such a paradox! Or imagine represent Sweden and she placed 2nd and France wins!!! lol
Anything Amina Anabi sings is beautiful.