Let’s get quizzical: How well do you know your Eurovision lyrics?
Some of you may have been expecting my top 10 ESC entries to be revealed in this post. I’m sorry to say that I couldn’t bring myself to end the suspense just yet, so I came up with something else – but as you can tell by the big words up there ↑ (a.k.a. The Title) it’s something entertaining…I hope.
The last time I posted a quiz, I was told it was too easy, and ever since I’ve had this terrible urge to do another one so difficult, it makes the chances of the United Kingdom winning Eurovision in 2013 look positively off the charts in comparison. Unfortunately, I don’t think this quiz, a multi-level/multi-task lyrical extravaganza, is that hard. But I am 57.5% confident in saying that, without having a peek at the answers, you’re unlikely to get a perfect score. MWAHAHAHAHA!
Ahem. Anyway, on with the quiz. It’s pretty self-explanatory – there’s a bunch of questions all relating to the lyrics of past Eurovision songs (to make it slightly easier, all of them are from the year 2000 onwards) which you, my friends, can test your knowledge with. You’ll find the answers at the bottom of the post.
Now go forth and conquer…the EBJ Lyrics Quiz.
FYI, all lyrics have been verified at http://4lyrics.eu/ (how very official!)
Guess the song – Level 1
1. Like me like I like you…
2. Is he magical? Logical? Natural? I wonder.
3. You were the eyes in the face of fortune.
4. Never leave me and believe me, you will be the sun into my raining season.
5. Answer my question, say something. Why are you acting out?
6. I’m in orbit all the way around you.
7. Don’t look back, hold on to your spirit. Keep moving every minute.
8. I can make Beyonce and Shakira dance for you.
Guess the song – Level 2
1. I’m gonna start my weekend with gin, tonic and lime.
2. If we get together now we’ll burn this place down.
3. …devotion’s finding a way when highness exists for those people who pray.
4. You can feel me in your mind with every breath you take. Burn the earth with flame of sins, I’ll make you feel dismay.
5. If I never made a single mistake, oh, I wouldn’t be here, part of the plan I believe.
6. Love, love’s not enough. I need your trust, but you don’t try anymore.
7. I feel so intoxicated I’m struggling to keep my feet on the ground.
8. Waves of eternity, waves of serenity.
Guess the song – Level 3
1. I know I’m gonna find you somewhere in the clouds of my confusion.
2. I go through the motions, stumbling my way, life is a blur.
3. It’s a two-way street.
4. No matter where I am, I’m always thinking of you.
5. Everything you share with me turns a little darkness into light.
6. Beat the odds.
7. All we’ve done is to pass back to frame number one.
8. You’re the one who’s never satisfied, after all…
Fill in the blanks
1. ____ is a story and you’ve got to tell it
2. And we’re like ___________ flying to the ___
3. _____ ____, I’m gonna strike like _______
4. Don’t play that ____ again, reminding me of how it used to be
5. We are ______ on the planet, we live _____ lives
6. If my ____ would fall, or disappear at all
7. I would ___ for you, look into my ____ and see it’s true
8. Out of the _____ like a star, like a ____
9. We’ve got to hold on to our ____ tonight
10. Heavy clouds, no ____ and every move causes ____
Random Qs & As
1. How many la’s are sung in Cyprus’ 2012 entry – 100, 134 or 156?
2. How old is Ines according to the chorus of her 2000 entry, Once In A Lifetime?
3. Who knows ‘what for, are we living’?
4. In Athens, Tina Karol wanted to see it, André didn’t know what to do without it, and Brian Kennedy thought every song was a cry for it. What was ‘it’?
5. Which former Irish boyband member co-wrote the music and lyrics of Ireland’s entry for the 2004 contest?
6. And which former Irish boyband member co-wrote the music and lyrics of Denmark’s entry for the 2009 contest?
7. In Helsinki, Belarus’ Koldun had the key to what, if the lyrics to Work Your Magic were anything to go by?
8. As long as he’s doing something in particular, there are no limits to what Dima Bilan can dream. What is that something?
9. The lyrics of how many entries of 2012 referenced Eurovision itself – 1, 2 or 3?
10. What is Sahlene (Estonia 2002) always doing that could earn her a hefty fine…if it weren’t just lyrically and metaphorically?
How did you go? Did anyone end up tearing their hair out with frustration? Let me know down below. I’d also love to know if you enjoyed the quiz and would possibly want me to make up more in the future. Beware, they would get harder as they went along. By 2060 I may actually achieve my dream of coming up with questions nobody can answer, a bit like my math teachers used to for school exams. Or so I thought.
NEXT TIME: I swear on Dana International’s feathered Gaultier that the next post will count down my top 10 ESC entries of all time.
Answers
GUESS THE SONG L1: 1. Love Me Back, Can Bonomo 2. 7th Wonder, Ira Losco 3. I Can, Blue 4. My Number One, Helena Paparizou 5. Drip Drop, Safura 6. Satellite, Lena 7. Once In A Lifetime, Ines 8. Ninanajna, Elena Risteska
GUESS THE SONG L2: 1. The Balkan Girls, Elena 2. Playing With Fire, Paula Seling & Ovi 3. Fight by Natalia Barbu 4. Day After Day, Elnur & Samir 5. This Is My Life, Euroband 6. Cry Baby, Jemini 7. Even If, Andy Abraham 8. Stand By, Senit
GUESS THE SONG L3: 1. Angel, Two Tricky 2. The Image of You, Anjeza Shahini 3. Would You, Iris 4. Stronger Every Minute, Lisa Andreas 5. Open Your Heart, Birgitta 6. This Is Our Night, Sakis Rouvas 7. Every Way That I Can, Sertab Erener 8. No One, Maja Keuc
FILL IN THE BLANKS: 1. Life 2. Butterflies/sun 3. Shady/lady/thunder 4. Song 5. People/human 6. Star 7. Die/eyes 8. Light/hero 9. Love 10. Rain/pain
RANDOM Qs & As: 1. 134 2. Seventeen 3. (only) Mr. God 4. Love 5. Brian McFadden of Westlife 6. Ronan Keating of Boyzone 7. Your tower 8. Breathing 9. 2 (Latvia and Montenegro) 10. Driving through red lights
eurovisionbyjaz.com 
17 Responses to “Let’s get quizzical: How well do you know your Eurovision lyrics?”
Hi Jaz,
That was fun…and not easy at all xD These are the ones I got wrong: mostly songs I haven’t listened to in a while
level 2 #4, #6, #7 #8
Level 3 #1 #4 #7 wth I never heard anything about frames ever before there xD and I almost didn’t get Sakis’ one…That one was tricky 😛
fill in the blanks: #5 I simply wrote “our” lives xD
La la love: Ahem actually I counted 135 la’s… Yes, I counted them xD
#5, #6 : I don’t know anything about boy bands, so yeah…
#10 driving through red lights ?
but yay I got everything right in level 1 (at least!) but it was really fun 😀 Bring it on 2060, I’ll be waiting xD And I’ll be waiting for your top 10 entries too! (and I’m serious there)
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YES!! Nobody said it was easy. Result!
Let’s be honest, ‘our’ lives probably would have made more sense.
I swear I checked this thing over for accuracy a 100 times, and yet I still failed on the last question. By one word. Godammit. However, I stand by the 134 la’s!! And I present to you my evidence, because I have nothing better to do:
– There are 30 la’s in each chorus. There are 2 full choruses, as well as the extended-ish one at the end (which is equal to 1 and a half). 30 + 30 + 30 + 15 = 105.
– At the beginning, there is one line of 15 la’s…and one line of 14, according to the website I verified them at and what I hear in the song. The second line goes “lala lalalalala lala, lalalalala lobvmmbmbmbmb”, the last bit that is cut off being a ‘love’ and not a ‘la’. Therefore, 105 + 15 + 14 = 134.
Okay, so it’s pretty contentious. But from what I’ve seen and heard, it’s 134.
PS – That is the most hardcore maths I have done since highschool. I apologise for hurling it at you like that!!
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Impressive Math demonstration..thingy xD I recounted them too, but the lazy way (aka this http://i47.tinypic.com/10z0msl.png) and you’re absolutely right, there are 134. I must have counted LA as part of the la’s *embarrassed* sorry!
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VICTORY IS MINE!!!
Okay, it’s out of my system.
It is a tough one, and you could still argue that it’s a ‘la’…so don’t be embarrassed.
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Fill in blanks
1. ?????
2. Butterflies, sky (Belarus 2010)
3. Shady, lady, thunder (Ukraine 2008)
4. Song (UK 2000)
5. ??????
6. Star (Latvia 2000)
7. Die, eyes (Greece 2001)
8. Light, hero (Sweden 2008)
9. ??????
10. ?????
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You did see the answers at the very bottom right?? Just checking…=]
#1 is ‘life’ (Macedonia 2004)
#5 is ‘people/human’ (Ukraine 2011)
#9 is ‘love’ (UK 2004)
#10 is ‘rain/pain’ (Russia 2006)
Not a bad job though!
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Well, nobody likes cheaters…
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True, but I am relying on people to be honest. They’re only cheating themselves!!
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Level 1
1. Turkey 2012
2. Dunno
3. UK 2011
4. Dunno
5. Dunno
6. Germany 2010
7. Estonia 2000
8. Dunno
Level 2
All except 2: Dunno
2. Romania 2010
Level 3
All except 7: Dunno
7: Turkey
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Q&AS
1. 134.
2. 17.
3. God.
4. Love.
5/6/7/10: I Dunno
8. Breathing.
9. 1.
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God or “Mr. God” are both acceptable!!
It’s a bit contentious, but the answer to #9 is officially 2 – Latvia (including Anmary’s opening line “I was born in distant 1980, the year that Irish Johnny Logan won”) and Montenegro (“I got no ambition for high position in musical competition” – this one’s less obvious!)
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This went about the same way as my math tests in that I failed! I got six on level one, three on two and a lowly one on three. On level two, I actually missed my favorite song from the past five years, “This Is My Life!” How pathetic am I? I did better on the fill in the blank, with 4.5 correct (I messed up “sky” for “sun” in “Butterflies.”) and got eight on the random questions, only missing numbers 5 and 9. On the whole, I shined with songs after 2008, fell flat most other times, Estonia 2002 and UK 2003 (sadly) aside.
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I did try to make it difficult, so don’t feel too bad! When the phrasing is gone and the lyrics just look like random sentences it can be tough. I even got confused when I was making up the quiz and came back to it after a while…fail.
It’s hard to forget Jemini (they should at least be grateful for that). That song gets stuck in your head. Plus, the lyrics aren’t exactly poetic!
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Don’t worry about sentence structure! Mine is easily much worse. Besides, it’s really just my ineptness as a Eurovision lyric historian, not your fun quiz.
Oh those opening notes are scarred in my mind forever! I think it was just so unbelievably poor that you can’t ever forget it. “Poetic” and “Jemini” probably go together like female Greek Eurovision singers and modesty.
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I have to say, I feel sorry for Jemini. I have this book called ‘Nul Points’ by Tim Moore, where he travels around interviewing all the contestants who’ve failed to get any points (awesome book. You should get your hands on a copy if you haven’t already) and his interview with them brought some seriously good excuses to light. I can’t even laugh at them anymore!!
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I’ve heard of that book before, but I haven’t really looked for it. However, it will have to wait because I need to focus on my summer reading for school. Would you happen to know if it is available as an ebook?
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Ahh, school. Making you read stuff you don’t want to read since FOREVER!!! Assuming your lists are as boring as mine were. Unfortunately uni is the same. The first thing I did when I finished last semester was go to the library and borrow as many books as I could that I actually wanted to read. It was amazing!!
Ahem. Anyway, I’ve just checked Amazon UK and there is a Kindle edition of the book. Not sure about Amazon US or whatnot, but you would think it would be available.
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