Swiss song flops at Eurovision

Piero and his backing singers failed to woo telephone voters Keystone

Switzerland has crashed out of the semi-finals of the Eurovision Song Contest in the Turkish city of Istanbul.

“Celebrate!”, sung by Basel-based former hairdresser Piero Esteriore, failed to woo the public and came in last place with no points.

Twenty-two countries were competing for the right to take part in Saturday’s final round, but no other entries failed to score a single point.

Switzerland will not now be among the 24 countries selected to take part in Saturday’s final.

Ten semi-finalists, including favourites Greece and Ukraine, advanced to Saturday’s finals, joining 14 countries that had advanced automatically, including Britain, France, Germany and Spain.

Banal lyrics

Music critics rubbished the Swiss entry for its “simple melody” and “banal lyrics”, while organisers summed up the song as little more than a “colourful interlude”.

Esteriore – a runner-up in Switzerland’s first reality talent show, MusicStar – was picked to represent Switzerland during a live national final in April.

But despite the support of four other MusicStar finalists as backing singers and dancers, Esteriore was unable to lift Switzerland off the bottom of the semi-final rankings.

Only to be expected

Switzerland has a less than illustrious history at the Eurovision Song Contest – only Norway has had more “nul points” in the competition’s 48-year history.

In total, Switzerland has failed to win a single point four times, with Esteriore joining compatriots Anna Traversi (I miei pensieri) in 1964, Géraldine (Quel coeur vas-tu briser) in 1967 and Gunvor (Lass ihn) in 1998.

But Switzerland can boast of discovering a singing superstar when the then unknown Canadian Céline Dion won the 1988 contest for the country with “Ne partez pas sans moi.”

And the first contest, held in Lugano in 1956, was won by the Swiss singer, Lys Assia.

Weekend final

A semi-final stage was held for the first time this year in an attempt to reduce the number of countries participating in the weekend final.

Other countries that failed to make it past the semi-final hurdle include three-time Eurovision winners Israel, and Denmark.

Initiated by the Geneva-based European Broadcasting Union (EBU), Eurovision quickly established itself as one of Europe’s most popular annual music events.

swissinfo with agencies

Key facts

The Eurovision Song Contest was created in 1956 by the Geneva-based European Broadcasting Union.
Wednesday’s semi-final winners were decided by telephone votes.
24 countries will take part in Saturday’s final in the Turkish city of Istanbul.