Eurovision songs tend to the musically predictable but this one has more than the usual touch of comforting familiarity, for some at least. The first time my 85-year-old mother heard the chorus, she exclaimed ‘But I know this!’ and began singing virtually the same tune in Welsh.
It’s familiar for me too, of course; I don’t speak the language but many of my family do and I’ve heard ‘sosban fach’ (‘Little Saucepan’) sung for as long as I can remember. For many people of Welsh descent, it is, to use my mother’s phrase, “in with the bricks”.
See what you think (I’ve used a modern version for better comparison):
It seems peculiar, but there seems to be nothing linking the two online (unless it’s on Twitter, which remains firmly outside my ken). Admittedly the scale only permits a certain number of musical combinations and similarities do arise - my old music teacher would blend the Hallelujah Chorus with ‘Yes, we have no bananas’ as an illustration’ - but this does seem more than a coincidental resemblance.
Do you think it counts as cultural appropriation?
Considering that the UK has produced some of the world's best songs, pop, rock etc. Why do we get every year a load of boring, derivative, completely unmemorable crap, sing, and I use that word loosely, by an "artiste" no-one has every heard of?
ReplyDeleteUplifting, my dead hamster, it was yet another "look how powerful I am getting through my challenges, but I'll be strong, etc etc, mawkish claptrap. The most catchy UK song has to be Sandy Shaw's Puppet on a Strong, catchy, tuneful and memorable even now, about 60yrs on. We only watch Eurovision for the commentator's sarcastic comments.