Switzerland 1998

The Swiss final was held in Zürich on December 18th at 2000, and the winning song was "Lass' ihn" sung by Gunvor Guggisberg (right) the only German language song. Gunvor now has her own website at this link.
Scores and more pictures below, and now lyrics and biographies (suppled by Chris Zavos) below that.
Katrina Leskanich joined Johnny Logan and presenter Sandra Studer (Switzerland '91 entrant as Sandra Simo) to sing a medely of ESC-songs in a one hour show. Telephone votes from all over Switzerland, arranged into 5 juries, selected the winning song. Six songs were performed, and I have now seen the contest, and can provide some comments:

An entertaining show. Sandra Studier opened in all the Swiss languages, and then told us local commenatators would continue in our language. She continued in Swiss-German, and staight into the first song. I've put my comments into the following list in italics, and there are pictures of all the acts in the table below, and a sound clip.

• L'enfant des étoiles - Susan Orus

  • 28 year-old Susan studies at Paul McCartney's music school in Liverpool. She sang well, but it was a bit of a mish-mash, building to a finale. Marred by some feedback.
• Amero di piu - Filippo Trojani
  • Filipo has written songs for an Italian star called Nina, but this self-penned piece seemed to me almost like a French song in style.
• Le rêve d'Alice - Anne Francoeur
  • Anne has performed on stage and screen in Ney York and London, Sandra told us, and this song was written by Regis Mounir, who wrote "Mon couer l'aime" for Kathy Leander for the 1996 contest. This song was not so good as that, but was very effective.
• Lass' ihn - Gunvor Guggisberg
  • 23 year-old Gunvor comes from Bern, but her Swedish grandfather gave her Swedish name. She wrote the song, but you can tell Egon Egemann (Switzerland 1990) arranged it, because there's violin solo section. Gunvor wore a burgundy dress over black leather trousers. The song is immediately catchy, and was very popular in the hall.
• Qualcosa di te - Talk about girls
  • Sandra described these as the Swiss Spice Girls, and they looked the part in their slinky dresses. Slow, with a teasing English phrase from each girl in the middle.
• Trouver ma place - Vanessa Jüdt
  • Vanessa is from Lausanne. Not so very different to song 1, a dramatic French-style song.

Then telephone numbers were given out, and Sandra (right) introduced Katrina, who sang 'Ding-a-dong', the 1975 ESC winner. Then on came Johnny Logan to do 'Merci Cherie', and Sandra herself to sing 'Volare'. We were into medley territory, and soon we had 'Waterloo', and 'Save all your kisses for me', and so on sung by one, or all of the three.

After that, Sandra interviewed Katrina, whose joke fell dead, and Johnny Logan, who was asked the usual questions, and said he wouldn't do it again, as performer or writer.
Katrina joined the Waves, to sing their current single (well, current 3 months before) 'Walk on water'.

Voting came in with on-screen jury forepersons, and then the reprise.

I like "Lass 'ihn", and hope it does well.

Here are the final results in performance order, thanks to Peter from Eurovision Club Switzerland

JUST LEAVE HIM BE

Cocktails, served up ev'ry ev'ning
A charm that is so appealing
Messes with your mind
And you girl, enchanted by his magic
Gave your body (loving) to him
But you're gonna find
His love is like an earthquake
Break your soul and bring you heartache
He's living for his own sake
Just leave him be
His smile is just to fool you
Ev'ry word he says is untrue
He'll take you and he'll break you
Because it happened to me
I know, you are thinkin' 'bout this ev'ning
Can't wait until you see him
And love him once again
I see girl, you're dreaming of forever
But I can tell you never
Will he give up his life&ldots; there's no room for a wife!

GUNVOR

Gunvor (she owes her unusual name to her Swedish-Italian origins) is a 23-year-old artist of many talents. She is a composer and a writer; she can sing and she is a Swiss tap-dancing champion seven times over. She really came into her own in 1997. Besides being showered with awards in Switzerland ("Goldener Scheinwerfer" and "Goldenes Mikrophon" first prizes) she was the clear winner in the Swiss heat for the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest. She 's not only written the lyrics of her song "Lass ihn" ("Let him") but also - in collaboration with Egon Egemann - composed the melody. The press has praised her as a unique talent, and audiences have gone overboard, spellbound by her voice and her charisma in live performances. Incidentally, her musical role-model is Celine Dion, who, of course, successfully represented Switzerland in an earlier Eurovision Song Contest - a good omen perhaps for Gunvor, a young artist on the threshold of a big career.

EGON EGEMANN

He's always left the copying to others, seeking and finding his own unique ways of reaching his listeners' hearts. His current CD "Gegen den Storm" (Against the current) has been favourably received by critics and public alike. It's not that he always swims against the current, but where quality is concerned, he never takes the line of least resistance and never makes compromises. Whether as conservatory student, a "big band" musician or in the great successes he's enjoyed with his violin, quality has been his hallmark. Not surprising, then, other artists have always wanted to work alongside him as alyric-writer or composer. And it's as co-composer, arranger and producer that Egon Egemann has contributed to the success of this year's Swiss entry in the Eurovision Song Contest, with fledging artist Gunvor benefiting from his many years of experience.

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