9. Gunvor – Lass’ihn (Switzerland 1998)
Redeeming features?
This one seems to be something of a “fan favourite” among the nul points songs, and indeed was among the favourite ahead of the 1998 contest in Birmingham, but it’s never really been up there for me. It was however a contemporary ballad for the time and there’s certainly nothing in here to turn the listeners off. The verses are sultry and the chorus is strong, although it does sound rather dated heard through 2015 ears.
What went wrong?
Maybe it was that dress, which was robbed of a Barbara Dex award (poor Gunvor can’t even catch a break in the worst dressed department), maybe it was the array of scandals that surfaced about Gunvor in the run-up to the contest. Most likely however, it was just not memorable when push came to shove. It was performed 5th, there was nothing (dress aside) to stick in the minds of the voters, it was – let’s face it – a fairly average performance, and just ten minutes later, Dana International, Guildo Horn and Chiara would perform back to back, rendering pretty much anything that came before them fairly irrelevant.
