An Xtra Happy Birthday; September 29th

September ends almost the same way it started; loads of birthdays! Today we bring you no less than five Eurostars who share this birthday! The oldest was born in the 40s, the youngest towards the end of the 70s. Three birthday boys, two girls. Two top 10 results (almost three), two bottom 10. And five different languages, to the joy of language nerds everywhere.

Marianne Mendt, 72

Marianne represented Germany at the 1971 Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin. She performed the song “Musik”, finishing in a rather disappointing 16th place.

Pálmi Gunnarsson, 67

Pálmi Gunnarsson represented Iceland at the 1986 Eurovision Song Contest in Bergen. He performed the fun, uptempo song “Gleðibankinn” as part of the group ICY. This was Iceland’s Eurovision debut, and Pálmi will forever be remembered as the man who sang the first words in Icelandic on the Eurovision stage. Even though they only managed to finish 16th, their song has become one of the true classics in Iceland. In 2016 he tried his luck in Söngvakeppnin again, with “Ég leiði þig heim“. Unfortunately, he was eliminated in the semi-final. However, we got to sit down for a chat with Pálmi, to talk about Eurovision, life and music.

Marcos Llunas, 46

Marcos represented Spain at the 1997 Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin. He performed his own song “Sin Rencor”. This song appealed to many of the juries, landing Marcos in an excellent 6th place.

Sibel Tüzün, 46

Sibel represented Turkey at the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest in Athens. She performed the song “Süperstar”, finishing 11th in the grand final.

Trine Jepsen, 40

Trine represented Denmark at the 1999 Eurovision Song Contest in Jerusalem. She performed the song “This Time I Mean It” together with Michael Teschl. They finished in a very respectable 8th place. Since her DMGP victory back in ’99, Trine has taken part in the national contest twice, without the same success. In 2006 she performed “Grib Mig” in a duet with Christian Bach. They finished outside the top 5, but the bottom 5 positions were never published. Three years later she tried her luck with “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again“. She failed to make it out of the initial stage of the contest.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xfq_0m1blE0
All of us here at escXtra send our warmest congratulations to Sibel, Pálmi, Trine, Marcos and Marianne on their birthday!