🇦🇩 Slideback Sunday: The year when Andorra almost made it to the final

It’s been 10 years ago since Andorra last participated in Eurovision Song Contest with no light in sight for a return to the contest. The principality has participated 6 times between 2004 – 2009 with the majority of the songs having been performed in Catalan, the national language.

However, Andorra has unluckily never made it to the final, and the country’s best ever result was a 12^th place in the semifinal of 2007 with the song “Salvem el món” performed by he young punk-rock band Anonymous, missing only 11 points to the 10^th qualifier.

“Salvem el món” was one of my favorite entries in Eurovision Song Contest 2007 and my favorite entry by Andorra. It’s fresh, funky and catchy and it felt very refreshing in the Eurovision 2007 line-up. It’s the first entry from Andorra to contain lyrics in English. Despite getting a couple of high points it failed however to qualify for the final ending up 12th with 80 points in total. It’s worth to mention that the semifinal of 2007 was biggest semifinal ever with 29 countries competing, but with only 10 of them winning the ticket for the Grand Final.
I wonder though, had Andorra made it to the final at least once in it’s short Eurovision history (hopefully with this song), would the Andorra have a more positive attitude to the contest and give it another go?

Let’s hear what some of our EscXtra team has to say about “Salvem el món”.

Ryan

Watching this at the time, I was unaware this was supposedly a likely qualifier and was unsurprised when it didn’t qualify. In fact I still am surprised it got as close as it did! It’s an okay song let down by some exposed vocals, but I appreciate that it was one of the few relevant songs in the contest at the time. It would’ve been lovely to see Andorra grab that place in the final, and it surely would’ve done in the two-semi system that came in a year later. So close yet so far!

Simon

Well, this hasn’t aged so well, but perhaps in hindsight we can therefore better appreciate the effort to bring an act that was of its time. The performance factor needed some work, but the song itself had spirit and purpose, if not originality. Having said that, within the contest it was refreshing to have such an entry.

Wiv

This is, without a doubt, my favorite Andorran entry! Being a rock chick, I liked this song from the very first listen. However, I have to admit that I prefer the studio version. There is no denying it; the live performance left quite a lot to be desired. First of all, the vocals. He was perhaps more flat and static than completely off key, but there are parts where he was very much out of tune. And I guess “flat and static” also describe the entire performance quite well. In the studio version this was a sure qualifier in my book. (Un)fortunately, nobody cares about the studio version at Eurovision. And: this was 2007. Better songs (and performances) than this were left in the semi. Any other year, I feel quite confident that this would have qualified. And I still like it. In the studio version.

Dominik

I still think this song deserved the spot in the final. In 2007 we had the biggest semi-final ever! The song stood out and it was a young fresh band with some tunes the contest did not have that year. I was surprised, when this failed to qualify. I think it’s my favorite entry from Andorra and I like it when small countries are able to stand out and makes people pay attention to these small countries more than they usually do.

Do you miss Andorra in the Eurovision Song Contest? What do you think of “Salvem el món”? Let us know in the comments below.
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