Eurovision 2008: Switzerland

Tuomo writes: Switzerland is one of the founding members of Eurovision, but the prestigious legacy has waned a lot since Celine Dion belted out Ne partez pas san moi in 1987. When the rules dictated that the songs would have to be performed in the official languages of the countries, Italy was one lucky bastard with four languages to choose from: German, French, Italian, and Romansch. Needless to say, like in the case of Belgium, all languages were not treated alike with French or Italian being statistically better choices for success. However, ever since Switzerland has gone for English as their language of choice, success has been even more elusive…

In 2008, Switzerland has sent in Paolo Meneguzzi whose song is called Era stupendo:

Here or


Swoon! First, years go by without a single song in Italian (with the exception of Romania trying to squeeze a phrase here and there) - and now this is the third one this year! Mamma mia!

In terms of musical qualities, Era stupendo is pure Eurovision heaven: slightly raspy voice and pianos -and tons of emotions. I’m not sure if I like the change in tempo halfway through the song though; my mind almost would like to process this as two separate songs.

Last but not least, just in case people want to know what I think about the singer: he's cute too. Cute in a gouge your eyes out with this rusty fork kinda way :-) Is this some kind of prerequisite if you want to sing in Italian?!