These songs and/or groups fell flat on Europe's biggest musical stage. Welcome to WatchMojo and today we’ll be counting down our picks for the top 10 Eurovision fails.
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00:00We're counting down our picks for the top 10 Eurovision fails.
00:19For this list, we're going to be looking at the most disastrous songs and blunders
00:23seen on the Eurovision Song Contest over the years.
00:27Let us know in the comments which one you would give null points.
00:3210.
00:33Piero and the Music Stars
00:36The competition went to Turkey in 2004 for the first-ever Eurovision with a semi-final.
00:49It was during this semi-final that Switzerland saw one of its most embarrassing entries in
00:53history with the song Celebrate.
00:56The performance didn't have too much production value, with the dancers looking like they
01:01were just wearing whatever clothes they rocked up in that day.
01:05Not to mention Piero smacking himself in the face with a mic.
01:13On top of that, the song just wasn't very good.
01:17It wasn't catchy, memorable, and the backing singers in particular were completely out
01:22of tune.
01:31Piero ended up getting null points for Switzerland.
01:34It seemed they celebrated too soon.
01:379.
01:38Diplomatic Incident
01:46Eurovision has a long history of joke entries, where countries will put together baffling
01:51and oftentimes bad performances.
01:54But that wasn't the reason Israel sent a comedy duo to Eurovision in 1987.
02:00That happened because the double act, The Lazy Bums, ended up winning Israel's public
02:05selection process by dressing as the Blues Brothers and singing a nonsense chorus.
02:16Israel's culture minister at the time, Yitzhak Navon, was very unhappy with the choice and
02:25threatened to resign in one of the stranger instances of politics affecting the competition.
02:31However, The Lazy Bums came eighth in the end, a pretty good result.
02:408.
02:44Crazy Radio
02:53The Estonians sent comedy group, Crazy Radio, to the competition in 2008, in another case
02:59of a parody entry, winning the national selection process.
03:03Nobody threatened to resign this time, but it was a disastrous result for the country
03:07nonetheless.
03:16Despite having the backing of Estonia's public behind them, the comedy trio and their
03:21song, Leto Zvet, was the second worst performing song of that year, coming 18th in the semifinal
03:27with a grand total of eight points, most of which came from Finland, probably because
03:32some of the lines were sung in Finnish.
03:35The performance was just too strange, featuring bizarre antics with a piano and other nonsensical
03:40set-pieces.
03:417.
03:53Dust in the Turkey
04:05Again in 2008, this time Ireland sent a baffling joke entry to the contest.
04:11Ireland's television star, Dust in the Turkey, a puppet, was selected to represent the Irish
04:16that year in a controversial move.
04:19It's definitely a bouncy, catchy song you won't forget in a hurry, but that didn't
04:24mean much for Ireland's chances since Dust in failed to get through to the final.
04:34Most of the song involves Dust in saying hello to various other countries, apparently appealing
04:39to them for votes.
04:40While also making digs at Terry Wogan.
04:43Despite these appeals, Dust in was still widely booed as soon as his performance was over,
04:49probably because he was a puppet in a shopping trolley.
04:596.
05:03Backing Tape Fail
05:04The very first entry of the night in 1990 was Spain, with the song Bandido, performed
05:11by musicians Azucar Moreno.
05:13But a catastrophic technical issue could have sunk Spain's chances for good early on.
05:20And going on first is already difficult at Eurovision.
05:31The orchestra and the backing track got desynchronized somehow, which led to the singers completely
05:36missing their cue to start singing.
05:46They walked off stage, leaving their band behind with no explanation, baffling audiences
05:51at the time and creating a very awkward silence.
06:00Since the malfunction wasn't their fault, they were allowed to start over and perform
06:05the song properly, coming in fifth.
06:075.
06:08Alf Peuer Once again, a popular comedian won a national
06:18talent show and got to represent their country at Eurovision, this time Alf Peuer, representing
06:24Austria in 2003.
06:26Alf ended up finishing in a very respectable sixth place with over 100 points, but it's
06:33difficult to see why.
06:45His dancing was incredibly bizarre, and he was surrounded by highly unusual cardboard
06:50cutouts, including one draped in the American flag, despite most Americans having absolutely
06:56no interest in Eurovision since the U.S. isn't involved.
07:01And what was Alf's popular song about in the end?
07:04Animals, for some reason.
07:124.
07:19Latvian Pirates
07:30The final entry from 2008 on our list, strange year as it was, comes from Latvia, when they
07:37attempted to capitalise on the worldwide pirate craze and made a song entirely about pirates
07:43called Wolves of the Sea.
07:45Of course though, this being Eurovision, they submitted more Europop instead of going all
07:51the way with the pirate theme and putting out a sea shanty.
08:05Something so different definitely could have won the competition, as Alexander Rybak would
08:10show the following year.
08:12But despite the gimmick, Latvia just wasn't brave enough.
08:16They came in 12th in the end, despite unprecedented support from Ireland.
08:323.
08:36James Newman
08:45After a year's hiatus following the global pandemic, Eurovision was back in 2021, and
08:51the UK sent a singer whose song was themed around the end of lockdown.
08:56It also happened to be the UK's first entry since Brexit happened in January 2020, which
09:03certainly wouldn't win the Brits any points from Europe.
09:05And that's exactly what happened.
09:18The song was bland and James Newman, despite his best efforts, just didn't have a lot
09:23of vocal range.
09:24Not to mention the fact he was supported on stage by two enormous trumpets for some reason.
09:30It was the UK's second of only two null points results in history.
09:402.
09:41We Are The Winners
09:50It takes a lot of guts to bring a gloating song called We Are The Winners to Eurovision,
09:56a notoriously unpredictable competition.
09:59And that's exactly what Lithuania did in 2006, perhaps hoping that if they said it
10:04enough, they'd actually win.
10:15It was sung by LT United, a supergroup made of Lithuania's best talent, expressly to
10:21win the contest.
10:23They made it to the finals, but it seemed people didn't particularly like their smug
10:27attitude, boasting about having already won that year's contest.
10:39The winners ended up finishing 6th, but although that isn't a terrible result, it's definitely
10:44embarrassing to pin out this song and then lose.
11:121.
11:13Gemini
11:19We said there was only one other time beyond 2021 that the UK received Neil Poire.
11:25That other time was in 2003, when they sent Gemini to represent them on the European stage.
11:32It was supposed to be a standard Eurovision fare.
11:36It probably wouldn't have won, but nobody thought it would do so poorly.
11:47But when Gemini started to perform, it was clear they were incredibly off-key, which
11:52they later blamed on technical issues behind the scenes.
12:03Whatever the reason, 2003 marked the beginning of the end for the UK's chances in Eurovision.
12:08In the decades since, Great Britain has performed consistently terribly.