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Jean Paul Cara's world online
L'oiseau et l'enfant around the world
Jean Paul Cara, who had a hand in writing Marie Myriam's evergreen chanson as well as being involved in the French entries 1, 2, 3 of 1976, Humanahum of 1981 and the Luxembourgois entry of 1980 Le papa Pingouin, has dedicated a section of his official site to the international success of that winning song from Wembley. On his site, you can listen to the song in its numerous incarnations, including the Portuguese, Chinese, German and Finnish versions - the latter performed by fellow Eurovision classic Katri Helena.
Bygone Era
The site offers slice of Eurovision history from an era when multiple language versions of Eurovision entries were regularly released across Europe, and orchestral covers, such as the Paul Mauriat version, were commonplace. The chanson was riding high, and France had, with its 1977 win, clocked up an impressive five victories since Dors, mon amour took the crown at the third ever contest in 1958. Le français was still a winning language at a time when the first period of free language rule was about to come to an end.
The contest has changed tremendously since then, but perhaps the past has a lot to teach modern competitors and fans alike; sometimes, a strong, heartfelt performance can still be enough to raise an entry to the heady heights of the top five. And L'oiseau et l'enfant is, by a long way, not the only entry to gain commercial success on an international scale; there are still rich pickings to be had in the charts of Europe and beyond.
Recently, both L'oiseau et l'enfant and Le papa pingouin received the remix treatment, with new, animated versions being released; information on both these can be found on the site. Click here to view Jean Paul Cara's shrine to Marie Myriam's classic. Below, you can watch the original clip (complete with faux-comedy wonky titles courtesy of the 1977 BBC).
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Today the videos of Greece, Sweden, France, Russia and Germany in:
url=http://www.eurocronicas.blogspot.com]http://www.eurocronicas.blogspot.com/url]
Also, you can vote for your favourite song.
Thanks for visit my website.
Good year 1977 with a great winning song and a fun entries from Finland and Luxembourg.
[i]L'oiseau et l'enfant[/i] is one of the songs I really adore, probably my favorite song from the 70s along with [i]Un banc, une arbre, une rue[/i], there were so many good songs in the 70s, golden years of ESC, it's great we can still enjoy in those songs today.
*laughs at the shakey graphic at the bottom of the screen at the start!*
L'oiseau et l'enfant is the BEST French entry ever. Long live the eurovision ballad.
for once w s we disagree
maybe because this IS the song that made me interested in esc
but 77 was quite low, and france outrules it completely
The quality of the songs in 1977 was very high. My favourites: Belgium and Italy. I think the UK song was very overrated and France was an ok-winner.
@ Belle: Do fa fa fa? :-)
Frere Jacques was my favourite though. I love the progressive outsiders.
I can't dig out Mia Martini now from the vaults of memory, I remember her from later with "Rapsodia" which I hated at first but grew to like very much. I'll do my research.
Someone should [b]order[/b] Italy to stop sulking and compete again.
@ Darko
After your comments I looked again at the 1977 stock and take back my original reservations about the quality of the songs. I think this was based on the top 3 which were not my favourites including the sainted Marie Myriam. However as you pointed out 1977 included the wonderfully camp Greek entry (sic), the true Finnish classic "Lapponia" and best of all the sublime, eccentric, sadly missed "Mia Martini" singing her heart out as only she could.
Thank you Darko for reminding me of these classics.
dennis milovic the one good thing about eurovision ARE the olden days where things were not neighbouring voting or even this televoting crap...and where music was shared around europe with professionalism and art.
i am sorry but to all young people out there...please dont bash the olden days as you have no idea that the golden era of eurovision is long dead......these days we get recycled music all over again...so please do not bash the classic days of eurovision....im old enough to remember way back to 72 and i can tell you those were the days.....thank you...not offending anybody......but the youngstes should stick to what they know...not even judging by an old vhs that they might of watched...things were way different back then.....oh my god...im getting old.....LOL
this sounds like one of the paintings of joan miro 
lol
1.turkey
2.spain
3.cyprus
4.ukraine
5.iceland
[i]The quality of the songs in 1977 was generally poor[/i]
I must disagree with you here, altough it's all subjective. Five excellent entries (listed below) - what more can one want from a single season?
It's also an era when established stars (Silver Convention, Baccara) weren't shying away from the contest. That's pretty much akin to Girls Aloud entering today.
"L'oiseau et l'enfant" is such a classic here in France!!! Maybe the best remembered ESC song here, together with "Waterloo" and "Poupée de cire poupée de son"! And her a cappella performance during the french final was so beautiful
I loved this song as a child, it brings many memories... Thanks esctoday, you could feature even more classics on the site!
I must be a weird creature as I can appreciate the old songs but also the ones of today... It seems for most people it's only one or the other.
Funny that the translated versions are mentioned, as that's how I knew so many ESC classics as a child... It was a real Finnish trend at the time; now I wish, though, that I'd heard them in the original language in the first place! Most songs are much better that way (just like books or poetry)...
@Denis: don't tell sh**t like that!
L'oiseau et l'enfant is my all time ESC favourite song...
Think this is one of the best winners, ever.
"And all languages except English(and Serbian) are bored to be listened"
LOL, what a great statement. So, only English and your national language are worth enough. Listen to the Austrian song, Denis: GET A LIFE!
The quality of the songs in 1977 was generally poor and as such Marie Myriam reaped the benefit of performing last in the contest.
Greece, UK, Germany and Luxembourg were better than France in 1977 imo - however, this is a veritable classic. It was a good year.
Denis, some of us enjoy heading into the Eurovision Archives and discovering a classic just as much as hearing a great song from this era. And I prefer songs to be in their native languages!
@ Denis Milovic
They post these articles because Eurovision is about timeless songs as well!! And this is one of them.
Thank you esctoday , you made my day!!
o god I can't stand those old entries
What you guys see in that old music ??? Plus before songs wasn't on English
And all languages except English(and Serbian) are bored to be listened,that's why i don't like those old songs,and in recent years couple of them are ok on national languange
Well Waterllo was awsome and all songs on english and ''Yugoslavian'' was fine before
Well Greek language is ok also,i forgot to say lol
Anyway,why you pot those news,noone is interesting in past lol
Let's see the future
What a catchy song, still amazing and 30 years old!
One of the best ESC winners ever. One of my all-time favourites.
I still have "L'Oiseau et l'enfant" on 7" vinyl, hehe....
Well...this is great news!
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