A website dedicated to the Eurovision orchestra and the 346 musicians who conducted it between the first contest in 1956 and the last live orchestra edition in 1998. By using the various indexes, a wealth of interviews with, and biographical information about musicians from all corners of Europe can be accessed - as well as backgrounds about the history of the Eurovision Song Contest, the San Remo Festival, and the Nordring Radio Prize. Feel free to roam around!
In due course, the short impression below will be replaced with a more extensive career overview
BIOGRAPHY
From 1940 onwards, Aimé Barelli played the trumpet in many different orchestras, amongst others those of Raymond Legrand, Jerry Mengo, and Hubert Rostaing. In 1941, he made his first recording as a solo-trumpeter. After World War II, in Paris, he became a band leader of orchestras with which he accompanied all big names of French popular music; amongst the instrumentalists who played in Barelli’s ensembles, were Armand Migiani and André Jourdan. In 1949, Barelli performed on the Festival International de Jazz; in that same year, he settled in Monaco, where he regularly performed for an international audience. Aimé Barelli composed music for films and, in 1963, released an album entitled ‘Bossa Nova’, which he recorded with singer Peter Kraus. He was married to singer Lucienne Delyle.
EUROVISION SONG CONTEST
Barelli and Delyle had one daughter, Minouche (1947-2004). In 1967, Serge Gainsbourg, who had won the 1965 Eurovision Song Contest as a composer with ‘Poupée de cire, poupée de son’, wrote a quite chaotic song for her, entitled ‘Boum badaboum’ - co-composed by the later renowned film composer Michel Colombier. For the Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna, it was arranged by Colombier as well. Aimé Barelli conducted the orchestra during Minouche’s festival performance.
Born: February 21st, 1932, Jerez de la Frontera (Spain) Nationality: Spanish
In due course, the short impression below will be replaced with a more extensive career overview
BIOGRAPHY
Between the 1960s and the 1990s, Manuel Alejandro, born into a family of musicians, composed an endless string of love ballads for many artists, including Hernaldo Zúñiga, Enrique Guzman, and Plácido Domingo. Among his songs are ‘Lo mejor de tu vida’ and ‘Un hombre solo’ which are amongst the most famous in Julio Iglesias’ repertoire. He composed entire albums for Mexican singer Emmanuel. Between 1972 and 1974, Alejandro released three albums as a singer. He is, however, best known for his work as a composer, arranger, and producer for Raphael Martos.
EUROVISION SONG CONTEST
Manuel Alejandro composed two ballads with which Raphael represented Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest, the first one being ‘Yo soy aquél’, which came seventh in the contest of 1966 and was conducted by Rafael Ibarbia. One year after, Alejandro again wrote lyrics, music, and orchestration of a Raphael song for the contest, this time ‘Hablemos del amor’; on this second occasion, Alejandro conducted the Eurovision orchestra himself.
Born: January 2nd, 1928, Edmonton, London (United Kingdom)
Died: July 1st, 2000, Fulham, London (United Kingdom)
Nationality: British
In due course, the short impression below will be replaced with a more extensive career overview
BIOGRAPHY
During World War II, trumpeter Ken Woodman arranged music for the Bands of the Royal Marines; he stayed in the army for several more years after war’s end. In the 1960s, he worked as an arranger and conductor in the London recording studios with many different artists, including Tom Jones (‘Help Yourself’), Chris Andrews (‘Yesterday Man’, ‘To Whom It Concerns’), David Garrick, Ebony Keyes, and most importantly, Sandy Shaw (‘Long Live Love’). His orchestrations are often characterised by the dominance of brass. In the 1970s, Woodman was the musical director of Val Doonican’s TV show. Later, he arranged a Spanish-language album by Shirley Bassey as well as songs by José Feliciano and Camilo Sesto.
EUROVISION SONG CONTEST
For Sandy Shaw, Woodman wrote the all-important orchestration to her 1967 Eurovision winner ‘Puppet On A String’, written by Bill Martin and Phil Coulter; most striking element in the arrangement is no doubt the bassoon in the opening bars. Like his colleagues Johnny Harris (in 1969) and Don Airey (in 1997), Kenny Woodman took part as a conductor in the Eurovision Song Contest for the United Kingdom only once, yet belonged to the winning team. More significantly, ‘Puppet On A String’ was the UK’s first winning entry and became a massive hit across Europe.
Born: January 17th, 1921, Sankt-Gallen (Switzerland)
Died: October 6th, 1983, Zurich (Switzerland)
Nationality: Swiss
In due course, the short impression below will be replaced with a more extensive career overview
BIOGRAPHY
Hans Moeckel played saxophone and clarinet in various jazz ensembles in Sankt-Gallen before he studied the piano, music theory, and composition at the Zurich Conservatory. Upon his graduation, he became the conductor of the Sankt-Gallen Municipal Theatre. In 1947, he was contracted as an arranger by DRS (German-speaking Swiss broadcaster). In 1966, he succeeded Cédric Dumont as the conductor of the DRS orchestra, widely known as the Unterhaltungs-Orchester Beromünster. Moeckel had a penchant for brass-music and composed many pieces for wind band; moreover, he formed the Basel Radio Brass Band and conducted several brass bands, including the Basel Police Band. He wrote popular songs, film soundtracks, the music to radio dramas, and entire theatre musicals. In the last years of his life, Moeckel was a member of the teaching staff at the Zurich Conservatory.
EUROVISION SONG CONTEST
Hans Moeckel conducted the 1967 Swiss entry to the Eurovision Song Contest, ‘Quel cœur vas-tu briser?’ The song has two different record arrangements, by Bernard Kesslair and Leo Petit. Partly due to the fact that Géraldine Gaulier's vocal performance was not the best on the night, this Swiss entry did not score a single point and finished last in the contest held in Vienna. Apart from his one international involvement, Moeckel was the musical director of several Swiss Eurovision finals - sometimes sharing the conducting burden with his colleague Peter Jacques -, the last one being in 1983.
Below, a medium-length article detailing the life and works of Armando Tavares Belo can be found. Hopefully, in due course, it can be extended to a full-fledged biography
BIOGRAPHY
Armando Tavares Belo hails from the most southern region of Portugal, the Algarve, where he was born in Faro in 1911. Apart from an elementary piano course in his early youth, Tavares Belo was an autodidact who never went to conservatory. He possessed the gift to be able to reproduce on the piano any given melody that he had heard. At seventeen, he started working as a professional pianist in Café Montanha in Faro. In 1933, meanwhile having moved in Lisbon, he was incorporated in the so-called Orquestra Portugal. Five years later, together with Álvaro Silva, he founded a band of his own, the Orquestra Toseli, of which he was the conductor until 1946.
In that year, Tavares Belo was asked to become musical director of the national radio orchestra, the Orquestra de Variedades da Emissora Nácional, later renamed Orquestra Ligeira da Radiodifusão Portuguesa. In the 1950s and 1960s, he remained closely connected to the national broadcaster RTP as an arranger and conductor, accompanying countless radio and TV shows, such as the Olimpíadas da Canção, a popular music contest in which even Amália Rodrigues once participated. He was musical director of two Portuguese Eurovision preliminaries (see below). Moreover, he stood at the cradle of the Orquestra Swing, a very innovative ensemble at that time which specialized in jazz repertoire and was hugely successful in the 1950s.
Tavares Belo was one of Portugal’s most sought-after composers in the era 1940-1960. He wrote revue songs for Beatriz Costa, Laura Alves, and many others. Fados of his hand, often with lyrics by Silva Tavares or Aníbal Nazaré, were sung by Simone de Oliveira, Maria de Lurdes Resende, and Maximiano de Sousa. Moreover, he penned the soundtracks for two Henrique Campos movie pictures from 1953, ‘Rosa de Alfama’ and ‘Duas causas’. In classical music, he composed two concertos for piano and orchestra.
In December 1983, a tribute concert was held in honour of Tavares Belo in the São Luis theatre in Lisbon. He died in 1993 in a hospital in Cascais, near Lisbon, aged 82.
EUROVISION SONG CONTEST
In 1964, Portugal participated in the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time. The RTP organized a televised show, Grande Prémio TV da Canção, to determine which song would represent the country in Copenhagen that year. Armando Tavares Belo was the musical director of this programme and, as such, he conducted all twelve entries, performed by 6 artists; António Calvário, Artur Garcia, Madalena Iglésias, Simone de Oliveira, Gina Maria, and Guilherme Kjölner. Tavares Belo himself – in collaboration with co-composer Jaime Filipe and lyricist Artur Ribeiro – had written one of the songs, the rather patriotic “Para cantar Portugal”, which was performed by António Calvário.
In the end, one of the other efforts performed by Calvário, ‘Oração’, a melodious prayer put to music, was chosen as the winner. Tavares Belo, however, did not accompany Calvário to the Eurovision Song Contest in Copenhagen. Instead, the Portuguese debut was conducted by the Danish musical director of the contest, Kai Mortensen. Calvário was not awarded a single point and came last, together with three other hapless artists.
In 1966, Tavares Belo composed his second and last entry for the Grande Prémio, again together with Jaime Filipe, ‘Caminhos perdidos’; interpreted by Madalena Iglésias, it came 6th in a field of 8 participating songs. Belo did not get to conduct the song himself, though, because the orchestra for that edition of the pre-selection was conducted by Jorge Costa Pinto.
One year later, in 1967, Tavares Belo was commissioned for the second time to be musical director of the Portuguese preliminaries. He conducted all twelve songs in competition, in which the participating artists were Rui Malhoa, Valério Silva, Duo Ouro Negro, Artur Garcia, Marco Paulo, Maria de Lurdes Resende, Eduardo Nascimento, and, once again, António Calvário. The winning song was the up-tempo ‘O vento mudou’ by Eduardo Nascimento, arranged by Joaquim Luís Gomes.
Subsequently, Tavares Belo made his only appearance in the Eurovision Song Contest finals, conducting ‘O vento mudou’ for Nascimento in Vienna’s Hofburg. Portugal came 12th (3 points) in a field of 17 countries.
Tavares Belo (far right) with Eduardo Nascimento (second from left) and 3 other Portuguese delegates on their way to the Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna (1967)
OTHER ARTISTS ABOUT ARMANDO TAVARES BELO
So far, we have not gathered memories of other artists who worked with Armando Tavares Belo.
A posthumous biography of Armando Tavares Belo, written by his niece Prof. Dr. Maria Armanda Tavares Belo, “Maestro Tavares Belo: dávida total à música” (Lisbon, 1995)
In due course, the short impression below will be replaced with a more extensive career overview
BIOGRAPHY
From 1945 onwards, Johannes Fehring (pseudonym of Johannes Fernbach) studied composition, conducting as well as music science. To finance his studies, he played the piano in the jazz orchestra of Walter Heidrich, which was very popular with American soldiers who frequented the Embassy Club where the ensemble often performed. It was not long before Fehring started composing; between 1949 and 1975, he wrote the scores of over sixty motion pictures, amongst others Mariandl, Schwejks Flegeljahre, and Zirkuskinder.
In 1954, he opened a record store in Vienna, and, one year after that, he compiled an orchestra of his own, the Tanzorchester Johannes Fehring, specializing in jazz and popular music; Fehring wrote most of the arrangements himself. The orchestra became a household name in Austrian music industry and performed in concerts with some of the best-known artists from Austria and abroad: Peter Alexander, Udo Jürgens, Freddy Quinn, Caterina Valente, Ella Fitzgerald, and Gilbert Bécaud are just a few of the singers which were accompanied by Fehring’s ensemble. On numerous occasions, it was involved in emissions for the Austrian national broadcaster ORF, amongst which the Eurovision Song Contest in 1967.
Meanwhile, Fehring took up several other jobs. For a spell of three years (1963-66), he was the leader of the Tanzorchester of WDR, a West German broadcaster based in Cologne. In 1965, he became musical director of the Theater an der Wien, to which he remained faithful for eighteen years. Working with his own orchestra, he accompanied many musicals performed in the theatre, such as Cabaret, Anatevka, Hello Dolly, and Evita. In 1982, he did a European tour with the Münchener Rundfunkorchester.
Moreover, Fehring worked extensively as an arranger and producer in the recording studios with Marianne Mendt, Peter Alexander, and many more. In 1983, Fehring took the decision to withdraw from the showbiz industry.
EUROVISION SONG CONTEST
Johannes Fehring stood at the cradle of the career of one of the most successful recording artists of the German language area of all times. Udo Jürgens started performing with Fehring’s Tanzorchester. In 1964, Jürgens took part in the Eurovision Song Contest for the first of three consecutive times. Although his self-penned song ‘Warum nur warum?’ had been recorded with the Rudi Bauer Orchestra, Jürgens chose to be accompanied by Johannes Fehring as his conductor in the contest, held in Copenhagen. Commercially the song, which came a respectable sixth, became a first success for Jürgens.
Two years later, Jürgens won the Eurovision Song Contest in Luxembourg (without Fehring as his conductor though – this time, Hans Hammerschmid led the orchestra) and, so, in 1967, the contest came to Vienna. In the Wiener Hofburg, Johannes Fehring’s orchestra accompanied all seventeen competing entries. For the Austrian entry, ‘Warum es hunderttausend Sterne gibt’ sung by Peter Horten, Fehring took up the baton himself.
In due course, the short impression below will be replaced with a more extensive career overview
BIOGRAPHY
French arranger Claude Denjean, who moved to Canada in the 1970s, is probably best known for the orchestral arrangements he wrote for Charles Aznavour, including ‘Idiote je t’aime’ and the melancholic ‘Non, je n’ai rien oublié’. Denjean wrote scores for more artists, including Monique Thubert and Max Fournier. He also worked as a composer of film soundtracks, including that of the Canadian production Les plouffe in 1981. In 1970, he released an album under his own name, ‘Claude Denjean and the Moog Synthesizer – Moog!’, which includes instrumental versions of well-known hits, such as ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’, ‘Proud Mary’, and ‘Nights In White Satin’.
Claude Denjean is the older brother of Jacques Denjean, who took part as a conductor in the 1964 Eurovision Song Contest.
EUROVISION SONG CONTEST
In 1967, Claude Denjean arranged and conducted ‘L’amour est bleu’, a song written by André Popp and Pierre Cour. It was sung for Luxembourg by a very young Vicky (Leandros) and came fourth in the Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna. One year later, the song became a world hit in an instrumental version by orchestra leader Paul Mauriat.
