You must have been thinking that I’m only picking the birthdays of recent performers. That is, in part, true. I know many of you have no knowledge of contests before 2000, but there were 44 of them. And, dear reader, some of them were in a medium called black & white. It’s hard to imagine a contest without colour.
So that is where today’s birthday girl comes in. Margot Eskens opened the contest in 1966 and things looked a little different. Black & white obviously. But also her alone on stage, and a set that looked like the working prototype for the shindig in Oslo in 2010. It had an orchestra and Margot sang in German. And she made her name as a Schlager singer. So, you see, Sweden doesn’t have the monopoly on this inoffensive form of Eurovision-ness.
Margot is 82 today.
Frohe Geburtstag, Margot!