There’s a lot of pressure for the performers at Eurovision, their whole country is looking to them to hopefully win the competition, or at the very least be in the top five.
Some contestants go home disappointed, knocked out in the semi-finals, but there’s a worse fate…. scoring no points at all.
At the conclusion of the grand final performances the hosts will check in with each country who will announce their top three picks based on the judges’ points and the audience phone votes.
It’s the moment when they say the classic line; “This is [insert country] calling.” Their top pick will be given twelve points, the second pick 10 points and their third pick 8 points and so on.
The worst fate for a Eurovision contestant – being declared a Nul-Pointer. A clear and undeniable sign – absolutely nobody liked your song, or possibly nobody likes your country (as Eurovision can sometimes become a little political).
This year artist Tex Rubinowitz is celebrating all the artists who completely failed during Eurovision’s 60 year exhibition with his exhibition ‘The Nul-Pointers’.
Rubinowitz has painted caricatures of all the greatest losers of Eurovision, not only has he created a visual tribute to all the artists, the work also highlights what happened to the singers after Eurovision. Some faded into obscurity, while others forged ahead with their careers.
After all as Rubinowitz says “Winners are Boring”.
Captured in the exhibition are performers such as Laila Halme who represented Finland in 1963 with her tune ‘Muistojeni lauli’, or the late Monica Zetterlund who represented Sweden that same year. Zetterund was an acclaimed jazz artist who had worked with Quincy Jones, Louis Armstrong and Stan Getz. Her Eurovision disaster didn’t hold her back though, she went on to have a successful career and appear in over 20 films.
Nora Nova (depicted above) from Germany holds several titles in the Eurovision history book. Not only is she a null-pointer, her song ‘Man gewohnt sich so schnell an das Schone” has the longest song title in the competition’s 60 years. Nora’s real name was Ahinora Kumanova, she’d fled Bulgaria by marrying a man from West Germany. After her failure in Denmark in 1964, (and the fall of the Iron Curtain), she later returned to her native land Bulgaria where she had a successful political career.
More recently British band Jemini scored nul-points in 2003 with their tragic song ‘Cry Baby’. Their performance in Riga in 2003 was completely off-key and the du soon broke up and faded into security. They haven’t been forgotten though, the British press is still talking about them every May when the competition rolls around.
Rubinowitz (whose real name is Dirk Wesenberg) was born in Hanover in 1961 and has lived in Vienna for 32 years. He’s been a fan of the Eurovision song contest for decades and as a newspaper commentator has often travelled across Europe to cover the competition. He’s been to finals in Helsinki, Oslo, Baku and Copenhagen.
While his quirky caricatures may not be up there with the works of Monet or Picasso, his exhibition provides a different way to look at an intriguing competition that is enjoying it’s 60th anniversary.
His exhibition captures the 34 acts who are part of a special club from Belgium’s Fed LeClerc in 1962 through to Jemini in 2003. It’s now been 12 years since anyone joined the Nul-Pointers, will there be a new member after Saturday’s grand final?
‘The Nul-Pointers’ is at the Leopold Museum, Museumplatz 1, Vienna, Austria. It’s open from 10am – 6pm, and there’s a late night opening until 9pm on Thursdays. The exhibition is closed on Tuesdays. The exhibition is on until June 8th 2015.
Graeme Watson in Vienna.
Images supplied by the Leopold Museum and are protected by copyright
