Sandra Reemer

Barbara Alexandra Reemer, better known as Sandra Reemer, born on October 17 1950 in Bandung (Indonesia), is a Dutch singer and presenter.

Sandra Reemer was born in Indonesia and moved with her parents to the Netherlands in 1958. At the age of 10 Sandra got a guitar and she started to perform at talent shows. In 1961 Sandra covered the Italian song Al Di La.

In 1966 Sandra was chosen to form the duo Sandra & Andres together with Dries Holten. The duo was very popular in Europe and they released many successful singles and albums. In 1972 Sandra & Andres represented the Netherlands at the ESC in Edinburgh with the song Als Het Om De Liefde Gaat which came 4th. In 1975 Andres broke the partnership with Sandra and started a new duo with Rosy Pereira. Rosy & Andres participated at the Dutch national final for the ESC in 1976 with the song I Was Born To Love.

After her break up with Andres Sandra started her solo career. In 1976 Sandra took part at the Dutch pre-selection for the ESC which she won with the song The Party Is Over. At the ESC in The Hague Sandra came 9th. In 1970 Sandra already took part at the Dutch national final for the ESC with the song Voorbij Is De Winter which came last.

In 1979 Sandra was chosen to represent the Netherlands for the 3rd time at the ESC. With a new look Sandra and her band Xandra went to Jerusalem with the song Colorado which was written by her husband Ferdi Bolland. At the ESC Colorado came only 12th but the song was a big hit in Scandinavia and Denmark.

In the early 80s Sandra released a couple of singles but they weren't very successful. In 1983 Sandra was a backing vocalist for Bernadette who sang the dutch entry at the ESC in Germany. Also in the 80s Sandra was very popular as a TV presenter, she hosted many TV shows. In 1987 Sandra released two successful singles, All Out Of Love and La Colegiala.

From 2000 to 2005 Sandra was one of the members of the Dutch Divas. They scored a big hit with the song From New York To L.A. Sandra is still performing, usually for charity. She has her own foundation to raise money for disabled people in Africa.

In 2010 Sandra organized an exhibition about the history of the Dutch ESC dresses.

In November 2011 Sandra has announced that she stops her singing career.

Spooky and Sue

The duo Spooky and Sue consisted of Iwan Groeneveld from Aruba and Sue Chaloner from the UK.

Iwan sang in the Dutch band The Swinging Soul Machine who had a big hit in 1969 with the song Spooky's Day Off. Sue Chaloner played in 1969 the leading part in the musical Hair.

Originally Sue was asked to form a duo with Big John Russell but his jealous wife forbade the collaboration but it is also said that Big John couldn't perform on stage due to his weight.

The first and biggest hit was Swingin' On A Star, the second hit was You Talk Too Much, both with the voice of Big John.

In 1976 Spooky and Sue participated at the Dutch national final for the ESC with the song Do You Dig It which came last but was a hit in The Netherlands.

In 1977 the duo split up to start solo-careers. Iwan's first solo single flopped and later he joined the band The Surfers. Sue is still singing as a backing vocalist and as a member of the band Soul Train.

Siw Malmkvist

I just found this video of Siw Malmkvist singing her song Harlekin which won the German Schlager Festspiele in 1968.

You can find here more information about Siw Malmkvist.

Babe

Babe was a Dutch girl group, formed in 1979 by Dutch producer, singer and composer Peter Koelewijn who also wrote almost all the Babe songs. Babe originally consisted of Gemma van Eck, Rita van Rooy and Monique Hagemeyer. In 1980 Monique was replaced by Margot van der Ven and in 1982 Gemma was replaced my Marga Bult who represented the Netherlands at the ESC in 1987.

Babe had 16 hits in the Netherlands and were also very popular in Indonesia, Malaysia, Lebanon, Korea and Europe.

In 1980 Babe participated at the World Songfestival in Seoul, Korea where they won The Best National Custom Award.

In 1982 Babe was part of the Dutch team which participated at the Knokke Songfestival in Belgium where they got no points at all because they didn't follow the rules of the festival. The rules said that Babe should sing at least one song in Dutch but they didn't.

It is said that the song Boomerang was entered in the Luxemburg internal selection for the ESC of 1982. Unfortunately the "expert" jury chose the song Cours Après Le Temps instead of Boomerang.

In 1983 Babe was chosen as the most successful girl group in the Netherlands.

After a couple of less successful years Babe split up in 1986.

Mazhar-Fuat-Özkan

Mazhar-Fuat-Özkan also known as MFÖ ia a Turkish band and consists of Mazhar Alanson (February 13, 1950 Ankara), Fuat Güner (April 1, 1948 Ankara) and Özkan Uğur (October 17, 1953 Istanbul) .The men are both musician and actor. MFÖ is one of the most important bands in Turkey.

In 1968 Mazhar and Fuat started as a duo, two years later they were joined by Özkan. Since then the band released more than 80 songs. In 1984 they had their first hit with the song Ele güne karşı which was chosen as song of the year in Turkey.

In 1985 and 1988 MFÖ won the Turkish pre-selection for the ESC. In 1985 the song Didai Didai Dai came 14th at the ESC in Göteborg and in 1988 Sufi came 15th in Dublin. In 1987 they participated again at the Turkish national final with the song No Problem and in 1989 they came only 15th with Adi Naim.

In 1995 the three members of MFÖ started a solo career but occasionally they perform as a trio.

Euson

Euson, born as Julio Bernardo Euson on April 12 1941 in Aruba, is a Dutch/Aruban singer.

In the late 50s Julio formed his first band in Aruba. After he won some talent shows he moved to the Netherlands in 1962 where he joined the bands The Scarlets, Kreole Kats and Stax. Stax was quite popular but Julio left the band in 1970 to start a solo career.

In 1971 Julio had his biggest hit with the song Both Sides Now which made him a very popular artist in the Netherlands.

In 1972 Julio represented the Netherlands at the Viña del Mar Song Festival in Chile with his own song Julie which came 1st. After that he released many not so successful singles.

In 1977, after the release of his last album, Julio moved to Chile where he started the company P.J. Productions. He also produced music for several Chilean artists.

In the 90s Julio moved to the USA. In 2001 he played the part of a detective in the movie The Brothers Grimm.

Lys Assia

Lys Assia, born Rosa Mina Schärer on March 3 1926, Rupperswil, Aargau, Switzerland, is a Swiss singer who won the first Eurovision Song Contest in 1956. When Lys Assia was a young girl she was a dancer. In 1940, however, she stood in for a female singer. People who heard her singing liked it, so she changed from dancing to singing.

In 1950 Lys had her first success with the song O Mein Papa from the musical Feuerwerk.

In 1956 she was the winner of the very first Eurovision Song Contest, in which she sang the song Refrain for Switzerland. She had also been in the German national final of that year. She returned to the contest again for Switzerland in 1957 and 1958. In 1957 she came 8th out of 10 with L'enfant Que J'étais but in 1958 she came 2nd with the song Giorgio.

After her last hit in 1962, Sterne Von Syrakus, she stopped her singing career to spend more time with her family. In 2002 she made her comeback and gave a couple of concerts and performed in many TV shows. In 2003 and 2005 Lys released a couple of successful cd's. In 2008 she started the voting procedure during the Grand Final of the ESC in Belgrade and in 2009 she handed over the trophy for winning the ESC to Alexande Rybak.

In September 2011, Lys Assia entered her song C'était Ma Vie written by Ralph Siegel and Jean Paul Cara into the Swiss national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Festival OTI de la Canción

OTI Festival (Spanish: Festival OTI de la Canción) was an annual singing competition, held between 1972 and 2000, among active member countries of the Organización de Televisión Iberoamericana. The members of OTI are: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Spain, Uruguay, Venezuela, Portugal and Brazil.

The prefix Ibero- refers to the Iberian peninsula in Europe, consisting of Spain, Portugal, Andorra, and Gibraltar. Ibero-America is formed by all Spanish-speaking countries in America, in addition to Brazil, which is Portuguese-speaking, but excludes the French-speaking countries Haiti, French Guiana, Martinique and Guadeloupe. The exclusion of the French-speaking regions differentiates Ibero-America from Latin America, as well as the inclusion of the European states of the Iberian peninsula if they are included in the definition. The English-speaking countries Belize, Guyana, Jamaica, Barbados, Antigua, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent & the Grenadines, Saint Kitts & Nevis, Trinidad and Tobago and Grenada, and the Dutch-speaking Suriname are also excluded from Ibero-America.

The 1st OTI Festival was won by Brazil with the song Diálogo sung by Claudia Regina y Tobías.