Séverine: Un Banc, un Arbre, une Rue

When I first became of it, the Eurovision Song Contest generally came down to a battle between a woman singing a sophisticated ballad in French and another singing Bing Tiddle Tiddle Bong for Britain.

Fortunately, the French ballads usually won, but we Britons lived in fear of Cilla Black being chosen to represent us.

Here is the song that won Eurovision for Monaco in 1971 - you get the feeling that the composers of 'I Dreamed a Dream' were aware of it and its wistful mood.

Séverine was something of a gun for hire. She is French, and after winning the contest for Monaco made two attempts to be the German entrant.