Eurovisionaries: Peter, Sue, & Marc

Sometimes, acts make it into my list of Eurovisionaries by their sheer tenacity.

My favorite of these is the Swiss group Peter, Sue, and Marc, who represented Switzerland four times--in 1971, 1976, 1979, and 1981.

Pete, Sue, and Marc formed in 1968 in Bern, Switzerland and seemed to make representing Switzerland at the Eurovision Song Contest a career objective. 

In 1971, they seemed to be infected by the "la-la" virus that seemed to be going around the contest, and is a lovely little number about telling old people to politely shut up.

Peter, Sue, and Marc  "Les illusions de nos vingt ans"  Switzerland 1971

And even though they were polite about it, rudeness really isn't rewarded in Eurovision, and the song came in 14th out of 18 songs. 

But they weren't done..  They tried to win the Swiss final in 1973, coming in third with "Es kommt ein tag". then tried again the following year with "Frei". 

But the third attempt to represent Switzerland was successful, and they were back in 1976.  And this time they brought a clown!

Peter, Sue, and Marc  "Djambo Djambo"  Switzerland 1976

And after chastising old people for not leaving them alone, they're memorializing an old clown whose only happy when he's feeding birds or playing a barrel organ for kids on the sidewalk.

They did better, coming in fourth out of eighteen entrants.

After attempting to represent another country, Germany in 1978 with the song "Charlie Chaplin", Peter, Sue and Marc were back in Switzerland the following year with one of the more interesting entrants to grace the Eurovision stage.



Peter, Sue and Marc + Pfuri, Gorps, and Kniri  "Trödler und Co"  1979

And three years later, Peter, Sue and Marc were back, this time with the jazz trio Pfuri, Gorps, and Kniri.  The song, "Trödler and Co", is about a band that made their instruments out of items that they found in their grandmother's garden.

I suppose they're lucky.  If I started playing music on my grandmother's gardening supplies, I wouldn't get to make music, I'd be put to work weeding the borders or mowing the lawn because I obviously had time on my hands.

And I suspect the juries' grandmothers were the same, the song came in tenth out of nineteen songs, but I have to admit I like it for the sheer kookiness.  And you're not likely to see a rake onstage at Eurovision again.

Peter, Sue, and Marc  "Io senza te"  1981

The last time Peter, Sue, and Marc graced the Eurovision stage was in 1981 with the number "Io senza te", a lovely little number about a breakup.  It's a lot more straightforward, and the juries responded to it.  The song came in fourth out of twenty songs.

After the 1981 contest, Peter Sue and Marc broke up--Peter bought a boat and ran away to Alaska for a while (as many people living here seem to have done) while releasing solo albums.  He's still touring, now with his daughter. 

Sue also went on to have a solo career, but had a religious epiphany and is a practicing Buddhist, while Marc retired from show business.

While competing in Eurovision, they did set a record for singing four different songs in four different languages.--French, English, German, and Italian--a feat one that's not likely to be repeated in the time of  English dominance.

Because of their tenacity and versatility, Peter, Sue and Marc are definitely Eurovisionaries.