"Primaballerina" (from Italian for " first ballerina" – the second highest female ballet dancer) is a

1969 This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon. Events January * January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco. * January 5 **Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to ...

song performed in

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

singer

Siw Malmkvist Siw Gunnel Margareta Malmkvist (born 31 December 1936) is a Swedish schlager singer and actress popular in Scandinavia and West Germany. She had a number one hit in West Germany in 1964 with "''Liebeskummer lohnt sich nicht''" (''"Lovesickness ...

and written by Hans Blum. It was the entry in the

Eurovision Song Contest 1969 The Eurovision Song Contest 1969 was the 14th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Madrid, Spain, following the country's victory at the with the song "La, la, la" by Massiel. Organised by the European Broadcasting Uni ...

. Malmkvist was the second of three female

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...

n schlager artists to represent Germany in the contest in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the first being

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including the ...

Wenche Myhre Wenche Synnøve Myhre (born 15 February 1947), known in some countries as Wencke Myhre, is a Norwegian singer who has had a great number of hit songs since the 1960s in the Norwegian, Danish, German and Swedish markets and languages. Early caree ...

in with "

Ein Hoch der Liebe Ein or EIN may refer to: Science and technology * Ein function, in mathematics * Endometrial intraepithelial neoplasia, a lesion of the uterine lining * Equivalent input noise, of a microphone * European Informatics Network, a 1970s computer netw ...

" and the third

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...

Gitte Hænning Gitte Hænning (born 29 June 1946) is a Danish singer and film actress, who rose to fame as a child star in the 1950s. She was known primarily monomously (without a surname) in Europe. She moved to Sweden in 1958. Her first hit in Swedish was ...

with " Junger Tag" in . Malmkvist had previously also represented her native Sweden in the 1960 contest with "

Alla andra får varann Sweden chose its entry for Eurovision Song Contest 1960 by the national final, Melodifestivalen 1960. The winning song, "Alla andra får varann" was performed once by Östen Warnerbring and once by Ingrid Berggren. However Sveriges Radio decid ...

Song information

"Primaballerina" is a midtempo schlager song. It is addressed to a

porcelain Porcelain () is a ceramic material made by heating substances, generally including materials such as kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery, arises mainl ...

figure on a clock, who is asked why she is alone and has to pass through life without a lover. The singer tells that music is the life of the Primaballerina and that she just keeps turning to chimes. Nevertheless, in the final chorus she says that one day everything beautiful will fade and that the porcelaine figure will never understand that.

Excerpt

German

English translation

Prima ballerina, prima ballerina
Everything beautiful of this world has to fade one day
Prima ballerina, prima ballerina
Little porcelaine figurette, you will never understand that

At the national final

Three singers took part in the German national final for the Eurovision Song Contest 1969, each of them performing three songs. It was the third song performed by Siw Malmkvist and the seventh song performed overall in the first round of voting following

Peggy March Peggy March (born Margaret Annemarie Battavio, March 8, 1948) is an American popular music, pop singer. In the United States, she is primarily known for her 1963 Music recording certification, million-selling song "I Will Follow Him". Although sh ...

with "Aber die Liebe bleibt bestehn" and preceding

Rex Gildo Rex Gildo (formerly Alexander Gildo, born Ludwig Franz Hirtreiter; 2 July 1936 – 26 October 1999) was a German singer of Schlager ballads who reached the height of his popularity in the 1960s and 1970s, selling over 25 million records and st ...

with "Festival der jungen Liebe" and first in the second round of voting with only three songs remaining. In the final round, the song was awarded seven out of 13 possible points sending the song to the Eurovision Song Contest in Madrid.

At the Eurovision Song Contest

The song was performed thirteenth on the night, following 's

Kirsti Sparboe Kirsti Sparboe (born 7 December 1946) is a Norwegian musical performer and an actress. Most of her musical career has been built on participation in the widely-popular Eurovision Song Contest in which she competed three times and scored a grand ...

with "

Oj, oj, oj, så glad jeg skal bli Norway was represented by Kirsti Sparboe, with the song "Oj, oj, oj, så glad jeg skal bli", at the 1969 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 29 March in Madrid. "Oj, oj, oj, så glad jeg skal bli" was chosen as the Norwegian entry at the ...

" and preceding 's

Frida Boccara Danielle Frida Hélène Boccara (29 October 1940 – 1 August 1996) was a Moroccan-born French singer of Italian descent, who performed and recorded in a number of languages, including French, Spanish, English, Italian, German, Dutch and Russia ...

with "

Un jour, un enfant "Un jour, un enfant" (; "A Day, a Child") is one of four winning songs in the Eurovision Song Contest 1969, this one being sung in French by Frida Boccara representing . The other three winners were Salomé representing with "Vivo cantando", L ...

". At the close of voting, it had received 8 points, placing 9th in a field of 16. It was succeeded as German representative at the 1970 contest by

Katja Ebstein Katja Ebstein (born Karin Witkiewicz; 9 March 1945) is a German singer. She was born in Girlachsdorf (now Gniewków, Poland). She achieved success with songs such as "Theater" and "Es war einmal ein Jäger". She was married to , who wrote many of ...

with "

Wunder gibt es immer wieder Germany was represented by Katja Ebstein, with the song "Wunder gibt es immer wieder", at the 1970 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 21 March 1970 in Amsterdam. "Wunder gibt es immer wieder" was the winner of the German national final, ...

Other versions

Other versions by Siw Malmkvist

Malmkvist recorded other two versions of the song: in her native Swedish and in Spanish. The title was kept for both versions.

Cover versions

Many cover versions of the song were recorded: *Estonian singer

Heli Lääts Heli Lääts (24 June 1932 – 16 February 2018) was an Estonian singer ( mezzo-soprano) whose career began in the mid-1950s. Lääts predominantly performed estrada, chamber, pop, polka, and jazz music. Early life and education Heli Läät ...

covered the song in Estonian as "Kaunid baleriinid". A dance remix of that version was also released. *Two Dutch singers recorded Dutch versions of the song: and Patricia Dee. *Finnish singer

Robin Robin may refer to: Animals * Australasian robins, red-breasted songbirds of the family Petroicidae * Many members of the subfamily Saxicolinae (Old World chats), including: **European robin (''Erithacus rubecula'') **Bush-robin **Forest rob ...

covered the song in Finnish as "Prinsessa". *

Paul Mauriat Paul Julien André Mauriat ( or ; 4 March 1925 – 3 November 2006) was a French orchestra leader, conductor of Le Grand Orchestre de Paul Mauriat, who specialized in the easy listening genre. He is best known in the United States for his milli ...

recorded an instrumental version of the song. *A Slovak version of the song was released by Czech singer as "Primabalerína".

Releases and commercial success

The song was released on a vinyl single with the song "Mir fehlt der Knopf am Pyjama" as B-side. The song entered the German single charts and eventually peaked at #13.Charts-Surfer
/ref> It is Siw Malkvist's third last charted single to date. It was the most successful German Eurovision Song Contest entry since "

Zwei kleine Italiener Germany was represented by Conny Froboess, with the song '"Zwei kleine Italiener", at the 1962 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 18 March in Luxembourg City. Twelve artists and 24 songs took part in the German preselection, which consis ...

" in and the second most successful one overall at the time of its release. The song later appeared on various Siw Malmkvist greatest hits compilations and on German Eurovision Song Contest compilations.

External links

Siw Malmkvist discographyPrimaballerina on diggiloo.net

References

{{Eurovision Song Contest 1969 Songs about occupations Songs about dancing Eurovision songs of Germany Eurovision songs of 1969 Siw Malmkvist songs 1969 songs Metronome Records singles 1969 singles Songs written by Hans Blum (musician)