Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! Ah, Valentine’s Day… a day for flirting, for romance, for you to confess your heart’s deepest desires… also a chance for it to all go spectacularly wrong!

Let’s face it, the path to true love rarely runs smooth. Everyone has that date they’d rather forget about, or that grand romantic gesture that backfired spectacularly… and Eurovision isn’t immune either!

Here are some of our favourite romantic gaffs from couples at the contest. From sickly sweet songs that made us really uncomfortable, to romantic stunts that didn’t quite go according to plan… warning: sentimentality ahead!

Michele Perniola and Anita Simoncini

Fresh on a high from their first-ever qualification the year before, all eyes were on San Marino to see if they’d pull it off a second year in a row with Michele Perniola and Anita Simoncini singing “Chain of Lights”. Anita had sung at JESC for the tiny republic just the year before, and their ooey-gooey duet definitely had strong overtones of JESC! Sadly for the young pair, it didn’t go down well, and they came second-to-last in their semi final…

Birthe Wilke and Gustav Winckler

In 1957, Danish duo Birthe Wilke and Gustav Winckler ended their entry “Skibet Skal Sejle I Nat” with a romantic kiss. Nothing wrong with that, right? Well, the problem was the signal the couple were waiting for to end their kiss didn’t come… So they kept going… And going… And going… While kind of awkward for a modern audience, this infamous kiss could have been much more shocking for the audience then – luckily Eurovision was still largely a radio programme back in the 50s!

Sopho Gelovani and Nodiko Tatishvili

Georgia’s 2013 Eurovision offering “Waterfall” is every inch a Disney song. It’s just so innocent and pure and they’re holding hands… isn’t it sweet? The song just qualified for the final in Malmö in 2013, but then trickled down into 15th place in the actual final, after managing two sets of 10 points and a couple of lower scores like some 5s and a 3… Could it be it was just too twee and wholesome for viewers?

Alex Florea and Ilinca Băcilă

Another kiss that didn’t quite go according to plan, at the end of their energetic yodelling number in Kyiv, Alex grabbed Ilinca and kissed her on the cheek. The move seemed to be spontaneous, but the resulting expression on Ilinca’s face became an instant internet hit! Some even suggested Ilinca got her own-back in the national selection the next year, when she was a judge and didn’t give Alex many points for his song… always said that kiss would come back to haunt him!

Amaia Romero and Alfred García

The epitome of sickly sweet, Alfred and Amaia were Eurovision 2018’s sweethearts. A couple in real life at the time of performing, their loved up rendition of “Tu Canción” was tender and ever so in love – or as described by one of the journalists in the press centre at the time, “being as sweet as kittens drowning in treacle”… we’re not going to take cheap shots at the fact they’re no longer a couple, but it must be awkward for the pair of them to have been so publicly in love, and to always be remember for that song…

Phew! Feel like you need insulin after all that? Here’s Svetlana rocking Moscow with her Doomsday machine and Be My Valentine! ANTI CRISIS BOM!!

What do you think? Can you think of any other songs we should have mention for this Valentine’s Day list?

Let us know! Happy Valentine’s Day!

Author: James Scanlan
Source: Eurovision Ireland / YouTube
Featured Image Source: honeybearlane.com