Sopot International Song Festival

The Sopot International Song Festival (later called Sopot Music Festival Grand Prix, Sopot Top of the Top Festival from 2012–13 and Polsat Sopot Festival in 2014) is an annual international song contest held in Sopot, Poland.^[1] It was the biggest Polish music festival altogether with the National Festival of Polish Song in Opole, and one of the biggest song contests in Europe.

The contest was organised and transmitted live by the Polish state television broadcaster, Telewizja Polska (TVP) between 1994 and 2004. The following year, the concert was broadcast by the private media station TVN for the first time and remained on TVN until 2009. From 2012 to 2014, the concert was broadcast and organised by Polsat. It was later cancelled by the broadcaster.^[2]

History

Forest Opera in Sopot

Stage for the Sopot Top Of The Top Festival 2013

The first Sopot festival was initiated and organised in 1961 by Władysław Szpilman, assisted by Szymon Zakrzewski from Polish Artists Management (PAGART).^[3] The first three editions were held in the Gdansk Shipyard hall (1961–1963), after which the festival moved to the Forest Opera. The main prize has been Amber Nightingale through most of its history.

Between 1977 and 1980 it was replaced by the Intervision Song Contest, which was still held in Sopot. Unlike the Eurovision Song Contest, the Sopot International Music Festival often changed its formulas to pick a winner and offered many different contests for its participants. For example, at the 4th Intervision Song Festival (held in Sopot August 20–23, 1980) two competitions were effective: one for artists representing television companies, the other for those representing record companies. In the first the jury considered the artistic merits of the songs entered; while in the second, it judged the performers' interpretation."^[4]

The festival has always been open to non-European acts, and countries like Cuba, Dominican Republic, Mongolia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Peru, South Africa and many others have been represented in this event.

The contest lost popularity in Poland and abroad in the 1980s, declining further during the 1990s, and the rather unconvincing organisations by TVP made the authorities of Sopot give the organization of the 2005 Sopot International Song Festival to a private TV channel, TVN.

Since 1999, there was no contest. TVP chose to invite well-known artists instead, featuring the likes of Whitney Houston, Tina Turner, The Corrs, Lionel Richie, UB40, Ricky Martin and Simply Red to perform. In 2005, TVN brought the international competition back, taking over from TVP, and in 2006 invited Elton John and Katie Melua. The Sopot International Song Festival is usually considered bigger than the Benidorm International Song Festival because of its ability to attract star performers.

In 2010 and 2011, the festival did not take place due to renovation of the Forest Opera. Since 2012, it is called Sopot Top Of The Top Festival and is broadcast annually by Polsat. In 2014, the name was changed to Polsat Sopot Festival.

The festival also provided opportunity to listen to international stars. In the past, it featured Charles Aznavour, Boney M, Johnny Cash, and more recently: Chuck Berry, Vanessa Mae, Annie Lennox, Belinda Carlisle, Vaya Con Dios, Chris Rea, Tanita Tikaram, La Toya Jackson, Kajagoogoo and Goran Bregovic.

Winners by year

This list includes only winners of the most prestigious contests within the Sopot Music Festival. Sometimes one contest has overshadowed another with time. Grand Prix de disque was the most prestigious award between 1974 and 1976 and the Intervision Song Contest during 1977–80.

The festival has also given prizes for Best Interpretation in the 1960s, the Amber Nightingdale in the 1980s and 1990s and Winner Of The Polish Day on and off from the 1960s to the 1980s.^[5]

Year	Date	Country	Performer	Song(s)
1961–1973: Price for the Masterpiece[5]
1961	25–27 August	Switzerland	Jo Rolland	"Nous Deux"
1962	6–8 July	Greece	Jeanne Yovanna	"Ti Krima"
1963	15–18 August	USSR	Tamara Miansarova	"Pust vsiegda budiet solnce" (ex-aequo)
		France	Simone Langlois	"Toi et ton sourire" (ex-aequo)
1964	6–12 August	Greece	Nadia Constantinoupoulou	"Je te remercie mon coeur"
1965	5–8 August	Canada	Monique Leyrac	"Mon pays"
1966	25–28 August	United States	Lana Cantrell	"I'm all smiles"
1967	17–20 August	Poland	Dana Lerska	"Po prostu jestem"
1968	22–25 August	Poland	Urszula Sipińska	"Po ten kwiat czerwony"
1969	21–24 August	Switzerland	Henri Dès	"Maria Consuella"
1970	27–30 August	Canada	Robert Charlebois	"Ordinaire"
1971	26–29 August	United Kingdom	Samantha Jones	"He Moves Me"
1972	23–26 August	USSR	Lev Leschchenko	"Ja ne byl z nim znakom" (ex-aequo)
		Poland	Andrzej Dąbrowski	"Do zakochania jeden krok" (ex-aequo)
1973	21–25 August	United Kingdom	Tony Craig	"Can You Feel It" and "I Think Of You Baby"
1974–1976: Grand Prix de disque[5]
1974	21–24 August	Finland	Marion Rung	"Uskon lauluun"
1975	20–23 August	United Kingdom	Glen Weston	"I Still Love You"
1976	24–29 August	USSR	Irina Ponarovskaya	"Toropos"
1977–1980: Intervision Song Contest[5]
1977	24–27 August	Czechoslovakia	Helena Vondráčková	"Malovaný džbánku"
1978	23–26 August	USSR	Alla Pugacheva	"Vsyo mogut koroli"
1979	22–25 August	Poland	Czesław Niemen	"Nim przyjdzie wiosna"
1980	20–23 August	Finland	Marion Rung	"Hyvästi yö"[6]
No festival held from 1981 to 1983
1984–1987: Sopot Music Festival Grand Prix[5]
1984	15–18 August	Poland	Krystyna Giżowska	"Blue Box"
1985	21–24 August	Sweden	Herreys	"Summer Party"
1986	20–23 August	United States	Mara Getz	"Hero Of My Heart"
1987	19–22 August	West Germany	Double Take	"Rockola"
1988–1990: Golden Disc[5]
1988	20–23 August	United States	Kenny James	"The Magic In You"
1989	16–19 August	Norway	Dance with a Stranger	"By"
1990	15–18 August	Poland	Lora Szafran	"Zły chłopak" and "Trust Me At Once"
1991–1993: Sopot Music Festival Grand Prix[5]
1991	22–25 August	Latvia	New Moon	"Ice"
1992	27–30 August	Austria	Mark Andrews
1993	26–28 August	Lithuania	Arina	"Rain Is Coming Down"
1994–2004: Sopot Music Festival Grand Prix (with TVP)[5]
1994	26–27 August	Poland	Varius Manx	"Zanim zrozumiesz"
1995	25–26 August	Poland	Kasia Kowalska	"Jak rzecz" and "A to co mam"
1996	No competition held
1997	22–23 August	Netherlands	Total Touch	"Somebody Else's Lover"
1998	21–22 August	Italy	Alex Baroni	"Male che fa male"
1999	20–22 August	Poland	Małgorzata Ostrowska	"Lawa"
2000	18–19 August	Czech Republic	Helena Vondráčková	"Veselé Vánoce a šťastný nový rok"
2001	24–25 August	Belgium	Natacha Atlas	"Ayeshteni"
2002	23–24 August	Poland	Irena Santor	"Jeszcze kochasz mnie”
2003	22–23 August	Poland	Skaldowie	"Hymn o miłości"
2004	No competition held
2005–2011: Sopot Music Festival Grand Prix (with TVN)
2005	2–4 September	Poland	Andrzej Piaseczny	"Z głębi duszy" (all-Polish contest)
2006	1–3 September	United Kingdom	Mattafix	"Big City Life"
2007	31 August – 2 September	Poland	Feel	"A gdy już jest ciemno"
2008	23–24 August	Sweden	Oh Laura	"Release Me"[5]
2009	1 June	Australia	Gabriella Cilmi	"Sweet About Me"[7]
No festival held from 2010 to 2011
2012–2013: Sopot Top Of The Top Festival (with Polsat)
2012	24–25 August	Sweden	Eric Saade	"Hotter Than Fire"
2013	23–24 August	France	Imany	"You Will Never Know"
2014: Polsat Sopot Festival
2014	22–23 August	Czech Republic	Ewa Farna	"Cicho"

Winners by country

Wins	Country	Years
13	Poland	1967, 1968, 1972*, 1979, 1984, 1990, 1994, 1995, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007
4	United Kingdom	1971, 1973, 1975, 2006
	Soviet Union	1963*, 1972*, 1976, 1978
3	Sweden	1985, 2008, 2012
	United States	1966, 1986, 1988
2	Czech Republic	2000, 2014
	France	1963*, 2013
	Finland	1974, 1980
	Canada	1965, 1970
	Switzerland	1961, 1969
	Greece	1962, 1964
1	Australia	2009
	Belgium	2001
	Italy	1998
	Netherlands	1997
	Lithuania	1993
	Austria	1992
	Latvia	1991
	Norway	1989
	West Germany	1987
	Czechoslovakia	1977

*More than one winner at that year.

See also

References

External links

• Sopot Festival website (pl) (en)
• The complete list of all participants and places till 2009 (pl)