Hallelujah (Deutsche Original-Version) - Milk and Honey

When an artist decides to record a song in different languages, this leads to an uncoordinated and often slightly frustration search. So many times I've seen a single I want - but then it's priced so ridiculously that I won't even try to order it. This happened, too, with the German version of 'Halleluja', the song that made Milk and Honey the winners of the Eurovision Song Contest in 1979.

I already own the English and French versions, of course, but the German version was harder to come by. Recently I finally succeeded, also because the online dealer also had a few other interesting singles that I wanted to have. (Postage costs would otherwise make this single much too expensive.) It's interesting to think that I would have been searching for this one for 13 years (considering I bought the French version in 2009) but that's not really the case: I only found out about the German version last year.

My collection: 7" single no. 6623
Found: Discogs.com, received 29 January 2022
Cost: €4
Tracks: 'Hallelujah (Deutsche Original-Version)' / 'Halleluja (Original Hebrew Version)'

Alléluia - Milk and Honey

While Europe got an English-language version of 'Hallelujah' in 1979, after Milk & Honey won the 1979 Eurovision Song Contest, France got their own release of this song. The single featured a French and Hebrew version of the song. Especially the French version is a rarity, since it was released in France only.

I ordered this single from France, since I never saw it here. I'm currently in the process of compiling alternate language versions of Eurovision winners on cd, and most of them appear on websites for download - but this one is extremely hard to find.

My collection: 7" single no. 3610
Found: eBay, France, received March 20, 2009
Cost: 3 euro
Tracks: 'Alléluia (Version française)' / 'Alléluia (Version hebraique)'

Hallelujah - Milk and Honey

'Hallelujah' was the winning song of the 1979 Eurovision Song Contest, performed in Hebrew by Milk & Honey, representing Israel. The group was created especially for the contest after the song's original performers, the band Hakol Over Habibi, declined the opportunity to sing the song. The song is a slow-building ballad, with the group praising God for the world and all the good things in it. This is, to date, the most religiously-themed song to win the Contest.

In the Netherlands, the single reached number 8 in the Dutch Top 40, and in many European countries, the song became a standard. It is even recognized by many North Americans who might never even have heard of Eurovision.

My collection: 7" single no. 3391
Found: Geest, Den Haag, 2003
Cost: 1 euro
Tracks: 'Hallelujah' / 'Lady sun'
Download: here