Lindsay Dracass sang for the UK in 2001. I remember watching it on the night and thinking it was OK. It struck a chord even though I didn't realise it. Her live performance was pretty good given the demands of the song and her relatively young age. She carried off the performance well. She did us proud. The crowd went wild at the end when she hit the top note. Just take a look at the video embedded at the bottom of this post.
But it's not the Eurovision performance which hits me like a freight train. It is in fact the video release available on the CD single. That's the embedded video at the top of the post. It's for a ridiculously personal reason I love it.
Five years ago (very nearly to the day) I went to the BBC's Written Archive Centre in Caversham. Back then I was working in an IT department depressed as hell about the work I was doing, yearning to do something challenging and something creative. It all seemed too impossible for me to imagine.
Then I hit upon the idea of researching the Eurovision. I was going to write a book. I'd need to find out about it. I had to go to the Written Archive Centre in Caversham and have a look around, see what I could find.
That was just the beginning. At every stage in the research process I was amazed about the chance things which happened. What started off seeming like the most ridiculous idea quickly gathered pace. Maybe this wasn't such an impossible dream after all.
Every time I hear Lindsay's song I do remember the moment I was on the train, the day I went to the Written Archive Centre the first time. Every line seemed to mean something.
Now, minutes before I go to a meeting about the Eurovision again, amazed that I find myself there, I listen to this song and feel the same way I did back then. Totally excited and utterly humbled by the experience.
Thursday 24 January 2008
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2 comments:
I think every Eurovision fan has one of those songs which they love more due to the personal meanings behind it than the song itself. I think your story about this one is quite touching.
Me? I really like the studio version of this song, it's a soaring and inspirational record demanding a lot of Lindsay, and she delivers.
Unfortunately, it found itself in the 2001 contest, surely the weakest and most poorly staged in recent memory. Somewhere along the line, my mental image of Lindsay dressed in royal blue in the middle of a whirlwind of wind machines and spotlights became a chav girl in a tracksuit with an annoying "gangsta" and some backing singers miming playing cellos very badly...
Still, she did hit that huge final note brilliantly after struggling with it for much of the rehearsals. And I do think it's underrated amongst UK entries.
Lindsay certainly did pull the rabbit out of the hat with this really challenging song. I like it because it's very positive and optimistic, it has that wonderful last note and it's not over-syrupy.
I give it a B++.
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