# 30 Even If

If ever there was a song to continue my self-indulgent stroll through the endless hours of songs which graced the Eurovision stage, it's this one.

Forty-eight hours after Andy Abraham gave a sterling performance in Belgrade of a song I loved the first moment I heard it in rehearsals nearly three months before, I like a lot of people am left feeling bereft. Watching the video back now I'm still convinced the boy did good for the UK and the boy most definitely deserved more than the 14 points and last place he ended up with.

Not only that, he's one of the few people I've seen do Eurovision in recent years who clearly displays his commitment to the three minutes of doom so many UK artists shy away from.

OK, so it may not have been a winner, but I listened to it a lot on my iPod thingy in the run up to the 2008 contest. That's makes it a goodun for me.

And yes. I'm biassed.

See shots of Andy and the other competitors in the UK's Eurovision:Your Decision rehearsals here.

# 25 Better the devil you know

As requested by Chris, stalwart commenter on this still relatively new blog, I am indeed moving on from Italy 1974 to something slightly more predictable and a little more recent.

Well, I say recent I do actually mean from fifteen years ago. Sonia, bounced up and down on the Eurovision stage in 1993 singing her perky number "Better the devil you know" and coming in a marvellous second place in the final tally. (Second place is really not a bad position to be in, especially as I did rather warm to the first place song that year from Ireland.)

Sometimes I reckon on the bare facts of a Eurovision song being cold and uninteresting. That's why, for the majority of these posts, I leave such matters to those who know more or whose encyclopaedia is a little closer to hand than mine. (In truth, my particular book is actually at the bottom of a pile of papers to the right of my desk. To be honest, I really can't be arsed to bend down and retrieve it.)

Consequently, in the run up to the UK's opportunity to choose it's song in the Eurovision: Your Decision final I ask you to click the play button (if you haven't already), sit back and enjoy some good honest pop.

A competent performance, a marvellous set, a smashing combination of purple and ginger and a rapturous applause at the end of it. What more could you ask for? *

* That's a rhetorical question.

# 22 Go

Here's an example of something the UK does best. The recipe is really quite straightforward.

1. Get a good song with a convincing sound. Keep the idea simple. Don't let it get out of hand.

2. Get a reasonably low-key singer who can carry a tune. He may not necessarily immediately appear young and hip or, indeed, made for television. The key thing here is making sure he can deliver the song.

3. Make it clear to any hopeful choreographers that their services are not required for this particular act.

5. Sing the song. Get off the stage. Maintain credibility at all times. Don't let anything get out of hand.

Love it.

Poor old Scott Fitzgerald. He sang a beautiful song and did unexpectedly well in the 1988 Eurovision. The UK and Swiss acts made this particular event one of the most nail-biting in the show's history. There were genuine roars of disappointment when Celine Dion finally clinched her lead over Scott Fitzgerald in the final vote.

If only Scott had got his hair done. Maybe things might have been different.

# 12 Give a little love back to the world

No offence to the composer (who was also the lyricist) Paul Curtis who wrote the UK's effort for the 1990 Eurovision Song Contest, but this song does meet the "dross criteria" spectacularly well.

It did do well and it struck a chord with many at the time. It hooked in to the concern being focussed on environmental issues - some things haven't changed really. It ended up coming sixth. And whilst there are some moments in this song which do rather make me tingle (like the soaring descant the lady on the left in blue is responsible for in the second and third choruses), the song as a whole makes me wriggle with embarrassment.

I can't quite work out whether it's the cheesy presentation on stage (the lead singer is dressed to make her look a lot older than she really is), the saccharin message of the song or indeed the crude attempt to reflect the message amongst the line-up of singers. Whatever it is, this particular doesn't stand the test of time.

# 10 No dream impossible

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.

# 6 Where are you?

The UK didn't always used to be bad at Eurovision. We did churn out some quite good stuff every now and again as this smashing performance from Imaani in 1998 clearly shows.

Yes, I'm biassed.

# 4 Beg, steal or borrow

Heard this for the first time this evening.

Is that bad? I mean, this being the UK's song for the 1972 Eurovision and me being born in 1972 and everything? I mean, really? Is that bad? Am I a really shit Eurovision fan?

I really enjoyed it listening to it for the first time this evening. It seemed terribly me.