United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1974
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Eurovision Song Contest 1974 | ||||
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Country | United Kingdom | |||
National selection | ||||
Selection process | Artist: Internal selection Song: A Song for Europe 1974 | |||
Selection date(s) | 23 February 1974 | |||
Selected entrant | Olivia Newton-John | |||
Selected song | "Long Live Love" | |||
Selected songwriter(s) | ||||
Finals performance | ||||
Final result | 4th, 14 points | |||
United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest | ||||
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The United Kingdom held a national pre-selection to choose the song that would go to the Eurovision Song Contest 1974.
Before Eurovision
A Song for Europe 1974
The show was held on 23 February 1974 and presented by Jimmy Savile[1] as part of the BBC1 TV series Clunk, Click... As It Happens, with Olivia Newton-John selected to perform all of the entries, in part due to the recommendation of her close friend Cliff Richard. Originally, as with 1973, Cilla Black's 1974 nine-part BBC series was scheduled to feature the 'Song for Europe' process, but Black was uncomfortable at promoting another female singer (Newton-John) each week throughout the series' run and in a rather last minute decision, the BBC arranged to move the process to another show.[2] This necessitated a truncating of the regularly established format of the chosen artist performing one song a week on the given series, so it was planned that Newton-John would perform two songs a week for three weeks once the series started. However, a BBC strike led to the cancellation of the first show, so another revision was needed and Olivia performed three songs a show over two programmes. In the final, her performances were immediately repeated before viewers were asked to cast votes via postcards through the mail to choose the winner. An extremely low postal vote led to "Long Live Love" winning with just 27,387 votes.
Draw | Song | Songwriter(s) | Votes | Place |
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1 | "Have Love, Will Travel" | Roger Greenaway, Geoff Stephens | 15,266 | 4 |
2 | "Lovin' You Ain't Easy" | Stuart Leathwood, Bob Saker, Gary Sulsh | 5,905 | 5 |
3 | "Long Live Love" | Valerie Avon, Harold Spiro | 27,387 | 1 |
4 | "Someday" | Gary Benson, David Mindel | 5,520 | 6 |
5 | "Angel Eyes" | Tony Macaulay, Keith Potger | 18,108 | 2 |
6 | "Hands Across the Sea" | Ben Findon, Geoff Wilkins | 15,365 | 3 |
Chart success
The top two songs from the contest were released on single, reaching No. 11 in the
At Eurovision
"Long Live Love" went on to tie for fourth place in the contest.[4]
The Eurovision Song Contest was broadcast live on
Voting
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References
- ^ "UK NATIONAL FINAL 1974". Natfinals.50webs.com. Retrieved 7 January 2020.
- ISBN 978-0-9710591-0-8
- ISBN 978-1-84583-093-9.
- ^ "Final of Brighton 1974". Eurovision Song Contest. Archived from the original on 9 April 2021. Retrieved 9 April 2021.
- ^ a b "Results of the Final of Brighton 1974". Eurovision Song Contest. Archived from the original on 9 April 2021. Retrieved 9 April 2021.