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| Eurovision participant |
Bucks Fizz are a British pop group that achieved success in the 1980s, most notably for winning the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest with the song Making Your Mind Up.
The group was formed in January 1981 specifically for the contest and comprised four vocalists: Bobby G, Cheryl Baker, Mike Nolan and Jay Aston. They achieved instant attention with the dance routine which accompanied the song, involving a skirt-rip. The group went on to have a successful career around the world, albeit ignored in the United States, while the UK remained their biggest market, where they had three No.1 singles with Making Your Mind Up (1981), The Land of Make Believe (1981) and My Camera Never Lies (1982) and became one of the top-selling groups of the 1980s.
They also had UK Top 10 hits with Now Those Days Are Gone (1982), If You Can't Stand the Heat (1982), When We Were Young (1983) and New Beginning (1986). Bucks Fizz have sold over 15 million records worldwide.
The group was formed in January 1981 specifically for the contest and comprised four vocalists: Bobby G, Cheryl Baker, Mike Nolan and Jay Aston. They achieved instant attention with the dance routine which accompanied the song, involving a skirt-rip. The group went on to have a successful career around the world, albeit ignored in the United States, while the UK remained their biggest market, where they had three No.1 singles with Making Your Mind Up (1981), The Land of Make Believe (1981) and My Camera Never Lies (1982) and became one of the top-selling groups of the 1980s.
They also had UK Top 10 hits with Now Those Days Are Gone (1982), If You Can't Stand the Heat (1982), When We Were Young (1983) and New Beginning (1986). Bucks Fizz have sold over 15 million records worldwide.
More information: The Sun
The line-up of the group has changed a number of times over the years, most famously when Jay Aston quit the group in 1985 and was replaced by Shelley Preston. Today, two versions of the group exist: the official version, which includes original member Bobby G, and a version comprising the other three original members who tour alongside Bobby McVay under the name The Fizz.
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| Eurovision participants |
During rehearsals, a dance routine was devised for the song which went on to become famous for the moment where the girls' skirts are ripped off halfway through, only to reveal shorter skirts underneath.
The routine itself was choreographed by Chrissie Wickham, a former member of dance troupe Hot Gossip, although Martin, Baker and Aston have all since laid claim to the skirt-rip idea.
On 11 March, A Song for Europe took place with the then unknown Bucks Fizz competing against well-known act Liquid Gold, as well as Hill and Martin's own group, Gem. Making Your Mind Up became an easy winner and the group recorded the song with Hill as producer. Later in the month it was released as a single and entered the charts at No.24. By the time the contest was staged, the single had risen to No.2.
More information: Mirror
On 4 April, Bucks Fizz represented United Kingdom in the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest, which was held in Dublin. Although they were favourites to win, the song faced stiff competition and after a vocally unsound rendition, the early votes were poor. Halfway through the voting process, Bucks Fizz took the lead, although they remained close throughout. Ultimately, Bucks Fizz won the contest by a margin of four points, beating Germany into second place. Making Your Mind Up became a major hit around the continent, reaching No.1 in the UK as well as eight other countries. It charted highly in other countries such as Australia, eventually selling four million copies worldwide.
Every year I expect it to be less foolish, and every year it is more so.
Terry Wogan
Katrina and the Waves were a British-American rock band best known for the 1985 hit Walking on Sunshine. They also won the 1997 Eurovision Song Contest with the song Love Shine a Light.
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| Eurovision participants |
The band's earliest incarnation was as The Waves, a group that played in and around Cambridge, England, from 1975 to 1977 and featured guitarist Kimberley Rew and drummer Alex Cooper.
This incarnation of the Waves never issued any recordings, and broke up when Rew left to join the Soft Boys. A more direct ancestor of Katrina and the Waves was the band Mama's Cookin', a pop cover band hailing from Feltwell, England. This band, founded in 1978, featured American Katrina Leskanich on vocals and keyboards, and her then-boyfriend and fellow American Vince de la Cruz on vocals and lead guitar.
This incarnation of the Waves never issued any recordings, and broke up when Rew left to join the Soft Boys. A more direct ancestor of Katrina and the Waves was the band Mama's Cookin', a pop cover band hailing from Feltwell, England. This band, founded in 1978, featured American Katrina Leskanich on vocals and keyboards, and her then-boyfriend and fellow American Vince de la Cruz on vocals and lead guitar.
More information: Katrina and The Waves
By late 1980, Alex Cooper had joined the band on drums, with Bob Jakins on bass. Mama's Cookin' proceeded to gig steadily in England over the next two years, specialising in covers of songs by American acts such as Heart, Foreigner, Linda Ronstadt, and ZZ Top.
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| Eurovision drummer |
Throughout the nineties, Katrina and the Waves recorded fairly steadily, though most releases were available only in continental Europe and/or Canada, and they issued no charting singles.
They also recorded the song We Gotta Get Out of This Place with Eric Burdon for the TV series China Beach in 1990. By the late nineties, however, the band had all but disappeared, until they surprisingly (if briefly) surged back into the limelight by winning the 1997 Eurovision Song Contest for the United Kingdom on 3 May 1997 with the song Love Shine a Light. The song won by a then-record margin of 70 points over the Irish runner-up.
They also recorded the song We Gotta Get Out of This Place with Eric Burdon for the TV series China Beach in 1990. By the late nineties, however, the band had all but disappeared, until they surprisingly (if briefly) surged back into the limelight by winning the 1997 Eurovision Song Contest for the United Kingdom on 3 May 1997 with the song Love Shine a Light. The song won by a then-record margin of 70 points over the Irish runner-up.
Love Shine a Light became Katrina and the Waves' biggest-ever UK hit, peaking at No. 3 in the UK Singles Chart.
More information: The Guardian
In British music, you have indie, rock... Grime is now one of those pillars. It's a foundation of British music.
Stormzy
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