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| Sandie Shaw |
Today, The Watsons have continued working in Rennette Watson's campaign for Eurovision Song Contest. This event has changed a lot since the beginning. Nowadays, English is the language used by the higher number of candidates and this is a demonstration of the importance of this language in the music business.
For this reason, The Watsons have wanted to remember the first singer who won representing the UK. She was Sandie Shaw in 1967 with the beautiful funny song Puppet on a String. Lyrics are a metaphor of her own life after her participation in this contest that represented a great international success for her but always the end of her private life. Before talking about Sandie Shaw, The Grandma has offered her family a new Cambridge Key English Test A2 Example.
For this reason, The Watsons have wanted to remember the first singer who won representing the UK. She was Sandie Shaw in 1967 with the beautiful funny song Puppet on a String. Lyrics are a metaphor of her own life after her participation in this contest that represented a great international success for her but always the end of her private life. Before talking about Sandie Shaw, The Grandma has offered her family a new Cambridge Key English Test A2 Example.
Sandie Shaw, born Sandra Ann Goodrich; 26 February 1947, is an English singer. One of the most successful British female singers of the 1960s, she had three UK number one singles with (There's) Always Something There to Remind Me (1964), Long Live Love (1965) and Puppet on a String (1967).
With Puppet on a String, she became the first British entry to win the Eurovision Song Contest. She returned to the UK top 40, for the first time in 15 years, with her 1984 cover of the Smiths song Hand in Glove. Shaw announced her retirement from the music industry in 2013.
More information: The Guardian
Sandra Ann Goodrich was born and brought up in Dagenham, Essex, England. On leaving school, she worked at the nearby Ford Dagenham factory, and did some part-time modelling before coming second as a singer in a local talent contest.
As a prize, she appeared at a charity concert in London, where her potential was spotted by singer Adam Faith. He introduced her to his manager, Eve Taylor, who won her a contract with Pye Records in 1964 and gave her the stage name of Sandie Shaw.
Taylor teamed Shaw with songwriter Chris Andrews, who wrote her first single, As Long as You're Happy Baby, which failed to make the charts. However, for her second single Taylor gave her the Bacharach and David song (There's) Always Something There to Remind Me, which had been a No. 49 US pop hit for singer Lou Johnson. Shaw's version rose to No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart in the autumn of 1964, and also charted in the United States at No. 52 on the Billboard Hot 100 early the following year.
Sandie Shaw was a regular on popular British TV programmes of the time such as Top of the Pops, Ready Steady Go! and Thank Your Lucky Stars. She was seen as epitomising the swinging Sixties, and her trademark of performing in her stocking feet endeared her to the public at large.
She also recorded most of her hit singles in Italian, French, German and Spanish boosting her popularity in Europe. Shaw also released several original albums in the 1960s: Sandie (1965); Me (1965); Puppet on a String (1967); Love Me, Please Love Me (1967); The Sandie Shaw Supplement (1968) and Reviewing the Situation (1969). These albums generally consisted of Andrews-penned songs mixed with cover versions of songs made popular by other musicians.
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| Sandie Shaw |
Sandie Shaw was a regular on popular British TV programmes of the time such as Top of the Pops, Ready Steady Go! and Thank Your Lucky Stars. She was seen as epitomising the swinging Sixties, and her trademark of performing in her stocking feet endeared her to the public at large.
She also recorded most of her hit singles in Italian, French, German and Spanish boosting her popularity in Europe. Shaw also released several original albums in the 1960s: Sandie (1965); Me (1965); Puppet on a String (1967); Love Me, Please Love Me (1967); The Sandie Shaw Supplement (1968) and Reviewing the Situation (1969). These albums generally consisted of Andrews-penned songs mixed with cover versions of songs made popular by other musicians.
More information: The Telegraph
By 1967, Shaw's record
sales were declining and her manager decided on more of a cabaret
appeal. She was invited by the BBC to represent the UK in that year's
Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna.
She had reservations as she felt it would destroy her credibility, but performed five songs on The Rolf Harris Show, with the public voting that the one that should represent the country was the Bill Martin/Phil Coulter composition Puppet on a String.
Although she disliked the song and thought it was unrepresentative of her material, the song won the contest by a near-record margin of votes, and made Shaw the first person to win the contest for the UK. It gave her a third UK No. 1 single, a record for a female at the time.
She had reservations as she felt it would destroy her credibility, but performed five songs on The Rolf Harris Show, with the public voting that the one that should represent the country was the Bill Martin/Phil Coulter composition Puppet on a String.
Although she disliked the song and thought it was unrepresentative of her material, the song won the contest by a near-record margin of votes, and made Shaw the first person to win the contest for the UK. It gave her a third UK No. 1 single, a record for a female at the time.
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| Sandie Shaw |
Puppet on a String also became an international hit, though not in the US, and the largest-selling single of the year in Germany, qualifying for a gold disc for one million plus sales in the UK and Europe.
Globally, the single achieved sales in excess of 4 million, making it the biggest selling winning Eurovision track to date. Some estimates suggest this makes the track the biggest selling single by a British female artist of all time. Her Eurovision success almost did not happen; the BBC wanted to drop her because she had been the other woman in a divorce case.
Although she began writing songs, her contract with Pye expired in 1972. She retired from life as a pop singer and began working on other ventures, including co-writing a full-length rock musical, songwriting, acting in stage productions, she played Ophelia in Hamlet and Joan of Arc in Saint Joan, and writing children's books.
Although she began writing songs, her contract with Pye expired in 1972. She retired from life as a pop singer and began working on other ventures, including co-writing a full-length rock musical, songwriting, acting in stage productions, she played Ophelia in Hamlet and Joan of Arc in Saint Joan, and writing children's books.
More information: Express
Sandie Shaw appeared at the Sanremo Music Festival 1990, singing Deep Joy, the english version to Milva's song Sono Felice.
During this decade, she reneged on previous declarations of hatred for the Eurovision Song Contest and announced that she was proud of her Eurovision past on the BBC show Making Your Mind Up.
In April 2012 Shaw joined an Amnesty International campaign to end human rights abuses in Azerbaijan, host country of the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest, after the journalist Khadija Ismayilova was blackmailed and sex taped. Shaw stated: That anyone would stoop so low in an attempt to silence an independent journalist is sickening. The people behind this appalling blackmail and smear campaign must be brought to justice. And the persecution of independent journalists in Azerbaijan must stop."
More information: Rebeat
It was interesting for me,
because I'd had success almost immediately
the first time around.
Sandie Shaw
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