Eurovision queen

chapter 5

The meeting was on the fifth floor of an office block. They were kept waiting in reception for over twenty minutes before they were directed in to see the music executive.
He got straight to the point. He did not want to release Simon’s song as a standard single only to watch it dip in and out of the charts. It probably would not even get into the top twenty. But he had been looking for a song suitable for Eurovision. The UK had not won the competition since 1997 and Katrina and the Waves with ‘Love Shine a Light’. Before that, they might not have won, but they had often came second.
Since the entry of the Eastern European countries the UK had not even made it into the second half of the leader board. They’d suffered the humility of ‘nil points’. It was not like they had not tried. They’d got well known faces to sing and less well known faces. They’d had the eldest ever competitor with Englebert Humperdink. They’d tried boy bands. They’d tried groups of girls and boys, they’d tried rapping, they’d tried retro they’d tried quirky. They’d got the best musical songwriters in the world to write their song... and still come nowhere.
One thing that often did well was a good power ballad. Simon’s song fit the bill. They needed a solid performance to go with it. Someone who’s nerves were not going to affect how they sang in front of thousands at the venue. The performance would go out live not just in Europe, but all over the world! Millions would be watching on the telly. They could not let anything go wrong. Poor Suri had to cope with someone invading the stage and grabbing her microphone. The UK entry for 2020 had to be flawless! Would Maggie be able to deliver?
She would be paid a decent enough fee and have all her expenses paid. Simon, as the songwriter would also be paid.

They returned to reception for a few minutes to discuss it. Eurovision had ruined many a budding star’s career. Who remembered James Fox , or Molly? Or, if she did reasonably well, it might lead to other things...
She had to face it, her singing career without the boost Eurovision could give it was going nowhere! Packing shelves in a supermarket barely paid her rent. She had no doubt it was going to be hard work, but she was willing to put the effort in. If Simon was by her side it would make it so much easier!

So they agreed to do it.

The first hurdle was ‘A Song For Europe’. It was a shortlist of songs that had been chosen by a panel of ‘experts’. Some years they chose the song they wanted to represent the UK themselves. Some years, they opened it up to the public and had a televote. This year it was going to be televised. They had three months to work on the song, finalise the arrangements and record the backing track Maggie would be singing to. But they also had to think about the choreography, dancers, backing singers, the set, lighting, makeup and wardrobe.
A Eurovision song had to have something memorable in it. A key change was good, an extremely high note was good, but could be risky. There had also been busty milkmaids, Russian babushkas, acrobats and ice skaters. Pianos had been made into coffins or set alight. There had been burlesque performers, puppets, barrel organs, spacemen, wind machines galore, barefoot performers, dresses that changed colour, long dresses that turned into mini dresses halfway through the song.
They had to work on that memorable hook. That hook was, in many ways more important than the song and the performer. It HAD to work!
In the last couple of decades, there were so many countries who wanted to be in the competition that they’d had to divide them up and create two semi finals the week before the final. The UK did not have to participate in the semi final because the BBC put so much money into the European Broadcasting Union that it was exempt, along with 4 other countries. It might sound like it was an advantage to only participate in the final. However, viewers, who watched the semi finals had heard those songs at least once, or even twice before the final. The ‘big 5’ countries had not been heard at all (France, Germany, Italy and Spain).
The song had to stand out amongst 26 others in the final.
But first they had to get through An Song for Europe’...