Eurovision winner reveals one thing that may stop an Olly Alexander victory
Eurovision winner Cheryl Baker has shared her verdict on the UK's act Olly Alexander ahead of this weekend.
The singer, 70, has represented the UK in Eurovision twice over the years. She knows the incredible pressure that comes with performing in Eurovision, telling Yahoo: "Everyone in the UK is watching you on that night."
First she performed at Eurovision as part of band Co-Co in 1978 and they placed 11th. Second time round, she won Eurovision in 1981 as part of 1980s pop band Bucks Fizz - made up of Bobby G, Mike Nolan and Jay Aston. Famously, they came in first place by four points because of their iconic rip-skirt moment.
Baker still performs as part of Bucks Fizz alongside original band members Mike Nolan who is retiring in November and Jay Aston. Now sharing her wisdom on Eurovision's competition, she revealed the one thing that she thinks could stop Alexander from winning this weekend with his song Dizzy.
Speaking to Yahoo on behalf of Heart Bingo, she said: "As far as Olly Alexander is concerned, his song is good but I don't think it's good enough to win."
She explained: "The song when I first heard it, I thought, 'OK, this is good.' But then it just stayed there." Baker demonstrated this by singing some of the lyrics of Alexander's song Dizzy. She added: "Ah, give me a key change. No, you don't get it. You don't get a lift in it anywhere. It just does the same thing."
However, the Eurovision star hasn't lost all hope for Alexander as she said he could pull it out the bag with an out of this world performance. She said: "I'm hoping that on the night he does something extraordinary with his performance, like we did with the velcros that people want to see it again! You just see that something special in your performance that makes people go: 'Wow, that was great!'"
However, Baker made it clear she has never been able to predict the winner. She admitted: "I have never picked a winning song. I hope I am completely wrong and that Olly wins."
The UK's last win was in 1997 when Katrina and The Waves won with Love Shine A Light. The Bucks Fizz singer said the UK will need to pull out all the stops in a bid to be a strong contender in the competition. "We haven't had a good enough song," she said, reflecting on the competition since 1997. "The production the rest of Europe puts in. Come on! And Australia, remember the girl on the pole? They do extraordinary things."
In 2022, the UK came very close to winning with Sam Ryder coming in second place after Ukraine. Baker had high praise for Ryder as she said his song and vocals were "extraordinary". She said: "Had it not been for the war in Ukraine, I think everybody's aware that probably Sam would have won that year. So a couple of years ago, we may have won. But I think that the reason we haven't won Eurovision is because we haven't ticked all the boxes. We haven't had the best production. We haven't had the best song. We haven't had the best performance. That's all it is."
Bucks Fizz
So, what was Bucks Fizz's secret to winning? "We won because of the rip off skirts," Baker said. "We won by four points. I think you need a good song and you need a good performance. And you need a good production now, certainly, which we didn't kind of have back in the eighties.
"You relied on the performance and the song, but you need a little something that makes you remember and want to see that performance again. And that's the rip off skirt moment."
Winning Eurovision changed the course of Baker's life forever and she remembered the "pinch me" moment that has always stayed with her.
She said: "When you're given the trophy, all of a sudden you belong to the cameramen and the people from all around the world. We were stood on a plinth and we had to keep turning around because everyone wanted a photo of us and it was a sea of cameras, all from different parts of the world.
"Looking out at them, I thought, 'Oh, my life's just changed.' Honestly, it was a really pinch me moment... That moment afterwards, when you see all the press from around the world. And you think, ‘Oh’, it's honestly, it's a real wake up moment that you've just done something extraordinary."
Cheryl Baker was speaking to Yahoo on behalf of Heart Bingo.
Read more: Eurovision
This article originally appeared on Yahoo TV UK at https://uk.news.yahoo.com/eurovision-winner-olly-alexander-124228258.html
