The watching of the Eurovision Song Contest became ‘de rigueur’ in our house during the incumbancy of Terry Wogan, when the winner was less important than wondering which country would take most offence at his ascerbic comments and predicting the arcane nature of the voting. Here is his assessment of the 2007 contest “Who knows what hellish future lies ahead? Actually I do, I’ve seen the rehearsals.”
When Graham Norton took over in 2009, we wondered if it would be the same. Fortunately Graham rose to the challenge and continued to poke fun at pomposity. However in 2013 a strange thing happened. I came across a You Tube video of the finalists prior to the event and having listened to them predicted with the confidence of hardened Eurovisionist, that Denmark would win. This prediction, after a slow start was to prove correct. They won by 281 points to 234 for Azerbaijan in second place (that year the UK was 19th with 21 points – a high mark for us). The winning song was ‘Only Teardrops’ by Emmelie De Forest.
De Forest began singing at the age of nine and sang with her mother in the Steve Cameron Gospel Choir for several years. From the age of 14, she began performing at music festivals and small venues with Scottish folk musician Fraser Neill. According to Neill, they made an album together titled Emmelié de Forest and Fraser Neill that sold only 100 copies. When de Forest was 18 years old, she ended her collaboration with Neill and moved to Copenhagen to study at the Complete Vocal Institute.
In February 2014, de Forest uploaded a video that spoke about her third single “Rainmaker”, explained the meaning of the song, and previewed it. It was the official #JoinUs song for the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 and she performed the song live during the final in Copenhagen. Talking about the song de Forest said, “It is about a tribe joining together to call upon the rainmaker to make their land blossom again. But on a more general level the rainmaker can be anything or anyone – it is about coming together and helping each other out”. I chose to show you the version she she with a gospel choir rather than the flashier Eurovision performance.
In a interview in September 2014, de Forest said she was recording her second studio album, which was originally due to be released in February 2015. In July, “Rainmaker” was certified Gold. On August 2014, de Forest announced via Facebook that she would perform the first single of her yet untitled album, “Drunk Tonight” De Forest, who appears in a bikini in the video, has said in interviews that she wanted it to be “elegant and sexy” at the same time. In December 2015, she left her record label and later signed with Swedish record company Cosmos Music. De Forest later participated in the British selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 as a songwriter for the song “Never Give Up On You” performed by Lucie Jones. The song went on to win the competition, and later placed 15th at the Eurovision Song Contest in Kiev. De Forest went on to release the single “Sanctuary” in November 2017, her first release since her split from Universal. Her second studio album History was released on 9 February 2018.
One last song for you.
