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As excitement for the Eurovision final reaches fever pitch, Thursday (May 15) saw 16 countries, including Finland (Erika Vikman), Denmark (Sissal), and Ireland (Emmy), compete in the second semi-final. 10 acts from this round progressed to the Grand Final, set to take place in Basel, Switzerland today.
The first semi-final on Tuesday saw Sweden secure their spot in the final, sparking online interest due to the country’s rich history in the competition. Indeed, in 1974, ABBA’s victory with ‘Waterloo’ at Eurovision catapulted them to global stardom.
The band, consisting of Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny, and Anna-Frid, went on to release nine studio albums and sold over 385 million records. However, some music lovers are only just discovering that on that fateful night in Brighton in 1974, ABBA triumphed over another future superstar, who would later gain fame through a major musical film.
That film was Grease, and the artist was Olivia Newton-John. ABBA won the contest with 24 points, followed by Italy with 18. The Netherlands came third, while Luxembourg, Monaco, and the United Kingdom tied for fourth place – the latter represented by Olivia, who performed ‘Long Live Love’.
Several videos of her performance have been shared to TikTok, three years on from the Cambridge-born star’s death aged 73. “It wouldn’t have mattered who represented the UK or what the song was, Waterloo was way ahead of the rest,” one person penned.
A second TikTok user declared: “She was an angel even here.” Another mused: “Four years later she donned the spandex and immortalised herself as Sandy Olsen. Hard to think it’s the same person.”
A fourth shared their memory: “After she lost Eurovision, Terry Wogan heard she’d moved to USA and said on radio, ‘I suppose that’s the last we’ll hear of her!’ How wrong was he?” Meanwhile, a fifth music fan confessed: “It’s so insane that two of my favourite artists performed at the same Eurovision.”
Olivia’s tune ‘Long Live Love’ had earlier made its debut on BBC One’s Clunk Click, presented by the now infamous, late Jimmy Savile.
During the show, the nation was called upon to vote for which song Olivia would perform in the contest, resulting in ‘Long Live Love’ (27,387 votes) narrowly defeating the song Olivia actually preferred, ‘Angel Eyes’ (18,018 votes), securing its place at Eurovision.
The Eurovision Grand Final will take place on Saturday, May 17 at 8pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
