Cheryl Baker confirms Bucks Fizz WILL play a part in Eurovision as she teases top secret appearance
EUROVISION legend Cheryl Baker has revealed Bucks Fizz will play a part in this month’s contest in Liverpool.
The singer, who won the contest with the Fizz in 1981 with the song Making Your Mind Up, can’t wait to celebrate a night of inclusivity, unity and catchy pop bangers on May 13.
When asked if she will be performing on the night, Cheryl, on behalf of ICE 36, told The Sun: “It’s top secret I’m afraid. We’re involved, but I am sworn to secrecy (laughs). I will be in Liverpool doing loads of different things. I’ve booked a barge two minutes from the arena – I was never going to miss it!”
Cheryl, 69, is backing the UK’s entrant Mae Muller to go one better than last year’s runner-up Sam Ryder and win the contest on home soil.
Mae’s track, I Wrote A Song, is very different to Ryder’s soaring anthem, Spaceman, but it has gone down a treat in the build up to the Contest reaching number 30 in the UK chart.
And a higher re-entry seems inevitable in the week following the Contest.
Cheryl said: “I think the UK can win Eurovision this year. I think we can because the song is good, Mae will put on a great performance.
“I’ve listened to all of the other songs, and I think ours is up there with the best of them. You never know what can happen in Eurovision. The Brexit years, no one was going to vote for us. Like it or loathe it, politics always plays a part in the judges voting.
“This year I think they (Europe) like us – Sam Ryder made the rest of the competition like us again.
“I think we can do well and go one better than Sam and bring the trophy home.”
Before Cheryl achieved superstardom thanks to Bucks Fizz’s Eurovision win, her experience of the Contest was very different.
Three years earlier she competed as part of pop act Co-Co, but the heavily favoured group limped to an 11th place finish.
Not only was the result disappointing, it was the worst by a UK act up until that point, but the group was treated with animosity behind the scenes by their fellow competitors.
The whole occasion took its toll on Cheryl and left her in a dark place.
She said: “There was a massive difference between competing with Co-Co and Bucks Fizz. When I was there with Co-Co in ’78 performing The Bad Old Days in Paris, we were tipped to win and we finished eleventh, which was the worst the UK had ever done in the competition at that time.
“I felt animosity from the other artists. When we came off stage, into the green room, as you leave the stage and walk through the arena, you would usually be applauded by the other artists – we got nothing. I thought that was really weird – they either hated us or it was a really poor performance.”
However, brave Cheryl dusted herself down and risked further heartache by targeting Euro glory once again, this time in Ireland.
It proved to be a totally different experience and ultimately turned Chery’s life on its head.
She said: “The atmosphere was completely different to Paris. Everyone was cheering each other on and we got on really well with the Irish contingent. It was fantastic.
“It had always been my dream as a child to perform on the Eurovision stage. To do it in ’78 and to lose, it was quite a dark time in my life. I wouldn’t say that I was depressed, but I was down and so unhappy – it was my dream and we had done the worst ever. I felt like I had let the Queen down.
“To go back on that stage three years later and win, getting the complete opposite reaction and experiencing the complete opposite in terms of my emotions, it was phenomenal.
“The comparison is chalk and cheese. The ’81 experience, not just because we won, was such a fantastic experience compared to Paris. The fact that we won was the cherry on top.”
Cheryl Baker was speaking on behalf of online casino ICE 36. ICE 36 raises the bar when it comes to delivering fun and immersive online gambling where enjoyment and safety comes first.