After
a "false" report of Imaani winning the contest
appeared on the BBC's own web site on Thursday (followed by an
apology), we all waited with baited breath for the result to be
presented in the lottery show on 21st March.
United Kingdom 1998
About this year's Great British Song Contest: (updated 4th April - reaction from Imaani)
After
a "false" report of Imaani winning the contest
appeared on the BBC's own web site on Thursday (followed by an
apology), we all waited with baited breath for the result to be
presented in the lottery show on 21st March.
However Imaani will be respresenting the United Kingdom
in Birmingham on May 9th, so the BBC web story turned out true!
Nottingham-born Imaani said she was "totally elated"
with the win.
The 25-year-old, who moved to Derby aged five, but who now lives in
London, said: "I can't believe this happened to me. I'm so
thrilled and touched to have been chosen."
Imaani has worked with many artists including Lulu, The Pretenders
and recently went on a world tour with Incognito.
Full results are below in the table. All four singles are now in the shops.
The final of the GBSC was at 4.20pm, 15th March in a show presented by Terry Wogan, with Ulrika Jonsson showing us just how big the National Indoor Arena was.
Jonathan King introduced short interviews with the writers, but seemed to unsure when Love City Groove improved the contest's credibility - he said 4 years ago, but Stephen 'Beanz' Rudden (from The Collective) said 3 years, and remembers better!
Performances of the songs were just taken from the lottery show, in reverse order. The phone poll has now closed, but the result will not be announced until the lottery show on 21st March - as last year the EBU in Geneva will know nearly a week before the rest of us, as they require the selection to be completed by March 15th.
Here's a table showing the four finalists and the results, and highlights of the show #1:
|
Date shown |
Song |
Singer |
Picture |
Votes/Place |
|
21/02/98 |
I'll never be lonely again |
Sapphire |
|
65712 /3rd |
|
28/02/98 |
Dont' it make you feel so good |
Alberta |
|
66278 /2nd |
|
07/03/98 |
Where are you? |
Imaani |
|
70,421 /1st |
|
14/03/98 |
When we're alone we dream |
The Collective |
|
53,950 /4th |
|
|
There was a free compilation CD of the 4 finalists still available in some major record stores. As last year, it only features clips from each song, and has an irrelevant picture of Jonathan King on the cover holding Samantha Fox.
On the Lottery show on 21st February Terry Wogan introduced the first of the four finalists for the Great British Song Contest, Sapphire, with "I'll never be lonely again".
The show also featured Katrina (as Alan Voice of the Balls Dedicoat pointedly said "Without her Waves"), and Madonna's first live TV appearance for many a year singing 'Frozen'.
The BBC have contacted me to say, "Just to let you know that online voting in the final of 1998 GBSC is now live on http://www.bbc.co.uk/eurovision - we should be getting pictures of the groups performing the four songs online by the end of the week."
You can see details of the writers, and of the original eight songs in the preselection combined with an illustrated report on the 'Hale & Pace' song presentation at the UK Preselection link below.
From
show #1, here's Madonna on the left singing
'Frozen', and Katrina pressing the button of the
lottery machine on the right.