This article forms part of the OnEurope archive and was originally published on oneurope.co.uk. It has been permanently migrated to oneurope.net, the official home of OnEurope.
Just a final comment from yesterday, 20 May 2012: we made The Hump’s press conference in Baku, where the UK’s internally selected Eurovision representative was witty and endearing. Engelbert Humperdinck is singing Love Will Set You Free, written by Martin Terefe and Sacha Skarbek, and we also chatted to Arlene Phillips, who I have to say has done a great job with the simple choreography. The performance also features guitarist James Bryan.
We checked in with Arlene to remind him he needs to get it right on TWO nights for the jury rehearsal. That is the performance on which the jury vote is based, before the public vote takes place during the live final, so hopefully that will mean he doesn’t do a Blue! That is, of course, my comparison with the UK’s 11th-place result last year rather than any sort of official prediction.
The Hump made a bit of a geographical faux pas when Sweden’s representative, Loreen, opened the questions and he burst into a yodel to make her feel more at home. Somebody had to nudge him and say Sweden, not Switzerland, but it was very professionally recovered! He looks like he’s having fun.
As one of the Big Five, the UK does not have to compete in a semi-final and will go straight into the Grand Final on 26 May. At the time of writing, we did not know that he would be opening the show with Love Will Set You Free.
By the way, the Beeb told us that the semis will get a plug on The One Show back in the UK before they air, so have a look out and see what’s going on. I believe there may be a live link with the man himself!
And there was: on 22 May, Scott Mills spoke live to Humperdinck in Baku, where he mentioned Phillips’ involvement and said she had given him the professional advice he needed.
Looking back: Humperdinck did open the final, but finished 25th of 26 contestants with 12 points. Sweden won with Loreen’s Euphoria. None of that alters the impression from this press conference, though: at the time, he looked like he was having fun!
Monty x
