THIS YEAR'S ENTRY
The U.K. made
its Eurovision debet in 1957 and has take part
in every contest since 19599. Following
Jessica Garlick in 2002, James Fox in 2004 and
Javine a year later, Andy Abrahams is the fourth
U.K. Eurovision entrant to originally come to
public attention through a television talent
show. Born in London in 1964, Andy the runner up
of the second series of "The X Factor"
losing out to Shayne Ward, by only 1.2% of the
public vote. Before applying for The X Factor,
Andy who is of Grenadian descent, was a dustman.
In 2006 Andy
went on a national tour with the other finalists
on "The X Factor" and in March 2006,
his debut album "The Impossible Dream"
entered the U.K. album chart at number two
selling 176,000 copies in its first week, being
beaten to the top spot by Journey South, another
act to come to fame through the television show.
The album went on to sell over 300,000 copies
and topped the album charts in Ireland. It was
the 12th biggest selling album of the year in
the U.K. in 2006, despite the fact that none of
the three singles from the album became hits.
Towards the
end of 2006, Andy released his second album
"Soul Man", and despite having his
first hit single, the Christmas song
"December Brings Me Back To You", a
duet with television presenter Michael
Underwood, the album was not as successful as
his first, only reaching #19 in the album chart,
and selling 50,000 copies.
When
international sales are counted, Andy has sold
over half a million albums in less than two
years and also embarked on a nationwide tour
that culminated in a sold out concert at the
prestigious Royal Albert Hall in London, the
venue of the 1968 Eurovision Song Contest.
Andy's hugely loyal fan base are backing him all
the way to the Eurovision final in Serbia with
the soulful funk and self-penned track
"Even If".
The song was
chosen by the U.K. public on March 1st, over two
rounds of televoting in the "Eurovision -
Your Decision", this year's U.K. selection
competition. The song had only qualified for the
public vote after being given a
"wildcard" by longtime BBC Eurovision
commentator Terry Wogan, after originally being
elimiated by a jury.
Andy who
co-wrote this year's entry describes it as
"a soulful love song guaranteed to be
appreciated by both British and European music
fans alike." "Even If" is
expected to be a hit, when released as a single
on May 12th (download available two weeks
earlier), andit is the title track on his new
album, released at the end of May. Andy continues to work excitedly on his
third album which will comprise original
material co-written by him and various
successful writers & production teams from
home and abroad.
Andy hopes to
move on to the world stage and the next phase of
his musical career, where he gets to showcase to
the public his own style of music whilst keeping
the core of his fans happy. As he says: "I
believe it's important to write and be involved
in the next stage of my career because I've so
much to prove to myself. I take nothing for
granted. This is a great journey for me and my
family. My family is everything to me. My wife
Denise is my manager, and we are embarking on
the next stage of my musical journey
together."
Andy
co-songwriters are Andy Watkins and Paul Wilson,
from the Absolute music team, which was formed
twenty years ago. They are one of the most
successful British songwriting teams, having
woerked with many big name acts, including The
Spice Girls, S Club 7, Boyzone, Will Young and
Atomic Kiteen. They have also worked with 1969
Eurovision Lulu, and Poland's 1994 singer Edyta
Gorniak.
The recent
poor results of the U.K. at Eurovision (only one
Top 10 finish in nine years) combined with
drawing the dreaded #2 slot in the running order
for the Eurovision final, has meant that it is
an outsider with the boookmakers, despite the
fact that the U.K. is one of only five automatic
finalists in Belgrade. The song is also not
doing especially well on internet fan polls.
