The UK held high hopes when our very own homegrown ABBA – two girls and two boys especially assembled for Eurovision 1981 – stepped up to the mic at Dublin’s Simmonscourt Pavilion. “Everyone had to be short and blonde, which fortunately I was,” Cheryl Baker joked to The Guardian, “To get in, Bobby G had to bleach his hair.” Joined by Mike Nolan and Jay Aston, the foursome cemented their place in Eurovision history – but not without a little luck: Cheryl favoured a long skirt, Jay preferred a mini, and so the infamous – “If you wanna see some more” – skirt removal routine was concocted. Singing Andy Hill and John Danter’s Making Your Mind Up, a paragon of Eurovision perfection, they snatched victory, beating Germany to the trophy by the smallest of margins. The single sold in its millions, and Bucks Fizz would go on to shift a staggering 15 million records worldwide – including seven top tens, three of which reached the top – before a nasty tourbus accident gave Baker a broken spine and left Mike Nolan in a coma. They recovered, but intergroup wrangling led to legal disputes. Three of the originals, Cheryl Baker, Jay Aston and Mike Nolan, recently reunited as The Fizz to perform their winning song for the BBC via Zoom, when Eurovision 2020 was cancelled.
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