"A Message to Your Heart", written and composed by Paul Curtis, was the 's entry at the

Eurovision Song Contest 1991 The Eurovision Song Contest 1991 was the 36th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Rome, Italy, following the country's victory at the with the song " Insieme: 1992" by Toto Cutugno and was organised by the European Br ...

, performed by singer and actress

Samantha Janus Samantha Zoe Womack (''née'' Janus; born 2 November 1972) is an English actress, singer, model and director who has worked in film, television and stage. Womack initially planned a career in singing and she represented the United Kingdom in ...

. Paul Curtis had also penned the previous year's entry, " Give a Little Love Back to the World". Janus went on to become a successful actress, starring in the sitcom '' Game On'' and the soap ''

EastEnders ''EastEnders'' is a Television in the United Kingdom, British soap opera created by Julia Smith (producer), Julia Smith and Tony Holland which has been broadcast on BBC One since February 1985. Set in the fictional borough of Walford in the Ea ...

''. Despite her achievements, her entry into the Eurovision is frequently remarked upon. She has said regarding the experience that her failure in the contest devastated her at the time and thought it would spell the end of her career. She has also called her appearance "ridiculous", in that she was dressed in a pink mini-dress while singing about starving children and says the lyrics of the song are burned into her memory forever.

Background

Composition

Like the previous year, composer Paul Curtis submitted a topical entry for consideration; this time, the subjects were the less fortunate, suffering from poverty and starvation. Janus sung of the contrasts between the people who "are hungry just from being born", and the people who have too much, with "their only hunger being greed". The "message to heheart" refers to Janus imploring the better-off to, at the very least, say a prayer for the less fortunate, ending with the well-known

John Bradford John Bradford (1510–1555) was an English Reformer, prebendary of St. Paul's, and martyr. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London for alleged crimes against Queen Mary I. He was burned at the stake on 1 July 1555. Life Bradford was born ...

quotation, "There but for the grace of God, go I". The melody of the song is up-tempo.

Selection process

Janus won the right to perform at the contest, held in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

in March 1991, by winning the UK national final, ''

A Song for Europe A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes'' ...

'', where she was the third singer to perform. As in the previous three years, the winner was picked via a nationwide telephone vote. Janus won over second-place finisher Brendan Faye by only 13,000 votes, in the slimmest margin since the telephone vote was introduced.

At Eurovision

On the night of the contest, Janus was dressed in a pink mini-dress, flanked by three women (Zoe Picot, Lucy Moorby, and Nikki Belsher) in white mini-dresses. She was also joined by two other "ghost"

backing singer A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are used ...

s, masked by a music stand at the back of the stage:

Kit Rolfe Belle and the Devotions were a British pop group, ostensibly a group named after the singer Kit Rolfe. Under this name, she released the singles "Where Did Love Go Wrong?" and "Got to Let You Know" in 1983. In 1984, two other members, Laura Jam ...

, who had competed for the UK before in with the song " Love Games" (which, it was claimed, had also used "ghost" singers offstage), and

Hazell Dean Hazell Dean ( Poole; born 27 October 1952) is an English dance-pop singer, who achieved her biggest success in the 1980s as a leading Hi-NRG artist. She is best known for the top-ten hits in the United Kingdom "Searchin' (I Gotta Find a Man)", ...

, who had worked extensively with

Stock, Aitken and Waterman Stock Aitken Waterman (abbreviated as SAW) are an English songwriting and record production trio consisting of Mike Stock, Matt Aitken, and Pete Waterman. The trio had great success from the mid-1980s through the early 1990s. SAW is considered ...

in the eighties. In Rome, the song was performed twentieth on the night, after 's

Sergio Dalma Josep Sergi Capdevila Querol (born 28 September 1964), professionally known as Sergio Dalma, is a Spanish singer. He is one of Spain's best-selling recording artists, having topped Spain's official Productores de Música de España national albu ...

with "

Bailar pegados "" (; "Dancing Closely") is a song recorded by Spanish singer Sergio Dalma, written by Julio Seijas and Luis Gómez Escobar. It is best known as the entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 1991, held in Rome. Background The song is a romantic bal ...

", and before '

Elena Patroklou Elena Patroklou was born in Nicosia in 1968. She began her musical career studying guitar and piano when she was just ten years old. She completed her musical studies in Vienna and Cyprus and received her music diploma in 1989. She represented Cyp ...

with " SOS". At the end of judging that evening, "A Message to Your Heart" took the tenth-place slot with 47 points. It was the worst showing for the United Kingdom since 1987, and resulted in the 1992 ''Song for Europe'' being retooled as far as telephone voting was concerned.

Charts

After Eurovision, the song placed at No. 30 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

, and was in the chart for 3 weeks which was considered a big surprise by many.

References

External links

Lyrics from Diggiloo Thrush
{{DEFAULTSORT:Message to Your Heart, A Eurovision songs of the United Kingdom Eurovision songs of 1991 1991 in the United Kingdom 1991 singles Songs written by Paul Curtis (musician) 1991 songs Sony Music singles Songs about poverty