"Love City Groove" is a song by British rap group

Love City Groove Love City Groove were a musical group who represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1995, with their self-titled song after being the runaway winner in a public vote. The song finished tenth with 76 points; and peaked at No ...

that represented the at the

Eurovision Song Contest 1995 The Eurovision Song Contest 1995 was the 40th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on 13 May 1995 at the Point Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster (RTÉ) and presented by Ir ...

The song

The song was written by Stephen "Beanz" Rudden, Tatiana Mais, Paul Hardy, and Jay Williams. It was released as a single from Love City Groove's album ''Hard Times'' on 27 March 1995. It was subsequently released in several versions in the same year, with three

remix A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...

ed versions released in Germany in 1996. Another version was released in Japan in 2003 for DJ use only.

Chart success

"Love City Groove" reached number seven 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 ...

that May, selling over 200,000 copies. The vocals were performed in hip hop style by Williams and the only female band member,

Yinka Charles Love City Groove were a musical group who represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1995, with their self-titled song after being the runaway winner in a public vote. The song finished tenth with 76 points; and peaked at No ...

, performing as Reason.

Critical reception

John Bush from

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

deemed "Love City Groove" "an upbeat pop/reggae track".

Larry Flick Larry Flick is an American journalist, former dance music columnist, single reviewer, and Senior Talent Editor for ''Billboard'' magazine, where he worked for 14 years. Now he produces and hosts Sirius XM radio shows. Flick started in the music ...

from ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' described it as a "fun" and "infectious hybrid of reggae, pop, and hip-hop styles". In his weekly UK chart commentary,

James Masterton James Masterton (born 2 September 1973) is a music writer and columnist, his work focusing on the UK Singles Chart having been an online fixture on various sites since the 1990s. Masterton is also a producer for talkSPORT, and has worked on air ...

noted that the song, being in "a

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...

dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

vein", "certainly sone of the most credible records to be a British

Eurovision The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

entry for years". Tim Jeffery from ''

Music Week ''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future. History Founded in 1959 as '' Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music W ...

s ''RM'' Dance Update wrote, "A very pleasant mid-tempo groove with great vocals and a bit of rapping that swings along beautifully in quite old-fashioned jazz funk way and it really gets on your brain. Only trouble is it's a real summer tune — released at the right time this could be another Zhane."

Eurovision Song Contest 1995

Jonathan King, then working for

BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 193 ...

, tasked with finding and producing an entry for Eurovision, requested that the song be submitted for the " A Song for Europe" contest in 1995. The selectors were looking for something a little different from past British Eurovision entries, that better represented what was popular in the charts. The band members were all from different backgrounds, and multi-racial. Hardy's father was from Cyprus, Williams is of

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to Vic ...

background, and Reason (Yinka Charles) is Jamaican/Irish. Includes video of the song. On the night of the contest the song was performed 15th in the running order, following 's

Frédéric Etherlinck Frédéric Idesbald Van Goitsenhoven-Maeterlinck (born 11 August 1968 in Brussels) is a Belgian former singer and actor, best known for his participation in the 1995 Eurovision Song Contest. Early life Etherlinck was born in Brussels but soon af ...

with "

La voix est libre LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States. La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * La (musical note), or A, the sixth note * "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on ''Figure ...

" and preceding 's

Tó Cruz Tó Cruz (born António José Ramos da Cruz, 9 July 1967, Lisbon) is a Portuguese singer of Cape Verdean descent, best known for his participation in the 1995 Eurovision Song Contest. Biography Cruz started out as a studio backing singer and v ...

with " Baunilha e chocolate". It received 76 points, placing 10th in a field of 23. It was succeeded as UK representative at the 1996 contest by Gina G with " Ooh Aah... Just a Little Bit".

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1995 singles 1995 songs China Records singles Eurovision songs of 1995 Eurovision songs of the United Kingdom