"One Step Out of Time", written and composed by Paul Davies, Tony Ryan, and Victor Stratton, was the 's entry at the

Eurovision Song Contest 1992 The Eurovision Song Contest 1992 was the 37th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Malmö, Sweden, following the country's victory at the with the song "" by Carola. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) ...

, performed by

Michael Ball Michael Ashley Ball (born 27 June 1962) is an English singer, presenter and actor. He made his West End debut in 1985 playing Marius Pontmercy in the original London production of ''Les Misérables'', and went on to star in 1987 as Raoul in ...

. The song was included on Ball's 1992 self-titled debut album as well as the album ''Past and Present'', which was released on 9 March 2009.

Background

Composition

The song is a mid-tempo ballad, relating the singer's comfort with being "one step out of time" in relation to rejecting the reality around him, instead pining after his former lover. Not accepting that his relationship is over, and spurning the disapproval of his friends, he wishes to put "his love on the line" one more time, imploring his former lover to just let him know what he had done wrong.

Selection process

After the disappointing result

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 ...

received on behalf of the United Kingdom at , 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'' ...

'', was retooled. Reverting to the selection process which decided the entries from 1964 to 1975, a singer was picked internally by the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

, and the public would vote on which song would go with them to the Eurovision finals. Ball sang eight songs on ''A Song for Europe 1992'', and "One Step Out of Time", performed seventh, emerged as the winner by an overwhelming margin (over 60,000 telephone votes separated the first and second-place finishers).

At Eurovision

At the contest, held in

Malmö Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal populat ...

, the song was performed sixteenth on the night, after 's

Tony Wegas Anton Hans Sarközi as Tony Wegas (born 3 May 1965 in Oberschützen) is an Austrian singer and television actor. Biography Wegas participated in "Ein Lied für Rom", the Austrian heat of the Eurovision Song Contest in 1991 with the song "Wund ...

with "

Zusammen geh'n The Eurovision Song Contest 1992 was the 37th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Malmö, Sweden, following the country's victory at the with the song "" by Carola. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) ...

", and before 's

Linda Martin Linda Martin (born 27 March 1952) is an Irish singer and television presenter. She is best known as the winner of the 1992 Eurovision Song Contest during which she represented Ireland with the song " Why Me?". She is also known within Irelan ...

with " Why Me?". At the end of voting that evening, "One Step Out of Time", the pre-contest favourite, took the second-place slot with 139 points. , , and awarded the UK their 12 points that evening. Despite losing by 16 points to "Why Me?", the UK received more 12 point designations than Ireland (four to three). This would be the third of four second-place finishes the UK had placed between 1988 and 1993.

Charts

Before Eurovision, the song debuted and peaked at No. 20 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 stayed in the chart for seven weeks.

References

External links

Lyrics from Diggiloo Thrush
{{Authority control 1992 singles Michael Ball songs Eurovision songs of the United Kingdom Eurovision songs of 1992 1992 in British music Polydor Records singles 1992 songs