Prima Donna were the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

representatives in the

Eurovision Song Contest 1980 The Eurovision Song Contest 1980 was the 25th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in The Hague, Netherlands, and was organised by host broadcaster Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (NOS) – which agreed to stage the event a ...

. The group comprised sisters

Kate Robbins Kate Elizabeth Robbins (born 21 August 1958) is an English actress, singer and songwriter. She came to prominence in the early 1980s when she scored a top ten single on the UK Official Charts with "More Than in Love", while she was appearing in t ...

and Jane Robbins,

Sally Ann Triplett Sally Ann Triplett (born 15 April 1962, London, England) is a British singer and actress. She participated in two editions of the Eurovision Song Contest and West End productions. Career Triplett first represented the United Kingdom in the Eu ...

, Danny Finn, Alan Coates and Lance Aston (brother of

Jay Aston Jay Hilda Aston (born 4 May 1961 in Purley, Surrey) is a British singer and occasional songwriter. She was a member of the British pop group Bucks Fizz from 1981 to 1985 and now under The Fizz. She was the youngest member of the group's ori ...

, who performed with

Bucks Fizz Bucks Fizz were a British pop group that achieved success in the 1980s, most notably for winning the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Making Your Mind Up". The group was formed in January 1981 specifically for the contest and comp ...

, the following year's contest winners). Finn was a former member of

The New Seekers The New Seekers are a British pop group, formed in London in 1969 by Keith Potger after the break-up of his group, The Seekers. The idea was that the New Seekers would appeal to the same market as the original Seekers, but their music would hav ...

and was married to fellow ex-New Seeker

Eve Graham Eve Graham (born Evelyn May Beatson; 19 April 1943) is a Scottish singer who found fame in the early 1970s with the pop group, The New Seekers. Biography Graham began her career during the 1960s as a band singer with the Cyclones in Scotland a ...

. Robbins later embarked on a successful career as a comedian, impressionist and actress.

Career

Prima Donna performed the song " Love Enough for Two" which finished in third place, with 106 points. The song was written and composed by Stephanie de Sykes and Stuart Slater. It was their second entry to reach the Eurovision final, having also composed "The Bad Old Days" in 1978 for Co-Co (which until 1987, was the worst placed UK entry in Eurovision history). Eurovision Song Contest 1980 postcards - Prima Donna 03

Eurovision Song Contest 1980 postcards - Prima Donna 03

Their journey to the

Eurovision Song Contest 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 ...

final in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

was not straightforward. They only won the UK heat ''

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'' ...

'' after a countback after the initial regional voting had placed them joint first with

Maggie Moone Maggie Moone (Sandra Lippitt) is a British singer, best remembered for her role on the UK version of ''Name That Tune''. Sandra Lippitt was born in Birmingham, on 5 July 1953 to a fireman father. In 1978, Moone released "I'll Put You Together ...

. In an unrehearsed panic, host

Terry Wogan Sir Michael Terence Wogan (; 3 August 1938 – 31 January 2016) was an Irish radio and television broadcaster who worked for the BBC in the UK for most of his career. Between 1993 and his semi-retirement in December 2009, his BBC Radio 2 weekd ...

asked each of the fourteen regional juries to cast a single vote for which of the songs they preferred. Some juries voted against the way they had earlier in the show and with the scoreboard unable to keep up, the entire process descended into farce. Regardless, Prima Donna were declared the winners and went forward to Eurovision. Triplett is one of only four singers to have sung for the United Kingdom in the competition twice, alongside

Ronnie Carroll Ronnie Carroll (born Ronald Cleghorn; 18 August 1934 – 13 April 2015) was a Northern Irish singer, entertainer and political candidate. Career Carroll was born Ronald Cleghorn in 116 Roslyn Street, Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 1934, the son o ...

Cliff Richard Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is an Indian-born British musican, singer, producer, entrepreneur and philanthropist who holds both British and Barbadian citizenship. He has total sales of over 21.5 million s ...

and

Cheryl Baker Rita Maria Stroud (''née'' Crudgington; born 8 March 1954), known professionally as Cheryl Baker, is an English singer and television presenter. She was a member of 1980s pop group Bucks Fizz, who won the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest and now p ...

.O'Connor, John Kennedy. The Eurovision Song Contest - The Official History. Carlton Books, UK. 2007 O'Connor also noted that this was the first UK entry, since 1964, not to make 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 ...

prior to the Eurovision final, eventually peaking there at #48. The group released one more single in September 1980, "Just Got to be You", but failed to chart. They disbanded soon after, with member Kate Robbins scoring a UK No.2 hit single a few months later.

After Prima Donna

Triplett returned to Eurovision in 1982, as one half of the group

Bardo In some schools of Buddhism, ''bardo'' ( xct, བར་དོ་ Wylie: ''bar do'') or ''antarābhava'' (Sanskrit, Chinese and Japanese: 中有, romanized in Chinese as ''zhōng yǒu'' and in Japanese as ''chū'u'') is an intermediate, transitio ...

, who although did not win scored a big hit with the song "

One Step Further "One Step Further", written by Simon Jefferis, was the 's entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 1982, performed by the duo Bardo, comprising Sally Ann Triplett and Stephen Fischer. Background Bardo were chosen to perform at the 1982 Eurovision So ...

", which reached No.2 in the

. Aston tried again to reach the Eurovision final, performing with another ex-New Seeker Kathryn Ann Rae, in the 1983 ''A Song For Europe'' contest, as part of the group Audio. They finished fourth of the eight shortlisted entries with the song "Love On Your Mind", written by Trevor Spencer and

Marty Kristian Marty Kristian (born Martins Vanags on 27 May 1947) is a German-born, British-based musician. He grew up, and started his musical career, in Australia, as a solo artist. He is a singer-song writer-guitarist and, in the 1970s, he became a heartt ...

, another New Seeker. Jane Robbins', sister, Emma Robbins, also had another attempt at the UK Eurovision ticket, in 1989 as part of female quartet The Pearls. They were also placed fourth of eight entries in the contest with the song "Love Come Down". Danny (real name Kevin) Finn periodically toured the UK with wife Eve Graham, and later worked at a theme park design company. He died in February 2016. Alan Coates went on to be a songwriter, while Kate Robbins forged a successful career as a singer, actress and comedian.

References

External links

* {{Authority control British pop music groups Eurovision Song Contest entrants for the United Kingdom Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 1980 Musical groups disestablished in 1981 Ariola Records artists