"Flying the Flag (For You)" is a song performed by British pop/bubblegum dance group

Scooch Scooch is a British pop group, comprising performers Natalie Powers, Caroline Barnes, David Ducasse and Russ Spencer. Scooch represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 in Helsinki with their song "Flying the Flag (For Y ...

. The official single version was available from 30 April 2007 and was released as a physical

CD single A CD single (sometimes abbreviated to CDS) is a music single in the form of a compact disc. The standard in the Red Book for the term ''CD single'' is an 8 cm (3-inch) CD (or Mini CD). It now refers to any single recorded onto a CD of any si ...

in the following week, on 7 May 2007. The song debuted 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 ...

at No. 5 and peaked at this position. It also charted in Ireland at number 48. The song was entered in and won the British national selection competition for the

Eurovision Song Contest 2007 The Eurovision Song Contest 2007 was the 52nd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Helsinki, Finland, following the country's victory at the with the song "Hard Rock Hallelujah" by Lordi. Organised by the European Broadcasti ...

, '' Eurovision: Making Your Mind Up'', and subsequently represented the in the contest, held in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. The song came joint 22nd with a total of 19 points, the same score as .

Song information

Scooch had reformed in hope of performing at the Eurovision Song Contest 2007, and the song was specifically written for the contest; Eurovision rules state that the song must be an original composition and released no more than seven months before the contest. Spencer, as the captain, opens and closes the song with captain's announcements. Powers and Barnes sing the vocals of the song, as Ducasse offers passengers confectioneries. The lyrics are heavily based on actual experiences of flying. The song contains a liberal amount of sexual innuendo, the most overt being "...and blow into the mouthpiece" and "would you like something to suck on for landing, sir?" (the latter was omitted or changed for some tea-time television performances). The camp style was both praised and criticised – ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' noted that the song was, in terms of Eurovision, outdated and similar to Buck's Fizz's winning entry in , while Tim Moore called the song "a fine song in Eurovision tradition".

Music video

The original

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

was their final performance on '' Eurovision: Making Your Mind Up''; Scooch recorded a new version once their contract with

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Di ...

had been signed. Following the lyrics, the second video starts with the quartet in the front of the aeroplane, with Spencer as the captain. The video continues with all of the members as stewards walking up and down the plane, with a cameo appearance from Sister Mary McArthur, who was invited to take part after the band saw her

lip sync Lip sync or lip synch (pronounced , the same as the word ''sink'', short for lip synchronization) is a technical term for matching a speaking or singing person's lip movements with sung or spoken vocals. Audio for lip syncing is generated thr ...

video. Later in the video each member of the band is seen dancing in front of the flags of selected countries that are all participating in the

, in addition to the

flag of Europe The Flag of Europe or European Flag consists of twelve golden stars forming a circle on a blue field. It was designed and adopted in 1955 by the Council of Europe (CoE) as a symbol for the whole of Europe. Since 1985, the flag has also been ...

"Flying the Flag" in Helsinki

"Flying the Flag (FoFor You)" was the nineteenth song to be sung during the Eurovision Song Contest. The song scored only nineteen points: twelve from , and seven from , two nations known for awarding points to the United Kingdom – although according to the Head of the Maltese Delegation, Malta voted twelve partly in protest to regional block voting which, had made the contest "not about the songs any more", an opinion shared by "five or six other countries". Due to the low score that Scooch had received — only the Irish entry "

They Can't Stop the Spring Ireland participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 with the song "They Can't Stop the Spring" written by John Waters and Tommy Moran. The song was performed by the band Dervish, which was internally selected in November 2006 by the Irish b ...

" was lower on the scoreboard— the song received negative press by newspapers, in particular by ''

The Sunday Mirror The ''Sunday Mirror'' is the Sunday sister paper of the ''Daily Mirror''. It began life in 1915 as the ''Sunday Pictorial'' and was renamed the ''Sunday Mirror'' in 1963. In 2016 it had an average weekly circulation of 620,861, dropping marke ...

'' who stated that the song made the United Kingdom "the laughing stock of Europe", ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...

'' referred to the song saying "it wasn't a disaster – more of a crash landing".

International promotion

On 18 April 2007 it was announced that Scooch had been signed to the Warner Bros. label. This would help them to promote and release their single to a broader range of fans in the United Kingdom and abroad. As part of the contract, Scooch recorded certain phrases of the song in

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German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

Bulgarian Bulgarian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria * Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group * Bulgarian language, a Slavic language * Bulgarian alphabet * A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria * Bul ...

, and

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

Track listings and formats

CD # "Flying The Flag (For You)" urovision 2007 Version(3:04) # "Flying The Flag (For You)" araoke Version(3:04) DVD # "Flying the Flag (For You)"

ideo IDEO () is a design and consulting firm with offices in the U.S., England, Germany, Japan, and China. It was founded in Palo Alto, California, in 1991. The company's 700 staff uses a design thinking approach to design products, services, environ ...

# "How To" Special Scooch Dance Feature

# "Flying the Flag (For You)" araoke Version

# "Flying the Flag (For You)" udio

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{Authority control Eurovision songs of 2007 Eurovision songs of the United Kingdom 2007 singles 2007 songs Warner Records singles British pop songs