The United Kingdom held a national pre-selection to choose the song that would go to the

Eurovision Song Contest 1974 The Eurovision Song Contest 1974 was the 19th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Brighton, United Kingdom and was organized by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster British Broadcasting Corporati ...

Before Eurovision

A Song for Europe 1974

The show was held on 23 February 1974 and presented by Jimmy Savile as part of the BBC1 TV series '' Clunk, Click... As It Happens'', with Olivia Newton-John selected to perform all of the entries, in part due to the recommendation of her close friend

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 ...

. Originally, as with 1973, Cilla Black's 1974 nine-part BBC series was scheduled to feature the 'Song for Europe' process, but Black was uncomfortable at promoting another female singer (Newton-John) each week throughout the series' run and in a rather last minute decision, the BBC arranged to move the process to another show. This necessitated a truncating of the regularly established format of the chosen artist performing one song a week on the given series, so it was planned that Newton-John would perform two songs a week for three weeks once the series started. However, a BBC strike led to the cancellation of the first show, so another revision was needed and Olivia performed three songs a show over two programmes. In the final, her performances were immediately repeated before viewers were asked to cast votes via postcards through the mail to choose the winner. An extremely low postal vote led to " Long Live Love" winning with just 27,387 votes.

Chart success

The top two songs from the contest were released on single, reaching No. 11 in 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 ...

, the first UK entry since 1966 not to reach the top ten, or indeed, the top four. Newton-John had just signed a new international recording contract with EMI, who released the single in most territories, but it was released on Pye International in the UK as the final commitment of her previously existing contract. All six songs were included on her debut EMI album '' Long Live Love'' released later in 1974, although these tracks were dropped from the US release ''

If You Love Me, Let Me Know ''If You Love Me, Let Me Know'' is a United States and Canada-only album by singer Olivia Newton-John, released on 28 May 1974. Other than the title track, all the material was from her previous three albums, '' Olivia'' (1972), '' Music Makes ...

''. Subsequently, all six songs became available on CD compilations. Newton-John recorded a German version of the winning song and

Marion Rung Marion Rung (born 7 December 1945 in Helsinki) is a Finland, Finnish pop singer. She is known for having represented Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1962 and 1973. Her 1962 Eurovision song placed 7th, and in 1973, she managed to bring F ...

recorded a Finnish version "Kun rakastaa". Marie Toland and 'Stephanie' recorded French versions of the winner and several others from the UK selection. Dana, Jimmy Jones and

The Dooleys The Dooleys were a British male–female pop group comprising at its peak eight members – six of them in the Dooley family. The group achieved several UK chart hits between 1977 and 1981, including top-ten hits " Wanted", "Love of My Life" ...

recorded other tracks from the UK final.

At Eurovision

"Long Live Love" went on to tie for fourth place in the contest. The Eurovision Song Contest was broadcast live on

BBC 1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

with sports presenter

David Vine David Martin Vine (3 January 1935 – 11 January 2009) was an English television sports presenter. He presented a wide variety of shows from the 1960s onwards, most notably his coverage of major snooker tournaments for the BBC. Early life Born i ...

undertaking the television commentary, whilst

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 week ...

returned to providing the radio commentary on BBC Radio 2. British Forces Radio also provided a broadcast with commentary provided by Richard Astbury.

Voting

References

{{Eurovision Song Contest 1974 1974 Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 1974 Eurovision Eurovision Eurovision Eurovision