Eurovision 2024 is just around the corner, with Olly Alexander due to represent the UK in tomorrow’s Grand Final in Malmo with his song ‘Dizzy’.
He’ll be following in the footsteps of many Eurovision legends – including Cheryl Baker, who won the contest as part of Bucks Fizz back in 1981 with ‘Making Your Mind Up’ (and gave us the now-legendary ‘skirt rip’ moment in the process!). She’s since gone on to numerous acting and TV presenting gigs, and continues to perform as part of The Fizz alongside Mike Nolan and Jay Aston.
Earlier this week I spoke to Cheryl about her memories of the Contest, the advice she’d give to Olly ahead of his performance, what’s next for her and The Fizz, and much more.
We’re speaking during Eurovision week – can you tell us a bit about your memories of representing the UK with Bucks Fizz?
Oh great memories. I did it once before, in 1978 in Paris, and they were not very good memories. ’78 was with a band called Coco. ’81, I’d left Coco, I was in Bucks Fizz, we travelled to Ireland and Mike Nolan is Irish, he’s from Dublin, the competition was in Dublin, so already I knew we were gonna have a party [laughs]. And we did! From the moment we set foot in Ireland, we just had a great time. However, the IRA had threatened to disrupt the competition, and I guess the Special Branch or whatever you wanna call them, they probably knew an awful lot more than we did. And we had armed guards with us everywhere we went, like a personal guard. We had them sitting outside our rooms in the hotel. So it should have been a scary time, but we weren’t really scared because we were young, and you just see the excitement in it. However, the time where we went to any events where you meet the other delegations, and rehearsals, and things that the RTE organised for us, they were so much fun! We had a great time. And when we had any spare time it was usually with Mike Nolan’s family. I mean, I’d never tried poitin (Irish spirit) before, but I have now! [laughs]
What did you think of it?!
Oh, it blew my head off! [laughs]
Obviously you’re remembered for winning but also for the iconic skirt rip. Did you know that it would become such a huge Eurovision moment?
Not in the slightest. Because we came about the skirt rip by chance. I wanted to wear a skirt to the knee and Jay wanted to wear a mini skirt. And we were all in a room, there was the production, record label and manager, the choreographer, loads of people all giving their opinion of what we should be wearing. It was already established we were gonna wear bright colours, but then what style of clothes? And in the end I went “oh, short skirt, long skirt, let’s just wear both” being very flippant about it, and the choreographer Chrissy Wickham said “that’s it! On the night, ‘if you wanna see some more’, we take the top skirts off and the mini skirt’s underneath”. So then we started rehearsing, we had the skirts made, we had a brooch put on the waistband so that the boys weren’t gonna miss it, you know? They’d grab the brooch and the skirt comes off easy.
So then it’s just part of the routine. And we rehearsed it, rehearsed it, rehearsed it until we were rehearsing it in our sleep. And so when it came to actually the performance, when we did the Song For Europe and then the Eurovision, it was just part of the routine. We weren’t thinking about “oh wow, we’re taking a bit of our clothing off on stage”. But didn’t think of that until we saw the reaction from people. And like you say, even now, that’s the bit of the song that is shown every single year. But look at Eurovision now, I mean, there’s hardly a scrap of clothing on any of the performers! [laughs] But even so, that skirt rip moment was the beginning of “wow, let’s do something with the outfit” rather than just sing the song. So yeah, quite proud of it actually!
Speaking of this year’s contest, Olly Alexander is representing the UK in Malmo – what advice would you give to him as he’s preparing for that performance?
I can’t give Olly Alexander advice! [laughs] He’s got an amazing voice, he’s gonna put on a fantastic performance. I’ve got no doubt that it’s gonna be extraordinary. And I’ve seen clips of him rehearsing and dancers that he’s got, and like I was saying about the clothing they’ve hardly got anything on! But that’s the way Eurovision has gone. And the ‘Dizzy’ thing, it’s gonna look as if they’re all rolling around and everything. I think it’s gonna look amazing and he will be fantastic. All I would say, it’s not advice, all I would say is just enjoy the moment, because for those three minutes he’s gonna have hundreds of millions of people watching. And that’s probably never gonna happen in his lifetime. It hasn’t happened to me again in my lifetime. Well I did do Eurovision twice, so it did happen twice, but it’s very unlikely that it’s ever gonna happen again. So just enjoy the moment. And three minutes, it goes like that. At the end you think, “is that it? Have I done it?” [laughs] But yeah, just have a great time. That’s all I would say to him.
Do you think the UK could win it again this year? Or is there anyone else you’re rooting for?
Of course I’m rooting for Olly Alexander! Of course I want him to win, I want the UK to win. But I do think that there’s too much opposition and there’s too much good opposition. Croatia at the moment, they’re the favourites, Switzerland were the favourite, Italy’s got a good song. Ireland, whoah, have you seen Ireland? It’s crazy. Nothing like you imagine an Irish song to be. Really upped the ante. I think they wanna get the crown back, because they share it at the moment with Sweden, seven wins each. They wanna tip the balance and make it eight for Ireland, and I think they’ve got a good chance. But Olly, no, I think Olly’s probably gonna come somewhere in the middle. I don’t think he’s gonna get nil points. There’s no way he’s gonna get nil points because it’s too good. It’s too good a performance and too good a song and too good a production. Everything about it is strong. I don’t think it’s strong enough to win though unfortunately.
I also wanted to ask you if you’ve got a favourite Eurovision moment from previous years – not including winning of course…
Oh I loved Loreen when she did ‘Euphoria’. I thought that was great, I thought that was amazing. And there was one called ‘Wild Dances’, that might have been Ukraine. I think I prefer the women because their costumes are always fabulous. And I love it when they’re a bit warrior like, and drums, big drums. I like those kind of songs. So Eurovision has certainly changed dramatically since ‘Boom-Bang-A-Bang’, back in the 60s, or ‘Save Your Kisses For Me’. It’s so completely different now. And it’s relative music now. It’s relative to the charts, and to what the audience want, which I think is great. I think it’s evolved in a good way.
You’re still recording and touring with The Fizz – what is it that keeps you going with the music and it still being such a huge part of your life?
Well it is my life. I don’t know if you can see but round the room there’s guitars everywhere and keyboards. I’m married to a musician, my children are musicians, we live music. Our family lives music. And I always have. I’ve been singing since I can’t remember when, since I was a dot, and I’ve always wanted to be a singer. It’s not a career choice, it’s my life. Music is my life, and I live for it. And I get on that stage and hear cheers and I think, “this is fantastic”. And it just… honestly, no drug or alcohol would give me the buzz that I get from going on stage in front of an audience. It’s just the best feeling. And when you sing ‘The Land Of Make Believe’, that’s the penultimate song we always do, and everyone is singing along. Have a look on YouTube. Honestly, the gigs we’ve done recently, everyone is singing the lyrics to ‘The Land Of Make Believe’. And then they don’t stop cheering at the end. They don’t stop cheering. And I have to shut them down and I go, “well of course we’ve got one more song, that funny old song that won Eurovision” and they go, “YESSSS!!!” I live off that. Honestly I live off that. It’s so fantastic. And I don’t wanna do without it. I love it too much.
Is there anything from your career you’re particularly proud of – winning Eurovision aside?
I don’t know about proud of. We did win the Best Song Award, that was in November 1981. That was great. I’m proud that we had three number ones, I wish that we’d had more. I’m proud that we did Top of the Pops Christmas show, because that was the icing on the cake. If you got onto the Christmas show you were one of the best performances of the year, and Top of the Pops wanted you to be on their show. They put me on wires and so in ‘Land Of Make Believe’, in the chorus I went up on the wires and I was doing the routine in the air. It was fantastic. They were glory days, they really were. And I’m still living them now. Coming back to the question, I think I’m most proud that I’m still doing what we did back in 1981 and still getting the same or even better reaction for it, because people still love the 80s.
Is there still anything on the bucket list for you career-wise? I saw your Twitter post that you’re a fan of The Traitors – would you ever want to go on that?
Yes I would love to do Traitors! And I’d love to go in the jungle. And I’d love to do Strictly. But Traitors, I couldn’t be a Traitor though, I’m useless. I can’t tell lies. But I’d love to do it. I thought Traitors was fantastic. Oh, what a show! I was hooked! [laughs]
What’s coming up next for you? I know you’ve got some live dates with The Fizz and I read you’re working on new music – will that be the focus for the next six to 12 months or so?
Well certainly we’ve got gigs. Mike Nolan’s last gig is gonna be the 20th of November, I know that, and we’ve got festivals and 80s weekends and performances in between then. But Jay and I will plan ahead. And I’m writing a book. I have been writing a book for years, I need to finish it, so there will be a book. And then who knows? There’s gonna be a musical about Bucks Fizz next year. We won’t be in it, but it’ll be interesting to see what comes from that. I wanna carry on working. I know all of my peers, all of my school friends who I see all the time, they’ve all retired, long retired. There’s no way I could retire. This is what keeps me going, working. I love it.
Cheryl Baker was speaking to Entertainment Focus on behalf of Heart Bingo
