A Song For Europe: Song 2: Never In A Million Years Artist: Zee Writers: Mark Jiggens, Zee Asha
This song has caused a HUGE fuss already on the Eurovision mailing lists. It has apparently been available for download from the internet since October 2000, so by no means qualifies as a new song. Normally, reasonable people (myself included) would expect that to mean disqualification, but no. The BBC seems well aware of the situation and their top Eurovision bod himself has apparently e-mailed someone on the list and assured him it’s okay. I think they must be applying a very precise definition of ‘commercially available’ and as it hasn’t ever been released officially or been on sale in shops, it seems to pass the test. Also, by the UK’s Eurovision standards, singer Zee Asha is ‘famous’ and verging on credible too. She’s had two top 40 hits under the name of Zee; Dreamtime (#31 in 1996) and Say My Name (#36 in 1997). She was also the featured vocalist on Butterfly, a #41 hit for trancemeisters Tilt in 1998. The cred bit comes from the fact that all three of these were on Perfecto.Now forget the credibility, there’s a chance that some of us have even seen her live. She was a backing vocalist with Culture Club at the time of their 1999 revival, and she is on the majority of tracks on their ill-fated Don’t Mind If I Do comeback album. I was flicking through some of my photos last week, and I think I have two pictures of her with Culture Club, taken at BRMB’s Party In The Park at Cannon Hill. So, after all that, what’s the song like? After two listens this morning, it’s clear that this is the now formulaic ‘typical Eurovision song’ of the modern era. It’s this year’s Sapphire, this year’s Nicki French, this year’s Lindsay. The kind of song which I really love, and would dance to in a club, but which only surfaces in real life in gay discos which don’t play trance or hard house. It’s a real dilemma, because although I like it, recent experience has shown that Eurovision doesn’t go for this kind of thing anymore. I can imagine this winning the UK selection, and then we’ll feel like we’re saddled with another no-hoper. Zee herself has a strong voice, very reminiscent of Horse, with a touch of Alison Moyet, and given that she effectively took on the Helen Terry role in Culture Club, this isn’t surprising. It has a good tinkly piano sound and a solid dancey beat, but it needs an ending with more impact if it gets chosen. Today’s version just fizzled out, very undramatically. On the positive side, if Zee was chosen, we wouldn’t be biting our nails, praying that she could hit the right notes on 25th May, like we did with Lindsay last year. She’s obviously an old pro!
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