Discover Top Posts Tagged with #christopher neil

#Confessions Of A Window Cleaner (1974)#Adventures Of A Taxi Driver (1976)#Come Play With Me (1977)#Adventures Of A Plumber's Mate (1978)#Robin Askwith #Timothy Lea #Christopher Neil #Barry Evans

Eurovision 2009 - Number 38 - Yohanna - "Is It True?"

Yohanna is known (in Iceland as all the articles state) as Jóhanna Guðrún Jónsdóttir. In 2009 she turned nineteen, but this was already her second dip into the music industry. When she was ten and eleven, she'd released two albums as a child singer which did remarkably well. They were Icelandic versions of popular songs and in a country that has around 400,000 people, she managed to sell more than 10,000 copies of her first LP.

Her parents and her music teacher took the frankly wise decision to remove Yohanna from the spotlight of fame before she was a teenager, letting her move back into music when she was ready. 2009 was the year she decided it was time, and her first move was to enter Söngvakeppni Sjónvarpsins with a song written by a trio of song-writers without any experience of Eurovision national finals.

There is Óskar Páll Sveinsson (not to be confused with Paul Oscar), a songwriter who was also making a move in 2009 with two songs in the Icelandic national final. There was Georgian Tinatin Japaridze who likewise was trying to break into the national final song-writing scene.

Most intriguingly of all there is Christopher Neil. He was much better known as a producer who had worked with a huge variety of big names, including many linked to Eurovision including Celine Dion, Bonnie Tyler, Edyta Gorniak, José Carreras and Morten Harket. He'd also written a song for Cliff Richard in the UK national final in 1973 as well as a number of other UK pop acts in the 1980s and 1990s. He was also an actor, with a number of roles in stage musicals (including the original staging of Evita). However, his acting was best known in the UK for his series of roles in 1970s sex comedies including The Sex Thief, Eskimo Nell and The Adventures of a Plumber's Mate. Now that's an eclectic career.

Slightly unusually for Iceland, Is it True? was always in English. It's a gentle pop-ballad filled with regret. Yohanna is desperate to keep her relationship together as the wonderful world over her love crumbles in front of her. She doesn't appear to know exactly why. It's the combination of Yohanna's voice, that grand, traditional ballad sound that had been a staple of Eurovision since the 1960s and a magnificent blue dress that drew people in. The staging is simple, the song is filled with mournful strings and Yohanna shows what an amazing instrument her voice had become.

Not only did she win Söngvakeppni Sjónvarpsins as Iceland rediscovered her and fell in love once again, but at Eurovision in Moscow, she won her semi-final. Little Iceland, so in love with Eurovision had finally managed to win a semi and went into the Grand Final with huge hopes. The song and Yohanna won huge numbers of admirers and now that there were juries being used in the final, this type of song was strongly favoured to do well. Could they do it?

Well, what might have been. Unfortunately there was another song that drew all the votes, magnetically sucking up the jury votes and televotes. Yohanna could only finish in second place. So close! Still Yohanna matched Iceland's best ever Eurovision result equalling Selma's second place in 1999.

For Yohanna, this was still a dream. She'd impressed huge numbers of fans and professionals. Andrew Lloyd Webber was very impressed with her vocals. She released a new album later in the year. Butterflies and Elvis with the lead song being Is it You? The single hit the top of the Icelandic charts as well as hitting the top ten in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Switzerland and Norway.

It's still the song she's best known for by far. After entering Söngvakeppni Sjónvarpsins twice more in 2011 and 2013, she stepped back from music again, this time to raise a family. In 2020 she returned and has had three more albums and several singles out. This is Tófrar recorded for the Icelandic National Festival in 2024.