According to one Eurovision Song Contest legend, the secret to victory isn’t actually singing.
Cheryl Baker represented the United Kingdom with her band Bucks Fizz in 1981 and achieved something we’ve only done five times—winning.
Their lively tune Making Your Mind Up proved a real hit at the live Grand Final in Dublin, Ireland, and scored 136 points, while Germany’s Lena Valaitis came second with 132.
This is, of course, a stark contrast to the results of more recent years, where the UK and Germany, both countries in The Big 5, have ended up on the lower part of the leaderboard.
Hoping to rectify that, however, is Remember Monday, the three-piece girl group representing the UK for 2025 with their theatrical number, What The Hell Just Happened?
While members Lauren Byrne, Holly-Anne Hull, and Charlotte Steele have delivered flawless vocals in every live performance thus far, though, Cheryl admits that it isn’t all about being in tune.
In a new interview, the 71-year-old reflected on her Eurovision glory, where the winning routine saw male band members Mike Nolan and Bobby G rip off Cheryl and Jay Aston’s skirts to reveal mini-skirts underneath.
‘Bucks Fizz wouldn’t have won without the skirt rip, so thank goodness for that,’ Cheryl said while attending the WhichBingo 2025 Awards in Gibraltar.
She continued to The Mirror: ‘You’ve got to have the skirt rip moment. Something that makes it different from the others.
‘You can have the best singer and have the best song, but you’ve got to have that something that makes everyone think, “Wow, I want to see that again”.’
On what that might be exactly, Cheryl said: ‘It might be special effects, it might be lighting, but it’s the something that makes it special.’
Asked what she reckons the UK’s chances are this year, Cheryl praised the ‘great’ musical theatre performers for their ‘perfect’ singing, predicting that we’ll end up on the left-hand side of the scoreboard.
‘However, I have never yet chosen a winning song,’ she added.
‘I always choose a song I think is the best, so I like to think they are going to be a dark horse and come up maybe in the top five, but I just don’t know.’
Since her Eurovision stint, Cheryl has continued to be a regular on our screens, whether it be via presenting or various rebrandings of Bucks Fizz.
In 2016, The Fizz was born as a spin-off of the original foursome, comprising Cheryl, Jay, Nikk Magaer, and Matthew Pateman.
To date, they’ve released four albums, three of which have charted in the Official UK Albums Chart. Original star Mike, now 70, did appear in the lineup, but he was replaced by Bad Boys Inc. star Matthew and Phixx member Nikk last year.
As for Eurovision 2025, the contest is being held in Basel, Switzerland, after Nemo’s win with The Code last year.
Speaking ahead of the final, Remember Monday teased plenty of ‘drama and theatrics’ for their ‘pink and girly’ performance, the staging for which includes a fallen chandelier.
‘We obviously want it to be a surprise on the night, but what we can say is that we are leaning into our musical theatre backgrounds, that is for sure, and we just hope that audiences love the staging and design as much as we do,’ said Charlotte.
Currently, the bookies have Sweden’s KAJ, with their song about saunas, Bara Bada Batsu, as the favourites to win.
Other countries expected to do well are Austria and France, while Remember Monday currently have just a 1.6% chance of lifting the trophy.
The country-pop trio will perform eighth tonight, when they’ll be looking to channel the past victories of Sandie Shaw (1967), Lulu (1969), Brotherhood of Man (1976), Bucks Fizz (1981), and Katrina & The Waves (1997).
The Eurovision 2025 Grand Final airs tonight at 8pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
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