Editorial: Whatever Happened to Jessica Garlick? UK 2002

In 2002 Jessica Garlick performed the pop ballad “Come Back” and give the Uk its only top 3 finish in the Eurovision Song Contest since the introduction of full tele-voting. Scoring a creditable 111 points, this despite singing from the dreaded number 2 position, was an excellent result for Jessica but she still finished well behind the Latvian winner Maria N with ”I Wanna” who scored a 176 points.

Jessica had came to notice of the wider UK public back in 2001 on ITV’s “Pop Idol” talent show where she made the final 10 but was eliminated in week 2, the show was eventually won by none other than Will Young. Despite the early exit Jessica was approached by the BBC to sing in the final of the UK national selection process for Eurovision “A Song for Europe” with the song “Come Back”. Jessica was a runaway winner, winning the UK televote with almost 68,000 votes and over 40,000 votes ahead of the runner up. As well as representing the UK in Eurovision Jessica also had a hit with the song making number 13 the UK charts.

Following Eurovision the single was also released in the Ireland but failed to make any impression, most likley not helped by the fact that there was no Irish entry in Eurovision that year.

Jessica was asked to front a UK public health campaign in 2002 to encourage young people not to smoke and the following year was back in the Eurovision limelight briefly when she announced the Welsh votes in the UK’s A Song for Europe final.

Between 2004 and 2009 Jessica’s music career took second place to her family life. In 2004 she married her long-term boyfriend, when they eloped to Las Vegas, they now have two children, a son and daughter.

Jessica has openly spoken about her struggles in the pop industry, including endless partying, a failed attempt to try and crack the lucrative American market and travelling to Australia. She did make the occasional appearance on national and local television in the Uk but more in relation to commentary or guest appearance on quiz shows.

In January 2009 Jessica felt it was time to make a comeback in the music scene under the Freedom Record label and she went back into the recording studio. However, the album, she described as commercial country and the single “Hard Not to Fall” both failed to chart, only being released on through iTunes and with no significant promotional programme to support the release it was always going to be difficult to make an impact. It was a valiant attempt but alast fruitless in terms of re-launching her career.

As for Eurovision again, well that’s a definite yes, Jessica has said if the right song comes along she would give Eurovision another go, so here’s hoping we get to hear the power of Jessica’s voice on the Eurovision stage again soon.

Next week: Whatever Happen to Michelle?