Yesterday we celebrated one birthday boy and one birthday girl. Today, however, we need to multiply those numbers by three, as we have both three birthday boys and three girls to celebrate! One of them has two participations under her belt, for two different countries, neither of them for her home country. Another of them was supposed to take part last year, but didn’t. Instead she will represent her country this year in Lisbon; Yuliya Samoylova is 29 today!
Noëlle Cordier, 74
Noëlle represented France at the 1967 Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna. She performed the song “Il doit faire beau là-bas”, finishing in a wonderful third place.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2FSjMGbJWQ
Michèle Torr, 71
Michèle represented Luxembourg at the 1966 Eurovision Song Contest on “home ground” in Luxebourg City. We write “home ground” because Michèle is French, but had been invited to represent the host country with the song “Ce soir je t’attendais”. She finished 10th out of 18 participants, a position she shared with Germany and Finland.
Michèle returned to the contest in 1977, this time representing Monaco. She performed the song “Une petite française“. She finished in fourth place, making this her most successful Eurovision participation.
Robert Wells, 56
Robert Wells represented Belarus at the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest in Oslo. He was on stage playing the piano for the group 3+2, as they performed the song “Butterflies”. Robert was also one of the songwriters behind the entry.
Alex Christensen, 51
Alex Christensen represented Germany at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow. He did so alongside Oscar Loya under the name Alex Swings Oscar Sings. They performed the entry “Miss Kiss Kiss Bang” which Alex also co-wrote. They were expected to do well at the contest, however they only finished in 20th place.
Duncan James, 40
Duncan James represented the United Kingdom at the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest in Dusseldorf. He did so as part of the world famous boyband Blue. They performed the song “I Can”, finishing in 11th place in the grand final. Even though this is a good result for the UK, it was a big disappointment, as they were among the favorites to win the contest.
Yuliya Samoylova, 29
Yuliya Samoylova was selected to represent Russia at the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest in Kyiv with the song “Flame Is Burning“. However, as she broke Ukrainian law back in 2015 by going to Crimea to perform, she was banned from entering the country. Instead, Yuliya will represent Russia at the 2018 contest in Lisbon. Her entry this year is “I Won’t Break”.
All of us here at escXtra wish today’s six Eurovision birthday stars the happiest of celebrations!
