Ireland: Acts and musicians team up to celebrate Dana's 50th anniversary of the ESC 1970 victory

Ireland: Acts and musicians team up to celebrate Dana's 50th anniversary of the ESC 1970 victory
Wednesday, 06 May 2020

  • Some of Ireland's established acts and musicians have teamed up in order to pay tribute to the country's ESC 1970 representative on the 50th anniversary of her Eurovision victory with "All Kinds of everything".

    Over the past few days, 56 singers and 10 musicians involved in Scór got up to 'All Kinds of Everything' collaborating with the one and only Dana.

    To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of her Eurovision Song Contest win, they joined her virtually as she is currently in lockdown in Australia. Making use of so many talented voices and musicians from the lengths and breadths of Ireland, it was an an honour for all participating acts to bring a new dimension to this famous song.

    In marking the special anniversary of her win, Dana dedicates this performance to all health and care workers across the world.

    You can watch the spectaculer new onlinr version of "All kind of everthing" in the following post : 

     

    Dana in Eurovision

    Dana Rosemary Scallon (born Rosemary Brown on 30 August 1951), known professionally as Dana, is an Irish singer who, still a schoolgirl  won the 1970 Eurovision Song Contest with "All Kinds of Everything"

    Her first attempt to represent Ireland in 1969

    Rex Records' secretary Phil Mitton suggested she audition for the Irish National Song Contest, due to take place in February 1969 – a victory would see her represent Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest. With mixed feelings due to nerves she made it through to the final in Dublin where she sang "Look Around" by Michael Reade, later released as her fourth single. Shown live on Irish television, Scallon came second to Muriel Day and "Wages of Love", also written by Reade.

    Her victorious participation in Eurovision 1970

    In December 1969 Tom McGrath, producer of the Irish National Song Contest, invited Scallon to try again next year, feeling that one of the entered songs, the ballad "All Kinds of Everything", would suit her. Her second attempt to win the Irish contest was a success. Then on Saturday 21 March 1970, the eighteen-year-old schoolgirl performed the song at the Eurovision finals held in the Amsterdam RAI Exhibition and Convention Centre, before an estimated viewing audience of two hundred million. Perched on a stool while wearing an embroidered white mini-dress, she was the last of twelve contestants to perform that night. After the voting had finished she was declared the winner with 32 points, beating the favourite, UK's Mary Hopkin, with 26 and Germany's Katja Ebstein with 12. Spain's Julio Iglesias came equal fourth with Guy Bonnet of France and Henri Dès of Switzerland. This was Ireland's first of a record seven successes in the contest.

    The winning song was composed by two Dublin printworkers, Derry Lindsay and Jackie Smith. The single was produced by Ray Horricks and arranged by Phil Coulter. Released on 14 March, it shot to #1 in the Irish singles chart before the contest began and stayed there for nine weeks. It also spent two weeks at the top of the UK singles chart on 18 and 25 April. It was also successful in Australia, Austria, Germany, Israel, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland and Yugoslavia. The song went on to sell more than two million units.