Olivia Newton-John — Long Live Love

MAY 15 1974 · 12:20

Olivia Newton-John · "Long Live Love" · United Kingdom · 1974 Placement: 4th · Language: English · Composers: Valerie Avon, Harold Spiro · Venue: Brighton Dome · Host: Brighton, United Kingdom · Type: upset · Broadcast: color crt Olivia Newton-John in a long white dress, on the stage in Brighton, singing a song she reportedly didn't want to sing. She had won 'A Song for Europe' on a public vote from six contenders Clifford T. Ward had written around her, and the public had chosen what she herself is said to have considered the weakest of them — 'Long Live Love,' a bright, brassy, vaguely sunny-day pop number with a chorus designed to be sung by everyone in Europe at once. Newton-John is, of course, Olivia Newton-John: the voice is creamy and exact, the smile wide, the phrasing impeccable. She delivers the song as a professional delivers any song. Second in the running order, she performs early, holds the lead for a while, and then watches as a Swedish quartet in satin and platform boots take the stage and rewrite the future. She finishes fourth with fourteen points. ABBA finishes first. Within two years she is an American country star and then, within five, Sandy in 'Grease.' Context 1974 is the ABBA year, forever and always. Newton-John was already a rising star — her 'If You Love Me, Let Me Know' was on its way that year — and her UK selection was managed through BBC's 'A Song for Europe' format. Legacy Newton-John's fourth place became a textbook example of how Eurovision results can lie about careers: the winner's song is a permanent Eurovision canon entry, but the fourth-placed singer walked out of Brighton and into one of the largest pop careers of the following decade. After her death in 2022 the EBU's official channel reposted her performance as a tribute. Mythology The almost-footnote. Newton-John as proof that Eurovision losses can be the start of very different stories.