We thought we'd win - Eurovision's UK losers
The first Britons to receive the ignominy of ‘nil points’ in the Eurovision Song Contest flew back to the UK today adamant they had given the performance their “best shot”.
Liverpudlian duo – Chris Cromby, 21, and Gemma Abbey, 20 – returned from a disastrous night where their song, Cry Baby, as well as their dressing room was trashed.
Jemini’s failure sparked a debate about whether Europe’s TV-watching public had vented anti-British feeling over the Iraq war, or whether the band truly deserved to come last.
The pair, who release their single tomorrow, today touched down at Heathrow Airport, hoping for more support back home.
Gemma said: “It was just a complete shock when the votes came in.”
Earlier she had spoken of her disappointment, telling BBC News: “From the start we honestly thought we’d win it, we were so confident in every aspect - the performance, the clothes, the choreography.”
But at Terminal One this afternoon Chris said the pair felt “fantastic”.
“Obviously we gave it our best shot. We had a fantastic time over there and we are still going to do our best with the single which is out tomorrow.”
Asked whether politics had come into play, he said: “It could be. With the countries across Europe something has rocked the boat.
“It was quite surprising. We don’t think it was fair we came last because we gave the performance of our lifetime.”
He added: “It’s laughable really. It was one of the best performances we have ever done. Hopefully Britain will realise that.”
The pair said they were treated well in Latvia, where the contest was held, but today their manager confirmed that Jemini’s dressing room was smashed as they gave post-defeat interviews.
No other dressing rooms were vandalised and local police were called, though nothing was thought to have been stolen.
Manager Martin O’Shea said: “The door to the dressing room was kicked in. Then the walls were smashed.
“I think it was specifically targeted.
“Both of them are distraught, but are keeping a stiff upper lip.”
Critics have said the pair sounded out of tune, but O’Shea, who also manages chart topping band Atomic Kitten, said Gemma had difficulty hearing the sound for the first 30 seconds of the performance.
“She therefore could not pitch properly,” he said. “But she turned it round.”
Other band managers, like Ireland's Louis Walsh, were not so generous.
Asked if Britain’s role in Iraq had anything to do with the result, he said: “No, it was terrible. That is why they got no votes.
“It’s like somebody went into Boots, found the first person they saw behind the counter, asked them if they could sing and they said ‘no’, but they picked them anyway.
“The thing was just a disgrace, the worst song I have ever heard, and so out of tune they deserved to be last.
“Britain has some of the best singers in the world but that was a joke.”
But one of those blaming the result on politics was Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn, a critic of the war.
He told GMTV: “It could be that the song was just truly awful and deserved it but I think there’s actually probably a deeper story here.
“People across Europe are fed up with Britain’s over close relationship with the United States and arrogance in the rest of the world and the war in Iraq demonstrates this very well.”
That interpretation of the defeat was one Martin Isherwood, the man who penned Cry Baby, appeared to agree with.
Isherwood, head of music at Paul McCartney’s “fame school”, told BBC Radio Five Live’s Up All Night programme, the song was “great”.
He said: “I think politically we are out on a limb at the moment.
“As a country I think we paid the price [last night].”
BBC1’s Eurovision host since 1971 and Limerick native Terry Wogan also said last night he thought the UK was “suffering from post-Iraq backlash” but Welsh Secretary and former Europe minister Peter Hain denied the flop had anything to do with the war.
Asked whether European politics was at work, Mr Hain told LBC 97.3: “I very much doubt it.
“Maybe it wasn’t a good enough song although it sounded good enough to me.”
Former Eurovision winner Cheryl Baker said it had been “the wrong song” and the singers had been out of tune.
Baker, who won Eurovision in 1981 as a member of Bucks Fizz with Making Your Mind Up, said: “There’s always politics involved.
“In every single Eurovision there is and there always has been so perhaps there was an element involved of whether we should have gone into the Iraq war.
“But even so, we wouldn’t have won. Despite the politics, despite the euro, we wouldn’t have won last night,” she told BBC News 24.
She added: “We didn’t deserve nil points but I don’t think it was the right song, I don’t think it was a good Eurovision song.”
Jemini’s manager Mike Cockayne said: “It’s a big, big, big pressure event - there’s 600 million people watching and things can go wrong and I certainly wouldn’t want to put any blame on anybody.
“It’s not an ideal result by any stretch of the imagination, but hey, life goes on.”
