Scott Fitzgerald

This article is about the British singer Scott Fitzgerald; on the American writer, see F. Scott Fitzgerald . For additional individuals, see Scott Fitzgerald (disambiguation) .

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Singles

If I Had Words (with Yvonne Keeley)   UK 3  silver 01/14/1978 (10 weeks)   DE 25th 03/27/1978 (10 weeks) Go   UK 52 04/16/1988 (5 weeks)

Scott Fitzgerald (born April 28, 1948 in Glasgow , Scotland ; actually William McPhail ) is a British singer who represented Great Britain at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1988 and narrowly missed victory.

Career

Scott Fitzgerald was born William McPhail in Scotland in 1948 . He was friends with a Jesuit priest in his youth and went on tour in the 1970s with Mike Connaris, Alan Swinden and Stefan Oprych, who founded the record label Mcasso Music in 1979 . In 1974 he released the pop song Judy Played the Jukebox (GTO Records).

Fitzgerald first drew attention to himself as a singer in the late 1970s. In 1977 he recorded the duet If I Had Words with the Dutch singer Yvonne Keeley , a variation of Camille Saint-Saëns ' Symphony No. 3, backed by reggae beats. Both were awarded by the “St. Thomas More School Choir ”. The single, published by Pepper and United Artists , was able to place itself in the British charts for ten weeks in early 1978, where the title reached number three. The title reached number one in the Dutch (seven weeks) and Belgian (two weeks) charts . In 1995 the song was to be used for the soundtrack of the successful Australian family film A Pig called Babe .

Ten years after the success of If I Had Words , Fitzgerald won the British preliminary round of the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) with the title Go . With the ballad, composed and written by Julie Forsyth , daughter of the well-known entertainer Bruce Forsyth , the blonde singer represented Great Britain at the 33rd Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin in 1988 . When the country ratings were announced, Fitzgerald competed for victory with Celine Dion (Ne partez pas sans moi), who is one of the favorites for Switzerland . The Briton led from Yugoslavia by five points until the last standings . While Fitzgerald had already been informed by the television producers about the course of the award ceremony, the British entry surprisingly received no points from the jury from Ljubljana . Dion's performance was rated six points, giving Switzerland the victory by just one point. A day later, callers complained on British radio that communist Yugoslavia had favored neutral Switzerland over NATO member Great Britain. Go, released by PRT Records , was on the UK charts for two weeks, where the track peaked at number 52.

While the ESC victory of the then unknown in Europe 20-year-old Celine Dion served as a springboard for a world career, Fitzgerald could not build on earlier successes in the following years. He recorded the single United We Stand again in 1992 with his former singing partner Yvonne Keeley . He later made his living as a singer on cruise ships and in Scandinavia.

Scott Fitzgerald is the father of Kiley "Ki" McPhail (also Kiley Fitzgerald), a former member of the British band Busted .

Discography

• 1974: Judy Played the Jukebox
• 1977: If I Had Words (with Yvonne Keeley)
• 1988: Go
• 1992: United We Stand (with Yvonne Keeley)

Web links

• Profile at discogs.com (English)
• Profile for the Eurovision Song Contest 1988 at diggiloo.net (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Charts DE Charts UK
2. ↑ Music Sales Awards: UK
3. ↑ See David Roberts: British Hit Singles & Albums . London: Guinness World Records Limited, 2006, ISBN 1-904994-10-5 , p. 201.
4. ↑ See Ryanair's Euro night . In: Irish Business, June 1, 1988 (accessed via LexisNexis Wirtschaft ).
5. ^ See Nigel Hunter: Contest Spotlights Mcasso Music . In: Billboard, May 9, 1998 (accessed via LexisNexis Wirtschaft ).
6. ↑ See profile at discogs.com (English; accessed June 1, 2010).
7. ^ ^{A b} See Neil Warwick, Jon Kutner, Tony Brown: The Complete Book of the British Charts: Singles & Albums . London: Omnibus Press, 2004, ISBN 1-84449-058-0 , p. 411.
8. ↑ See Michael Dwyer: Animal magic . In: The Irish Times , December 15, 1995, p. 13.
9. ^ Cf. Georges-Hébert Germain: Céline: The Authorized Biography . Toronto, Oxford: Dundurn Press, 1998, ISBN 1550023187 , pp. 216-217.
10. ↑ See Dan Davies: Douze points . In: Time Out , February 23, 2005, p. 20.
11. ↑ See Ed West: You Need Friends to Win in Eurovision . In: The Daily Telegraph , May 20, 2006, p. 22.
12. ↑ Cf. Rikki Peebles - Where Are EU Now? . In: Daily Mirror , May 18, 1996, p. 6.
13. ^ Cf. Roz Paterson: Eurovision or Eurotrash? . In: Daily Record, May 13, 2000, pp. 33-35.
14. ↑ See Sheldon Man Loses Royalties Claim Against Busted at birminghampost.net, June 6, 2008 (accessed June 1, 2010).