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Superstars

OK, "superstars" is a bit far-fetched in some of these cases, but here are some folk who you may not know did the contest, either before, during or after the height of their fame. 

           
Nana Mouskouri       Esther Ofarim       Matt Monro
"A Force De Prier"       "T'en Va Pas"       "I Love The Little Things"
08/16       02/16       02/16
Greek Songstress Nana moved to Paris in 1963 to further her career and in no time was signed up by Luxembourg TV to sing their song in London. Nana finished 8th but her song was a middling continental hit and was instrumental in furthering her career.         Israeli born Esther sang for Switzerland and was set to win the 1963 contest until Norway was called in to vote again, switching its votes and giving victory to Denmark. Five years later Esther would hook up with hubbie Abi for the smash "Cinderella Rockerfella"       Classic crooner Matt finished second in Naples behind the epic "Non Ho L'Eta" and sadly no recording of the contest remains. His song also is  one of the handful to not chart in the UK. Matt liked the Austrian entry so much he recorded an English version  "Walk Away" which was a major hit.
1963       1963       1964
                 
           
Julio Iglesias       Patrick Juvet       Olivia Newton-John
"Gwendolyne"       "Je Vais Me Marier Marie"       "Long Live Love"
04/12       12/17       04/17
The Spanish megastar's singing career kicked off about the time he appeared in a powder blue suit on the Amsterdam stage in the "boycott" contest of 1970.  He forgot part of the lyric which may be one reason why he couldn't make it a hat-trick of Spanish wins.        Before going disco and hooking up with the team behind Village People in the late seventies, Juvet had cultivated a promising career in Francophone countries, although his ESC effort for his native Switzerland trailed home  twelfth of seventeen.         Olivia was a staple of BBC light entertainment at the  start of the seventies, but it was still surprising that she agreed to do Eurovision as her American success had already begun. She bitterly disliked her song, but she gave it her best and fourth in a very strong contest behind Abba was no disgrace at all.
1970       1973       1974
                 
           
The Shadows       Silver Convention       Baccara
"Let Me Be The One"       "Telegram"       "Parlez-Vous Francais?" 
02/19       08/18       07/20
The man behind many of Olivia's successes, John Farrar, entered the contest a year later as a member of the reformed Shadows, whose Euro line-up included originals Hank Marvin and Bruce Welsh, who fluffed his lines at the beginning of the song       These three German lasses were briefly huge in the early days of disco, but their records were largely instrumental. They had a US number one in 1975 and actually won a  R&B grammy for "Fly Robin Fly"(!). Thankfully their Euro song was more wordy, but as happened often, the juries didn't go for disco.       Just a year after the chart topping "Yes Sir I Can Boogie", the hit Spanish duo were poached by   Luxembourg to sing a song that was basically a rehash of their biggest hit and was composed by the same team. As the year before the jurors reaction to disco was lukewarm but the song became a sizeable hit.
1975       1977       1978
                 
           
Colm Wilkinson       Black Lace       Ofra Haza
"Born To Sing"       "Mary Ann"       "Chai"
05/20       07/19       02/20
Clive James famously dissed Colm's somewhat manic Euro performance in his TV column, but the Irishman had the last laugh.  He appeared on the Parisian stage as "C.T. Wilkinson", and went on to create the classic role of Jean Valjean in Les Miserables on Broadway and the West End.        The duo who gave the world "Agadoo" et al started their road to glory in 1979, when their UK final win was not broadcast due to a BBC strike. After three rounds of voting in Jerusalem they were actually leading the contest, but after that the votes started to dry up.         Ofra completed her military service in 1979 and then embarked on a pop career. Her 1983 Euro song "Chai" finished second in Munich, the site of the massacre of Israeli athletes a decade earlier, and she became a national heroine.  As the 80s progressed so did her  fame beyond Israel.
1978       1979       1983
                 
           
Plastic Bertrand       Samantha Janus       Secret Garden
"Amour Amour"       "A Message To Your Heart"       "Nocturne"
21/22       10/22       01/23
A full ten years after "Ca Plane Pour Moi", Belgian Bertrand popped up for serial foreigner-scouting Luxembourg in a contest staged in his homeland. Sadly his return was a huge flop as he accrued just four  points (half of them from the UK), leaving him one place above last.        The familiar face of Eastenders, Game On and Liverpool One first came to attention in 1991 when she won Song For Europe with a ditty about hunger and poverty, performed in a short skirt and dangly earrings. It soon became clear that her future lay in acting.       The most recent case of Eurovision kicking off a significant career, Norway caused consternation in 1995 when entering a "song" that was almost entirely instrumental.  In an era when anything Irish struck gold, they took the crown by both sounding Irish and having an Irish violinist!.
1987       1991       1995