You and I, we had a dream to fly

Artist: Anne-Marie David
Title: Wonderful Dream
Year: 1973
Chart Peak: 13

There are some things that ensure that you will never be forgotten, but that you will also never live down. Playing Doctor Who, for example, or presenting Blue Peter (unless you're Romana D'Annunzio... who?). Or winning the Eurovision Song Contest. Even now there are fans of the annual cavalcade of kitsch who think of Celine Dion not as the multi-million-selling singer of that ballad about the Titanic, but as the dentally-challenged youth who once won the ESC for Switzerland (but then, I write a blog about one hit wonders, so I'm hardly in a position to mock). And those people definitely remember Anne-Marie David.

Before winning the ESC, Anne-Marie's main musical claim to fame was having playing Mary Magdalene in the French version of "Jesus Christ Superstar". Oddly enough she is not the only one hit wonder to have got a break in this show, and we will come to another (a group, in fact) in the weeks ahead. Bet you can't wait. Anyway, 1973 was the first year that competitors were permitted to sing in languages other than their own, though in the end it came down to a remarkably close three-way race between singers performing in their respective native tongues: Cliff Richard for the UK, performing "Power To All Our Friends" (3rd, 123 points), Mocedades for Spain, singing "Eres Tu" (2nd, 125 points) and Anne-Marie David for Luxembourg with "Tu Te Reconnaitras" (1st, 129 points). It was the second straight year that Luxembourg had won - in 1972 Vicky Leandros sang "Apres Toi" and won by a more convincing 14-point margin.



Anyway, along the way David had picked up maximum points from the UK jury, and it seems that the UK public agreed since it bought enough copies of the English-language version to send it into the top 20 (with the original French version on the B side). But is it any good? Well, to my ears it sounds like your typical Eurovision ballad, all platitudes and not a single note you weren't expecting. However, it would appear that in the world of Eurovision fandom, it's actually regarded quite highly - whether that's despite its predictability or because of it, I don't know.

And what became of Anne Marie David? Well, if you were living in Turkey in the mid-1970s you'd probably have been aware of her subsequent records because it would seem she actually became quite popular over there, for some reason, winning the Turkish equivalent of a Grammy and generally living it up. Other than that, it was the usual slide into obscurity, though she did return to Eurovision in 1979, this time representing her native France, singing "Je Suis L'Enfant-Soleil". She came third. Afterwards, well, she basically settled into the life of a former Eurovision Song Contest Winner, doing Eurovision galas, the odd charity concert and generally being wheeled out whenever a former Eurovision Song Contest winner was called for. There was a live album in 2004, and that's about it. But as long as there are fans of the Eurovision Song Contest, Anne-Marie David will always be remembered.

Further reading: Anne-Marie David fansite