1991 UK: Samantha Janus - A Message to Your Heart (10th place at Eurovision Song Contest)

Описание: Performed by: Samantha Janus
Music by: Paul Curtis
Lyrics by: Paul Curtis
Conductor: Ronnie Hazlehurst
Language: English
Placing: 10th (47 points)

"A Message to Your Heart", written and composed by Paul Curtis, was the United Kingdom's entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 1991, performed by singer and actress Samantha Womack, then known by her maiden name Samantha Janus. Paul Curtis also penned the previous year's entry, "Give a Little Love Back to the World."

Womack won the right to perform at Rome by winning the UK national final, A Song for Europe, where she was the third singer to perform. As in the previous three years, the winner was picked via a nationwide telephone vote. Womack won over second-place finisher Brendan Faye by only 13,000 votes, in the slimmest margin since the telephone vote was introduced.

At Rome, the song was performed twentieth on the night in March 1991, after Spain's Sergio Dalma with "Bailar pegados", and before Cyprus's Elena Patroklou with "SOS." At the end of judging that evening, "A Message to Your Heart" took the tenth-place slot with 47 points. It was the worst showing for the United Kingdom since 1987, and resulted in the 1992 Song for Europe being retooled as far as telephone voting was concerned.

Like the previous year, composer Paul Curtis submitted a topical entry for consideration; this time, the subjects were the less fortunate, suffering from poverty and starvation. Womack sung of the contrasts between the people who "are hungry just from being born", and the people who have too much, with "their only hunger being greed." The "message to [the] heart" refers to Womack imploring the better-off to, at the very least, say a prayer for the less fortunate, ending with the well-known John Bradford quotation, "There but for the grace of God, go I."

In a somewhat ironic twist, the melody of the song is up-tempo. On the night of the Contest, Womack was dressed in a pink mini-dress, flanked by three women in white mini-dresses. She was also joined by two other "ghost" backing singers, masked by a music stand at the back of the stage; Kit Rolfe who had competed for the UK before in 1984 with the song "Love Games" (which, it was claimed, had also used "ghost" singers offstage), and Hazell Dean, who had worked extensively with Stock, Aitken and Waterman in the eighties.

Womack went on to become a successful actress, starring in the sitcom Game On and the soap EastEnders. Despite her achievements, her entry into the Eurovision is frequently remarked upon. She has said regarding the experience that her failure in the contest devastated her at the time and thought it would spell the end of her career. She has also called her appearance 'ridiculous', in that she was dressed in a pink mini-dress while singing about starving children and says the lyrics of the song are burned into her memory forever.

Samantha Zoe Womack (née Janus; born 2 November 1972) has worked in film, television and stage.

Womack made her name in the mid-1990s with her role as Mandy Wilkins in Game On. In recent years she has been best known for playing the role of Ronnie Mitchell in EastEnders from 2007 before leaving in 2011. She returned to the role in 2013 and continued until leaving for good in early 2017 when the character was killed off. Her portrayal as Ronnie has gained her more prominence and acting roles after being out of the limelight for numerous years. Womack has since became a household name and Ronnie has become one of the most iconic EastEnders characters since it began in 1985. For this role, Womack has been awarded and nominated for numerous awards.

She also played Tanya Porter in Sky One comedy-drama Mount Pleasant from 2013 until the final episode in 2017. Since leaving EastEnders, Womack has toured across the United Kingdom playing Morticia in the stage musical The Addams Family.

Lyrics:

A message to your heart
Half the world is hungry
Just through being born
And every day is a compromise
For a grain of corn

And half the world have too much
Their only hunger is their greed
Through politics and ignorance
Half the world's in need

A message to your heart, it's all right
Say a little prayer and sleep tonight, oh...
Tomorrow you'll still be in paradise, oh...

A message to your heart, walk on by
Till you hear the voice of conscience cry, oh...
There but for the grace of God, go I

Half the world is lucky
Born in paradise
But they don't see the children
With hunger in their eyes

And the time has come for changes
Though for some it's much too late
There's got to be an answer
The hungry cannot wait

A message to your heart, it's all right
Say a little prayer and sleep tonight, oh...
Tomorrow you'll still be in paradise, oh...

A message to your heart, walk on by
Until you hear the voice of conscience cry, oh...
There but for the grace of God, go I

Oh... a message to your heart, walk on by
Till you hear the voice of conscience cry, oh...
There but for the grace of God, go I