EURO TRASHED

THE dreaded “nul points” haunts every Eurovision Song Contest act.

- MARION MCMULLEN looks

The fear of being rooted to the bottom of the leaderboard while millions watch is hard to deal with, especially when the international competition is broadcast live and a brave face is needed when the camera swings in your direction.

UK duo Gemma Abbey and Chris Cromby collectively known as Jemini found themselves in the uncomfortable spot 22 years ago when they sang Cry Baby at the competition in Riga in 2003.

Hopes of another British success story were well and truly dashed when the Liverpool singers became the first UK act not to score a point, coming last out of 26 countries.

They blamed audio problems which meant they could not hear the backing tracking for their off-key performance.

Their song would spend three weeks in the UK music charts, but it was Turkey who went on to win the contest for the first time that year, a barefoot Sertab Erener singing Everyway That I Can emerging victorious.

There have been other singing setbacks for the UK over the years. In 1957, Patricia Bredin was the first to represent the country in the competition, performing a song called All. It lasted all of one minute and 52 seconds, but only scored six points in Germany.