Love, Shine a Light
| "Love Shine a Light" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Single by Katrina and the Waves | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| from the album Walk on Water | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Released | 1997 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Genre | Pop | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Writer(s) | Kimberley Rew | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Katrina and the Waves singles chronology | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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"Love Shine a Light" was the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 1997, performed by Katrina and the Waves as the 1997 Eurovision entrant by the UK and the lead single from the album Walk on Water. It is the group's biggest success since "Walking on Sunshine" 12 years earlier.
The song was composed by the group's guitarist and regular songwriter Kimberley Rew following a request from the brother of the group's drummer Alex Cooper for an anthem for The Samaritans in recognition of that organization's thirtieth anniversary, Cooper's brother being a member of the Swindon branch of the Samaritans. In a 1997 interview Katrina and the Waves lead vocalist Katrina Leskanich indicated that it was members of the Samaritans who opined that "Love Shine a Light" "was the type of song which would win the Eurovision Song Contest and [so] at the last minute, [Katrina and the Waves] submitted the song with our £250 [entrance fee]" for consideration to vie in the Great British Song Contest, the national preselection round for the UK in Eurovision 1997.
It was also reported that Carmina Cooper, the manager of Katrina and the Waves and the wife of Alex Cooper, met up with BBC Radio Cambridgeshire's breakfast presenter (and Head of Music) Dan Chisholm to play the track for him: Chisholm's response was to urge that the number be entered in the Great British Song Contest, and after affording "Love Shine a Light" its radio airplay debut Chisholm declared it "the song which will win this year's Eurovision Song Contest".
In a 2010 interview Leskanich would state that Great British Song Contest executive producer Jonathan King had in fact initiated Katrina and the Waves involvement in the Great British Contest as he'd contacted Leskanich to ask if her group had a song which might be a suitable contender to vie to become the UK entrant at Eurovision 1997. Leskanich would paraphrase her response to King as being: "Yes, we have this song called 'Love Shine A Light' which we’ve never put on a record because it's too cheesy, too ABBA, too Eurovision, so it would be perfect for you."
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Wikipedia