Paul Curtis (musician)

Paul Curtis
Birth name	Paul Michael Curtis
Born	1950 (age 66–67) England
Genres	Pop music
Occupation(s)	Singer, songwriter, record producer
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	1970s–present

Paul Michael Curtis (born 1950) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer from London, who holds the record for the highest number of songs to make the finals of the A Song for Europe contest, the BBC's annual competition to choose the UK's entry to the Eurovision Song Contest, competing with 22 separate songs from 1975 to 1992.

Paul Curtis recorded under the name of Mickey Moonshine for one single "Name It You Got It" on the uk Decca label in 1974. This was a hugely popular track played on the Northern soul scene a few years later and was re-released to capitalise on the demand at the time. His true identity on this track had been hotly debated over the years. Some suggestions were Alvin Stardust, Paul Nicolas and the favourite-Chris Rainbow. Two phone calls followed from the Soul source Internet list members in 2008. One to Chris Rainbow on the isle of Skye confirmed it wasn't him, and one to record label owner Paul Mooney from Paul Curtis himself confirming it was him. Mystery solved. Curtis also holds the record for having written the most number of UK entries at the Eurovision Song Contest. Four of his songs have won the UK selection contest with his debut attempt, "Let Me Be The One" by The Shadows, doing best at Eurovision, finishing in second place at the final in , Sweden in 1975. His second song to go on to the Eurovision final, which he wrote in collaboration with Graham Sacher, "Love Games" by Belle and the Devotions, caused a storm of controversy when it was booed from the stage in Luxembourg. Curtis and his co-writer Sacher, were accused of plagiarism, and the singers on stage were largely faking their performance. In addition, Curtis has twice sung his own compositions in the UK national competition, "No Matter How I Try" (1982), and as leader of Duke and the Aces in 1980, performing "Love Is Alive".

Curtis was married to singer Ronnie France, who herself performed one of her husband's compositions in the 1978 UK final, "Lonely Nights". He had a son in 1978, John-Paul whilst married to Ronnie France. In 1984, Curtis wrote four of the eight finalists for the competition, having written three out of eight in 1982.

Some artists got their first break by recording Curtis compositions and performing them in the Eurovision heat. Hazell Dean and Sinitta both made their TV debuts in A Song for Europe. David Ian was part of two groups who sang Curtis songs, First Division in 1984 and Jump in 1986.

...
Wikipedia