18 December – You came here in the night

Have you ever liked one of those songs that the fans think will win by a country mile, only for it to not quite come up to expectations?

Eurovision is littered with songs like that, and it’s arguable one of those was sung by today’s birthday girl Xandee (née Sandy Boets). On the plus side, she didn’t need to go through the semi-final, so that Saturday night appearance was always a given. But how did she do? Well, she made the top 10 in three countries. That just left the other 32. Maybe it goes to show that the opinion of the fan doesn’t really count for much at all. Nevertheless, her song is always a floor-filler, and has probably been remembered for longer than many songs that beat our Xandee.

Xandee is 42 today.

Gefeliciteerd/Bonne aniversaire, Xandee!