26 February – I searched for myself, here and in other countries

Are the contests too big? Do you like 154 countries taking part, or were you happy when it was just 20? It has increased over the years, but there were days without the semi-finals.

In 1992, we were wondering how a contest of 23 songs would fare. It was the biggest at the time, but in the safe hands of SVT. That first ever song to be performed twenty-third in the running order was from today’s birthday boy Humphrey Campbell. He performed with his brothers, hence the possible confusion as to which of them was Humphrey. But as he was also Mr Ruth Jacott for some time so we saw him again in Millstreet. Anyway, Humphrey’s performance saw a top 10 finish, their best for a few years, so being on last obviously helped. And who’d have thought that these days 23rd to perform isn’t closing the contest.

Humphrey is 65 today.

Gefeliciteerd, Humphrey!