If you were a Eurovision performer, eagerly awaiting the draw for the Grand Final, what would your worse fear be? Being on first? Being on last? Being on second maybe?
I would wager your average performer wouldn’t know about the curse of being on second. It’s one of two positions that has yet to yield a winner. So when today’s birthday girl Gina G (née Gina Mary Gardiner) was saddled with that position in 1996, she may not have known its history until one of those pesky Eurovision fans pointed it out to her. She’d romped through the audio-only preselection to get to Oslo, so the UK camp thought it could be their year. Anyway, along comes second spot and it was an eighth-place finish. But she paved the way for a more modern turn in the contest, and indirectly the end of the orchestra. And Australia. What a girl!
Gina is 50 today.
Happy birthday, Gina!