"One Step Out of Time", written and composed by Paul Davies, Tony Ryan, and Victor Stratton, was the 's entry at the

Eurovision Song Contest 1992 The Eurovision Song Contest 1992 was the 37th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on 9 May 1992 at the in Malmö, Sweden. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster (SVT), and presented by Lydia Capolicc ...

, performed by

Michael Ball Michael Ashley Ball (born 27 June 1962) is an English singer, presenter and actor. In 1985, he made his West End debut as Marius Pontmercy in the original production of ''Les Misérables''. In 1989, he reached number two in the UK Singles C ...

. The song was included on Ball's 1992 self-titled debut album as well as the album ''Past and Present'', which was released on 9 March 2009.

Background

Composition

It is a mid-tempo pop song, relating the singer's comfort with being "one step out of time" in relation to rejecting the reality around him, instead pining after his former lover. Not accepting that his relationship is over, and spurning the disapproval of his friends, he wishes to put "his love on the line" one more time, imploring his former lover to just let him know what he had done wrong.

Selection process

After the disappointing result Samantha Janus received on behalf of the United Kingdom at , the UK national final, ''

A Song for Europe A, or a, is the first Letter (alphabet), letter and the first vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''English alphabet#Letter names, a'' (pronounced ), plural ...

'', was retooled. Reverting to the selection process which decided the entries from 1964 to 1975, a singer was picked internally by the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

, and the public would vote on which song would go with them to the Eurovision finals. Ball sang eight songs on ''A Song for Europe 1992'', and "One Step Out of Time", performed seventh, emerged as the winner by an overwhelming margin (over 60,000 telephone votes separated the first and second-place finishers).

At Eurovision

At the contest, held in

Malmö Malmö is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, sixth-largest city in Nordic countries, the Nordic region. Located on ...

, the song was performed sixteenth on the night, after 's

Tony Wegas Anton Hans Sarközi as Tony Wegas (born 3 May 1965 in Oberschützen) is an Austrian singer and television actor. Biography Wegas participated in "Ein Lied für Rom", the Austrian heat of the Eurovision Song Contest in 1991 with the song "Wunde ...

with "

Zusammen geh'n The Eurovision Song Contest 1992 was the 37th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on 9 May 1992 at the in Malmö, Sweden. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster (SVT), and presented by Lydia Capolicch ...

", and before 's

Linda Martin Linda Martin (born 27 March 1952) is an Irish singer and television presenter. She is best known as the winner of the 1992 Eurovision Song Contest during which she represented Ireland with the song " Why Me?", the first of a record three c ...

with " Why Me?". At the end of voting that evening, "One Step Out of Time", the pre-contest favourite, took the second-place slot with 139 points. , , and awarded the UK their 12 points that evening. Despite losing by 16 points to "Why Me?", the UK received more times the 12 points than Ireland (four to three). This would be the third of four second-place finishes the UK had placed between 1988 and 1993.

Charts

Before Eurovision, the song debuted and peaked at No. 20 on the UK Singles Chart, and stayed in the chart for seven weeks.

References

External links

Lyrics from Diggiloo Thrush
{{Authority control 1992 singles Michael Ball songs Eurovision songs of the United Kingdom Eurovision songs of 1992 1992 in British music Polydor Records singles 1992 songs