"Cry Baby", written and composed by Martin Isherwood, was the 's entry at the

Eurovision Song Contest 2003 The Eurovision Song Contest 2003 was the 48th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Riga, Latvia, following the country's victory at the with the song " I Wanna" by Marie N. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) ...

, performed by the duo Jemini. It was the first of two songs entered by the United Kingdom to earn no points (''

nul points The winner of the Eurovision Song Contest is determined by a positional voting system. The most recent version of the system was implemented in the . Each participating country awards two sets of 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 points, based on th ...

'') from any other countries. It was also the first ever English-language song to receive no points. The song is a simple pop ditty about a woman telling her lover that their relationship is over because he does not love her anymore. He sings back saying she is being unfair, prolonging the relationship while he has his own life to live.

Selection process

Jemini were selected to take part in Eurovision by a public phone poll in 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 ...

's ''

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 ...

'' competition. More than 100,000 votes cast in total for the duo. It was revealed in an interview with the band Steps on BBC Radio 2, Scott Mills breakfast show that Claire & H (from Steps, in their solo act) were supposed to be the act for that year, but pulled out last minute, and Jemini replaced them.

Eurovision performance

For their Eurovision appearance, Chris Cromby and Gemma Abbey were accompanied on stage by three female backing singers, and a guitarist. The Eurovision failure prompted a great deal of mirth and consternation in the British and European media. Jemini admitted that their performance was

off-key Off-key is musical content that is not at the expected frequency or pitch period, either with respect to some absolute reference frequency, or in a ratiometric sense (i.e. through removal of exactly one degree of freedom, such as the frequency of ...

, and claimed they were unable to hear the backing track due to a technical fault.

Terry Wogan Sir Michael Terence Wogan (; 3 August 1938 – 31 January 2016) was an Irish radio and television broadcaster who worked for the BBC in Britain for most of his career. Between 1993 and his semi-retirement in 2009, his BBC Radio 2 weekday brea ...

, long-time commentator on the contest for the

, said that the UK was suffering from "post-

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

backlash". Although the majority of the media blamed the result on the poor quality of the song and that it was sung out of tune with

Louis Walsh Michael Louis Vincent Walsh (born 5 August 1952) is an Irish music manager and television personality. He has managed Johnny Logan (singer), Johnny Logan, Boyzone, Jedward and Westlife, four of Ireland's most successful pop acts in the 1990s an ...

branding the song "a disgrace" and "so out of tune they deserved to be last". Following the show, their dressing room was broken into and vandalised. Author and historian

John Kennedy O'Connor John Kennedy O'Connor (born in 1964) is a television and radio broadcaster, author, and entertainment commentator. He was born in North London, England, but is a naturalized citizen of the United States. He has written, reported and broadcast f ...

notes in ''The Eurovision Song Contest – The Official History'' that with a record field of 26 entries, this made the UK's failure the most spectacular in the history of the contest. This would not be the only occasion that the UK has scored no points, with "

Embers ''Embers'' is a radio play by Samuel Beckett. It was written in English in 1957. First broadcast on the BBC Third Programme on 24 June 1959, the play won the RAI prize at the Prix Italia awards later that year. Donald McWhinnie directed Ja ...

" performed by James Newman also achieving the same feat in .

Charts

References

{{authority control 2003 songs 2003 debut singles Eurovision songs of the United Kingdom Eurovision songs of 2003 2003 in British music Eurovision songs that scored no points English pop songs