"Here We'll Stay" is a song written by Tony Colton and Jean Roussel and first recorded by Sonia Jones for the UK pre-selection for the 1980

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...

. The song was then picked up in 1983 by ABBA member

Frida Frida, Frieda, or Freida may refer to: People and fictional characters *Frida (given name), any of several people or characters ** *Frieda (surname), any of several people or characters *Afroditi Frida (born 1964), Greek singer *Frida (singer) ...

and

Phil Collins Philip David Charles Collins (born 30 January 1951) is an English musician, songwriter, record producer and actor. He was the drummer and later became the lead singer of the rock band Genesis (band), Genesis and had a successful solo career, ac ...

and recorded as a duet from her album ''

Something's Going On ''Something's Going On'' is the third solo album by Swedish singer Anni-Frid Lyngstad (Frida), one of the founding members of the Swedish pop group ABBA and her first album recorded entirely in English. Her previous two albums had been recorded i ...

'' and a solo version was released as the final single from the album. For the

1980 Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest 1980 was the 25th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in The Hague, Netherlands, and was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster (NOS), which agreed to stage the eve ...

, the national selection show ''

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 held at the BBC TV Studios in London on 26 March 1980. 12 songs were in the running to represent the UK, including "Here We'll Stay". However, the song finished in 11th place with two songs in joint first place:

Prima Donna In opera or ''commedia dell'arte'', a prima donna (; Italian for 'first lady'; : ''prime donne'') is the leading female singer in the company, the person to whom the ''prime'' roles would be given. ''Prime donne'' often had grand off-stage pe ...

's " Love Enough for Two" and Maggie Moone's "Happy Everything". Prima Donna's song was selected to represent the UK at Eurovision and finished in third place. Sonia Jones's version of "Here We'll Stay" did not enter the UK Singles Chart.

Frida version

There are three versions of "Here We'll Stay" recorded by Frida. A duet with the producer

, released as the final track of ''

''. An alternate duet mix with missing chorus vocals and an added echo in the verses was mistakenly released on the Swedish cassette tape and the first pressings of the 2005 reissue of the album. When it was decided to release the song as a single in 1983, Frida re-recorded the song as a solo version. After the success of "

I Know There's Something Going On "I Know There's Something Going On" is a song by the Swedish singer and ABBA member Anni-Frid "Frida" Lyngstad, released on 6 August 1982 as her debut English-language single. It was the lead single to her third studio album and her first in the ...

" in the US, where the single peaked at No. 13, Polar decided "Here We'll Stay" to be the follow-up single for the American market. Collins resisted this idea, as his solo career was taking off and to protect his image. With Collins not wanting to be associated with the single, Frida recorded new vocals over two days in March 1983 over a different backing track with added strings and diminished piano parts, as well as a heavier Swedish accent, compared to the album version. The music video was recorded on 25 April 1983, directed by

Lasse Hallström Lars Sven "Lasse" Hallström (; born 2 June 1946) is a Swedish film director. He first became known for directing almost all the music videos by the pop music, pop group ABBA, but came to international attention with his 1985 feature film ''My L ...

Release and reception

"Here We'll Stay" was released in April 1983 in the US. It did not have the same success as "I Know There's Something Going On" and bubbled under the charts in third place on 7 May 1983 and second place on 14 May 1983. The single was released in June 1983 in the UK, with limited success in the charts, peaking at No. 100.

Charts

References

{{Anni-Frid Lyngstad 1980 singles 1980 songs 1983 singles 1983 songs Anni-Frid Lyngstad songs Song recordings produced by Phil Collins