Down into the 80s in the Eurovision Top 100 list, “I’m Never Giving Up” is our first United Kingdom entry.
Britain has more songs on our list than any other nation with 11. They were not one of the original seven countries at Eurovision in 1956 – they joined the following year in 1957 – but ever since, the United Kingdom has been a mainstay. Despite some lean years in the 2000s and 2010s, the UK had a high density of incredible songs before it. This was one of them, whether or not the juries acknowledged its greatness at the time.
There are four songs from the Eurovision Song Contest 1983 on the Top 100 list. Some contests have zero songs on the list, and this one exceeded the averages. What’s ironic is that in terms of the production, this was one of the most poorly-executed contests in history. The music made up for it in a bunch of ways.
Vital Information: “I’m Never Giving Up”
| Song | I’m Never Giving Up |
| Performed By | Sweet Dreams |
| Written By | Jan Pulsford, Ron Roker, & Phil Wigger |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Year | 1983 |
| Language(s) Performed In | English |
| How It Fared | 6th Place (79 Points) |
| Was It Fair? | Several spots too low |
What I Liked
This song exuded energy and was a snapshot of the 1980s. The outfits, the hair, the peppy beat, the choreography, the catchiness – how can you go wrong? This was no serious masterpiece of compositional glory, but they hit on everything. I wish I could have seen this song in an era where staging was a more prominent factor to see what they could have done with it.
The bad news for this wonderful and upbeat song is that it came in a strong musical year, and was in part overshadowed by one of the best Eurovision vocal performances of all-time.
Other Facts
- While this song might remind you quite a bit of the 1981 British winner “Making Your Mind Up,” none of the lead performers were involved in that song. (source: Eurovision World).
- The United Kingdom went early in the running order: third position.
- Britain got just one douze point score in 1983 from Sweden. Nevertheless, most countries gave the UK points, and they got 10 from Austria.
“I’m Never Giving Up,” Are You?
Of course not, because you’re going to watch the performance from the 1983 grand final.
