Daz Sampson
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Darren "Daz" Sampson (born 1974 in Stockport, Cheshire) is a British dance music producer and vocalist.
Up until 2006, when he represented the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest, Sampson was best known for his commercial dance music, often reworking older songs. His credits include songs such as "Out of Touch" (as a member of Uniting Nations), "Rhinestone Cowboy" (as a member of Rikki & Daz) and "Kung Fu Fighting" (as a member of Bus Stop).
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[edit] Eurovision Song Contest 2006
On 4 March 2006, Sampson won the BBC show Making Your Mind Up[1] with the song "Teenage Life", which was written and produced with John Matthews (aka Ricardo Autobahn) from the Cuban Boys, who were responsible for the Hampster Dance hit "Cognoscenti Vs. Intelligentsia" in 1999. The song entered the UK Singles Chart on 14 May 2006.
The accompanying dance routine involved young women dressed as schoolgirls, dubbed The Sampsonites, which led to criticism from some sections of the media due to the apparently inappropriate sexuality of his performance of his Eurovision entry. In his defence, he was quoted as saying "the teenage girl dancers were fully clothed [...] there was no sexual innuendo"[2].
As a result of winning Making Your Mind Up, he represented the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest on 20 May 2006 in Athens, but only 10 of the 39 eligible countries voted for Sampson and his total score was 25 points, placing him 19th out of the 24 acts (winning act Lordi, from Finland, amassed 292 points). Ironically, when asked before the event whether Finland could win, he replied "No way. They're way too scary."[3] Sampson professed to have great confidence that he would win the Eurovision, dismissing previous contestants for not having enough respect for the competition and having poor quality songs. [4]
Despite saying that previous contestants' songs failed simply because they were not good enough, and not because of political voting, following the contest he claimed to have been "the victim of a touch of neighbourly voting" and he has since promised to return to try again for Eurovision victory in 2007.[1]
Although he finished low down the rankings in the Eurovision Song Contest, he enjoyed success in the British charts. "Teenage Life" hit Number 8 in the UK Top 40 reaching the highest chart position of any Eurovision song since Precious peaked at number 6 with "Say It Again" in 1999. In the week following the contest, the publicity he had gained from this exposure helped his single to climb to number 5 in the UK chart, the highest placing for a Eurovision entry since Katrina and the Waves in 1997. Sampson claims that his performance may have raised the popularity of Eurovision in the UK, while others say "The peak audience would appear to be mainly due to audience switchover from the Prince's Trust charity concert broadcast on ITV1" - in any case the 2006 contest attracted half the UK TV audience[2], and led to the highest viewing figures in the UK in Eurovision history.[5]
[edit] Career following Eurovision
After performing at the Eurovision Song Contest, Sampson revealed plans to become a TV presenter, and claimed that "I have already been approached to appear on a celebrity reality show but I can't really say much about it - other than the fact it is set in Australia."[6] This could be seen as an allusion to the popular ITV show I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here. However he did not appear in the latest series of the reality show in November 2006.
He has also claimed that he will be performing at the Eurovision Song Contest 2007, and although originally claiming that he would not try to represent the United Kingdom again, and saying that he had been asked to perform for another country[7], he has since announced that he will be entering a new song entitled "Goodbye" into the United Kingdom pre-selection competition for the 2007 contest, which he intends to perform as a duet with Carol Decker[8]. He has described the song as "very different to Teenage Life", saying that it is it "more like The Streets meets classic Eurovision"[9]. If he is successful in qualifying for the Eurovision 2007, he will become the third singer to represent the United Kingdom twice, following Ronnie Carroll, who also represented the United Kingdom twice consecutively in 1962 and 1963, and Sir Cliff Richard.
[edit] Singles
| Year | Song | UK Singles Chart | UK Download Chart | France Singles Chart | Germany Singles Chart | Australia ARIA Chart | Holland Singles Chart | Album |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | "Teenage Life" | #7 | #11 | #7 | - | #4 | #3 |
[edit] References
- ^ "Dance track wins Eurovision vote", BBC News, 2006-03-04. Retrieved on 2006-05-18.
- ^ "Underdog Daz enjoying the limelight", Manchester Evening News, 2006-04-26. Retrieved on 2006-05-18.
- ^ "60 Seconds Daz Sampson", Metro.co.uk, 2006-05-19. Retrieved on 2006-05-22.
- ^ "Daz takes on Eurovision Mission", BBC.co.uk, 2006-05-16. Retrieved on 2006-05-22.
- ^ "Daz swap: Can Eu believe it!", Manchester Evening News, 2006-05-30. Retrieved on 2006-06-04.
- ^ "Daz swap: Can Eu believe it!", Manchester Evening News, 2006-05-30. Retrieved on 2006-06-04.
- ^ "United Kingdom: Daz a candidate for an eastern European country in 2007?", oikotimes.com, 2006-05-31. Retrieved on 2006-06-04.
- ^ "United Kingdom: Daz reveals song and duet partner for Eurovision 2007 entry", oikotimes.com, 2006-09-09. Retrieved on 2006-09-10.
- ^ "Exclusive: Daz Sampson speaks to esctoday.com", esctoday.com, 2006-09-27. Retrieved on 2006-09-27.
[edit] External links
| Preceded by: Javine |
UK in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 |
Succeeded by: N/A: Most recent |
