Bucks Fizz wouldn’t have won in 1981 without skirt rip says Cheryl Baker

Eurovision Queen Cheryl Baker has been speaking to ICE 36 about the iconic skirt rip dance routine from her 1981 winning performance with Bucks Fizz. The singer revealed how the “genius” routine came about and believes that it was instrumental to winning the competition.

Tell me about the iconic choreography from your contest-winning performance from in 1981 – who came up with the idea and how much of an impact do you think the routine had on your success?

The impact of the choreography was huge! We had a fantastic choreographer – Chrissie Wickham from Hot Gossip – and she came up with the idea. We had the dance routine mapped out and then we had the conversation about the costumes. Everyone was in the room, Nicola, who put the band together, Gill our manager, someone from the record company.

We were all discussing what costumes we should wear for the performance. Nicola wanted us in bright colours, so that is where the green, yellow, blue and red came from. I always had chunky thighs because I’ve always been a bit of a runner, so I said a swing skirt would be best if we did a little rock n’ roll bit because the song was a bit rock-a-billy and there was a rock n’ roll dance in the middle. I thought having that swing skirt would look amazing when we swung around, with skirt flying everywhere. Jay, who is petit and still is to this day, she wanted to wear a mini skirt, which I didn’t think was right. We were all saying our piece and this conversation was going on and on and on. It was Chrissie who said, “on the line ‘do you wanna see some more’ we’ll tear off the top skirt and have the mini skirt underneath.” It was a stroke of genius. I honestly believe that without that we wouldn’t have won the Eurovision.

Bucks Fizz performing on TOTP Christmas 1981

Are there any rivalries with fellow pop stars from back in the day that you would like to share with us?

The record label always used to release a single every three months. Every one that did Top of the Pops with us, The Human League, Shaking Stevens, I mean there were loads, but we always seemed to be competing with them. You’d really hope that your single did better than theirs. There was a rivalry, but it was a friendly rivalry. They were our mates. When we do revival festivals now, we get to see all our old mates again and we have a great laugh. To think that we’re still doing it, more than forty years on…it’s amazing.

Who was the biggest diva that you ever encountered in the pop world?

Apart from Mike Nolan (laughs). I don’t know really. I mean we’re all just people, ordinary people in an extraordinary business. Shirley Bassey, she was a diva, but everyone was really lovely. There wasn’t anyone that I thought I don’t want to see them again, they’re up their own backside – I never thought that once. I think we were all really happy to be doing what we’re doing.