EURO GLORY
Eurovision winners: where are they now? From The Masked Singer and Tesco to huge world tours
EUROVISION has propelled acts to global stardom after giving them a platform in front of a huge global audience.
Contest legends from decades gone by often became bona fide pop stars that sold millions of records and topped charts.
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The show itself seems to have a recouped a sense of credibility in recent years after becoming a novelty in the noughties.
And with Euro fever in the United Kingdom reinvigorated in the past 12 months following Sam Ryder's incredible second place finish, it once again feels the show is capable of birthing a pop phenomenon.
Where are the Eurovision winners now?
Since it began running in 1956, the Eurovision song contest has seen 67 winners from across the globe, who come together to sing their hearts out.
Despite wins, some of our favourite stars have returned to their normal lives too, from working in Tesco to political activism.
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While others have followed media-related careers including TV judging, competition hosting, or singing careers bringing international renown.
From Celine Dion to Bucks Fizz, ABBA and more - here we take a look back at some of Eurovision's favourites and look at where they are now.
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Sandie Shaw
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Sandie gave the UK its first Eurovision victory in 1967 with her famous barefoot rendition of Puppet On A String.
The now 75-year-old star took to the stage with several hits already under her belt, having recorded songs in French, Spanish, German and Italian.
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Despite being one of the most successful British artists in the 1960s, she was absent until the 70s, recording a cover of The Smiths' song Hand In Glove.
Sandie ducked under the radar again to focus on being a mum to daughter Gracie, and in 2013 revealed she was retiring from music for good.
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Instead, she focused on political campaigning and joined Amnesty International in 2012, and later campaigned against Brexit in 2016.
In 2018, she was awarded an MBE at Buckingham Palace, and has been recognised by her local council, Dagenham, with a top honour award.
In November 2020, Sandie revealed that she has finally forgiven her ex-husband Jeff Banks, 50 years after she claimed he blew her Eurovision fortune, leaving her to live in a caravan.
Lulu
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Scottish pop singer and TV personality Lulu rose to global fame for singing the theme to the American blockbuster To Sir, With Love in 1967.
Starting her TV career, the 73-year-old became the TV host for BBC Show Gadzooks! It's The In-Crowd as well as starring in the comedy Three of a Kind.
Lulu went on to win the 1969 Eurovision song contest with Boom Bang-a-Bang in a four-way tie with Spain, France and the Netherlands, taking her career to new heights.
She sang the theme for the Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun in 1974, and went on to release several UK top ten hits over the years.
In 2011, Lulu took part in Strictly Come Dancing.
She also sang at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014 and starred in London's West End musical 42nd Street.
The star continues to sing for her adoring fans across the world and last toured along with Take That on their Greatest Hits tour in 2019.
In October 2021, she was a guest judge on the third series of the BBC drag competition series, RuPaul's Drag Race UK.
ABBA
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Sweeping the winning title with the hit song Waterloo in 1974, ABBA went on to be one of the biggest pop groups in the world, selling 380million records.
The Swedish group began their career in 1972, naming the band after members Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad
Agnetha broke off from the band and continued to have success as a solo artist, until her life was struck with tragedy and she stepped away from the limelight.
Becoming a recluse, she hid from the public eye until 2004, living on a farm outside Stockholm, before performing for Children In Need in 2013.
Meanwhile, Anni-Frid married the late Prince Heinrich Ruzzo Reuss von Plauen, who died in 1999, and inherited his £75million fortune.
She currently lives in Switzerland with her British partner, Henry Smith, 5th Viscount Hambleden.
Benny and Bjorn continued to work together after ABBA, penning Mamma Mia! the musical which premiered on the West End in 1999.
Bjorn lives in Sweden and is believed to be worth at least £90million, while Benny, the richest of the group, is reportedly worth over £100million.
On November 5, 2021, ABBA reunited after a long 40 year hiatus and released their ninth studio album Voyage.
In 2022, the group announced they will go on tour, performing using holographic avatars of their younger selves.
Izhar Cohen & the Alphabeta
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Izhar Cohen took Israel to their first-ever Eurovision victory in 1978 by singing the hit Hebrew song A-Ba-Ni-Bi.
While the contest saw the star rise to fame, competing again in the contest in 1985 - the star came fifth but was undeterred by his defeat.
Izhar tried twice more to represent Israel in 1982 and 1996, but when he didn't make it through to the show, he stepped back from music for good.
Turning his hand to something new, Cohen now owns a jewellery store on Tel Aviv's famous Dizengoff Street, selling his own line of costume jewels.
However, In 2020, he participated in the Israeli version of The Masked Singer and was unmasked as the Bull.
Bucks Fizz
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Not only did Bucks Fizz take the Eurovision trophy in 1981 with Making Your Mind Up, but the band also went on to sell an impressive 15million records.
The group was made up of singers Bobby G, Cheryl Baker, Mike Nolan and Jay Aston - who was later replaced by Shelley Preston.
Their number one hits included The Land of Make Believe and My Camera Never Lies, as well as securing the top ten with Now Those Days Are Gone, If You Can't Stand the Heat, When We Were Young and New Beginning.
Tragedy struck the band in 1984 when a bush crash broke the spine of band member Cheryl and sent Mike into a three-day coma, causing life-changing injuries.
In one of the messiest band breakups in history, in 1985, Jay announced she was finished with the band after having an affair with Andy Hill, the husband of the group's creator, Nichola Martin.
While Shelley was brought in as a replacement, she departed in 1989 - signalling the end of Bucks Fizz and a court case discussing the rights to use the band's name by its remaining members.
In 2009, Baker, Nolan and Aston got back together as The Fizz, embarking on a successful UK-wide tour before releasing their third studio album.
Cheryl recently spoke to The Sun about her Eurovision memories, saying: "For me, it’s been phenomenal," she said. "It has made my life a success and I have loved every bit of it. To go on Top of the Pops with a number one record, and that only happened because we won the Eurovision song contest, was incredible.
"There is nothing about winning the Eurovision that is a curse. Nothing at all. Everything about Eurovision, from my experience, is superb. It is the most fantastic thing that has ever happened to me. It changed my life for the better. It was an amazing experience.
"I revelled in it. From winning Eurovision, from that point on, for the next three years, everything we did was first class. We would have limousines – I was from a council flat in Bethnal Green – we flew everywhere first class. We would stay in the best hotels, we would eat in the best restaurants."
Celine Dion
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Canadian born Celine snatched victory with a single point, singing Partez Pas Sans Moi for Switzerland in the 1988 Eurovision song contest.
Having released several French-language songs as a teen, the star went on to learn English before returning with the chart-topper Where Does My Heart Beat Now the following year.
Taking a break in the early 1990s to spend time with her manager and husband René Angélil, she returned with a bang in 1997 recording the Titanic theme My Heart Will Go On.
In 2004, the star was presented with the Chopard Diamond Award at the World Music Awards as she became the best-selling female artist of all time.
Celine has now sold more than 200million albums worldwide, and since Eurovision has gained 12 World Music Awards, five Grammys and seven Billboard Music Awards.
Dion has had her share of Las Vegas residency shows over her three-decade-long career, as is due to return in November 2021 to Resorts World.
This year she is also due to kick off her Courage World Tour after it was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The star was set to go on tour this year but on January 15, 2022, a statement posted to Dion's website and social media accounts announced the U.S. and Canadian concert dates for March–April were cancelled because of the "severe and persistent muscle spasms" she was experiencing.
Niamh Kavanagh
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Quickly after her win in 1993 with In Your Eyes, Niamh was signed by music mogul Simon Cowell in a million-dollar deal with Arista Records.
She recorded an album in Nashville, Tennessee, and won rave reviews, but still remains largely unknown on the American music scene.
Nonetheless, she continued her music career with the coved band The Illegals, and performed on Eurovision for the second time in 2010.
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Gaining a place in the final with It's For You, she failed to secure her place and finished 23rd overall - failing to replicate her previous success.
However, the star ducked out of the limelight during the global pandemic when it was revealed she was .
She joked that her colleagues were too young to know her from Eurovision, and insisted she still had her heart set on music outside of her job.
As well as caring full time for her husband, who suffered a devastating stroke in 2018, and a 17-year-old son, the Irish star spends time listening to and coaching young musicians online.
Lordi
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After 40 years in the contest, Finland finally had their first Eurovision win with rock band and monster-esque Lordi's Hard Rock, Hallelujah in 2006.
The only hard rock act to have won the competition, the band refrains from showing off their faces by wearing creepy looking monster masks.
Lordi have been on several tours across the globe, including the UK and America, and have released ten studio albums and 19 singles.
Throughout the pandemic, the band have continued to make music, releasing their tenth album Collection in January 2020, as well as announcing their European tour.
However, things took a turn two years later on May 5, 2022, as it was announced that Amen had departed from the band.
Mr Lordi released a statement clarifying that he had asked Amen to leave the band due to growing tensions.
Alexander Rybak
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Norwegian contestant Alexander didn't just sing about Fairytales in his performance, breaking records with the highest ever point total of 387 at the time.
The song, which won the 2009 contest, went on to top the charts in more than six countries, including Germany and America for three weeks.
Winning at the age of 23, Rybak is the youngest solo male winner of the contest - and went on to complete a second time in the competition in 2018.
Since then, the star has been involved in choosing Norway's more recent Eurovision entries in the hopes of securing another win for the country.
He took part in the Swedish edition of the TV competition Let's Dance, reaching the final four, and worked as a commentator on Eurovision in 2011.
Alexander has been open about struggling with depression and an unidentified illness, as well as an addiction to sleep medication and antidepressants, which he went to rehab for in 2020.
He began attending Columbia College Chicago virtually from his home in Norway in the autumn of 2020, but as of August 2021, he moved to Chicago to continue his studies in person.
Loreen
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Loreen took the Eurovision title home in 2012 with her hit song Euphoria, which reached number one in 15 counties following the contest.
As one of the most successful winners of the last decade, Loreen is still one of Sweden's biggest pop stars, continuing to score big hits in the country.
Aside from her music career, Loreen is a passionate human rights activist who has met with local activists around the world whenever she performs.
In 2013, she was appointed the ambassador of the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan, taking a trip to Kabul to construct a primary school there.
She was announced as a patron for the World's Children's Prize in New York, and in 2014 met with Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai to discuss children's educational rights.
Earlier last year, Loreen became an ambassador for Unicef and frequently advocates on social media, including her own Instagram page.
Conchita Wurst
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Ausrian singer Thomas Neuwirth took to the Eurovision stage in 2014 as Conchita Wurst and took the trophy with Rise Like A Phoenix.
Her career saw a steep rise after the performance, and the star was even asked to perform at the United Nations Office in Vienna the same year.
Conchita, a female character with a beard depicted by Neuwirth, has been seen as a cultural icon and LGBTQ rights activist across the world.
Her self titled album released in 2015 was popular around the world, and Thomas has continued to release albums as Conchita, most recently in 2018.
Conchita has performed at the Sydney Opera House and the London Palladium, as well as turning her hand to TV as a permanent judge on the drag competition reality series Queen of Drags.
The star came out as HIV positive on social media and explained that they have been receiving treatment for many years.
In 2020, they appeared as their Conchita character in a cameo role in the Netflix film Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga.
Salvador Sobral
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Salvador won the 2017 Eurovision competition with his song Amar Pelos Dois, ending the longest winless run in history for Portugal with 53 years.
He set a new highest ever points total achieved by an act when he was awarded a remarkable 758 points for his performance.
Despite his success on the stage, he announced his temporary hiatus from music shortly after the contest due to an ongoing heart problem.
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The star underwent a successful heart transplant the same year, and was awarded an Order of Merit by Portugal's President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa in 2018.
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He returned to music the following year, and announced his third solo album, bpm, is due for release at the end of May 2021.
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