Love is in the air, and at the Eurovision Song Contest, love songs have always had their presence in the contest. Throughout the years, we have heard various entries discuss virtually every aspect of romantic love that one can imagine, from love at first sight to the end of a relationship.
But perhaps what’s more interesting than the songs themselves are the stories behind them. As far as we know, Eurovision has been an integral element of the love stories of quite a few couples throughout the years. The 2008 hosts, Željko Joksimović and Jovana Janković, began dating shortly after the contest and married a few years later. Prominent songwriter Borislav Milanov met his future wife Tamara Gachechiladze at the 2017 contest, where she was competing for Georgia.
In this article, we will look at the love story of another match made at Eurovision: Phil Coulter and Geraldine Brannigan.
About Phil Coulter
According to his official website, Phil Coulter was born in 1942 to a father who played the fiddle and a mother who played the piano. It was no surprise, then, that music was present throughout his upbringing, and that he would grow up to become a musician himself. In the mid-1960s, he met Bill Martin, and the two would soon establish a partnership that would find success at the Eurovision Song Contest.
Their Eurovision journey began in 1967 when their song, Puppet on a String, represented the United Kingdom. It was performed by Sandie Shaw and was declared the winner at the end of the show. The next year, Martin and Coulter wrote Congratulations, the United Kingdom entry on home turf. Despite being the favourite to win, the song came 2nd behind the Spanish entry La, la, la. Still, the song became an international hit and is still popular to this day.
About Geraldine Brannigan
Geraldine was born in 1954 and comes from Clontarf, a suburb in the Irish capital Dublin. Not much information seems to be available regarding her background and upbringing. However, it is known that she was a member of The Brannigans who competed in the Irish national final in 1973. Their song, Fadó Fadó (Long, Long Ago) came 4th out of 8 entries. It appears to be the highest placing Irish-language entry in that year’s preselection.
The romance begins
Phil Coulter and Bill Martin’s achievements attracted the interest of RTL Télé Luxembourg. In 1974, the duo was approached by the broadcaster to write the country’s Eurovision 1975 entry. They were to work with Pierre Cour, the Frenchman behind the Eurovision winning song Tom Pillibi (France 1960). He also wrote the worldwide hit L’amour est bleu (Luxembourg 1967). With such a repertoire among the three of them, it was clear Luxembourg wanted to do well at the contest.
However, the broadcaster had not yet picked someone to sing the entry, leaving it to the songwriting team instead. They reportedly had initially encountered difficulty in finding the right singer, according to EVOKE. As Phil recounts:
We started looking for a singer in the UK; then I was in Dublin, watching a Guinness ad on TV that Geraldine featured in. I thought: that’s who I’m looking for.
Source: The Irish Times
Phil was able to locate Geraldine’s residence and visited her. The two of them remember the moment of their first encounter fondly:
Phil: The following morning, I arrived at her door. What attracted me then was that she was drop-dead gorgeous. A spark ignited, but it took quite some time to become a flame.
Geraldine: This guy arrived at my front door in Castleknock one morning: I was a bit intimidated. He was wearing one of those Davy Crockett hats, holding the two bottles of milk the milkman had just delivered […] There was a huge spark there.
Source: The Irish Times
Geraldine accepted the offer, and a few months later she was off to Stockholm for the 1975 Eurovision Song Contest.
At Eurovision
The Luxembourgish entry at Eurovision 1975. On the left is Geraldine, as lead vocalist. In the foreground, on the right is conductor Phil Coulter.
Representing a Francophone country, Geraldine adopted the French-sounding stage name Géraldine for the contest. The song she was to sing, Toi, was completely in French as well. She reports being terrified; she did not speak a word of the language and had to learn the song phonetically. Her performance was conducted by Phil — who did not conduct either of the entries he previously wrote.
At the end of the night Luxembourg came a respectable 5th place. Although it was statistically the worst-placing Eurovision entry that Phil had written, it is safe to say that it was the most rewarding Eurovision project he worked on, as it introduced him to the woman he loves to this day.
After Eurovision
Although their Eurovision participation was complete, their collaboration did not stop there. The next year, Geraldine participated in the World Popular Song Festival in 1976 (also known as the Yamaha Song Festival). She represented the United Kingdom with the song Romano, once again written by Phil Coulter and Bill Martin.
That year, she won the Outstanding Song Award. She is known to have returned for Ireland in 1978 as Geraldine & Pickles. However, there is not much information available regarding this participation, other than the title of the song, Say It With Music.
Tying the knot
At the time they met, Phil was already married to Angela Coulter for over a decade and the two had children together. However, it became clear over time that Phil was meant to be with Geraldine. In 1982, Phil’s previous marriage came to an end, and he settled in London with Geraldine. The two were not able to marry until the laws regarding divorce in the Constitution of Ireland were amended in the mid-1990s. But in 1998, they were finally able to hold a small marriage ceremony, attended by the couple’s six children — all of which followed their parents to Rome for their honeymoon!
The Coulters in 2013. Photo: David Sleator
These days, Phil and Geraldine live in Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland. Phil has continued to work on music, most recently a project called Return to Tranquility. Geraldine continues to play a supportive role in Phil’s career.
This is just one of many love stories that have connections to the Eurovision Song Contest. What other interesting ESC love stories do you know of? Let us know in the comments!