British TV’s top entertainment show steps up with the adult film legend to deliver a Eurovision anthem for Italy in 1998.
In celebration of Italy’s triumph in the Eurovision Song Contest last night, what better than to look back to 1998 when Italy rather snobbishly – and very temporarily – dropped out of the contest and the good people at Eurotrash stepped up to fill the void.
Like her fellow Hungarian Cicciolina, Eva Henger rose to fame as an Italian porn star, singer and politician (Eva was sadly less successful in her bids for political power as a representative of the Love Party, however). In 1998, she was convinced by Eurotrash – always a show happy to highlight the many talents of European porn stars – to perform Ooh Yeah, a bouncy little number written by Eurotrash producer Peter Stuart and researcher Kate Teckman. As a paeon to pan-European love, it’s certainly on-message, and while Miss Henger – who never quite reached the celebrity levels of Cicciolina or Moana Pozzi despite her best efforts – struggles to carry a tune, she is still arguably a better singer than the 2021 UK entry.
The whole Song For Eurotrash special spawned a soundtrack album that is well worth seeking out, filled as it is with Eurovision covers by the likes of Dubstar, Edwyn Collins, St Etienne, Bananarama and Shane McGowan alongside a handful of here today, gone tomorrow acts who were briefly the big thing in 1998.
Help support The Reprobate:
