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Bowie Influence On Eurovision Song Apparent

I've borrowed your line, and I'm sorry I called...

Sadly, I missed last night's Eurovision Song Contest final, but I was alerted quite quickly via several e-mails (thanx, folx) to the fact that Sweden's entry, The Worrying Kind, by self-confessed retro glam rockers The Ark, may have been inspired in part by David Bowie's pre-glam classic, Quicksand.

A line from the song: "Just a mortal with potential of a superman" did seem to point at something more than a possible coincidence, which a couple of the titles from their current album Prayer For The Weekend could be dismissed as. New Pollution (Beck) and All I Want Is You (Roxy Music) to name but two.

However, a further delve revealed the Bowie influence was being well worn on The Ark's satin sleeves.

Singer, Ola Salo, in familiar pose with Yorick above, expanded upon the band's influences in an interview for the official Eurovision web site. Here's Ola...

Eurovision.tv: Your style of music is classed as glam rock, do you have any influences from other glam rock artists in the past, or any preferred artists that you would consider listening to at home for example?.

Ola: "Absolutely, the British glam rock of the 1970's is the main inspiration for us. ROXY MUSIC, David BOWIE, and also some of the one hit wonders and the forgotten bands of that glam rock era."

However, despite the Bowie reference in the song, to these ears, The Worrying Kind (The Ark's latest single, as well as Sweden's Eurovision entry) is more in the tradition of those one hit wonders Ola mentioned, such as the likes of Hello.

You can make up your own mind about The Worrying Kind by watching the Eurovision performance here, or checking out the official video on The Ark's website.

In the event, the song didn't fare so well in the contest, with victory being clinched by Serbia...though The Ark did manage a less embarrassing position than the UK entry which finished one place above the ultimate losers, Ireland.

categories: News
Saturday 05.12.07
Posted by Mark Adams
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