Country United Kingdom As Vikki Lyricist(s) Kaleth and Watson | Artist(s) Vikki Watson Language English | |
Composer(s) James Kaleth and Vikki Watson | ||
"Love Is …", written and composed by James Kaleth and Vikki Watson, was the United Kingdom's entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 1985, performed by the latter composer, Vikki Watson, credited at Eurovision and on the single as Vikki.
The first female soloist to compete for UK at Eurovision since Olivia Newton-John with "Long Live Love" at Eurovision 1974 and also the first female composer of a UK Eurovision entrant to sing her composition in the contest, Vikki won the right to perform at Gothenburg by winning the UK national final, A Song for Europe, where she was the first singer to perform. At Gothenburg, the song was performed fourteenth on the night, after Norway's Bobbysocks with "La det swinge", and before Switzerland's Mariella Farré and Pino Gasparini with "Piano, piano." At the end of judging that evening, "Love Is" took the fourth-place slot with 100 points. At the time, it was one of the few entries that managed to receive 100 points without receiving any 12 point allotments from any jury. It was also the UK's strongest showing since winning the 1981 Contest with "Making Your Mind Up."
The song was a contemporary ballad about a man and a woman who are both too afraid to plunge head-first with their emotions into a love affair; while both of them want to be loved by the other, both of them are letting their heads rule their hearts. In the chorus, Vikki sings that "love is" the product of a number of impulsive decisions, such as "taking a chance on two hearts beating as one." Vikki nominally used a single chair as a prop, first sitting in it while singing the song, then circling it and abandoning it entirely by the second half of the song.
Despite the high showing at Gothenburg, the song placed at No. 49 on the UK Singles Chart. The b-side of the single was "Lead Me Through the Darkness"