UK national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest had hit with "Walking On Sunshine", to enter a new track, "Love Shine A Light". This produced a win in the Eurovision Contest itself for the United Kingdom and for Katrina and the Waves in 1997, and followed with a second place for Imaani in 1998, but disappointment in 1999 for the all-girl band Precious. In 2000, the same format continued, but the final four songs were performed live in "A Song For Europe", still shunted to a graveyard Sunday afternoon slot. The result proved disappointing. Nicki French gave what author John Kennedy O'Connor describes in his book The Eurovision
Love Shine a Light just lucky that I'm the one that gets to sing it." "Love Shine a Light" did indeed win Eurovision 1997 easily: with its first 12-point score being awarded by Austria the fourth reporting jury "Love Shine a Light" assumed permanent possession of first place on the scoreboard with its final vote tally an unprecedented 227 points besting the second-place finishing Eurovision 1997 entrant, the entrant for Ireland: "Mysterious Woman", by 70 points. The final vote tally for "Love Shine a Light" at Eurovision 1997 set a record unsurpassed until 2004, when the introduction of the semi-final greatly expanded the number