23 May 1993
Aside from winning the 1993 Eurovision Song Contest, ‘In Your Eyes’ provides an unlikely musical connection between two very different hit movies decades apart, The Commitments and Frozen. Its singer, Niamh Kavanagh, didn’t appear in The Commitments but sang lead vocals on a couple of its featured songs, notably ‘Destination Anywhere’. Its writer, Jimmy Walsh, was living in New York when he wrote it, and the first demo of ‘In Your Eyes’ was sung by Idina Menzel, later to find fame as the singer of pre-schooler anthem ‘Let It Go’ from Frozen. Small world, isn’t it?
As a Eurovision winner, ‘In Your Eyes’ might be best remembered for the cliff-hanging finale in which the very last douze points of the night gave Ireland victory over the United Kingdom. Singing for the UK that night was none other than Sonia, best known for her 1989 Irish number one single ‘You’ll Never Stop Me Loving You’. Formerly a Stock, Aitken and Waterman artist, Sonia that night sang a song called ‘Better The Devil You Know’, coincidentally also the name of a sensational 1990 Kylie-SAW single that suggested Kylie might be sticking around into the ’90s after all. Sonia wouldn’t fare as well: ‘Better The Devil You Know’ was a featureless, forgettable ’60s pop throwback; it was also her final hit.
Was the winning song that night any better? No. ‘In Your Eyes’ is corny and clunky. What sweeps it to victory is Niamh Kavanagh’s show-stopping performance, inevitable key change and all, with the prevailing gale-force wind of ’90s power diva popularity and especially Whitney’s recent ‘I Will Always Love You’ in her sails. That, and another far more sinister trend: Ireland dominating Eurovision for no apparent reason other than the whole continent enjoyed coming here on an annual jolly. European neighbours, let it go!
