Gina G

Despite hailing from Brisbane, Australia, Gina G would make her breakthrough representing the UK in the 1996 Eurovision Song Contest, having relocated to Britain the previous year. Born Gina Gardner on August 3rd, 1970, the singer and DJ first came onto the radar of dance music aficionados as a member of the Australian group Bass Culture, credited as Geena on their 1992 house single and minor ARIA chart success “Love the Life”. After winning the public vote with her 1995 appearance on A Song for Europe, a televised show determining the UK’s annual Eurovision entrant, she placed eighth in the international contest with “Ooh Ahh… Just a Little Bit”. The song nonetheless found commercial success; it was the first non-winning Eurovision entry to top the UK Singles Chart since 1968, later gaining BPI Gold certification and also reaching number twelve on the United States’ Billboard Hot 100. Gardner swiftly followed this up with a string of singles including “I Belong to You” and “Fresh!”, both of which reached the UK top ten. Her debut album, Fresh!, arrived in 1997, entering the UK charts at number twelve. Following a brief hiatus, she returned with a little-known CD single, and found herself in the spotlight once more as the 2003 winner of the reality show Reborn in the USA. After unsuccessfully auditioning to represent the UK at Eurovision again in 2005, she released a sophomore album, Get Up & Dance, the same year. Inking a distribution deal with Universal for her own label, Stuntgirl, in 2006, she released the non-album single “Tonight’s the Night”, which reached number 57 in the UK. Another standalone single, the non-charting “Next 2 You”, surfaced in 2011.