Taxi driver Kevin Sherwin claims to be number one fan – spending £50K travelling to destinations across during the 30 years he’s been watching the show live. Speaking from Basel, , where he’s watching his 26th live contest, he confesses that he hopes the UK fails to win the Saturday night final.
Kevin, 63, of Aberdeen, says: “I love going to wave the Union flag and support the UK, but it would be a terrible disappointment if we actually won – I’d miss out on my yearly holiday. It would be nice if we came second, but I’m really rooting for Iceland or Albania – I’ve travelled about 50,000 miles for Eurovision, but I’ve never been there.”
Ever since he sang along to singing Congratulations in 1968 when he was four, Kevin - who lives with his partner who also likes the contest but is not as big a fan - he’s loved Eurovision. Longing to watch in person, only invited guests and production staff had access in the 1970s and 80s. So, in 1994, seeing an advert on Ceefax, offering tickets to see Eurovision in Dublin for £300, he snapped one up.
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“It was an iconic performance to be at,” he recalls. “I’d had to rent a dinner jacket, it was very formal, but it was the year that Riverdance performed in the interval, so I can say I was at the premiere of that. It just blew me away, and I knew I had to keep going back. For me, Eurovision is like . There’s a huge lead up to it all year, and then a few days before the contest, all the fans start to arrive – it’s like seeing my Eurovision family for the holidays.
“There’s such a buzz in the air and it’s like being in a little cocoon – nothing can bring us down. Yes, it always costs a lot of money, but I live quite frugally the rest of the year, and Eurovision is my little splurge. It’s much better than sitting on a beach somewhere."
Kevin’s only missed four live performances since 1994 – after being unable to get tickets between 1996 and 2000. These days, he books hotel rooms up to a year in advance - often in multiple cities - to avoid disappointment. “When the winner is revealed, I start looking to book accommodation straight away,” he says. “There are usually two or three possible cities that it could be held in, so I book a refundable hotel room in each of them.
"This time, I made sure I had accommodation in Basel, Geneva and Zurich. You can usually work out which week the competition will be held, depending on the final. But I’ve been known to book three hotels for three different weeks to make sure I get a spot. Sometimes this can mean getting them before the prices go up too high.”
Regularly staying in the same hotels as performers, he’s shared a breakfast table with many UK singers - befriending performers from around the world. “I met Terry Wogan several times, who was a lovely man, so kind and genuine with the fans,” he says. “I’ve met Graham Norton too, who is also lovely. People ask me which commentary style I prefer, but I have to tell them that I’ve never actually heard the commentary – I’m always at the event and I never watch it on TV.
“Most of the singers are lovely too, but there are a few who are real divas. They refuse to come down and eat with other people, and have everything ordered to their room.” And Kevin spends the rest of the year trying to spread his love for Eurovision. “I always like to have Eurovision tunes playing in my taxi, and I try to shoehorn it into conversation,” he admits.
“I’ve always got a little snippet of information to share with people, and they usually love chatting about Eurovision – even if they do roll their eyes to start with. It really does bring people together, even if that’s because they hate it – it’s always a talking point.”
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