WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Jessica Garlick

She wanted Eurovision to ‘come back’ to the UK in 2003, but didn’t quite achieve her goal. Where are you, Jessica Garlick?

Jessica Garlick joins the parthenon of acts like Emma, Love City Groove, Josh Dubovie and Jemini, who have represented their country at the Eurovision Song Contest and then disappeared off the face of the planet! Jessica, who was born in Derby in 1981, had made her celebrity debut in the late 1990’s on TV shows singing and it was from this that she enrolled as a contestant on the first series of Pop Idol in 2001. She made it to the final ten in a competition that was ultimately won by Will Young, but Jessica didn’t get forgotten. She was recruited to perform as the UK’s entry for the following year’s Eurovision singing the song, “Come Back”.

“Come Back” won the UK contest and went forward in May 2002 to represent the country, following the lackluster success of her predecessor, Lindsay Dracass, in 2001, who came 15th. Jessica put in a superb performance and with 111 points, came joint third with hosts, Estonia, although this is often quoted as being fourth as Estonia received two twelve points against the UK’s one. The song was released as a single and peaked at No.13, although after one week, it dropped down and out of the top 40. Strangely, this achievement was not followed up on immediately as Jessica dropped out of sight for some years, only making an appearance as a results announcer on the following year’s contest and briefly in TV in 2006.

Jessica made her ‘come back’ in 2009, when she announced that she has been recording her debut album, titled “Hard Not To Fall”. The title track was released as a single download and she promoted this around the time of that years Eurovision along with “Come Back”. The song passed by with hardly any notice whatsoever and the album was subsequently cancelled. And that was Jessica Garlick, former Pop Star and Eurovision entrant. She has since married and has two children, and appears to be devoting her life to her family with no plans at all to make any ‘come back’ to the music scene. Over to you, Jessica…