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Daz Sampson

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Daz Sampson

Darren "Daz" Sampson (born 1974 in Stockport, Cheshire) is a British dance music producer and vocalist.

Up until 2006, when he represented the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest, Sampson was best known for his commercial dance music, often reworkings of older songs.

Career Before Eurovision

Daz Sampson has been in various formations, most notably Bus Stop (with Graham Turner, Mark Hall, Liam Midson and Marlon Cooper). He had 4 British hits with Bus Stop, the most famous being "Kung Fu Fighting" featuring Carl Douglas that sold 250,000 copies.

Chris Moyles, broadcaster with BBC Radio 1 responded to a letter from Daz by championing his records on the station inviting him for comedy moments on his radio show.

In this period, Daz Sampson formed Rikki & Daz, with John Matthews (aka Ricardo Autobahn aka Rikki) of the Cuban Boys and Darren Sampson as Daz. Their single "Rhinestone Cowboy (Giddy Up Giddy Up)" featuring a new vocal from country music legend Glen Campbell reached #12 in the UK.

Daz Sampson and John Matthews later had a top 40 UK hit with their creation the Barndance Boys, best remembered for their papier mache heads. They had a majour hit with *"Yippie I Oh".

The pair also topped dance charts around Europe with 2005's "The Woah Song" under the name DJ Daz. It was actually a remake of Baltimora's Tarzan Boy.

In 2004, Daz Sampsom returned to the Liverpool dance music and he formed a partnership with producer Paul Keenan under the name Uniting Nations and released "Out of Touch" a remake from Hall & Oats hit and selling 100,000 copies of the single in the United Kingdom becoming a European massive hit.

Based on success of Uniting Nations, Daz Sampson became very popular in European dance scene.

Eurovision Song Contest 2006

On 4 March 2006, Sampson won the BBC show Making Your Mind Up[1] with the song "Teenage Life", which was written and produced with John Matthews (aka Ricardo Autobahn) from the Cuban Boys, who were responsible for the Hampster Dance hit "Cognoscenti Vs. Intelligentsia" in 1999. The song entered the UK Singles Chart on 14 May 2006.

The accompanying dance routine involved 4 young women dressed as schoolgirls, dubbed The Sampsonites, which led to criticism from some sections of the media due to the apparently inappropriate sexuality of his performance of his Eurovision entry. In his defence, he was quoted as saying "the teenage girl dancers were fully clothed [...] there was no sexual innuendo"[2].

As a result of winning Making Your Mind Up, he represented the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest on 20 May 2006 in Athens, but only 10 of the 39 eligible countries voted for Sampson and his total score was 25 points, placing him 19th out of the 24 acts (winning act Lordi, from Finland, amassed 292 points). When asked before the event whether Finland could win, he replied "No way. They're way too scary."[3] Sampson professed to have great confidence that he would win the Eurovision, dismissing previous contestants for not having enough respect for the competition and having poor quality songs. [4]

Despite saying that previous contestants' songs failed simply because they were not good enough, and not because of political voting, following the contest he claimed to have been "the victim of a touch of neighbourly voting".

Although he finished low down the rankings in the Eurovision Song Contest, he enjoyed success in the British charts. "Teenage Life" entered at number 13 in the UK Top 40. In the week following the contest, the publicity he had gained from this exposure helped his single to climb to number 8 in the UK chart, reaching the highest chart position of any Eurovision song since Precious peaked at number 6 with "Say It Again" in 1999. Sampson claims that his performance may have raised the popularity of Eurovision in the UK, while others say "The peak audience would appear to be mainly due to audience switchover from the Prince's Trust charity concert broadcast on ITV1" - in any case the 2006 contest attracted half the UK TV audience,[5] and led to the highest viewing figures in the UK in Eurovision history.[6]

Career following Eurovision

After performing at the Eurovision Song Contest, Sampson revealed plans to become a TV presenter, and claimed that "I have already been approached to appear on a celebrity reality show but I can't really say much about it - other than the fact it is set in Australia."[7] This could be seen as an allusion to the popular ITV show I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!. However he did not appear in the latest series' of the reality show in November 2006 or November 2007.

He also claimed that he would be performing at the Eurovision Song Contest 2007, and although originally claiming that he would not try to represent the United Kingdom again, and saying that he had been asked to perform for another country[8], he has since announced that he was entering a new song entitled "Goodbye" into the United Kingdom pre-selection competition for the 2007 contest, which he intended to perform as a duet with Carol Decker[9]. He described the song as "very different to Teenage Life", saying that it is it "more like The Streets meets classic Eurovision"[10]. However, later he announced that the BBC decided it was too soon for him to enter again, but he would be welcome in a few years time[11]. Daz said that he did not expect the UK's 2007 entry to do well[12] (and was subsequently proved correct when Scooch's entry came 23rd out of 24 entries).

On 22 April 2007, Sampson released a new download only single release in support of his football team Stockport County. The song by Daz Sampson and the Cheadle Enders is titled 'The County Song' (Jim Gannon's Army Goes Marching On). The song pays tribute to Stockport County's football league record of nine consecutive wins without conceding a goal. The song namechecks several county players including Anthony Elding, Adam Griffin and goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey not to mention former player and current manager Jim Gannon. On occasion Sampson donating part of the proceeds from the single to the Stockport County Supporters Trust, the trust in recognition made him its first-ever life member.[13]

Singles


Year Song UK Singles Chart UK Download Chart France Singles Chart Germany Singles Chart Holland Singles Chart Album
2006 "Teenage Life" #8 #11 - - -

References

  1. ^ "Dance track wins Eurovision vote". BBC News. 2006-03-04. Retrieved 2006-05-18. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ "Underdog Daz enjoying the limelight". Manchester Evening News. 2006-04-26. Retrieved 2006-05-18. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ "60 Seconds Daz Sampson". Metro.co.uk. 2006-05-19. Retrieved 2006-05-22. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ "Daz takes on Eurovision Mission". BBC.co.uk. 2006-05-16. Retrieved 2006-05-22. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ "Eurovision attracts half UK audience".
  6. ^ "Daz swap: Can Eu believe it!". Manchester Evening News. 2006-05-30. Retrieved 2006-06-04. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. ^ "Daz swap: Can Eu believe it!". Manchester Evening News. 2006-05-30. Retrieved 2006-06-04. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ^ "United Kingdom: Daz a candidate for an eastern European country in 2007?". oikotimes.com. 2006-05-31. Retrieved 2006-06-04. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ^ "United Kingdom: Daz reveals song and duet partner for Eurovision 2007 entry". oikotimes.com. 2006-09-09. Retrieved 2006-09-10. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ^ "Exclusive: Daz Sampson speaks to esctoday.com". esctoday.com. 2006-09-27. Retrieved 2006-09-27. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  11. ^ "UK Exclusive: It not Daz either!". esctoday.com. 2007-02-20. Retrieved 2007-02-28. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. ^ "Gaffe mars Scooch Eurovision win". bbc.co.uk. 2007-03-18. Retrieved 2007-03-18. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  13. ^ Stockport County giving Daz Sampson a life membership

See also

Preceded by UK in the Eurovision Song Contest
2006 		Succeeded by
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