It is with regret that we announce the untimely death of Ronnie Carroll aged eighty.

Ronnie was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom. His first successful song was called Walk hand in hand and happened to be released in the year of the first Eurovision Song Contest, being 1956.

He took part in the UK’s National selection process in 1960 along with six other competitors. The song was called The girl with a curl but was unsuccessful in qualifying for the contest, which was held in London that year. Two years later he competed in a field of twelve acts and, this time, he won the National trophy with a commanding total of 59 points, which was to take him, and the song Ring-a-ding girl to Luxembourg. He was to come fourth. The following year he was also successful in UK’s the selection process, this time with Say wonderful things. Coincidentally he came fourth again.

His success continued with a couple more hits, after which he moved to work on cruise ships, including the Queen Elizabeth II. His political aspirations came to the fore in 1997 when he became a parliamentary candidate in both the General and By-elections. Other attempts followed, and on one occasion he announced that he wanted to enter the record books by receiving no votes in the 2008 election. He did, in fact, get twenty nine. The man, who was born Ronald Cleghorn, died on Monday following a short illness.

We send our condonces to his nearest and dearest.

Here is Ronnie’s 1960 song Ring-a-ding girl

and Ronnie’s 1963 song Say wonderful things

Stay tuned to esctoday.com for further news on past artists in the Eurovision Song Contest.