# Long Live Love (Olivia Newton-John song)

"Long Live Love" is a song by Australian singer, songwriter, and actress Olivia Newton-John composed and written by Valerie Avon and Harold Spiro. It represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1974 held in Brighton.

## Background
### Conception

The song's composers, Valerie Avon and Harold Spiro, had worked together as staff writers for Belwin Mills Publishing since 1970 and had placed songs with several artists: Newton-John had recorded the Avon/Spiro composition "Don't Move Away" as a duet with Cliff Richard, the track serving as B-side to Richard's 1971 hit "Sunny Honey Girl".

### National selection

"Long Live Love" was the third time Avon and Spiro had submitted a co-composition of theirs to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) for consideration for A Song For Europe, its national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest, having finished fourth in a field of six in 1970 with "Can I Believe", and having finished sixth in a field of six in 1971 with "In My World of Beautiful Things".
The BBC had internally selected Olivia Newton-John as its performed for the 19th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. She introduced one of each of the six nominated songs on a broadcast of Jimmy Savile's Clunk Click television show on BBC One; on 23 February 1974 a television broadcast entitled A Song For Europe 1974 announced the tally of viewers' mailed-in ballots, with "Long Live Love" the clear victor at 27,387 votes, becoming the British entrant for Eurovision. The runner-up, "Angel Eyes" –which was Newton-John's favourite– gained 18,018 votes.
Newton-John made recorded versions of all the songs she had performed for consideration for Eurovision, these tracks making up half of Long Live Love, a December 1974 Olivia Newton-John album release, with "Angel Eyes" being utilized as the B-side of the single release of "Long Live Love." She also recorded a German-language version of "Long Live Love".

### Eurovision

On 6 April 1974, the Eurovision Song Contest was held at The Dome in Brighton hosted by the BBC, and broadcast live throughout the continent. Considered a strong contender, Newton-John performed "Long Live Love" second on the evening, following Finland's "Keep Me Warm" by Carita Holmström and preceding Spain's "Canta y sé feliz" by Peret. The conductor for the British entrant was Nick Ingman and Newton-John was backed by a five-woman chorale which included the Ladybirds, the trio who had sung backup for Sandie Shaw on her victorious performance of "Puppet on a String" in the 1967 contest.
At the close of voting "Long Live Love" had received 14 points to place in a three-way tie for forth in a field of 17, "Bye Bye I Love You" by Ireen Sheer singing for Luxembourg and "Celui qui reste et celui qui s'en va" by Romuald singing for Monaco also having accrued 14 points. Newton-John admitted post-contest: "I was never really happy with the song I had to sing."
"Long Live Love" was succeeded as British entrant at the 1975 contest by "Let Me Be the One" by The Shadows. Olivia Newton-John would be the last solo act to represent the UK at Eurovision until the 1985 contest.

### Aftermath

On 10 August 2022, the Eurovision's official YouTube channel uploaded, with permission of the BBC, the song's Eurovision performance in Brighton in tribute to Newton-John after her death.

## Chart performance

In the British Isles "Long Live Love" charted in the UK with a #11 peak and reached #9 in Ireland: the track also afforded Newton-John a #11 hit in her adopted homeland of Australia. In anticipation of a boost from its expected strong Eurovision showing, "Long Live Love" was widely released throughout mainland Europe with the track having its highest global impact in Norway with a three-week chart peak tenure at #3, being kept from #1 by the chart-topping 1974 Eurovision victor "Waterloo" (ABBA) with first "Devil Gate Drive" (Suzi Quatro) and then "Seasons in the Sun" (Terry Jacks) at #2. However "Long Live Love" did not afford Newton-John widespread European success, otherwise charting only on Belgium's Dutch chart (#7) and in Finland (#9).

## Legacy

Renderings of "Long Live Love" in Norwegian and Finnish were recorded by respectively Gluntan [no] ("Det er et sted") and Päivi Paunu ("Kun rakastaa"). Anthony Newley covered the song and it was issued as a single (MGM M12744) in the U.S. in 1974