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British pop group Frankie Goes To Hollywood will reunite to play at a Eurovision Song Contest concert next month 36 years after they originally split up.
The band will perform at the National Lottery’s Big Eurovision Welcome outside St George’s Hall in Liverpool on 7 May.
The Eurovision Song Contest is being held in the city this year with the final taking place on Saturday 13 May.
Frankie Goes To Hollywood formed in Liverpool in the 1980s and had number-one hits with Two Tribes, The Power Of Love and Relax.
The show is designed to “celebrate Liverpool’s incredible musicality” and will feature performances from other bands with a connection to the city – including Atomic Kitten, funk band The Real Thing, and rock band The Lightning Seeds – singers of the football anthem Three Lions.
Meanwhile, Conchita Wurst, the 2014 Eurovision winner from Austria, and Ukrainian winner Jamala, who competed in 2016, will also take part in the concert hosted by presenter AJ Odudu.
Odudu, who will kick off celebrations alongside comedian Joel Dommett, announced Frankie Goes To Hollywood will perform on the BBC’s The One Show.
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From left: Mark O’Toole, Paul Rutherford, Holly Johnson, Peter Gill und Brian Nash in 1984. Pic: AP
The band split in 1987 after Welcome To The Pleasuredome became a number-one album three years earlier and their second record “Liverpool” reached fifth place in the UK charts in 1986.
The pop group reformed with original members Paul Rutherford, Peter “Ped” Gill and Mark O’Toole in 2004 to perform at a concert at Wembley Arena, which raised money for youth charity The Prince’s Trust.
The gig, attended by the now King and Queen Consort, followed the band holding open auditions in London for a new vocalist to replace Holly Johnson.
They then performed with the then 28-year-old Ryan Malloy from Newcastle at the concert produced by Trevor Horn.
Around two decades ago, Frankie Goes To Hollywood also took part in the VH1 show Bands Reunited which saw Brian “Nasher” Nash, Gill, and Rutherford among the members tracked down.
When asked to perform at a concert during the original recording, Johnson told his bandmates off-camera he did not want to take part.
Since their breakup, the Grammy-nominated band has released compilation albums Frankie Say Greatest in 2009, Frankie Said: The Very Best Of Frankie Goes To Hollywood in 2012 and The Essential in 2022.
