Patricia Bredin, Eurovision Legend, Dies Aged 88

The singer and actor was part of history when she represented the UK at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1957.
Patricia Bredin pictured in 1960
Patricia Bredin pictured in 1960
Evening Standard via Getty Images

Former Eurovision performer Patricia Bredin has died at the age of 88.

Patricia represented the United Kingdom in the first ever Eurovision Song Contest back in 1957.

She competed in Frankfurt with the original song All, finishing in seventh place out of just 10 countries competing that first year.

Patricia was selected to represent the UK when she was just 22, after being spotted performing live at the Savoy in London.

“I’d never heard of [television]!” she told the BBC in 2016. “I didn’t know what they were talking about. But it could be candy and you don’t say no to candy.”

She also said (via BBC News): “Singing in the final in Frankfurt, Germany, it was wonderful, because they had about a 60-piece orchestra and it was like being on clouds.”

After competing at Eurovision in the late 1950s, Patricia embarked on an acting career, appearing in films like Left Right And Centre, The Treasure Of Monte Cristo and Desert Mice.

Patricia’s additional on-screen credits included The Bridal Path and To Have And To Hold.

She also appeared in the original cast of the musical Free As Air, and later portrayed Guenevere in the Broadway play Camelot, taking over from Julie Andrews in the role.

Patricia pictured in 1957, the year she competed at Eurovision
Patricia pictured in 1957, the year she competed at Eurovision
Evening News/Shutterstock

Patricia later married the millionaire Canadian businessman Charles MacCulloch, with whom she relocated to Nova Scotia, where she died on Sunday, according to her family.

Although Charles died shortly after their wedding, Patricia remained in Nova Scotia and raised cattle on a ranch for around a decade, detailing her experiences in her 1989 memoir My Fling On The Farm.

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