British pop group
Jemini
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Also known as
| Tricity
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Origin
| Liverpool
, England
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Genres
| Pop
,
dance
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Years active
| 1995?2004, 2013?present
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Labels
| Integral Records (2003)
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Past members
| Chris Cromby
Gemma Abbey
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Jemini
are a British
pop group
from
Liverpool
, best known for scoring
nul points
and finishing in last place at the
Eurovision Song Contest 2003
with "
Cry Baby
".
[1]
Early career
[
edit
]
Chris Cromby and Gemma Abbey
[2]
(born 10 March 1981) met in 1995 at Liverpool's Starlight Stage School and toured Liverpool's pubs and clubs with the academy's kids' roadshow. At 16, after leaving college, they formed Tricity, named after the brand of
electrical appliances
. They changed their name to Jemini ("Gem-and-I") at the age of 19. They spent the next two and a half years touring pubs and clubs in the UK performing
Stevie Wonder
,
Randy Crawford
and
Motown
covers
and
ABBA
medleys, as well as their own compositions. Abbey stated she has loved the
Eurovision Song Contest
since childhood, and counts previous Eurovision entrants such as
Sonia
,
Precious
and
Dana International
amongst her favourites.
"Cry Baby"
[
edit
]
Jemini and the song "Cry Baby" were selected to
represent the United Kingdom
in the
Eurovision Song Contest 2003
in
Riga
,
Latvia
, after winning the
BBC
's national selection
A Song for Europe
. Their performance at Eurovision was criticised for being
off-key
,
[3]
[4]
and later earned the UK
nul points
.
Failure and break-up
[
edit
]
The Eurovision failure prompted both mirth and consternation in the British media. Jemini admitted that their performance was off-key, and claimed they were unable to hear the backing track due to a technical fault.
Terry Wogan
, long-time commentator on the contest for the BBC, claimed that the UK was suffering from "post-
Iraq
backlash".
[3]
[5]
Following their failure at Eurovision, they were dropped by their record label, Integral Records UK, and their planned album was never released. "Cry Baby" entered the
UK Singles Chart
at No. 15, but spent only three weeks in the chart.
[2]
They later split up as a duo.
Reunions
[
edit
]
In 2013, the duo reunited for a special interview about their performance in a two-hour-long
BBC Three
special
How to Win Eurovision
. The special aired on 11 May 2013. In 2014, the duo reunited once again to take part in a Eurovision special of
Pointless Celebrities
, and have subsequently appeared in several television interviews about their Eurovision experience.
Legal issues
[
edit
]
Abbey was arrested and sentenced for social security fraud in November 2016. She was claiming as a single mother when she had undergone a wedding ceremony in Algarve in 2013 and was living with her partner. She overclaimed tax credits for her daughter born in 2009. She was given a 30-week prison sentence, suspended for one year, and put on supervision order for one year.
[6]
Discography
[
edit
]
Singles
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
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Participation
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Artists
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Songs
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- Note: Entries scored out signify where the United Kingdom did not compete
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