Possibly one of Eurovision’s most successful 2nd placers, Michael Ball (Uk, 1992, One Step Out Of Time) was already a well-known West End Musical Theatre star (with #1s in the UK charts) prior to his Eurovision entry, having starred in Aspects of Love, Les Mis and Phantom of the Opera. While OSOOT only reached #20 in the Uk singles charts, the ‘Michael Ball’ album hit #1 on the album charts that year.
As a 29 year old, he still had the world/stage at his feet when he lost out to Linda Martin (Why Me?, Ireland) in Malmö and has been almost continuously on stage/TV since.
Later in his Eurovision year, he met Cathy McGowan, and they have been long-term partners since. In 2000, she reportedly saved his life by dragging him out of a house fire.
Ball has taken part in major musicals on the (London) West End stage, and (New York’s) Broadway, winning him multiple Laurence Olivier Awards. He’s also had a few presenting jobs, and been a reality show judge. He’s hosted multiple BBC radio shows too!
Michael Ball is a concert artist, touring the US, UK and Australia in his own right, and is often the ‘go-to’ UK musicals artist for TV events, such as a 50th birthday concert in 1998 for Andrew Lloyd Webber (himself a veteran of the Eurovision stage of course!) and in a concert performance of Les Mis for the Queen at Windsor Castle in 2004.
In 2015 he was awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to musical theatre.
In the past five years or so, he’s been best known for his collaboration with Alfie Boe, with multiple albums since 2016 reaching #1 or #2 in the charts. In April 2020 he recorded a duet with 99 year old Captain Tom Moore (who raised millions for the UK NHS by doing laps of his garden during lockdown) which reached number one in the UK singles chart - Ball’s first ever chart-topping single at the age of 57.