Frankie Goes To Hollywood reunite
Frankie Goes To Hollywood reunite (Photo by Bill Marino/Sygma via Getty Images)

Frankie Goes To Hollywood are to reunite to open the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest. It’ll be the first time the classic line-up of Holly Johnson, Brian Nash, Paul Rutherford, Mark O’Toole and Peter Gill have played together since 1987.

The band will perform at the National Lottery’s Big Eurovision Welcome outside St George’s Hall in Liverpool on 7 May.

Sharing the news on his Instagram page, singer Holly Johnson said he was “happy to announce” the group’s reunion and that the Eurovision festivities would be a “very special event”.

The band were last in the same room for a 2003 episode of Bands Reunited, though they didn’t perform. A partial reunion occurred in 2004 when Rutherford, O’Toole and Gill worked with singer Ryan Molloy for an appearance at Prince’s Trust charity concert.

Talking to BBC News, Brian Nash said  Nash that he’d agreed to sign up “to be part of this event being staged in Liverpool, and it looks like it’s going to be a fantastic thing”.

Thirty thousand people are expected to watch the ceremony outside the city’s St George’s Hall. The line-up also includes fellow Liverpool groups The Lightning Seeds, Atomic Kitten and The Real Thing, as well as past Eurovision winners Jamala and Conchita Wurst.

Frankie Goes To Hollywood originally formed in 1980, signing to ZTT Records in 1983. They released their first Trevor Horn-produced single, Relax, later that year, and an album, Welcome To The Pleasuredome, in 1984. Their second and final album, Liverpool, arrived in 1986 and peaked at No.5. They broke up shortly after.

Since their split, the band have released various compilation albums, including Frankie Say Greatest in 2009, Frankie Said: The Very Best Of Frankie Goes To Hollywood in 2012 and The Essential in 2022.