Salvation Army band to represent Switzerland at Eurovision Song Contest

A Salvation Army band has won the right to represent Switzerland at next year's Eurovision Song Contest for the first time.
By Matthew Day, Warsaw4:02PM GMT 17 Dec 20122


Featuring a 94-year-old on stand-up bass, the six-piece band romped to victory despite stiff competition from more accomplished groups boasting big record sales.
The band will carry the weight and hopes of Swiss expectation next year in the Swedish town of Malmo with its English language ballad entitled "You and Me", which departs from the traditional brass-band Army sound with heavy electric guitars.
But the band has spurned the Eurovision kitsch and sequins, with most of its members wearing the traditional Salvation Army uniform.
In its only concessions to 21st-Century fashion, the lead guitarist wears jeans while a tambourine waving singer wears a polo shirt emblazoned with the Salvation Army motif.
The group's victory was described as "sensational" by Tages Anzeiger, a Swiss newspaper, while another paper, Blick, reported that one of the band's members celebrated victory into the small hours with his girlfriend.
But the paper noted that in keeping with the Salvation Army's adherence to moral probity the couple only drank cola.
Although You and Me has no overt Christian message the Salvation Army hopes their band's appearance in front of an audience of millions will provide publicity for the Army and draw in new recruits.
"We hope to promote a positive image which will make somebody join," Major Herve Cachelin told Blick. "Ultimately everyone has the right to decide whether they want to join or not, but I believe we can convert anyone."

bb1 wrote:The Sally Anns? Political? How does that work?