Here’s an attempt to create a piece out of just about nothing, I might as well. Recently I reviewed Sky Trax, which was shown in the early days of satellite TV. Also among the music shows on Sky in the 80s was The Eurochart Top 50, featuring the biggest hits from across the continent. When I like to find out more about pop groups, I look for their single releases and TV appearances beyond the UK in countries like America and Australia, rather than across Europe.
I suppose that the main reason for this is rather obviously the language barrier. But I have noticed that there were several pop music shows across Europe in the 80s where there was a chance to perform the latest single, including TopPop in the Netherlands, and Musikladen in Germany. I must admit that I don’t really know that much about European pop music from this era, such as who were chart-toppers in various countries and so on.
So when I was watching a performance online from The Eurochart Top 50, I came across a song by someone that really caught my attention, and it’s still great to be discovering interesting people all these years on. This was from 1986. Now I try not to overanalyse these things, but I am rather fascinated with pop music and pop culture as a whole indeed from this year. I’m not really sure why, but this was the time of my earliest memories, when I was beginning to discover the world around me, maybe I presumed that everything was like this. 
The singer was Justine, who had a really striking look, even when compared to some of the rather extrovert pop stars that I have come across from this era. Her look featured waist-length plaited hair, along with lots of jewellery, brightly-coloured fingernails, and a rather small sparkly dress. The song was a rather nice piece of synthpop called “Hurt By You”, and there was a dance routine and everything. I really did want to discover more about her and took up the challenge. Was she Danielle’s long-lost sister? Well, maybe not. 
Where did she come from? Where did she get her look from? And the result is that there is just about no additional information at all about her online. “Hurt By You” was her only single, and the B-side was “Where Is The Hero”. These featured on the 7″ version, and the 12″ version featured the extended editions of these songs, that were both about seven minutes long. It seems that this was only released in the Netherlands, and I can’t find any evidence of this making the chart, or if she was actually Dutch. 
“Hurt By You” wasn’t released in the UK, meaning that we never had the opportunity to see her do her thing on Top Of The Pops, or have her single reviewed in Smash Hits, where I’m sure that it would’ve been described as “hip” and “fandabidozi” or whatever the trendy words were at the time. The sleeve of the single features Justine and her distinctive look, and it seems to be literally the only picture of her online. I can’t find a music video either. She released no more singles, but she can’t have ever recorded only two songs! 
For all I know, her appearance on The Eurochart Top 50 could’ve been the only time she was ever on TV. Well whoever she was, this is a rare case of me being left with more questions and answers, she is someone who really can be described as mysterious! How curious. I’m sure that if she’s still out there she’ll be pleased that I thought about her four minutes of fame almost 35 years on though. She could have grandchildren for all I know by now. Why wasn’t she huge across Europe and everywhere else in 1986.
ADAM'S NOSTALGIC MEMORIES 