Englebert Humperdinck gets another Guinness World Record

Today the Guinness World Records, the official authority on record-breaking, recognised Englebert Humperdinck as being the oldest male Eurovision Song Contest entrant. The singer has previously held the record for the most consecutive weeks on UK singles chart

Humperdinck  will represent the United Kingdom at the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest at the age of 76 years 24 days. The crooner, who is most fondly remembered for his million-selling 1967 single Release Me, will perform the track Love Will Set You Free at the 57th annual contest, which takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan, on 26 May 2012.

On being awarded the record Mr Humperdinck said “I’m proud the achievement and now want to go on to win the competition.”

Had it not been for the 2012 Russian entry Buranovskiye Babushki (the Buranov Grannies) – a group consisting of eight grandmothers, one of whom, Natalya Pugacheva (reportedly older than Humperdinck), is 76 years old – Humperdinck would have been the oldest ever Eurovision Song Contest entrant, male or female, in the competition’s 57-year-history. The first Eurovision Song Contest took place in Lugano, Switzerland, on 24 May 1956.

Engelbert Humperdinck previously held the record for the most consecutive weeks on UK singles chart.  He stayed on the chart for 56 weeks with Release Me, from 26 Jan 1967.  The record has since been beaten by The Black Eyed Peas with their single I Gotta Feeling which spent a record 63 consecutive weeks in the UK Top 75.