Colin Heywood
Daniel James, formally known under his birth name of Colin Heywood, is a singer, actor and presenter of shows on television and radio.
In 1986, he competed in the BBC's United Kingdom in the [Eurovision Song Contest 1986|A Song For Europe] contest under the name Colin Heywood with "No Easy Way to Love", a song co-written by Tony Hiller, the producer known for many of the songs by Brotherhood of Man. A Song For Europe was a contest was to represent the United Kingdom in the United Kingdom in the Eurovision [Song Contest 1986|1986 Eurovision Song Contest], but he came in sixth place, losing out to the band Ryder, with the song "Runner in the Night".
Under his birth name, he appeared in the 1987 horror film Bloody New Year and hosted the BBC childrens programme But First This with Sue Devaney, Siobhan Maher Kennedy and Andy Crane before adopting the alias of "Daniel James", the stage name he continues to use in 2025.
Yell!
After meeting Jeff Chegwin, the brother of Keith Chegwin and Janice Long, he was placed in a pop duo with Paul Varney called Yell! and signed to Simon Cowell's Fanfare Records. Yell! had a Top 10 hit in the United Kingdom with a cover of Dan Hartman's 1978 hit, "Instant Replay" and would go on to cover the Average White Band's "Let's Go Round Again".James later returned to his music career in the 2020s. In 2020, James released a podcast for the Stock Aitken Waterman Show, where he talked about music and being part of Yell!, his first meeting with Mike Stock and Matt Aitken and releasing Safety In Numbers, as well as being signed by Simon Cowell.