Several hours after Austria's success at the 69th Eurovision Song Contest, a viability confused and exhausted Celine Dion continued to knock on doors and call into shops hoping for directions to the St Jackobshalle where the competition was held.
'I'll never give up until I'm on that stage,' the 57-year old said while sipping on a coffee bought during an unsuccessful check at a 7-eleven, 'The Competition gave me my break in 1988 and I just want to give the fans something back. After all, they've come from near, far, wherever you are...sorry, force of habit there. I will get there and even if I have to give a rendition on a Basel street corner, I'll do it.'
Inside the convenience store, night clerk Karl Olsson may have had an answer for the fatigued French-Canadian star, telling us, 'Celine's main problem in trying to find the venue for Eurovision is that this is Boden, not Basel. They're about 2500km south of here. She's done that classic thing of getting the Swiss and Swedish mixed up, which I suppose is pretty easy when you just tell your private pilot to get you somewhere. I was going to tell her, but she insisted on paying for her coffee with Swiss Francs, so I figured I'd let her wander round a bit longer.'
