UK national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest
Household names such as Petula Clark, Lita Roza, Anne Shelton, Frank Ifield, Ronnie Hilton and David Hughes were amongst the contenders for the UK competition, none of whom were able to secure the much cherished ticket to the Eurovision final.This produced hits for Craig Douglas, Karl Denver, Jackie Lee, Kenny Lynch, Vince Hill and Ricky Valance, but again, none of them were selected to go forward to the Eurovision Song Contest final itself.However, the poor showing of McKellar in Luxembourg (he placed 9th of 18 entries with scores from only 2 countries, including top marks from Ireland) prompted the BBC to use more mainstream pop stars, which led to a run of successful results for the UK.In 1968, Cliff Richard performed the songs only in a special edition of Cilla Black's eponymous TV series (broadcast on Tuesdays), without having sung them weekly beforehand.[13] For 1985, the BBC wanted to revert to having one singer of their choice perform all the short listed songs and approached Bonnie Tyler and when she was unavailable, Lena Zavaroni for the task.A compromise was reached and only solo artists or duets – no "made for Eurovision" acts – were permitted to take part in the 1985 UK selection process and limited two entries per songwriter.However, after a suggestion by Don Black to the BBC's new head of light entertainment David Liddiment in 1994, Tony Award winning stage star Frances Ruffelle was offered the job of representing the UK.The 1995 event had a diverse range of songs and some relatively well-known acts performing, such as Londonbeat who had a hit with "I've Been Thinking About You", pop-combo Deuce and Sox, which featured singer and former Page 3 model Samantha Fox.On the night, the well-known artists were all beaten by rap act Love City Groove, whose eponymous song could only manage a disappointing tenth in Dublin that year.Jonathan King resigned, certain that, if Gina G could not win, nothing he selected could, but the BBC persuaded him to stay in charge and he decided to retain the same formula again, but with an added twist.This produced a win in the Eurovision Contest itself for the United Kingdom and for Katrina and the Waves in 1997, and followed with a second place for Imaani in 1998, but disappointment in 1999 for the all-female band Precious.[citation needed] The 2002 A Song For Europe generated a lot of publicity, because three of the four acts that made the final were relatively well known to TV viewers, albeit not necessarily for their singing ability.As noted by author John Kennedy O'Connor, with 26 entries in the Eurovision field, this made "Cry Baby" the least successful song in the entire history of the contest.For 2005, six songs dropped to five, and the show was moved to an early Saturday evening slot on 5 March, to avoid a clash with Comic Relief Does Fame Academy; and Natasha Kaplinsky replaced Gaby Roslin as co-host with Sir Terry Wogan.Following the format of the previous year (and with six songs this time), Making Your Mind Up returned in 2006 in a prime-time Saturday evening slot, and was broadcast on 4 March on BBC One.Although it brought another disappointing result for the United Kingdom, with Daz finishing 19th in the contest out of 24 competing countries, the following week his single reached Number 8 in the UK charts.During a press conference on 28 February 2007, the BBC confirmed that the artists taking part in Making Your Mind Up would include Big Brovaz, an RnB group who had 4 UK Top 10 singles in 2002–2003, Brian Harvey, a former member of the boy band East 17; Cyndi; Justin Hawkins of The Darkness, performing a duet with Beverlei Brown; Liz McClarnon, formerly of girl group Atomic Kitten; and Scooch, the eventual winners with "Flying the Flag (for You)".Despite having been originally eliminated at the first stage, Terry Wogan's "wild card" pick turned out to be the winner when the viewers voted Andy Abraham the victor with "Even If".The multi-week format had members of the public (amateur or professional) compete to represent the UK at the Eurovision Song Contest 2009, which was to be held in Moscow, Russia.For 2010, the BBC announced on 29 January 2010, that songwriter and music producer Pete Waterman would be writing the UK's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest in Oslo, Norway, on 29 May.[16] Waterman's writing partner was Mike Stock and the singer was chosen on 12 March, in a live show featuring six potential artists broadcast on BBC One, hosted by Graham Norton.On 29 January 2011, the BBC confirmed that boy band Blue had been chosen to represent the UK in the 2011 contest in Düsseldorf with the composition "I Can"[19] written by Duncan James, Lee Ryan, Ciaron Bell, Ben Collier, Ian Hope, Liam Keenan and 'StarSign'.The song is written by Grammy award-winning producer Martin Terefe and Ivor Novello winner Sacha Skarbek, who co-wrote James Blunt hit "You're Beautiful".[25] The announcement of the selected artist and song was revealed on 3 March 2014 in a show entitled The UK Launch, and broadcast via the BBC Red Button service.[2] The 2016 competition consisted of six entrants, performed and broadcast live on BBC Four from The O2 Forum in Kentish Town, London on 26 February and hosted by Mel Giedroyc.[28] "You're Not Alone" performed by Joe and Jake won the national final; 746,000 viewers watched the show either live or within 7 days of its broadcast, making it the third highest rating programme for BBC Four in the week ending 28 February 2016.Lucie Jones with the song "Never Give Up on You", written by Lawrie Martin, The Treatment and Danish Eurovision 2013 winner Emmelie de Forest, won the show.[34] The national final was watched by 900,000 viewers in the United Kingdom with a market share of 4.8% and thus failed to register in the Top 30 programmes viewed on BBC Two for the week.[38] Michael Rice's rendition of "Bigger than Us", written and composed by Laurell Barker, Anna-Klara Folin, John Lundvik and Jonas Thander, won the national final.In 1976, host Michael Aspel did not name any of the jury spokesman (there were no women announcing any of the scores) and none of them identified themselves; despite some of the voices being familiar to BBC viewers and listeners.
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