United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest

It was alleged that the United Kingdom was expected to take part in the first contest in 1956, and that it missed the submission deadline and therefore could not take part. This was later revealed by the EBU in January 2017 to be a myth created by fans of the contest.[1] The EBU further went on to explain that the Festival of British Popular Song, a contest created by the BBC for the United Kingdom, was the inspiration that brought in format changes to the contest elements from 1957 onwards.[1] Patricia Bredin was the first performer to represent the UK at Eurovision, finishing seventh in 1957. The UK was the first choice to stage the third contest in 1958, however following a failure to reach an agreement from various artistic unions, the BBC withdrew its bid in the summer of 1957 and the UK did not enter for the second and last time to date.[2]

At their second attempt in the contest in 1959, the UK achieved the first of its record sixteen runner-up positions, when Pearl Carr and Teddy Johnson sang "Sing Little Birdie". The UK would go on to achieve four more second-place finishes with Bryan Johnson in 1960, The Allisons in 1961, Matt Monro in 1964 and Kathy Kirby in 1965, before eventually winning for the first time in 1967. Sandie Shaw was already a successful performer, having twice topped the UK Singles Chart, and she comfortably won in Vienna with "Puppet on a String", which became her third UK number one and topped the charts all around Europe. In 1968, another successful performer was selected to represent the UK with the song "Congratulations". In London, Cliff Richard gave the UK its sixth second-place finish, losing to Spain's Massiel. "Congratulations" remains one of only two non-winning UK Eurovision entries to top the UK charts. The UK's second victory was provided by the Scottish singer Lulu, who won with the song "Boom Bang-a-Bang" in 1969, in a four-way tie with France, Spain and the Netherlands. Another established performer, she had previously topped the US Billboard Hot 100 with "To Sir with Love" in 1967.

Having finished second on three further occasions in the 1970s, with Mary Hopkin in 1970, The New Seekers in 1972 and The Shadows in 1975. The UK achieved its third win in 1976 with Brotherhood of Man and "Save Your Kisses for Me", who won with 164 points, which would remain the highest points total for ten years. In 1977, the UK finished second for the tenth time, represented by singer-songwriters Lynsey de Paul and Mike Moran.

The UK's fourth victory came in 1981, with Bucks Fizz and "Making Your Mind Up". The group was created especially for the UK televised selection contest, A Song for Europe (a programme which in later years would be renamed to Making Your Mind Up). At Eurovision in Dublin, they defeated Germany's Lena Valaitis by four points. The group went on to continued success, with 13 UK top 40 hits over the next five years. This would be the last UK win for 16 years, although the country continued to be competitive at the contest with four more second-place results during this time. In 1988, Scott Fitzgerald lost to Celine Dion, who was representing Switzerland, by just one point. In 1989, Live Report lost out to Yugoslavia by seven points. Michael Ball in 1992, also finished second, behind Linda Martin of Ireland. The 1993 entry, Sonia, had already had ten UK top 30 hits, including a 1989 number one with "You'll Never Stop Me Loving You", when she was selected to represent the UK in Millstreet. With one country (Malta) left to vote, Ireland's Niamh Kavanagh led Sonia by 11 points. By the time it got to the announcement of the 12 points, neither the UK nor Ireland had been mentioned. If the UK had received the 12, they would have won by one point. In the end, Ireland received the top marks and won by 23 points. Despite only finishing eighth in the 1996 contest, Gina G went on to huge success with her entry "Ooh Aah... Just a Little Bit", which became only the second non-winning UK entry to top the UK Singles Chart. It also reached the top 20 of the US Billboard Hot 100 and received a Grammy nomination for Best Dance Recording. The UK's fifth victory came in 1997, when Katrina and the Waves, famous for their 1980s hit "Walking on Sunshine", comfortably won the contest with the song "Love Shine a Light". They scored 227 points, which would remain the highest points total of the pre-semi-final era. At the 1998 contest in Birmingham, Imaani achieved the UK's 15th second-place finish and 20th top two result, with the song "Where Are You?", losing to Israel's Dana International. The UK would not finish in the top two again for 24 years.

The UK has fared less well in the contest in the 21st century.[3] After girl-group Precious finished 12th in 1999, the UK regularly placed in the bottom half of the scoreboard, with a few exceptions. In the 2000s, those exceptions were Jessica Garlick in 2002, who finished joint third with the song "Come Back", and Jade Ewen in 2009, who was praised for ending the country's poor run of results for much of the decade, by finishing fifth with the song "It's My Time". In 2003, the UK finished last in the final for the first time with the duo Jemini, who received the infamous nul points. The country then finished last on two further occasions over the next seven years, with Andy Abraham, who received 14 points in 2008, and Josh Dubovie, who received 10 points in 2010.

In 2011, the BBC announced that it would forgo the national selection and instead internally select the next representative, eventually selecting the boy band Blue to represent the UK. They finished 11th with 100 points. In 2012, the UK were facing calls to quit the contest when the UK entry, Engelbert Humperdinck, finished 25th (out of 26) with only 12 points.[4] However, the UK confirmed its participation in the 2013 contest, with the Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler, best known for her 1983 US and UK number one hit "Total Eclipse of the Heart", representing the country with her song "Believe in Me".[5] In Malmö, she finished 19th with 23 points.[6]

In 2014, the BBC internally selected unknown singer Molly Smitten-Downes, through BBC Introducing, which supports new and unsigned acts. She represented the UK in Copenhagen under her mononym Molly. In the final, she performed the song "Children of the Universe", which she co-wrote with Anders Hansson and finished in 17th place with 40 points, having been regarded as one of the favourites to win the contest.[7] In October 2014, Guy Freeman stated that the BBC were still engaging with record companies and the BBC Introducing platform in order to find an entry for the 2015 contest via the internal selection process, but announced that in addition, for the first time since 2008, it would be giving the general public the option to submit an entry for consideration.[8][9] Ultimately, the entry for 2015 came through open submission, with the song "Still in Love with You" performed by the duo Electro Velvet finishing in 24th place with five points.[10]

On 30 September 2015, the BBC confirmed the national selection show would return in 2016.[11] Six acts competed in the national final on 26 February and the winner was selected entirely through a public vote, consisting of televoting and online voting. "You're Not Alone" performed by Joe and Jake won the national final broadcast live on BBC Four.[12] In the final, they came 24th with 62 points in total.[13] Of these only 8 were from the public vote, the second lowest public score, following 0 to the Czech Republic. In spite of the disappointing result, the BBC announced the national final format would be retained for 2017.[14] Six acts again participated in the final, which was held on 27 January 2017. It was broadcast on BBC Two as opposed to BBC Four the previous year, and the winner was determined by a combination of scores from a professional jury and televoting (including votes cast online). Former X Factor contestant Lucie Jones won the show and earned the right to represent the UK at the 2017 contest in Kyiv, with the song "Never Give Up on You", becoming the 60th UK Eurovision entry.[15][16] The song was praised for its impressive staging, and finished 15th in the final with a combined score of 111 points, finishing 10th in the jury vote with 99 points and 20th in the televote with 12 points.[17] In 2018, "Storm" by SuRie was selected by the public to represent the UK.[18] Her performance during the final was marred by an invader who ran onstage halfway through the song and grabbed her microphone, interrupting her performance; however, she was able to complete her performance. She finished in 24th with a combined score of 48.[19] Michael Rice's song "Bigger than Us" was selected by the public to represent the UK in 2019.[20] It finished in 26th place in the final after amassing 11 points, marking the fourth time since the turn of the century that the UK had finished last.[21]

Ahead of the 2020 contest, the BBC stated that it would return to internally selecting its representative, in collaboration with record label BMG. James Newman was chosen as the entrant with his song "My Last Breath";[22] however, the 2020 contest was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The BBC subsequently announced that BBC Studios would produce Eurovision: Come Together, a replacement show for BBC One featuring classic Eurovision performances, interviews and a look at the entries that would have taken part in 2020. The show was part of the BBC's plan to "entertain the nation in time of need".[23] The contest returned in 2021, with Newman being selected again with a new song, "Embers". However, the song finished in last place and became the second UK entry to receive nul points (also the first full nul points since the 2016 voting system was first implemented).[24]

For the 2022 contest, the BBC retained the internal selection format, this time working in partnership with TaP Music. Sam Ryder and his song "Space Man" were selected for the contest and went on to place second with 466 points, the best result achieved by the UK since 1998, earning the most points in the jury vote, and the most points ever received for a UK entry.[25] Ryder also won the Marcel Bezençon Award in the Press category, becoming the first ever UK act to receive the award since its inception in 2002.[26] He was praised by the media for his positive attitude and desire to change the UK public and press' perception of the contest.[3]

The BBC continued its partnership with TaP Music for the 2023 contest, after the success of 2022.[27] However, they were unable to replicate the previous year's success, with Mae Muller and her entry "I Wrote a Song" finishing in 25th place on home soil in Liverpool, with 24 points in total.[28] Later that year, TaP Music announced that it would end its partnership with the BBC.[29]

Although the United Kingdom was entered twice into Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest, with Cliff Richard's 1968 runner-up entry "Congratulations" and Brotherhood of Man's 1976 winning song "Save Your Kisses for Me", the BBC decided not to air the event or participate in the voting, but instead aired an hour-long special programme in May 2006, titled Boom Bang-a-Bang: 50 Years of Eurovision and hosted by Terry Wogan. The programme featured archive footage and highlights of past contests, along with a performance of that year's UK entry by Daz Sampson.

Following the cancellation of the 2020 contest due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the BBC decided to host Eurovision: Come Together, an all-stars contest on the night of what would have been the 2020 final. The show was broadcast just before the EBU's main replacement show Eurovision: Europe Shine a Light. An expert panel selected the 19 competing entries, four of which were UK entries.

In 2015, London hosted Eurovision Song Contest's Greatest Hits, an event to commemorate the 60th anniversary, which was recorded for television on 31 March 2015 and was shown in 26 countries, starting with the UK and Ireland on 3 April 2015.[43]

Year	Location	Venue	Presenters	Image
2015	London	Eventim Apollo	Graham Norton and Petra Mede

Additionally, several British conductors have conducted for other countries (not counting instances where a British musical director had to step in for another country that didn't bring their own conductor), including:

Conductor	Country	Year(s)	Notes
Alberto Semprini	Italy	1958	Half-Italian
Richard Hill	Portugal	1972
Charles Blackwell	Luxembourg	1974
Les Humphries	Germany	1976	Leader of the Les Humphries Singers
Alyn Ainsworth	Belgium	1977
Johnny Arthey	Luxembourg
Del Newman	Italy	1980
Martyn Ford	Cyprus	1982, 1986
Mike Sergeant	Portugal	1983, 1998
Colin Frechter		1986
Nigel Wright	Iceland	1992

Over the years, the BBC's commentary at the contest has been provided by several experienced radio and television presenters, including Tom Fleming, David Vine, David Jacobs, Dave Lee Travis, Pete Murray, John Dunn and Michael Aspel. Terry Wogan provided BBC TV commentary from 1980 to 2008,[55][56] after which he was replaced by Graham Norton from 2009.[57]

The final of the contest has been broadcast by BBC One (previously BBC Television Service and BBC TV) since the first contest in 1956, the first live colour transmission of the contest in the United Kingdom was the Eurovision Song Contest 1970 (though the 1968 contest had been repeated in colour on BBC Two the day after the live telecast on BBC One), and the first high definition broadcast of the contest began in 2007 when the contest was simulcast on BBC HD for the first time (this continued until the channel's closure). Outside the UK, the final was broadcast by BBC Prime from its launch in 1995 and continued to 2006. The final is also broadcast on radio, initially on BBC Light Programme until the 1967 contest. From 1968 it was broadcast on BBC Radio 1 (simulcast on Radio 2), moving to BBC Radio 2 from the 1971 contest where it has remained ever since (except from 1983 to 1985, the first year of which due to a scheduling clash with the St. George's Day Concert). Between 1963 and 1976, in 1980 and again from 1983 until 1985, the contest was also broadcast on BFBS Radio. A simulcast of the 2002 contest was broadcast on BBC Choice with alternative commentary by Jenny Eclair. This was the first time the BBC had provided three different commentary options.[58] For the 2023 contest, additional coverage of all three shows was broadcast on BBC iPlayer with British Sign Language interpretation.[59]

From 2004 to 2015, and again in 2022, both semi-finals were broadcast on BBC Three. During BBC Three's tenure as an online only channel, semi-final coverage was broadcast on BBC Four.[60] In 2023, the semi-finals were broadcast on BBC One, BBC Radio 2, and BBC Radio Merseyside, with the latter providing alternative Liverpudlian commentary by Claire Sweeney and Paul Quinn (chosen as part of the station's "The Voice of Eurovision" talent search campaign) for the final.[59] It was later confirmed that the semi-finals would remain on BBC One for the 2024 contest.[61] In 2014, Ana Matronic provided commentary for the second semi-final of the 2014 contest on BBC Radio 2 Eurovision, a temporary station which was broadcast on DAB radio over four days, as well as the BBC Radio 2 website. She continued this role in 2015.[62]

In the 1998 contest, hosted in Birmingham, Terry Wogan acted as both commentator and on-stage presenter (together with Ulrika Jonsson). Graham Norton performed a similar role in the final of the 2023 contest, hosted in Liverpool, with Mel Giedroyc serving as co-commentator. In the 1980 contest, each song was introduced by a presenter from its country, with the UK entry being introduced by Noel Edmonds.

In recent years, the dual-commentator format during the semi-finals has allowed for the broadcaster to incorporate additional segments, interviews and live viewer interaction during the programme's live airing.[265]

In February 2019, the BBC launched Eurovision Calling, a weekly BBC Sounds podcast hosted by Mills and comedian Jayde Adams.[266][267] In January 2023, the BBC launched Eurovisioncast, a weekly podcast produced by the BBC News podcast team ahead of the 2023 contest in Liverpool, hosted by Måns Zelmerlöw, Nina Warhurst, BBC News Eurovision reporter Daniel Rosney and BBC Radio Merseyside presenter Ngunan Adamu, and broadcast on BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Radio Merseyside.[268]

On 20 January 2022, it was announced that the BBC would move its coverage of the contest from London to Salford. This therefore means that spokespersons in contests from 2022 onwards would announce the points of the British national jury live from Dock10 in Salford.[269]