United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1971

The United Kingdom held a national preselection to choose the song that would go to the Eurovision Song Contest 1971. It was held on 20 February 1971 and presented by Cliff Richard as part of the BBC1 TV series It's Cliff Richard!

Eurovision Song Contest 1971
Country	United Kingdom
National selection
Selection process	A Song For Europe
Selection date(s)	20 February 1971
Selected entrant	Clodagh Rodgers
Selected song	"Jack in the Box"
Selected songwriter(s)	John Worsley David Myers
Finals performance
Final result	4th, 98 points
United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄1970 • 1971 • 1972►

Clodagh Rodgers, a singer and actress from Northern Ireland, best known for her hit singles including, 1969 hits Come Back and Shake Me and Goodnight Midnight sang all the six finalists in the contest, having been chosen by the BBC to represent the UK, in part due to worries as to what reaction the UK artist would face at the contest in Dublin. Rodgers performed the songs weekly, before showcasing all six in the Song for Europe edition of the Cliff Richard Show, where they were also immediately repeated. Due to a postal strike, viewers were unable to cast votes for the songs this year, so 8 regional juries, consisting of 10 jurors with just one vote each for their favourite song, were constructed from members of the public. These juries were located in Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, London, Manchester & Norwich. Jack in the Box was chosen as the winning song, with two songs tying for second place. Rodgers released a standard 7-inch single of the winner, with one of the runners-up Someone To Love Me on the B-Side. She also released a three-track maxi single which included the other second placed song, The Wind of Change. The combined sales of the two singles reached No.4 in the UK singles chart; Rodgers last top 10 single in the UK. Later in the year, she released a fourth song from the final Look Left, Look Right, together with the three already released tracks on the LP Rodgers and Heart. Another Time, Another Place was then included on the 1972 budget LP Clodagh Rodgers, after it had become a No.13 hit single for Engelbert Humperdinck. To date, only the last place song In My World of Beautiful Things has never been officially released in any form.

For the performance in Dublin, Rodgers wore a pink frilly top and spangled hot pants. She finished in fourth place, behind Monaco, Spain and Germany. It was the first time since 1966 that the UK had not placed first or second.

Radio 1 DJ Dave Lee Travis provided the BBC Television commentary, whilst Terry Wogan began his long running commitments with the Eurovision, providing the radio commentary for BBC Radio 1 listeners.