United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017

The United Kingdom participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017. The British entry for the 2017 contest in Kyiv, Ukraine, was selected via the national final Eurovision: You Decide, organised by the British broadcaster BBC. Six acts competed in the national final, with the song "Never Give Up on You" performed by Lucie Jones being selected the winner following the combination of a public televote and the votes of a professional jury panel. The song was co-written by the 2013 Eurovision winner Emmelie de Forest who participated as a songwriter for the first time. The United Kingdom finished in 15th place with 111 points, the country's best result since 2011.

Eurovision Song Contest 2017
Country United Kingdom
National selection
Selection processEurovision: You Decide
Selection date(s)27 January 2017
Selected entrantLucie Jones
Selected song"Never Give Up on You"
Selected songwriter(s)Daniel Salcedo
Emmelie de Forest
Lawrie Martin
Finals performance
Final result15th, 111 points
United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2016 • 2017 • 2018►

As a member of the "Big 5", the United Kingdom automatically qualified to compete in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest.

Background
Main article: United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest

Prior to the 2017 contest, the United Kingdom has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fifty-nine times. Thus far, the United Kingdom has won the contest five times: in 1967 with the song "Puppet on a String" performed by Sandie Shaw, in 1969 with the song "Boom Bang-a-Bang" performed by Lulu, in 1976 with the song "Save Your Kisses for Me" performed by Brotherhood of Man, in 1981 with the song "Making Your Mind Up" performed by Bucks Fizz and in 1997 with the song "Love Shine a Light" performed by Katrina and the Waves. To this point, the nation is noted for having finished as the runner-up in a record fifteen contests. Up to and including 1998, the UK had only twice finished outside the top 10, in 1978 and 1987. Since 1999, the year in which the rule was abandoned that songs must be performed in one of the official languages of the country taking part, the UK has had less success, thus far only finishing within the top ten twice: in 2002 with the song "Come Back" performed by Jessica Garlick and in 2009 with the song "It's My Time" performed by Jade Ewen. For the 2016 contest, the United Kingdom finished in twenty-fourth place out of twenty-six competing entries with the song "You're Not Alone" performed by Joe and Jake.

The British national broadcaster, BBC, broadcasts the event within the United Kingdom and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. BBC announced that the United Kingdom would participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 on 6 October 2016.[1] Between 2011 and 2015, BBC opted to internally select the British entry. For their 2016 entry, the broadcaster announced that a national final would be organised featuring a competition among several artists and songs to choose the British entry for Eurovision. The same process was used in 2017.

Before Eurovision

Eurovision: You Decide
Main article: Eurovision: You Decide

Eurovision: You Decide was the national final developed by the BBC in order to select the British entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2017. Six acts competed in a televised show on 27 January 2017 held at the Eventim Apollo venue in Hammersmith, London and hosted by Mel Giedroyc. The winner was selected through the combination of the votes of a professional jury panel and a public vote.[2] For the first time, the show was broadcast on BBC Two.[3] The national final was watched by 1,26 million viewers in the United Kingdom with a market share of 6.6%.[4]

Competing entries

On 6 October 2016, BBC announced an open submission for interested artists to submit their songs in the form of a video recording. The submission period lasted until 1 November 2016. The received submissions from the open call were reviewed and a shortlist was compiled by the UK branch of the international OGAE fan club. Additional entries were provided to the BBC by the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA) who ran a songwriting competition amongst its members. The BBC also collaborated with the former music director of RCA Records and founder of Innocent Records, Hugh Goldsmith, to consult with music industry experts including writers, producers, artist managers and members of the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) in order to encourage entry submissions and involvement in the national final. Multiple songwriting camps were also held to promote the submission of entries. Songs from all entry methods were included in a final shortlist which was presented to a professional panel that ultimately selected six finalists to compete in the national final.[1] The six competing songs were premiered during The Ken Bruce Show on BBC Radio 2 on 23 January 2017.[3]

Final

Six acts competed in the televised final on 27 January 2017.[3] In addition to their performances, guest performers included previous Eurovision Song Contest winner Alexander Rybak, who won the contest for Norway in 2009 with the song "Fairytale", and pop rock band The Vamps performing their latest single "All Night".[5][6][7]

A combination of the votes from an eight-member professional jury panel and a public vote consisting of televoting and online voting selected the winner, "Never Give Up on You" performed by Lucie Jones.[8] A panel consisting of three of the jury members provided feedback regarding the songs during the show. The panel consisted of Bruno Tonioli (choreographer, dancer and television personality), Sophie Ellis-Bextor (singer and songwriter) and CeCe Sammy (vocal and performance coach and television personality).[9][10]

Draw Artist Song Songwriter(s)
1 Holly Brewer "I Wish I Loved You More" Kevin Fisher, Courtney Harrell, Laurell Barker, Mattias Frändå, Johan Åsgärde, Oliver Lundström
2 Danyl Johnson "Light Up the World" Dan McAllister, Rick Blaskey, Greg Walker, Chris Sutherland, Ameerah Roelants
3 Lucie Jones "Never Give Up on You" Daniel Salcedo, Emmelie de Forest, Lawrie Martin
4 Olivia Garcia "Freedom Hearts" Gabriel Alares, Sebastian Lestapier, Linnea Nelson, Laurell Barker
5 Nate Simpson "What Are We Made Of" Jon Hällgren, Eric Lumiere, DWB
6 Salena Mastroianni "I Don't Wanna Fight" The Treatment, Nicole Blair, Marli Harwood

Song revamp

Following the show, during an interview on BBC Breakfast on 30 January 2017, Jones revealed that both she and the BBC would be seeking to make changes to the song, stating they had listened to feedback from viewers on social media and would look at ideas at how to make it better. A new version of the song was recorded at Tileyard Studios in late February 2017, whilst an accompanying music video was shot soon afterwards. The new version of the song, together with the official video, was released on 11 March 2017.

Promotion

It was announced that Jones would promote the song by performing at both the London Eurovision Party on 2 April 2017, and the Eurovision In Concert event in Amsterdam on 8 April 2017.

At Eurovision

The Eurovision Song Contest 2017 took place at the International Exhibition Centre in Kyiv, Ukraine, and consisted of two semi-finals on 9 and 11 May and the final on 13 May 2017.[11] According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. As a member of the "Big 5", the United Kingdom automatically qualifies to compete in the final. In addition to their participation in the final, the United Kingdom is also required to broadcast and vote in one of the two semi-finals. At the semi-final allocation draw on 31 January 2017, the United Kingdom was drawn to vote in the first semi-final on 9 May; the country also performed in the first semi-final jury show on 8 May, and an extended clip of the performance was broadcast in the televised semi-final show the following evening.

In the United Kingdom, the semi-finals were broadcast on BBC Four, with an average of half a million viewers watching the first semifinal and 350,000 watching the second semifinal. The number of viewers who watched the second semifinal was down almost half on the 2016 second semifinal, which had 630,000 viewers.[12] The final was broadcast on BBC One, with a peak audience of 6.7 million viewers, down by half a million from 2016's contest.[3]

Voting

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to the United Kingdom and awarded by United Kingdom in the first semi-final and grand final of the contest, and the breakdown of the jury voting and televoting conducted during the two shows:[13][14]

Points awarded to the United Kingdom
Points awarded to the United Kingdom (final)
Televote
12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points
5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point
Jury
12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points
5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point

Points awarded by United Kingdom

Split voting results

The following five members comprised the British jury:[15]

  • Mary Hammond – Chairperson – singing teacher, singer
  • Emma Stevens – singer, songwriter
  • Rokhsan Heydari – songwriter
  • Mark Eldridge (Kipper) – producer, musician
  • Jay London – radio DJ
Split voting results from United Kingdom (Semi-final 1)
Draw Country Jury Televote
M. Hammond E. Stevens R. Heydari Kipper J. London Average Rank Points Rank Points
01  Sweden 13 16 3 8 4 9 2 10 1
02  Georgia 9 12 6 12 8 10 1 18
03  Australia 10 6 8 10 2 4 7 12
04  Albania 16 18 9 17 15 18 16
05  Belgium 18 5 12 7 1 7 4 7 4
06  Montenegro 6 14 17 18 18 17 11
07  Finland 11 7 16 6 17 14 8 3
08  Azerbaijan 14 17 4 15 9 15 15
09  Portugal 15 1 1 2 6 2 10 2 10
10  Greece 8 13 14 13 14 16 6 5
11  Poland 5 9 11 3 13 5 6 1 12
12  Moldova 1 8 5 4 3 1 12 3 8
13  Iceland 17 3 10 9 10 11 9 2
14  Czech Republic 3 2 2 14 11 3 8 17
15  Cyprus 7 11 13 5 7 8 3 5 6
16  Armenia 12 10 7 1 12 6 5 13
17  Slovenia 2 4 15 16 16 13 14
18  Latvia 4 15 18 11 5 12 4 7
Split voting results from United Kingdom (final)
Draw Country Jury Televote
M. Hammond E. Stevens R. Heydari Kipper J. London Average Rank Points Rank Points
01  Israel 11 11 24 16 20 17 19
02  Poland 22 14 10 11 16 13 2 10
03  Belarus 8 3 11 14 19 10 1 17
04  Austria 9 5 19 10 8 8 3 18
05  Armenia 16 18 15 9 25 18 21
06  Netherlands 19 6 5 2 9 7 4 12
07  Moldova 4 7 7 7 2 5 6 5 6
08  Hungary 23 17 18 21 24 24 10 1
09  Italy 18 16 14 23 17 20 9 2
10  Denmark 20 12 4 4 11 9 2 24
11  Portugal 1 1 3 5 7 1 12 3 8
12  Azerbaijan 13 19 12 17 18 15 20
13  Croatia 6 20 25 24 23 23 6 5
14  Australia 7 2 8 3 4 2 10 16
15  Greece 24 15 16 22 21 22 11
16  Spain 2 25 21 25 10 19 25
17  Norway 14 24 9 20 12 14 14
18  United Kingdom
19  Cyprus 5 13 17 15 15 12 13
20  Romania 17 22 13 13 14 16 4 7
21  Germany 12 8 23 8 5 11 23
22  Ukraine 21 21 20 18 13 21 22
23  Belgium 15 4 6 12 1 6 5 8 3
24  Sweden 3 9 1 6 6 3 8 7 4
25  Bulgaria 10 10 2 1 3 4 7 1 12
26  France 25 23 22 19 22 25 15

References
  1. "Eurovision 2017 - UK song entry now open!". BBC Blogs - Eurovision. 6 October 2016. Retrieved 6 October 2016.
  2. "Eurovision Song Contest, 2017, You Decide". BBC Eurovision. Retrieved 14 January 2017.
  3. "The spotlight's on, the stage is set – Eurovision: You Decide is back". BBC Media Centre. 9 December 2016. Retrieved 9 December 2016.
  4. Granger, Anthony (28 January 2017). "United Kingdom: Eurovision: You Decide Viewing Figures Double Over 2016". eurovoix.com. Eurovoix. Retrieved 11 February 2018.
  5. Sandwell, Ian (16 December 2016). "Eurovision: You Decide signs up former winner Alexander Rybak". digitalspy.com. Digital Spy. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
  6. BBC Eurovision [@bbceurovision] (20 January 2017). "NEWS: @TheVampsband will be performing on #Eurovision You Decide, next Friday 27th January @BBCTwo" (Tweet). Retrieved 20 January 2017 – via Twitter.
  7. "Eurovision: You Decide 2017 Panel announced!". BBC Eurovision. 20 January 2017. Retrieved 21 January 2017.
  8. Adams, William Lee (14 January 2017). ""Eurovision: You Decide" jury vote confirmed...as Emmelie de Forest speculation heats up". wiwibloggs.com. Wiwibloggs. Retrieved 15 January 2017.
  9. Adams, William Lee (20 January 2017). ""Eurovision: You Decide" expert panel includes Bruno Tonioli, Sophie Ellis Bextor and CeCe Sammy". wiwibloggs.com. Wiwibloggs. Retrieved 20 January 2017.
  10. Weaver, Jessica (27 January 2017). "United Kingdom: Lucie Jones wins Eurovision: You Decide". esctoday.com. Esctoday. Retrieved 27 January 2017.
  11. Jordan, Paul (9 September 2016). "Kyiv to host Eurovision 2017!". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 11 September 2016.
  12. Eurovision Song Contest 2017 UK TV semi final ratings
  13. "United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 First Semi-Final". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 14 May 2017.
  14. "United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 Grand Final". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 14 May 2017.
  15. Jordan, Paul (29 April 2017). "Who will be the expert jurors for Eurovision 2017?". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 29 April 2017.
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