United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018

Eurovision: You Decide was the national final developed by the BBC in order to select the British entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. Six acts competed in a televised show on 7 February 2018 held at the Brighton Dome in Brighton and hosted by Mel Giedroyc as well as Måns Zelmerlöw, who won the contest for Sweden in 2015 with the song "Heroes". The winner was selected through the combination of the votes of a professional jury panel and a public vote. The show was broadcast on BBC Two.[2] The national final was watched by 900,000 viewers in the United Kingdom with a market share of 4.8%.[3]

On 29 September 2017, BBC announced an open submission for interested artists to submit their songs in the form of a video recording. The submission period lasted until 27 October 2017. 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.[4] The six competing songs were announced on 24 January 2018.[5][6]

Six acts competed in the televised final on 7 February 2018. In addition to their performances, guest performers included Måns Zelmerlöw and 2017 British representative Lucie Jones performing an ABBA medley.

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, "Storm" performed by SuRie. The jury panel consisted of David Grant (vocal coach, head of the jury), Caroline Sullivan (music journalist), Roisin O'Connor (music correspondent), Steve Tandy (regional radio promoter), Sara Sesardic (Spotify music editor), Alastair Webber (A&R manager), Marco Sensi (MTV Music editor) and Kele Le Roc (singer).[7] A panel of experts provided feedback regarding the songs during the show. The panel consisted of Rylan Clark-Neal (singer, television presenter, television personality and model), Rochelle Humes (singer and television presenter) and Tom Fletcher (singer-songwriter and guitarist).[8]

SuRie performed 9th in the running order during the Grand Final. In the middle of her performance, a stage invader grabbed her microphone and shouted: "Modern Nazis of The UK media, we demand freedom! War is not peace!", before being removed by security and taken into police custody. SuRie was without her microphone for about 10 seconds, but was nevertheless able to finish her performance. She was offered the opportunity to perform again by the EBU after the final country, Italy, had performed, but declined, claiming she and her team were "proud of her performance". After returning to The UK, in an interview on This Morning, SuRie revealed she had some bruises on her hands where the invader had grabbed her and also on her shoulder where he had barged into her, but she said that she had not been seriously harmed by the incident.

The following five members comprised the British jury:[11]

• Richard Beadle – Chairperson – musical director, orchestrator, composer
• Natalie Shay - singer-songwriter
• Michelle Escoffery – singer-songwriter
• Toby Lawrence – club and radio DJ
• Eady Crawford – singer

Split voting results from United Kingdom (Semi-final 1)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		R. Beadle	M. Escoffery	N. Shay	T. Lawrence	E. Crawford	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Azerbaijan	11	18	18	16	7	16		15
02	Iceland	9	19	14	17	14	17		16
03	Albania	2	2	3	10	5	4	7	10	1
04	Belgium	5	8	16	15	15	11		13
05	Czech Republic	19	15	8	6	19	13		9	2
06	Lithuania	18	17	15	19	16	19		1	12
07	Israel	7	5	4	1	3	3	8	6	5
08	Belarus	12	14	17	9	8	14		14
09	Estonia	8	3	5	14	6	5	6	7	4
10	Bulgaria	4	1	2	3	2	1	12	5	6
11	Macedonia	13	16	19	12	12	18		17
12	Croatia	6	6	9	13	4	6	5	19
13	Austria	3	4	1	5	1	2	10	11
14	Greece	17	7	7	18	13	12		8	3
15	Finland	16	11	11	2	10	8	3	4	7
16	Armenia	10	9	6	8	11	9	2	18
17	Switzerland	1	12	12	11	18	7	4	12
18	Ireland	14	13	10	4	9	10	1	2	10
19	Cyprus	15	10	13	7	17	15		3	8

Split voting results from United Kingdom (final)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		R. Beadle	M. Escoffery	N. Shay	T. Lawrence	E. Crawford	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Ukraine	23	19	10	13	14	18		23
02	Spain	17	17	11	24	3	10	1	22
03	Slovenia	12	18	21	5	11	13		24
04	Lithuania	16	8	12	23	12	17		1	12
05	Austria	1	2	1	8	1	1	12	19
06	Estonia	15	3	7	16	2	5	6	11
07	Norway	4	21	3	11	7	6	5	15
08	Portugal	21	15	19	19	13	23		18
09	United Kingdom
10	Serbia	24	22	24	14	9	20		25
11	Germany	22	12	23	21	10	19		8	3
12	Albania	3	5	4	3	8	4	7	16
13	France	19	13	17	15	15	22		21
14	Czech Republic	6	23	8	10	16	11		6	5
15	Denmark	20	24	22	12	24	24		9	2
16	Australia	13	11	16	22	23	21		10	1
17	Finland	11	7	13	6	6	7	4	14
18	Bulgaria	14	1	2	4	5	3	8	5	6
19	Moldova	8	9	18	9	22	14		7	4
20	Sweden	2	16	20	20	19	9	2	20
21	Hungary	9	6	14	18	25	15		12
22	Israel	5	4	5	1	4	2	10	4	7
23	Netherlands	10	20	6	17	20	16		13
24	Ireland	18	10	9	2	18	8	3	2	10
25	Cyprus	7	14	15	7	21	12		3	8
26	Italy	25	25	25	25	17	25		17