United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019

Eurovision: You Decide was the national final developed by the BBC in order to select the British entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2019. Six acts competed in a televised show on 8 February 2019 held at the Dock10, MediaCityUK in Salford and hosted by Mel Giedroyc as well as Måns Zelmerlöw, who won the contest for Sweden in 2015 with the song "Heroes". The Dock10 venue previously hosted All Together Now and The Voice UK. The show was broadcast on BBC Two. The national final was watched by 1,17 million viewers in the United Kingdom with a market share of 6.4%.[2]

On 19 September 2018, BBC announced an open submission for interested composers to submit their songs in the form of a video recording. The submission period lasted until 26 October 2018. 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 consulted 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. Greig Watts replaced Hugh Goldsmith as music consultant to the BBC. 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 of international experts that ultimately selected three songs to compete in the national final.[3] The three competing songs were matched with two artists each and were announced on 23 January 2019 through social media as well as online via the BBC Eurovision website.

Six acts competed in the televised final on 8 February 2019. In addition to their performances, guest performers included Måns Zelmerlöw performing a medley of past British Eurovision songs with past British representatives Bucks Fizz and Katrina Leskanich, produced by Edward af Sillén, Netta, who won the contest for Israel in 2018 performing the song "Toy", and 2018 British representative SuRie performing a piano rendition of her entry "Storm".[4]

A panel of experts provided feedback regarding the songs during the show. The panel consisted of head judge Rylan Clark-Neal (singer, television presenter, television personality and model), Marvin Humes (singer, television presenter and radio presenter) and Mollie King (singer-songwriter, television presenter, radio presenter and model). The winner was selected over two rounds of voting. In the first round, each song was performed by two artists in different versions and the expert panel selected one artist per song to proceed to the final round. In the final round, the winner was selected entirely through a public vote from the three remaining combinations of artist and song.

In the duels round, the expert panel selected "Sweet Lies" performed by Kerrie-Anne, "Freaks" performed by Jordan Clarke and "Bigger than Us" performed by Michael Rice to proceed to the final round.

In the final round, a public vote consisting of televoting and online voting selected the winner, "Bigger than Us" performed by Michael Rice.

United Kingdom performed sixteenth in the final, following the entry from Norway and preceding the entry from Iceland. At the end of the show, United Kingdom placed last (26th) in the final, receiving a total of 11 points: 3 points from the televoting and 8 points from the juries. With the 2013-15 voting system, United Kingdom would have ranked last (26th) with 0 points.

Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member, as well as the nation's televoting results, were released shortly after the grand final.[6]

At the final, the United Kingdom's jury voting results were announced by Rylan Clark-Neal.[7]

The following five members comprised the British jury:[6]

• George Ure - actor[8]
• Pete Watson – musical director
• Jai Ramage – vocal coach
• Adele Roberts – BBC Radio 1 DJ
• AJ Bentley – singer, actor

Sophie Ellis-Bextor was first announced as the chairperson of the jury, but left the jury on 15 May for personal reasons.[9]

Split voting results from United Kingdom (Semi-final 2)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		P. Watson	J. Ramage	A. Roberts	AJ Bentley	G. Ure	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Armenia	14	17	15	11	17	17		17
02	Ireland	17	10	11	17	13	15		8	3
03	Moldova	6	14	5	9	3	7	4	16
04	Switzerland	10	12	14	7	14	12		5	6
05	Latvia	15	18	8	18	15	16		14
06	Romania	7	6	4	10	5	6	5	10	1
07	Denmark	16	3	10	1	18	5	6	13
08	Sweden	3	2	1	4	2	2	10	7	4
09	Austria	18	16	18	16	16	18		18
10	Croatia	5	8	3	2	8	3	8	15
11	Malta	4	11	6	8	12	10	1	3	8
12	Lithuania	13	7	17	15	10	14		1	12
13	Russia	8	4	13	6	7	8	3	9	2
14	Albania	11	15	16	14	6	13		11
15	Norway	12	13	7	13	11	11		2	10
16	Netherlands	9	5	12	12	4	9	2	6	5
17	North Macedonia	1	1	2	5	1	1	12	12
18	Azerbaijan	2	9	9	3	9	4	7	4	7

Split voting results from United Kingdom (final)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		P. Watson	J. Ramage	A. Roberts	AJ Bentley	G. Ure	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Malta	10	15	14	14	13	14		15
02	Albania	16	9	12	20	8	13		20
03	Czech Republic	23	12	10	3	12	10	1	16
04	Germany	21	16	19	19	18	23		24
05	Russia	8	5	15	6	6	7	4	13
06	Denmark	17	6	5	4	21	8	3	5	6
07	San Marino	20	25	22	25	24	25		21
08	North Macedonia	2	1	2	2	2	1	12	18
09	Sweden	1	2	3	8	1	2	10	6	5
10	Slovenia	24	23	9	24	25	20		23
11	Cyprus	11	17	23	17	19	19		10	1
12	Netherlands	5	7	13	11	3	5	6	7	4
13	Greece	19	22	25	22	22	24		19
14	Israel	18	19	17	18	17	21		17
15	Norway	15	10	4	12	11	11		1	12
16	United Kingdom
17	Iceland	14	21	24	23	16	22		3	8
18	Estonia	9	11	21	16	7	12		12
19	Belarus	12	20	18	13	15	18		22
20	Azerbaijan	3	8	8	5	4	4	7	8	3
21	France	7	3	20	10	9	9	2	14
22	Italy	25	18	11	9	20	15		11
23	Serbia	13	13	16	15	14	16		25
24	Switzerland	6	14	6	7	5	6	5	4	7
25	Australia	4	4	1	1	10	3	8	2	10
26	Spain	22	24	7	21	23	17		9	2