United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018

The United Kingdom participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. The British entry for the 2018 contest in Lisbon, Portugal, was selected via the national final Eurovision: You Decide, organised by the British broadcaster BBC. On 16 November 2017, it was announced that Måns Zelmerlöw, winner of the 2015 contest for Sweden, would join the show as co-host alongside Mel Giedroyc. The national final took place on 7 February 2018 at the Brighton Dome. Six acts competed in the national final, with the song "Storm" performed by SuRie being selected the winner.

Eurovision Song Contest 2018
Country	United Kingdom
National selection
Selection process	Eurovision: You Decide
Selection date(s)	7 February 2018
Selected entrant	SuRie
Selected song	"Storm"
Selected songwriter(s)	Nicole Blair Gil Lewis Sean Hargreaves
Finals performance
Final result	24th, 48 points
United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2017 • 2018 • 2019►

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

Background

Prior to the 2018 contest, the United Kingdom has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest sixty 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 participating, 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 2017 contest, the United Kingdom finished in fifteenth place out of twenty-six competing entries with the song "Never Give Up on You" performed by Lucie Jones amassing a total of 111 points.

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 2018 on 29 September 2017.[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

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]

Competing entries

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]

Final

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]

Draw	Artist	Song	Songwriter(s)
1	RAYA	"Crazy"	Emil Rosendal Lei, Greta Salóme Stefánsdóttir, Samir Salah Elshafie
2	Liam Tamne	"Astronaut"	Ashley Hicklin, Jacob Pedersen, Jeanette Bonde, Rune Braager
3	Asanda	"Legends"	Christopher Wortley, Laurell Barker, Roel Rats
4	Jaz Ellington	"You"	Ashley Hicklin, Herman Gardarfve, Laura White
5	SuRie	"Storm"	Nicole Blair, Gil Lewis, Sean Hargreaves
6	Goldstone	"I Feel the Love"	Eric Lumiere, Joakim Buddee, Laura White, Roel Rats

At Eurovision

The Eurovision Song Contest 2018 took place at the Altice Arena in Lisbon, Portugal and consisted of two semi-finals on 8 and 10 May and the final on 12 May 2018.[9] 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. During the semi-final allocation draw on 29 January 2018, the United Kingdom was assigned to broadcast and vote in the first semi-final on 8 May 2018.[10]

In the United Kingdom, the semi-finals were broadcast on BBC Four with commentary by Scott Mills and Rylan Clark-Neal, while the final was televised on BBC One with commentary by Graham Norton.[1] Mel Giedroyc announced the United Kingdom jury results.

Grand Final

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.

Points awarded to the United Kingdom

Points awarded to the United Kingdom (final)
Televote
12 points	10 points	8 points	7 points	6 points
	Ireland			Australia
5 points	4 points	3 points	2 points	1 point
		Albania  Denmark		Germany  Malta  San Marino
Jury
12 points	10 points	8 points	7 points	6 points
		Israel		Italy
5 points	4 points	3 points	2 points	1 point
		France	Croatia  Latvia  Montenegro

Points awarded by the United Kingdom

Semi-final 1 Score Televote Jury 12 points  Lithuania  Bulgaria 10 points  Ireland  Austria 8 points  Cyprus  Israel 7 points  Finland  Albania 6 points  Bulgaria  Estonia 5 points  Israel  Croatia 4 points  Estonia   Switzerland 3 points  Greece  Finland 2 points  Czech Republic  Armenia 1 point  Albania  Ireland

Final Score Televote Jury 12 points  Lithuania  Austria 10 points  Ireland  Israel 8 points  Cyprus  Bulgaria 7 points  Israel  Albania 6 points  Bulgaria  Estonia 5 points  Czech Republic  Norway 4 points  Moldova  Finland 3 points  Germany  Ireland 2 points  Denmark  Sweden 1 point  Australia  Spain

Split voting results

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

References

1. Jordan, Paul (29 September 2017). "BBC opens public song submissions for Eurovision 2018!". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 22 October 2017.
2. Jordan, Paul (16 November 2017). "UK national selection to be held in Brighton - with a Swedish twist!". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
3. Granger, Andy (8 February 2018). "United Kingdom: Less Than 1 Million Viewers Watched Eurovision: You Decide". eurovoix.com. Eurovoix. Retrieved 11 February 2018.
4. "UK: BBC opens song submissions for Eurovision 2018...as Greta Salóme joins songwriting camp". wiwibloggs.com. 29 September 2017.
5. "Six acts and songs revealed for Eurovision: You Decide 2018". BBC. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
6. "BBC reveals six Eurovision: You Decide hopefuls". ESCXTRA.com. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
7. "Voting - Eurovision: You Decide". BBC Eurovision. Retrieved 8 February 2018.
8. McCaig, Ewan (6 February 2018). "United Kingdom: You Decide panelists revealed". eurovoix.com. Eurovoix. Retrieved 6 February 2018.
9. Jordan, Paul (25 July 2017). "Lisbon revealed as Host City of the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest!". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 17 November 2017.
10. https://eurovision.tv/story/results-of-the-semi-final-allocation-draw
11. Groot, Evert (30 April 2018). "Exclusive: They are the expert jurors for Eurovision 2018". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 30 April 2018.

External links

• BBC's official Eurovision website