United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1957


The United Kingdom participated in the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time in. The British Broadcasting Corporation organised a national final, the Festival of British Popular Songs, to select the United Kingdom's entry for the contest. The country was represented by Patricia Bredin with the song "All" written by Reynell Wreford and Alan Stranks.

Before Eurovision

''Festival of British Popular Songs''

The 1957 contest was the United Kingdom's first participation in the contest. The country did not participate in the inaugural contest in, as the BBC had created their own contest, the Festival of British Popular Song, aspects of which influenced the 1957 contest.
The Festival of British Popular Songs 1957 consisted of three semi finals and a grand final. All shows were presented by David Jacobs, who would host many other British national finals the following years. Seven singers presented one song each in the first two semi finals. In the third semi final, five songs took part. Most song titles and results in the heats were lost.
The songs were scored by ten twelve-member juries, representing Birmingham, Aberdeen, Cardiff, Newcastle, Belfast, Manchester, Bangor, Bristol, Glasgow, and London. Each juror awarded one point to their favourite song. Two songs in each heat advanced to the national final, where every song was presented twice by two different artists and with a different arrangement. With the exception of the song "Once", the first performance was by the singer who performed it in the semi final, and the second performance was by an artist who had not taken part in the heats. After the show, the BBC internally chose Patricia Bredin to perform the song in Frankfurt.

Participants

Semi-final 1

Semi-final 2

Semi-final 3

Final

Commercial success

Patricia Bredin never recorded the song, and it was therefore also never released as a single. Neither reached any of the songs the UK single charts despite the popularity of some of the contestants.

At Eurovision

At the Eurovision Song Contest, Patricia Bredin delivered an operatic performance of "All", performing third that night following with "Amours mortes " and preceding with "Corde della mia chitarra". At the close of voting, the United Kingdom had received six points and finished seventh among the ten countries, despite points from five of the nine other countries. It would take the United Kingdom until not to finish in the first half of the scoreboard again.

Voting

Every country had a jury of ten people. Every juror could give one point to their favourite song.

Points awarded by the United Kingdom

10 points
9 points
8 points
7 points
6 points
5 points
4 points
3 points
2 points
1 point

Points awarded to the United Kingdom