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 Kiev, Ukraine, was selected via the national final , 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.
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 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. 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 that was used to select the 2016 and 2017 entrants. Six acts compete in a televised show on 27 January 2017 hosted by Mel Giedroyc. The winner was selected via the combination of a public televote, consisting of televoting and online voting, and the votes of a professional jury panel. For the first time, the show was broadcast live on BBC Two. The national final was watched by 1.26 million viewers in the United Kingdom with a market share of 6.6%.

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 BBC invited the UK branch of the international OGAE fan club to assist in shortlisting the open entries and also revived its partnership with the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors 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. Former music director of RCA Records and founder of Innocent Records, Hugh Goldsmith, acted as music consultant to the BBC. Songs from all entry methods were included in a final shortlist which was presented to a professional panel, who ultimately selected six finalists to compete in the national final. The six competing songs premiered during The Ken Bruce Show on BBC Radio 2 on 23 January 2017.

Final

Six acts competed in the televised final on 27 January 2017. In addition to their performances, musical guest performers were featured in the show. A combination of the votes from the public and the votes from an eight-member professional jury panel selected the winner, Lucie Jones. Three of the members of the eight-member jury panel provided feedback regarding the songs during the show, and they were:
Norway's Eurovision 2009 winner Alexander Rybak was revealed as the first guest performer on 16 December 2016 and opened the show with his winning song "Fairytale". Pop rock band The Vamps were also revealed as guest performers on 20 January 2017 and performed their latest single "All Night" during the show.
DrawArtistSongSongwriter
1Holly Brewer"I Wish I Loved You More"Kevin Fisher, Courtney Harrell, Laurell Barker, Mattias Frändå, Johan Åsgärde, Oliver Lundström
2Danyl Johnson"Light Up the World"Dan McAllister, Rick Blaskey, Greg Walker, Chris Sutherland, Ameerah Roelants
3Lucie Jones"Never Give Up on You"Daniel Salcedo, Emmelie de Forest, Lawrie Martin
4Olivia Garcia"Freedom Hearts"Gabriel Alares, Sebastian Lestapier, Linnea Nelson, Laurell Barker
5Nate Simpson"What Are We Made Of"Jon Hällgren, Eric Lumiere, DWB
6Salena 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 Kiev, Ukraine, and consisted of two semi-finals on 9 and 11 May and the final on 13 May 2017. According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" 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. 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.

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:

Points awarded to the United Kingdom

Points awarded by United Kingdom

Split voting results

The following five members comprised the British jury: