United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest

Balance sheet

---

Broadcasting company

First participation

1957

Number of participations

62 (as of 2019)

Highest ranking

1 ( 1967 , 1969 , 1976 , 1981 , 1997 )

Highest Score

227 (1997)

Lowest Score

0 ( 2003 )

Points average (since first post)

65.77 (as of 2019)

Average points per voting country in the 12-point system

2.71 (as of 2019)

This article looks at the history of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland as a participant in the Eurovision Song Contest .

Regularity of participation and successes in competition

British successes at the Eurovision Song Contest
The black line shows the number of participants and therefore the worst possible placement

Jade Ewen (2009) is the last British performer to date to achieve a placement in the top ten

Great Britain first took part in 1957. However, the debut was not very successful. Patricia Bredin only landed 7th out of 10. After this failure, the country suspended in 1958, but returned in 1959. In 1959, the country was also significantly more successful than when it debuted. Finally, the duo Pearl Carr & Teddy Johnson reached second place. Also in 1960 and 1961, the British contributions landed in each case in second place, making Great Britain the first country in the competition to reach second place three times in a row. Participations in 1962 and 1963 were just as successful, however, as the British entries each reached fourth place. In 1964 and 1965, Great Britain again achieved second place in the competition and thus achieved its fifth second place. The placement in 1966 was all the more disappointing. The singer Kenneth McKellar only landed 9th out of 18 and thus only in the midfield, which was Britain's worst placement since her debut. The country was all the more successful in 1967 when Sandie Shaw won the entire competition with the song Puppet on a String . In 1967 the competition took place for the third time in the United Kingdom, after the country had hosted it in 1960 and 1963. The country almost won again, but in the end Spain ended up one point ahead of Great Britain. Thus in 1968 the country achieved its sixth second place. In 1969 Great Britain won the competition again. After all, the British singer Lulu was one of four winners with her song Boom Bang-a-Bang , alongside the participants from France, Spain and the Netherlands. In 1970, the British contribution came in second again. In 1971, on the other hand, with fourth place, for the first time since 1966, no placement among the top two was achieved. In 1972, however, that was over again, as Great Britain again reached number 2. In 1973, Cliff Richard represented the country again, having finished second in 1968. This time, however, it reached number 3, which is the first time that Great Britain achieved this position. In 1974 the country reached number 4, as in 1971. In 1975 the band The Shadows again reached number 2 for the country. It was the ninth time that the country had achieved this ranking. In 1976 Great Britain could then get its third victory in the competition after the band Brotherhood of Man won the competition for themselves. With 164 points, they also achieved a new high for the country. In 1977, when the competition was held in London, the British entry again took second place. It wasn't until 1978 that Britain's streak of top five finishes ended.

In 1978, the British contribution achieved 11th out of 20, the worst ranking for over ten years. In 1979, Great Britain was only able to land in the upper middle field with place 7 out of 19. In 1980, however, the country was again among the top five. In 1980 the band Prima Donna reached 3rd place. In 1981 the country was even more successful, as the group Bucks Fizz won the competition. It was the fourth victory of the United Kingdom in the competition. From 1982, however, began Great Britain's weakest phase in the competition. In 1982, 1984 and 1986 Great Britain only reached 7th place in the competition, while 1983 came 6th place. In 1985, with fourth place, a placement in the top three was just missed. In 1987, the British contribution even only reached number 13 out of 22, which means that for the first time in recent years the country could not achieve a place in the top ten. In 1988 and 1989 the country was very successful again. In each of these years, the British contributions reached second place, with Switzerland only narrowly winning in 1988 because they had one point more than the United Kingdom. It was the twelfth time that the country reached second place. In 1990 the singer Emma achieved 6th place again, a good result for the country. Also in 1991 Great Britain placed in the top ten with 10th place. In 1992 and 1993 Great Britain reached 2nd place again. In 1994 and 1995 the British contributions reached 10th place each. In 1996 the country reached 3rd place in the preliminary round and was able to win in the Position the final in 8th place. In 1997 Great Britain was able to record its fifth victory in the competition. Eventually, the band Katrina and the Waves won the competition with 227 points, which is still the highest score in the competition for Great Britain to this day. In addition to this peculiarity, the country became part of the introduced “big ones” in 1997 - the  Big Four (Germany, France, Great Britain, Spain), since 2011 the Big Five (with Italy), the largest EBU contributors - and thus always has a guaranteed final place. This measure was introduced to ensure the long-term participation of the large donors (Spain, Great Britain, France and Germany, from 2011 also Italy) and thus the survival of the contest. In 1998, when the competition took place for the eighth and final time in the United Kingdom, singer Imaani achieved the country's last second place in the competition to date. It was the fifteenth time that the country ranked 2nd. After these successful years, however, the UK's competition went steeply downhill and since then the UK has had its weakest phase in competition.

In 1999, Great Britain reached 12th place, the first place in the midfield since 1987. In the years 2000 and 2001, the British contributions also only achieved placements in the midfield with places 16 and 15. In 2002, the country was again successful in the competition, as Jessica Garlick place 3 reached. The ranking in 2003 was all the worse. There the singing duo Jemini reached the last place without having received a single point. To date, it is Britain’s worst result in the competition. After this fiasco, success could not return in 2004 either. So the country only reached 16th place. In 2005, the singer Javine landed third from the bottom. Also in 2006 Great Britain was not very successful in the competition and ended up in the lower midfield with 19th place. In 2007, the country landed second to last in the final, while Great Britain finished last for the second time in 2008. It was all the more successful in 2009 that the country ended up in 5th place. It was the best placement since 2002. The following year, however, the country was again last, bringing Great Britain to its third last place. In 2011, the band Blue then just missed a placement in the top ten with 11th place. In 2012 Engelbert Humperdinck then reached a penultimate place. Bonnie Tyler 2013 was also not very successful in the competition. After all, it ended up only in 19th place. In 2014, Great Britain was able to place itself in the midfield again with 17th place, while the country only ended up third from last in 2015 and 2016. In 2017, Lucie Jones achieved 15th place, the best ranking for Great Britain since 2011, while SuRie only came third from bottom in 2018. In 2019, the UK came last for the first time since 2010.

A total of 42 of the 62 entries ended up in the left half of the table. In addition, the country only came last four times. With five wins, 15 second places, which is a record in the competition, and three third places, the United Kingdom is one of the most successful countries in the competition, despite the rather moderate successes since 1999. With 62 participations it is one of the longest participating countries in the competition. In the end, the country only missed the first song contest in 1956 and voluntarily stopped in 1958.

List of posts

Color legend: - 1st place. - 2nd place. - 3rd place. - Equal points with last place. - Eliminated in the semifinals / in the qualification / in the Eastern European preliminary decision. - no participation / not qualified. - Cancellation of the Eurovision Song Contest.      

year	Interpreter	Title Music (M) and Text (T)	language	translation	final		Semi-final / qualification		National preliminary decision	Charts (UK)
					space	Points	space	Points
1957	Patricia Bredin	All M: Reynell Wreford; T: Alan Stranks	English	Everything	7/10	6th	Direct participation		Festival of British Popular Songs 1957	-
1958	No participation
1959	Pearl Carr & Teddy Johnson	Sing Little Birdie M: Stan Butcher ; T: Syd Cordell	English	Sing, little bird	2/11	16	Direct participation		Eurovision Song Contest British Final 1959	12
1960	Bryan Johnson	Looking High, High, High M / T: John Watson	English	Looking up, up, up	2/13	25th			Eurovision Song Contest British Final 1960	20th
1961	The Allisons	Are You Sure M / T: John Allison, Bob Allison	English	Are you sure?	2/16	24			A Song for Europe 1961	2
1962	Ronnie Carroll	Ring-a-Ding Girl M: Syd Cordell; T: Stan Butcher	English	Ring-a-ding girl	4/16	10			A Song for Europe 1962	46
1963	Ronnie Carroll	Say Wonderful Things M: Philip Green; T: Norman Newell	English	Say wonderful things	4/16	28			A Song for Europe 1963	6th
1964	Matt Monro	I Love the Little Things M / T: Tony Hatch	English	I love the little things	2/16	17th			A Song for Europe 1964	4th
1965	Kathy Kirby	I Belong M: Peter Lee Sterling; T: Phil Peters	English	I belong	2/18	26th			A Song for Europe 1965	36
1966	Kenneth McKellar	A Man Without Love M: Cyril Ornadel; T: Peter Callander	English	A man without love	9/18	8th			A Song for Europe 1966	30th
1967	Sandie Shaw	Puppet on a String M / T: Bill Martin, Phil Coulter	English	Puppet	1  /17	47			A Song for Europe 1967	1
1968	Cliff Richard	Congratulations M / T: Bill Martin, Phil Coulter	English	congratulation	2/17	28			A Song for Europe 1968	1
1969 1	Lulu	Boom Bang-a-Bang M: Alan Moorhouse; T: Peter Warne	English	Boom bang-a-bang	1  /16	18th			A Song for Europe 1969	2
1970	Mary Hopkin	Knock, Knock, Who's There? M / T: John Carter, Geoff Stephens	English	Knock knock who is there?	2/12	26th			A Song for Europe 1970	2
1971	Clodagh Rodgers	Jack in the Box M: John Worsley; T: David Myers	English	Jumping devil	4/18	98			A Song for Europe 1971	4th
1972	New Seekers	Beg, Steal or Borrow M / T: Tony Cole, Steve Wolfe, Graeme Hall	English	Begging, stealing or borrowing	2/18	114			A Song for Europe 1972	2
1973	Cliff Richard	Power to All Our Friends M / T: Guy Fletcher, Doug Flett	English	Strength for all our friends	3/17	123			A Song for Europe 1973	4th
1974	Olivia Newton-John	Long Live Love M / T: Valerie Avon, Harold Spiro	English	Long live love	4/17	14th			A Song for Europe 1974	11
1975	The Shadows	Let Me Be the One M / T: Paul Curtis	English	Let me be the one	2/19	138			A Song for Europe 1975	12
1976	Brotherhood of Man	Save Your Kisses for Me M / T: Tony Hiller, Lee Sheriden, Martin Lee	English	Save your kisses for me	1  /18	164			A Song for Europe 1976	1
1977	Lynsey de Paul & Mike Moran	Rock Bottom M / T: Lynsey de Paul, Mike Moran	English	At the bottom	2/18	121			A Song for Europe 1977	19th
1978	CoCo	The Bad Old Days M / T: Stephanie de Sykes, Stuart Slater	English	The bad old days	11/20	61			A Song for Europe 1978	13
1979	Black Lace	Mary Ann M / T: Peter Morris	English	-	7/19	73			A Song for Europe 1979	42
1980	Great Donna	Love Enough for Two M / T: Stephanie de Sykes, Stuart Slater	English	Enough love for two	3/19	106			A Song for Europe 1980	48
1981	Bucks Fizz	Making Your Mind Up M: John Danter; T: Andy Hill	English	To make up your mind	1  /20	136			A Song for Europe 1981	1
1982	Bardo	One Step Further M / T: Simon Jefferies	English	One step further	7/18	76			A Song for Europe 1982	2
1983	sweet Dreams	I'm Never Giving Up M / T: Ron Roker, Jan Pulsford, Phil Wigger	English	I never give up	6/20	79			A Song for Europe 1983	21st
1984	Belle and the Devotions	Love Games M / T: Paul Curtis, Graham Sacher	English	Games of love	7/19	63			A Song for Europe 1984	11
1985	Vikki	Love Is M / T: James Kaleth, Vikki Watson	English	love is	4/19	100			A Song for Europe 1985	49
1986	Ryder	Runner in the Night M: Brian Wade; T: Maureen Darbyshire	English	Runner in the night	7/20	72			A Song for Europe 1986	98
1987	Rikki	Only the Light M / T: Richard Peebles	English	Just the light	13/22	47			A Song for Europe 1987	96
1988	Scott Fitzgerald	Go M / T: Julie Forsyth	English	Go	2/21	136			A Song for Europe 1988	52
1989	Live report	Why Do I Always Get It Wrong? M: John Beeby; T: Brian Hodgson	English	Why do I always get it wrong?	2/22	130			A Song for Europe 1989	73
1990	Emma	Give a Little Love Back to the World M / T: Paul Curtis	English	Give a little love back to the world	6/22	87			A Song for Europe 1990	33
1991	Samantha Janus	A Message to Your Heart M / T: Paul Curtis	English	A message to your heart	10/22	47			A Song for Europe 1991	30th
1992	Michael Ball	One Step Out of Time M / T: Paul Davies, Tony Ryan, Victor Stratton	English	A step at the wrong time	2/23	139			A Song for Europe 1992	20th
1993	Sonia	Better the Devil You Know M / T: Dean Collinson, Red	English	Better the lesser evil	2/25	164			A Song for Europe 1993	15th
1994	Frances Ruffelle	We Will Be Free (Lonely Symphony) M / T: George De Angelis, Mark Dean	English	We'll be free (lonely symphony)	10/25	63	Qualified directly for the final		A Song for Europe 1994	25th
1995	Love City Groove	Love City Groove M / T: Paul Hardy, Jay Williams, Tatsiana Mais, Stephen Rudden	English	The rhythm of the city of love	10/23	76			A Song for Europe 1995	7th
1996	Gina G	Ooh Aah ... Just a Little Bit M: Steve Rodway; T: Simon Tauber	English	Ooh, aah ... just a little bit	8/23	77	3/29	153	The Great British Song Contest 1996	1
1997	Katrina and the Waves	Love Shine a Light M / T: Kimberley Rew	English	Love throw a light	1  / 25th	227	Qualified directly for the final		The Great British Song Contest 1997	3
1998	Imaani	Where are you? M / T: Scott English, Phil Manikiza, Simon Stirling	English	Where are you?	2/25	166			The Great British Song Contest 1998	15th
1999	Precious	Say It Again M / T: Paul Varney	English	Say it again	12/23	38			The Great British Song Contest 1999	6th
2000	Nicki French	Don't Play That Song Again M / T: John Springate, Gerry Shephard	English	Don't play that song again	16/24	28			A Song for Europe 2000	34
2001	Lindsay Dracass	No Dream Impossible M / T: Russ Ballard, Chris Winter	English	No dream is impossible	15/23	28			A Song for Europe 2001	32
2002	Jessica Garlick	Come Back M / T: Martyn Baylay	English	come back	3/24	111			A Song for Europe 2002	13
2003	Jemini	Cry Baby M / T: Martin Isherwood	English	Cry, darling	26/26	0			A Song for Europe 2003	15th
2004	James Fox	Hold On to Our Love M: Gary Miller; T: Tim Woodcock	English	Hold on to our love	16/24	29			Eurovision: Making Your Mind Up 2004	13
2005	Javine	Touch My Fire M: John Themis; T: Javine Hylton	English	Touch my fire	22/24	18th			Eurovision: Making Your Mind Up 2005	18th
2006	Daz Sampson	Teenage Life M / T: John Matthews, Daz Sampson	English	The life of the youth	19/24	22nd			Eurovision: Making Your Mind Up 2006	8th
2007	Scooch	Flying the Flag (For You) M / T: Paul Tarry, Andrew Hill, Russ Spencer, Morten Schjolin	English	Raise the flag (for you)	23/24	19th			Eurovision: Making Your Mind Up 2007	5
2008	Andy Abraham	Even If (M / T: Andy Abraham, Andy Watkins, Paul Wilson)	English	Even if	25/25	14th			Eurovision: Your Decision 2008	67
2009	Jade Ewen	My Time M / T: Andrew Lloyd Webber, Diane Warren	English	My time	5/25	173			Eurovision: Your Country Needs You 2009	27
2010	Josh Dubovie	That Sounds Good to Me M / T: Pete Waterman, Mike Stock, Steve Crosby	English	That sounds good to me	25/25	10			Eurovision: Your Country Needs You 2010	179
2011	Blue	I Can M / T: Ciaron Bell, Ben Collier, Ian Hope, Duncan James, Liam Keenan, Lee Ryan, StarSign	English	I can	11/25	100			internal selection	16
2012	Engelbert Humperdinck	Love Will Set You Free M / T: Martin Terefe, Sacha Skarbek	English	Love will set you free	25/26	12			internal selection	60
2013	Bonnie Tyler	Believe in Me M / T: Desmond Child, Lauren Christy, Chris Braide	English	Believe in me	19/26	23			internal selection	93
2014	Molly	Children of the Universe M / T: Molly Smitten-Downes	English	Children of the universe	17/26	40			internal selection	23
2015	Electro Velvet	Still in Love with You M / T: David Mindel, Adrian Bax White	English	I still love you	24/27	5			internal selection	114
2016	Joe & Jake	You're Not Alone M / T: Matt Schwartz, Justin J. Benson, S. Kanes	English	You're not alone	24/26	62			Eurovision 2016: You Decide	81
2017	Lucie Jones	Never Give Up on You M / T: Emmelie de Forest , Daniel Salcedo, Lawrie Martin	English	Never give up	15/26	111			Eurovision 2017: You Decide	73
2018	SuRie	Storm M / T: Nicole Blair, Gil Lewis, Sean Hargreaves	English	Storm	24/26	48			Eurovision 2018: You Decide	50
2019	Michael Rice	Bigger Than Us M / T: Laurell Barker, Anna-Klara Folin, John Lundvik , Jonas Thander	English	Bigger than us	26/26	11			Eurovision 2019: You Decide	-
2020	James Newman	My Last Breath M / T: James Newman, Adam Argyle, Ed Drewett, Iain James	English	My last breath	Cancellation due to the COVID-19 pandemic by the EBU				internal selection

¹ The United Kingdom was one of four winners.

National preliminary decisions

Most of the British entries to the Eurovision Song Contest were chosen as part of a national preliminary decision. Only from 2011 to 2015 and 2020 did the BBC select the contributions internally. The BBC used various selection procedures.

1957 to 1975

In 1957 there were three, 1959 and 1960 two semi-finals before the final. Each time the six best made it to the final, in which a jury finally chose the winner. From 1961 to 1963 “classic” preliminary decisions took place in which various artists, usually with one title, took part. The winner was again determined by a jury. From 1964 onwards, the British representatives had been selected internally and each presented six songs in the preliminary round. In 1964 a jury chose the winner, but in 1965 the audience was allowed to choose their “Song for Europe” themselves, namely by sending in postcards. The audience interest fluctuated strongly. Among other things, 242,350 postcards were sent in in 1973, when Cliff Richard was appointed representative, and in 1975 only 48,133 for the Shadows. In 1975 the winning title also received fewer votes than the last entry in 1973.

1976 to 1994

In 1976 the classic preliminary decision was reintroduced: from 1976 to 1980 twelve singers took part, from 1981 to 1986 there were eight, 1987 ten and from 1988 again eight artists. It was elected by regional juries until 1987, from 1988 by televoting. In 1977 and 1979 the preliminary rounds were held but not televised due to strikes. From 1992 to 1994, as in the 1960s and 1970s, the artists were again selected internally and each presented eight songs; voting was still carried out by televoting. In 1993 Sonia did not sing the songs live, instead they were recorded in the form of pre-recorded video clips.

1995 to 2007

Between 1995 and 2003, classic preliminary decisions were held again, often with few participants (between four and eight). Voting was done by televoting. Between 1996 and 2001 there were also semi-finals, but these were only broadcast on television in 1996 and only on radio in the other years. From 2004 to 2007 the preliminary decision took place with slight changes, the number of participants was now between five and six. Voting took place via televoting, which was split regionally and, in a few years, was supplemented by an Internet and a separate cell phone “jury”.

2008 to 2010

The preliminary decision in 2008 comprised three groups of two entries each, arranged according to different categories. The winners and a wildcard from Terry Wogan competed in a semi-final , the best two then sang in the final. Voting was always done by phone. Under the title Your Country Needs You! the BBC nominated a well-known British composer (2009 Andrew Lloyd Webber , 2010 Pete Waterman ) who composed a song for the preliminary decision. Previously, three out of six candidates were selected for the song. In 2009 this took place over several weeks, in 2010 the format was only held on one evening.

2011 to 2015

From 2011 to 2015 there was no public preliminary decision, the performers and the title were determined internally. In 2014, the contribution was selected in collaboration with BBC Music Introducing, a BBC Radio platform that supports young and unknown musicians. In addition, the contribution was first presented in 2014 on the British radio BBC Red Button and broadcast on the official ESC website.

2016 to 2019

In 2016, a public preselection took place for the first time since 2010. As part of the Eurovision - You Decide format , six candidates each competed. In 2017, the televoting was supplemented by an expert jury. This format was also used in 2018. In 2019, however, there were six participants with three duels, so that only three songs in different versions were sung in the preliminary round.

2020

In September 2019, the BBC confirmed that the entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 should again be selected internally and that the preliminary decision Eurovision - You Decide will be discontinued. The selection of the artist and the song will be done in collaboration with the British music publisher BMG.

Names

From 1964, the preliminary decision was entitled A Song for Europe for many years (rarely even only Song for Europe could be read on the official logos ). From 1996 to 1999 the preliminary round was organized as The Great British Song Contest , and again from 2000 to 2003 as Song for Europe . In 2004, with the other changes, the new name Making Your Mind Up was introduced, based on the British winning title from 1981. The preliminary decision in 2008 was called Eurovision: Your Decision . The preliminary rounds of 2009 and 2010 were titled Eurovision: Your Country Needs You . The preliminary decision, which has been used since 2016, is called Eurovision - You Decide .

language

The United Kingdom, along with Azerbaijan and Australia , is one of the three countries that presented all of its contributions in English .

commentator

From 1980 to 2008 Terry Wogan annotated every issue of the Eurovision Song Contest for the BBC . He was also the moderator of the British preliminary decision from the late 1970s. Graham Norton has been commenting on the final of the Eurovision Song Contest since 2009 .

Commercial success

National

Some British contributions became big hits in Great Britain, five reached number one in the singles charts. After 1982 there were only a few commercial successes for a long time, only Love City Groove 1995 and Gina G. 1996 had great success in the charts again, followed by the fifth British winners in the Katrina and the Waves competition in 1997. After more moderate chart positions, 2006 and 2007 the contributions again chart successes. The contributions from 2008, however, were hardly any chart successes. Only Blue reached the top 20 in the charts in 2011. The 2019 post was the first post since 1957 that did not hit the UK charts.

International

All five winning titles were very successful internationally, above all Save Your Kisses for Me 1976: The song was represented in the charts worldwide and became the best-selling single of 1976 as well as the most commercially successful contest winner of all time. Puppet on a String was number one in the charts across Europe in 1967 and is considered one of the most successful singles in Europe of the 1960s. Besides the other winners, there were international hits: Are You Sure 1961 (Europe-wide), Congratulations 1968 (worldwide), Knock, Knock, Who's There? (Europe), Beg, Steal or Borrow 1972 (Europe), Power to All Our Friends 1973 (worldwide), Long Live Love 1974 (in Ireland and Australia), Rock Bottom 1977 (in Germany), Better the Devil You Know (various Countries), Ooh Aah Just a Little Bit 1996 (in the US, Australia and Europe) and Teenage Life (in the Netherlands and France).

Hosted competitions

Great Britain has so far been the most frequent venue for the Eurovision Song Contest with eight events, as the BBC has often stepped in for broadcasters in other countries which, for various reasons, were unable or unwilling to organize the competition. Great Britain only hosted the competition in 1960 because the Netherlands did not want to host it again. In 1963, too, France refrained from hosting, so Great Britain stepped in as host again. In 1971 Monaco won the competition, but the country was unable to host it, so Great Britain took over the event. Also in 1974 Great Britain only hosted the competition because Luxembourg refused to host it again. Another specialty is the presenter Katie Boyle . She moderated the competitions in 1960, 1963, 1968 and 1974 and is the only person who has moderated the song contest four times.

year	city	venue	Moderation
1960	London	Royal Festival Hall	Katie Boyle
1963		BBC Television Center
1968		Royal Albert Hall
1972	Edinburgh	Usher Hall	Moira Shearer
1974	Brighton	Brighton Dome	Katie Boyle
1977	London	Wembley Conference Center	Angela Rippon
1982	Harrogate	Harrogate International Center	Jan Leeming
1998	Birmingham	National Indoor Arena	Terry Wogan & Ulrika Jonsson

Scoring

The following countries received the most points from or awarded the most points to the United Kingdom (as of 2019):

Most of the points awarded in the final space country Points 1  Ireland 253 2  Sweden 224 3  Germany 171 4th  Switzerland 168 5  Denmark 135  Israel 135

Most of the points awarded space country Points 1  Ireland 325 2  Sweden 278 3  Switzerland 183 4th  Lithuania 181 5  Israel 180

Most total obtained points space country Points 1  Ireland 252 2  Switzerland 207 3  France 195 4th  Austria 189 5  Germany 187

Award of the highest rating

Since 1975, the United Kingdom has awarded the highest number of points in the final to 23 different countries, including Ireland seven times. In the semi-finals, however, Great Britain awarded the maximum number of points to 16 different countries, four of which to Lithuania.

Highest rating (final) year country Place (final) 1975  Netherlands 1 1976  Switzerland 4th 1977  Ireland 3 1978  Belgium 2 1979  Israel 1 1980  Ireland 1 1981  Switzerland 4th 1982  Switzerland 2 1983  Yugoslavia 4th 1984  Denmark 4th 1985  Norway 1 1986  Germany 8th 1987  Ireland 1 1988  Norway 5 1989  Yugoslavia 1 1990  Iceland 4th 1991  Sweden 1 1992  Iceland 7th 1993  Ireland 1 1994  Poland 2 1995  Israel 8th 1996  Cyprus 9 1997  Ireland 1 1998  Malta 3 1999  Sweden 1 2000  Denmark 1 2001  Estonia 1 2002  Malta 2 2003  Ireland 11 2004  Greece 3 2005  Greece 1 2006  Finland 1 2007  Turkey 4th 2008  Greece 3 2009  Turkey 4th 2010  Greece 8th 2011  Ireland 8th 2012  Sweden 1 2013  Denmark 1 2014  Austria 1 2015  Sweden 1 2016  Georgia (J) 20th  Lithuania (T) 7th 2017  Portugal (J) 1  Bulgaria (T) 2 2018  Austria (J) 3  Lithuania (T) 12 2019  North Macedonia (J) 7th  Norway (T) 6th 2020 Competition canceled

Highest rating (semi-finals) year country Place (semifinals) 2004  Greece 3 2005  Ireland 14th 2006  Finland 1 2007  Turkey 3 2008  Cyprus 15th 2009  Turkey 2 2010  Romania 4th 2011  Lithuania 5 2012  Malta 7th 2013  Denmark 1 2014  Austria 1 2015  Israel 3 2016  Georgia (J) 9  Lithuania (T) 4th 2017  Moldova (J) 2  Poland (T) 9 2018  Bulgaria (J) 7th  Lithuania (T) 9 2019  North Macedonia (J) 2  Lithuania (T) 11 2020 Competition canceled

Impressions

• 

  Ronnie Carroll 1962

• 

  Kathy Kirby 1965

• 

  Brotherhood of Man 1976

• 

  Scooch 2007

• 

  Andy Abraham 2008

• 

  Jade Ewen 2009

• 

  Josh Dubovie 2010

• 

  Blue 2011

• 

  Bonnie Tyler 2013

• 

  Molly 2014

• 

  Electro Velvet 2015

• 

  Joe & Jake 2016

• 

  Lucie Jones 2017

• 

  SuRie 2018

• 

  Michael Rice 2019

literature

• Jan Feddersen : A song can be a bridge . Hoffmann and Campe, 2002

Individual evidence

1. ^ The UK's highest charting Eurovision entries
2. ^ Robyn Gallagher: UK: BBC cancels 'Eurovision: You Decide' as it announces new partnership with BMG to internally select act for Rotterdam. In: wiwibloggs.com. September 16, 2019, accessed on September 16, 2019 .