Introduction

The British broadcaster BBC has made an internal selection this year. The UK representative is Engelbert Humperdinck with “Love will set you free”. It was a kind of real surprise that this elderly singer should sing at Eurovision, especially after all the young singers in the past like Blue. The bigger surprise was that the song is of quite high quality, much better as expected; there has been an official announcement in TV with the song presentation. “Love will set you free” has been recorded in London, Los Angeles and Nashville and is co-written and produced by Grammy Award-winner Martin Terefe, who composed for James Morrison. The other composer is Ivor Novello who has been working with Adele, James Blunt and Lana del Rey. Engelbert is going to be the most experienced singers in this year’s ESC. His starting position #1 in the grand final could be a disadvantage. The song is a dreamy ballad with style, so there is nothing to blame for it’s an outstanding song which could be another surprise this year in Baku!

History

For the 55^th time the United Kingdom is taking part in the Eurovision Song Contest this year. Only two times the UK did not take part, the first year 1956 and 1958. But it became quite clear that the UK is one of the strongest contenders in this music contest. The big advantages of the UK in Eurovision were the language and the being one world centre of popular music. With the opening of the language rule that every participating country must sing in the native language, the power of the UK has suffered. Even though the UK still belongs to the most successful countries in the ESC. There were five victories so far: “Puppet on a string” by Sandy Shaw in 1967, “Boom Bang-a-bang” by Lulu in 1969, “Save your kisses for me” by Brotherhood of Man in 1976, “Making your mind up” by Bucks Fizz in 1981 and “Love shine a light” by Katrina & The Waves in 1997. Also worth to mention is the runner up position, 15 times the UK came second, and often it was close to victory. There were also many Top 10 positions. As already mentioned before, the UK did not shape up very well in recent years, the best position could be achieved was the fifth with “It’s my time” by Jade Ewen, composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber in 2009. Once in history the UK came last with “Cry Baby” by Jemini in 2003, zero points for the United Kingdom, almost unimaginable.