James Newman has been selected to represent the United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 in Rotterdam with the song “My Last Breath”.
James Newman is a singer-songwriter based in London and is the brother of singer John Newman. He has written for several international artists such as Calvin Harris, Little Mix and Jess Glynne. He won the Brit Award for British Single of the Year in 2014 for the song “Waiting All Night” by Rudimental feat. Ella Eyre. He also wrote “Dying to Try”, the Irish entry for Eurovision 2017.
Meet @JamesNewmanUk representing the UK at #Eurovision 2020 with ‘My Last Breath’! 👉https://t.co/UWKsu6JaQe 🇬🇧 🎤 pic.twitter.com/iNIaZ6DPQT
— BBC Eurovision🇬🇧 (@bbceurovision) February 27, 2020
“My Last Breath” was revealed on both BBC Radio 1 and Radio 2 at the same time. James wrote the song alongside Ed Drewett, Iain Farquharson and Stuart Argyle. Iain previously wrote “Running Scared”, the winning entry of Eurovision 2011.
It has been confirmed that James will be attending the London Eurovision Party and Eurovision in Concert in Amsterdam next month as part of a promotional tour across Europe.
The BBC has dropped its national selection “Eurovision: You Decide” this year in favour of teaming up with the music label BMG to select the British entrant for Rotterdam.
Rylan Clark-Neal and Scott Mills will be commentating the two semi-finals in Rotterdam and Graham Norton commentating the Grand Final in May.
United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest
The United Kingdom debuted in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1957 and holds the record for the most consecutive appearances in the contest. To date the UK has won the contest a total of five times, with their first victory coming in 1967 and their latest in 1997. The UK holds the record for the most second place finishes in the contest, having been runner-up a total of 15 times. Since 2000 the UK has finished within the top 10 only twice, this being in 2002 with Jessica Garlick and in 2009 with Jade Ewen.
