The thirty-first artist to feature in our Who Is series for the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest is James Newman from the United Kingdom.
James Newman was born in Settle in North Yorkshire but is currently based in London. He is the older brother of singer John Newman.
As a songwriter, James 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. James has also been a featured vocalist on many tracks, most notably “Therapy” by Armin van Burren, which reached number 4 on the Dutch Top 40.
James was internally selected by the BBC to represent his country at the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest. He was due to perform “My Last Breath” before the contest’s cancellation.
In February, it was revealed that James would perform for the UK at the 2021 contest. His song “Embers” was released in March, and was written by James himself, Conor Blake, Danny Shah, Tom Hollings and Samuel Brennan.
James Newman will perform in the final on May 22nd. As a Big 5 country, the United Kingdom will not need to pass through the semi-finals.
Image source: BBC
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.
