It is being reported that there are four candidates left in the selection process for the UK’s Eurovision 2023 contestant.
The Mirror are reporting that the team behind selecting the UK’s 2023 entry have whittled the range of contestants down to four candidates, with some established artists in the mix.
The BBC have teamed up with TaP Music once again this year to select the United Kingdom’s entrant, with Ben Mawson and Ed Millett at the forefront of who to select. The Mirror has spoken to both Mawson and Millet regarding the UK’s selection for Eurovision 2023.
Millett goes on to say that the UK has sent male acts for the past four years and that they “should perhaps not send a guy” for 2023, with Mawson teasing that they are down to a mix of four artists in “varying forms of established”. Further to this, he adds that the artist selected may not be a Brit, potentially, as he says “what defines a Brit is fairly open – there’s a broad multi-cultural population”.
Furthermore, Mawson reveals there are discussions for both the UK and Ukrainian entries to collaborate together. He had previously met President Zelensky in a trip to Kyiv when Ellie Golding, who he manages, sang at the President’s wife’s summit. And since, they have been in touch with members of UA:PBC to hopefully come together for a collaboration – in commemoration of the Liverpool hosting Eurovision, on behalf of Ukraine.
It had been previously revealed by the Radio Times, that Rina Sawayama will not be representing the United Kingdom at Eurovision 2023, after significant levels of rumours and excitement, as well as the hype surrounding her single ‘Frankestein’. This came to be as there is a large free gap for a few months in Sawayama’s schedule; potentially revealing she could be the UK 2023 entrant. However, a source close to the Radio Times says that she will not be representing the UK. An official statement from Rina, the BBC or TaP Music is yet to be made.
Sam Ryder represented the United Kingdom in Turin with “Space Man”. He finished second in the final with 466 points, winning the jury vote in the process. This was also the record 16th time that the United Kingdom had finished second in the contest’s history.
The 2023 contest will be the first contest since 1980 in which the winning nation was unable to host the following contest. It is the sixth occasion overall on which the country has hosted after the original host nation was unable to, following the Netherlands in 1960, France in 1963, Monaco in 1972, Luxembourg in 1974, Israel in 1980 and Ukraine in 2023. The 2023 contest will also extend the United Kingdom’s record of hosting Eurovision to nine times.
Image Source: EBU / Andres Putting | Source: The Mirror
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 16 times. Since 2000 the UK has finished within the top 10 only three times, this being in 2002 with Jessica Garlick, 2009 with Jade Ewen and 2022 with Sam Ryder who finished 2nd in Turin.
I am sick , sore and tired of our selection procedure.
CAN WE HAVEEEE IT FINALLY