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Britain’s Eurovision woes are officially becoming a matter for Parliament.
UK MPs are set to scrutinise the country’s “dismal” record at the competition, in the hopes of figuring out why one of Eurovision’s former powerhouses now so frequently finds itself at the bottom of the leaderboard.
The UK has won Eurovision five times and is one of the “Big Five” countries guaranteed a place in the final. But in recent decades, those glory days have largely given way to immense disappointment.
Since 2016, the UK has finished in the top 20 just three times. It has come 24th or lower six times, including three last-place finishes – and in 2021, James Newman’s ‘Embers’ managed the full Eurovision humiliation ritual of “nul points.”
This year’s UK entry, Look Mum No Computer’s ‘Eins, Zwei, Drei’ managed to just edge ahead of Newman’s efforts with a grand total of one point. Another last-place finish.
Now, a cross-party committee of MPs wants to find out what is going wrong.
The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee will examine how the UK’s Eurovision acts and songs are selected, with BBC News reporting that it will investigate whether the country’s poor results are down to its song choices, performers or something else entirely.
Dame Caroline Dinenage, a Conservative MP and chair of the committee, told the broadcaster: “We want to get to the bottom of who chooses our entrant, on what basis and whether our dismal record of achievement in recent years is the result of bad song choice, weak performance… or something else.”
The hearing will take place “over the coming months” with the committee expected to hear from the BBC, which broadcasts Eurovision in the UK, as well as music industry experts.
Despite the UK’s run of poor form, there has been one notable recent bright spot in the form of the magnificently maned Sam Ryder. He finished in second place with his catchy anthem ‘Space Man’ in 2022, scoring 466 points and finishing just behind Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra. Ryder became the only UK act in the last 15 years to finish higher than 15th place.
The investigation comes as the UK looks ahead to the 2027 contest in Bulgaria – 30 years after its last Eurovision victory, when Katrina and the Waves won with “Love Shine a Light”.
The competition itself is continuing to face a wider political storm following the decision of Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain to withdraw from last year’s competition over Israel’s participation amid the war in Gaza.
Ireland has already said it will boycott the 2027 contest for a second year, citing the “appalling and ongoing loss of lives in Gaza.” Dutch broadcaster AVROTROS has also withdrawn, saying the contest no longer aligns with its principles of “trustworthiness, independence and humanity”.