The United Kingdom made their Eurovision debut in 1957, after missing the cut-off point for the 1956 contest. Since 1959, they've held the longest uninterrupted streak of participation in contest history, with 65 consecutive entries. The United Kingdom is a member of the Big Five which enables direct qualification to the Grand Final.
Despite placing last five times, the country has also won five times, placed 2nd a record 16 times, and placed in the top 5 a record 29 times. It has also hosted the contest 9 times - 5 of them by deferral from the previous winning nation (1960, 1963, 1972, 1974 and 2023) and 4 from winning (1968, 1977, 1982 and 1998).
Over the years, they have sent many widely-known representatives, such as Shout singer Lulu, Cliff Richard, Grease's Olivia Newton-John, Black Lace (famous for Agadoo), Gina G, Katrina and The Waves (famous for Walking on Sunshine), Blue, Engelbert Humperdinck and even Bonnie Tyler.
The Eurovision Song Contest has received somewhat of a poor reputation in the United Kingdom since the country received Nul Points for the first time in 2003, with a generally poor string of results occurring since (with the exception of 2009 and 2022) and became the first and so far only country to receive Nul Points since the voting system reform in 2016, occurring in 2021, where James Newman became the first artist to receive no points from the public or from any country's jury. During this time, they have sent novelty songs such as the slightly polarising Flying the Flag (For You). However, Eurovision's ratings remain high in the country, particularly due to the cultural significance of the contest, and it has enjoyed revived popularity since the success of 2022's entry Space Man. It is also the only country not to allow voting by SMS, due to national regulations imposed after a wide-ranging 2007 scandal surrounding fixed telephone voting on TV shows, it would be impossible for the BBC to independently verify its SMS televote. This is combined with the sheer number of would-be televoters sending SMS votes at the same time would potentially clog up the phone lines.
After 2008 entry Andy Abraham didn't do particularly well, rather than a national selection the BBC started to ask up-and-coming singers and bands such as Molly Smitten-Downes and Joe & Jake, through the former "BBC Introducing" system of finding new talent, to represent the nation. For a short while between 2016 and 2019, the BBC returned to national selection but have since partnered with BMG and TaP Music to search for potential entries.
In 2022, the BBC moved its Eurovision production offices from London to Salford, located in the Greater Manchester area.
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