United Kingdom UNITED KINGDOM 2025 - Remember Monday - What The Hell Just Happened?

[ESC United Mod Team]

 

[Leydan]

It’s Becky Hill ft. Rina Sawayama did you not hear?

Rebecca Ferguson is backing vocal support

the BBC will still manage to mess even that up and get us a bottom 5.

 

[Rocket man]

The BBC and BBC Studios confirm selection plans for the act and song that will represent the United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest 2025.

Leading UK music industry figure David May is leading the search with Andrew Cartmell, Executive Producer BBC Studios North.

David previously worked closely with the BBC team in 2022 as Manager of Sam Ryder when the United Kingdom achieved runner-up position at Eurovision in Turin.

The search for next year's act and song has been underway for several months with UK record Labels, Publishers, Songwriters, BBC Music and BBC Introducing all playing their part to find the UK act and song for Eurovision 2025.

David May is a Music Manager and Company founder with over 17 years in the UK music industry. He was Nominated for Music Week's Manager of the Year in 2023. David started his career as a singer-songwriter and has since achieved over 200 million streams as a writer/producer. As Sam Ryder's Manager success included a Number 1 UK album, two Number 2 singles, and BRIT and Emmy Award nominations.

David May says: “I'm excited to be working with BBC Studios and the BBC on this journey. We're seeking talent and a song that embodies the essence of UK music. We want to collaborate with an authentic act who has a genuine, heartfelt story to tell, and an unmatched vocal tonality and range. Ultimately we're looking for a powerful three-minute performance that resonates with and moves audiences across Europe and beyond.”

Andrew Cartmell, Head of Delegation at Eurovision for the United Kingdom says: “David played a major part in Sam Ryder's success in 2022, and I'm thrilled that we are working together again. David has huge industry expertise, a real understanding of how Eurovision works and a determination, along with the BBC and BBC Studios to achieve a high placing in May next year.”

Kalpna Patel-Knight, Head of Entertainment at the BBC says: “David knows exactly what it is like to be at the business end of the leaderboard at Eurovision, so this experience combined with his in-depth knowledge of the UK music scene ensures that he is perfectly placed to collaborate with us in the search for our artist and song for 2025.”

The act and song representing the United Kingdom will be publicly announced before the European Broadcasting Union’s deadline in March 2025.

The broadcast of the Eurovision Song Contest Grand Final on BBC One and BBC iPlayer continues to be one of the most popular Entertainment programmes on the BBC, with the most recent broadcast reaching one of the biggest audiences so far this year with an average audience of 7.9m and a peak of 8.5m, making it the most watched live entertainment programme of 2024 to date across all broadcasters and streamers.

The 69th Eurovision Song Contest will be held in Basel, Switzerland following Nemo’s victory at the Grand Final in May 2024 with their song The Code.

The Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 will take place in St. Jakobshalle, Basel, on Saturday 17 May with the Semi-Finals taking place on Tuesday 13 and Thursday 15 May.

The Grand Final and the Semi Finals will be broadcast live on BBC One and BBC iPlayer plus via BBC Radio 2 and BBC Sounds.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2024/uk-eurovision-2025-act-song-plans-confirmed

It makes sense to go back to what worked in 2022 when the UK finished runner-up and bring in Sam Ryder's manager. I think it's positive that one of the first mentions is about singing ability and the music artist having a genuine story to tell.

 

[Leydan]

Everyone under their Twitter post is spamming gifs of some WWE fighter called Joe Hendry.

It does indeed look positive. I like the fact they've included BBC Introducing again. Severely under used by them for many years now.

 

[HarryUK]

This screams we’re sending a ballad. The whole thing.

If done properly it could be brilliant

 

[Rocket man]

This screams we’re sending a ballad. The whole thing.

If done properly it could be brilliant

Yeah the UK hasn't sent a slow song in a long time, I think it was 2017, "Never Give Up On You".

I think that is one of the few UK strengths at Eurovision, a slow song with a fantastic, world-class singer; I'm happy with whatever, just want the UK to do well.

 

[Hy Dranger]

Here's a crazy thought: Freya Skye! She must be old enough to do the main Eurovision by next year and the only reason she didn't win JESC 2022 was she lost her voice during the contest due to illness. She has the vocal power and charisma, as evidenced by her live acoustic set on Strictly where she absolutely smashed it despite what can only be described as an indifferent guitar accompaniment, all she needs is an equally good song to Lose My Head — and there's the challenge of course, we've not done any better on song selection than live singer selection in the last couple of years.

 

[Hy Dranger]

Yeah the UK hasn't sent a slow song in a long time, I think it was 2017, "Never Give Up On You".

I think that is one of the few UK strengths at Eurovision, a slow song with a fantastic, world-class singer; I'm happy with whatever, just want the UK to do well.

That makes me think of the Rick Astley (Stock Aitkin Waterman) hit — “I’m never going to give you up”, whose lyrics the KLF describe as ‘GENIUS’ in their classic manual, How To Have a Number One The Easy Way.
On the one hand, this takes us back to the 1980’s Pet Shop Boys era which totally failed Olly Alexander.
On the other hand, well the KLF did literally write the book on how to have a number one hit, and by extension a Eurovision winner...

 

[HarryUK]

Without feeding into the rumour mill too much, how great would this be as our entry! Only a snippet but I’d be excited if it was

 

[tsegaye]

Without feeding into the rumour mill too much, how great would this be as our entry! Only a snippet but I’d be excited if it was

I feel like Perrie is the most likely to do it out of the Little Mix girls, but none would probably do it, not this year at least.

 

[Rocket man]

UK people are saying Calum Scott is representing this year. But apparently it's definitely not him.

Don't want to sound impolite, but his music is too boring and generic for my taste, and would not have been exciting enough for the contest.

 

[SamanthaJones69]

Some rumours seem to be doing the rounds that it could be Lauren Mayberry from CHVRCHES, she has been releasing solo material recently too…

 

[Rasmus0714]

UK people are saying Calum Scott is representing this year. But apparently it's definitely not him.

Don't want to sound impolite, but his music is too boring and generic for my taste, and would not have been exciting enough for the contest.

If BBC are going with a jury bait, Calum is a decent choice. But he has 9 100M stream songs so it's more likely to be Lauren. And the leaker confirmed it's not him.

 

[Mainshow]

Calum Scott would be absolutely amazing. I'd probably vote for him.
His ballads are beautiful. What a voice!
- and I don't think that he'd be "too boring" for Eurovision. He clearly connects with the general public and he would be a jury bait, e.g. hitting all notes/delivering a jury-friendly/radio-friendly pop song or ballad.

Honestly, even without a huge televoting support, he would finish Top 15, imo (unless his song would be utterly horrendous but his recent output is pretty decent)

 

[Rocket man]

Some rumours seem to be doing the rounds that it could be Lauren Mayberry from CHVRCHES, she has been releasing solo material recently too…

If it was say 10 years ago then CHVRCHES would have been a great choice. I loved the album "Every Eye Open", so many great songs on there. I'm gonna check out Lauren Mayberry's music, I didn't even know she had decided to go solo now.

 

[jatojo]

Some rumours seem to be doing the rounds that it could be Lauren Mayberry from CHVRCHES, she has been releasing solo material recently too…

Oh, Lauren Mayberry. If this rumour is true, I'll immediately change my thumbnail to an image of her.

 

[jatojo]

If it was say 10 years ago then CHVRCHES would have been a great choice. I loved the album "Every Eye Open", so many great songs on there. I'm gonna check out Lauren Mayberry's music, I didn't even know she had decided to go solo now.

"The Mother We Share" is one of the all-time best pop songs.

 

[HarryUK]

It could honestly be Mr Blobby at this rate

People who know nothing are making up rumours on X and everyone is falling for it again

 

[Rocket man]

"The Mother We Share" is one of the all-time best pop songs.

Yeah it's a classic.

This is my favourite CHVRCHES song, slept on massively. Lauren's voice is absolutely gorgeous on this song. "Clearest Blue" is an amazing song too.

 

[Gwendal]

Let's have fun: do you think Rina Sawayama may come back to Eurovision process to add some drama to usual UK chaos?

 

[Leydan]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1877094159913254968

Something has got to be coming very soon