When was the last time the Eurovision Song Contest was held in the UK?
With the 69th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest fast approaching, you may be thinking to yourself, when was the last time the United Kingdom hosted the famous singing competition?
Sam Ryder came in second place in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2022.
(Image: AP Photo/Luca Bruno )
There's just a week to go until the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 and the 69th edition will be held in Basel, Switzerland following last year's win in Malmö, Sweden. Nemo won the competition in 2024 with their song The Code, and much to the disappointment of the United Kingdom, our entry Olly Alexander from the band Years and Years placed 18th with their song Dizzy.
Over the years the placing of the UK's acts on the leader board has varied, with our last win taking place in 1997 and in 2021 we received nil point.
However with this year's contest fast approaching, you may be thinking to yourself when was the last time the United Kingdom hosted the famous singing competition? For the latest TV and showbiz gossip sign up to our newsletter .
In 2023, the UK had the honour of hosting the Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool on behalf of the Ukraine. In 2022 the country won the competition with their act Kalush Orchestra, but due to ongoing conflict with Russia they were unable to host and instead the UK who came second the competition stepped up to help.
The UK act that year, Sam Ryder, came second with hit song Space Man and was awarded a massive 466 points becoming the highest scoring UK entrant ever. However, it wasn't enough to beat the Ukraine's 631 points.
Ukraine's Kalush Orchestra won the 2022 contest
(Image: PA Media )
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The three live shows were presented by Alesha Dixon, Hannah Waddingham and Ukrainian singer Julia Sanina and much loved commentator Graham Norton joined the trio for the grand final.
Before this, the last time the UK hosted Eurovision was in 1998, following Katrina and the Waves' win with Love Shine A Light the previous year. That event was held in Birmingham and won by Israeli singer Dana International, with the UK's Imaani coming second.
In total, the UK has hosted the contest nine times. There has never been a Eurovision hosted within a Welsh city, despite talks of 2023's contest being hosted in Cardiff before Liverpool was selected.
Several UK cities have hosted Eurovision, including London in 1960, 1963, 1968, and 1977, Edinburgh in 1972, Brighton in 1974 and 1998, Harrogate in 1982 and Liverpool in 2023.
Katrina and The Waves won the competition in 1997, and then the UK hosted the following year in Brighton
(Image: Rebecca Naden/PA Wire )
In fact, ABBA famously won the competition on behalf of Sweden in 1974 in Brighton, with everyone's favourite karaoke song 'Waterloo'.
The UK first entered the contest in 1957, and since then has boasted a remarkable Eurovision record, having finished second an unprecedented 16 times, plus holding the longest streak of top five finishes and the most consecutive appearances in the Grand Final.
Representing the UK this year is the band Remember Monday, a trio of female singers who met whilst studying at The Sixth Form College Farnborough. The trio consists of best friends Lauren Byrne, Holly-Anne Hull and Charlotte Steel, who have appeared on ITV's The Voice. Read more here.
On Saturday, May 17 they will performing their song 'What The Hell Just Happened?' on behalf of the United Kingdom at the grand final of the Eurovision Song Contest. You can watch the competition live on BBC and BBC iPlayer from 8pm.
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Metro
16 hours ago
- Metro
Sam Ryder 'felt like a total fraud' after losing confidence at height of career
In 2022, Sam Ryder did the unthinkable. He made the UK believe that they actually had the chance to win Eurovision. Like an angel with perfect hair, the Space Man singer shot to dizzying heights and secured an incredible second place behind Ukraine. Following his success, Sam performed at the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, then sang at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, all before releasing his debut album. The album, titled There's Nothing But Space, Man, came with the expected fanfare and then he all but disappeared. 'It's so easy to be optimistic and positive when the wind is in your sails,' Sam, 36, told Metro as he prepared to return to music after two years away. 'My optimism had never really been tested [until] that point. And I'm really not gonna say I kept it the whole time because I didn't. There were times when I felt like a total fraud because, I guess, positivity has always been this thing that I've wanted to champion. But there were times I was not positive, not optimistic.' He likened his rise to being 'in the Shire' at the start of Lord of the Rings, a peaceful and supported start with a 'storm cloud' on the horizon, which life inevitably brings. 'Life started getting really real,' Sam shared of leaving his label and going independent as he recorded his newly announced album, Heartland. 'That sadness or pessimism or lack of confidence had only reared its head a few times in my life. I thought that I wouldn't have those feelings again, unless they were just passing through normally, but then they just stuck around for a year, incessantly. 'I'd never been there for my life. Every day was a struggle to even fathom being confident or optimistic about the future.' While the Parlophone label was 'decimated', Sam was left having to start from scratch as he wrestled with being 'under attack from that incessant sort of voice within that's trying to pull you down.' New single, The Feeling Never Went Away, documents Sam's struggle to free himself from this darkness, but he acknowledges that artists' intentions don't always line up with fans' interpretations. 'As a songwriter, you're not completely in control,' he shared. 'You're just there with a guitar and a phrase will come out, and then you chase it. It's like rabbit down the hole, and then all other words come out, and sort of attach themselves to this train, until the train is a whole song.' During the process of writing the new album, Sam moved out to Nashville, Tennessee, which is the spiritual homeland of many musicians. He and his partner settled in an old log cabin, finally realising a dream the More hitmaker had had for the last 13 years. The move reminded him he was making space (man) to build new things while his mind was 'being unfair' and telling him he was 'losing things'. 'The Space Man era, all those jumpsuit shows, all that stuff without that, none of this is possible. So now, when I sing Space Man live at shows, I'm just so thankful and full of gratitude.' Sam's beloved song was a staple when he took to the stage (multiple times) at Glastonbury, for various secret sets as well as an Avalon Stage slot. 'I'd never been there before, never played there, had no idea what to expect,' he confessed of his first trip to Worthy Farm. 'I did five secret sets in total, so much to the point that they weren't really secret anymore.'There's him again',' Sam joked. 'They were really cool, when you do them, they are quite secret and you're like, how is anyone gonna know about this? 'But every time people found out and came, and I was just buzzing.' Later this year, Sam will once again head out on tour with his biggest show ever at Wembley Arena taking place on November 6, just weeks after Heartland is released. In a full circle moment, the London venue was also where he saw his first gig at around 13 years old and decided to become a musician. 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Daily Mail
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Norwegian rocker Glam apologises to Julia Morris and says he was 'blind drunk' when shock Eurovision 2005 groping incident occurred
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Radio 2 loses nearly half a million listeners since weekday relaunch
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