In a change to previous years, 10 songs were performed instead of the usual eight. None of the performers had ever performed in A Song for Europe before, and none of the writers had ever written for the contest before. As well as Music Publisher's Association selecting some of the songs, songs from record publishers were also submitted. They were selected in the following manner : "Around 400 songs were selected by the Music Publisher's Association and the British Phonographic Industries. These songs were reviewed by 10 juries of 6 people, whittling them down to 50 songs. They were down reduced to 20 songs, which were sent to the BBC, and the 10 were chosen by producer Brian Whitehouse, Mike Batt, Bruce Welch, some radio and television producers, and representatives from the MPA and BPI". The interval act was a pre-recorded dancing performance by The Anthony Van Laast Dancers.
Final
The final was held on 10 April 1987, live from Studio 1 of the BBC Television Centre, London. The contest was hosted by Terry Wogan. It was also broadcast on BBC Radio 2, and this was the first and only instance in which the radio commentator could also be heard on television, passing comment after each song, and during the interval act. The BBC Concert Orchestra under the direction of Ronnie Hazlehurst as conductor accompanied all the songs, but despite performing live, the orchestra were off-screen, behind the set. The title music had changed from previous years, as an upbeat arrangement of the traditional Te Deum music. Nine regional juries located in Birmingham, Cardiff, Manchester, Belfast, Edinburgh, London, Norwich, Newcastle and Bristol voted for the songs. Juries ranked the songs internally and awarded 15 points to their favourite, 12 to the second, 10 to the third, 9 to the fourth, 8 to the fifth, 7 to the sixth, 6 to the seventh, 5 to the eighth, 3 to the ninth and 1 to their least preferred.
At Eurovision
The 1987 Eurovision Song Contest saw the UK's worst performing entry up to that point, as Rikki's "Only the Light" received only 47 points, reaching 13th place overall. Johnny Logan repeated his 1980 success and won again for Ireland.
