United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008
The United Kingdom chose their entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 on the BBC programme . It replaced the former selection programme, Making Your Mind Up after a string of bad results. It was broadcast on BBC One on Saturday 1 March 2008. Andy Abraham was the winner of the contest with the song "Even If" and went on to represent the United Kingdom in Serbia. As a member of the 'Big 4', the United Kingdom was one of five countries directly qualified into the final on 24 May 2008 and does not need to compete in either of the semi-finals, although it was able to vote in the second of the two semi-finals.
Before Eurovision
Early rumors
One of the rumours about the show was that the finalists of UK TV shows How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? and Any Dream Will Do would participate in a newly revamped Making Your Mind Up with songs written by the likes of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Gary Barlow. This format was partially used in the final format, with one of the categories being 'Joseph Vs. Maria', with one artist from each show competing to make it into the semi-final. There were wide sweeping rumours about which artists were going to try for Eurovision, one in particular was Bill Bailey however his tour in Australia kept him out, however he said that he might try out for next year. Ultimately, Terry Wogan announced on 13 February 2008 on his radio show, Wake Up To Wogan, that a new national final show would replace Making Your Mind Up.
Six finalists were divided into three categories. The first category was girl groups. LoveShy is the creation of Emma Beard and Aimee Kearsley, two former members of girl groupClea while The Revelations were made up of three friends. The second category was Josephs v Marias, consisting of two finalists from reality TV shows How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? and Any Dream Will Do. The final category was soloists, consisting of ex-Eastender star turned singer Michelle Gayle and former The X Factor participant Andy Abraham. The six competing songs were released on 22 February 2008.
Categories (Duels round)
Six acts competed during the first round of the televised final on 1 March 2008. An expert panel consisting of Terry Wogan, John Barrowman and Carrie Grant selected one song per category to advance to the final. An additional wildcard finalist was selected by Wogan out of the remaining non-qualifying acts. The panel selected "It's You" performed by The Revelations, "Changes" performed by Simona Armstrong and "Woo " performed by Michelle Gayle as the three finalists. Wogan selected "Even If" performed by Andy Abraham as the wildcard finalist.
Final
The remaining four acts competed in the final. A public vote selected the top two songs, "Woo " performed by Michelle Gayle and "Even If" performed by Andy Abraham, to advance to the second round, the superfinal. In the superfinal, the public vote selected the winner, "Even If" performed by Andy Abraham.
As one of the 'Big 4' countries, UK automatically qualified for the final on 24 May 2008.In the final he performed second following Romania and preceding Albania. Although Andy did hope the song would make a good showing in Belgrade, his task was not made easy. He came last with only 14 points. Following Eurovision tie-breaking rules, the United Kingdom was placed last overall as it had fewer 12-point votes than Germany and fewer 10-point votes than Poland.
After Eurovision
BBC Eurovision host Terry Wogan called Abraham's song, "Even If", "the best UK entry for a while", expressed frustration with the contest result and suggested that Britain follows Italy's suit and no longer enter the competition. In his radio show on 27 May, Wogan remarked on a conversation with Abraham, who had said that he was not expecting a high vote for the usual 'block voting' reasons, and 'another reason' which Wogan was not prepared to discuss on air, presumed to be related to Abraham's race. In an interview, Swedish group Bodies Without Organs stated that if the UK put in more effort then they can win. They also mentioned in the interview that they had been invited to participate in a United Kingdom national final before, but refused as they were not allowed to write their own song.
