James Newman, the brother of John Newman, has been confirmed as the United Kingdom’s act for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest
Image Source/ Radio Times
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The singer/songwriter, who is the brother of John Newman, will perform ‘My Last Breath’ at the final in Rotterdam on May 16th.
James was unveiled as the UK’s entry on the BBC Eurovision Twitter account, and he is hoping his “simple, memorable and anthemic” tune will “connect” with the Eurovision Song Contest audience.
He told Radio 1 Newsbeat:
‘[It’s a] massive opportunity to get my song out to the world in such a big way’.
The star also admitted he had a “little think” before accepting the offer to be the UK’s representative, but said yes because the spectacle is a “celebration of music”.
He added:
‘Since I was a little kid, I’ve always wanted to be an artist and performer myself.
‘It just feels like the right time to start putting songs out’.
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Michael Rice represented the UK last year, and there was some voting controversy following the final.
Following the finale, which was won by the Netherlands, the Eurovision Song Contest results were corrected after a “human error”.
The Belarusian jury was axed after revealing their votes from the first semi-final – which was against regulations – so a “substitute aggregated result” was calculated and approved based on “the results of other countries with similar voting records”.
It meant Netherlands champion Duncan Laurence remained top with 498 as opposed to 492, while Italy’s runner up Mahmood had six points more than their 465 total given on the night, and Russia’s entry Sergey Lazarev finished with 372 rather than 369.
The change in results was bad news for the UK’s Michael, who had already found himself at the bottom of the rankings on the night after his song ‘Better Than Us’ earned just 16 points.
However, the scoreboard ended up looking even worse for Michael following the revised results as he only had a score of 11 points in the end.
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