Eurovision: You Decide — the UK’s national selection for Eurovision 2019 — takes place on Friday, February 8. And this afternoon the BBC revealed that we’ll have the songs and artists well ahead of that. The reveal is set for Wednesday, January 23 at 10:00 GMT.
The announcement will take place on the Ken Bruce show on BBC Radio 2.
?Our six acts and songs for #Eurovision: You Decide will be revealed from 10am on Wednesday! ?https://t.co/crerHR8Jqn and the Ken Bruce show @BBCRadio2 ?? pic.twitter.com/ZBceGa5DJQ
— BBC Eurovision?? (@bbceurovision) January 18, 2019
As in previous years, six acts will compete to try and fly the UK flag in Tel Aviv. But this time, they’re only going to be singing one of three songs.
Each song will be performed in two musically different ways, by two different acts. Those two acts will face off in three-rounds of “song-offs”, which will help determine the final pairing of song and act to go forward to Eurovision 2019.
It’s a fairly similar format to Unser Song 2017, Germany’s selection for Kyiv – although Levina’s result wasn’t particularly a huge success at the time. Let’s hope that the UK will be able to turn that around!
You Decide 2019 will be filmed at Dock10 in Media City UK in Salford, Greater Manchester. Unlike the 2018 show, tickets for this year’s national final will be free. They will be allocated via a ballot, which can be applied for at Lost In TV. There’s a minimum age of 16 and under 18-year-olds must be accompanied by an adult. The dress code is “party fabulous”.
And because it’s a television studio, further restrictions apply. No food or drink can be brought into the studio, and mobile phones are not allowed. Honestly, we’re not sure we could cope without a phone, but sometimes you just have to make sacrifices.
Eurovision: You Decide will again be hosted by former Great British Bake Off star Mel Giedroyc and Eurovision winner Måns Zelmerlöw. The show will be broadcast live on BBC Two.
The performances will be voted on by a celebrity panel and the public televote, and will eventually decide who SuRie’s successor will be.
Happy Wednesday everyone!!!! #previews
LET’S DO THIS!
I heard Katie B has written an entry for this year. I hope so!
I’m not gonna believe any rumours at this point. We’ll have to wait and see
Absolutely love Katy B! If it’s a “crying for no reason” style song – I think it’d work really well for Eurovision. In saying that id also love for a British urban feel song to be an entry, which shes also delivered in the past
I think that neither the “3 songs for 6 singers” method nor songwriting camps are the right approach for the UK at Eurovision, as this reduces the creativity an the involvement of the singers in their own songs. I would advise the UK to make an open call for finished or at least half-finished products – from the song with its production to the staging in the actual contest. I don’t think that the current selection method is appealing for songwriters, and mostly not for singers…
I don’t have any expectation but good luck!
Rent-a-mob will be sharpening their pitch forks for whatever poor sacrificial lamb is sent to the slaughter to represent the UK 6 weeks after regaining independence.
Get lost Farage! Aren’t you supposed to be packing up to leave the UK to move in with your children, who live in Germany?? Also I think you have confused the word recession with independence. Now off to the BNP website with you…
No my dear Germany and Italy have entered recession the UK is once again the fastest growing Western European economy.
I think this is a good thing. Maybe the selection process isn’t the best, but clearly the way UK has selected entries in the past has not yielded strong results. I for one applaud them for making an effort to try something different, becaise that shows they are looking for a way to improve in the contest.
This system rarely works… Let’s hope they have at least descent songs
I dunno, back when Jade Ewen represented the UK with My Time, we came fifth and the selection process was pretty similar.
Which given our track record in recent years, is an amazing result.
Yes but remember that Jade was almost voted off by the public in favour of the Twins and had to be saved by ALW. Even he said it probably wasn’t the best way to select an artist for the content. But let’s see. If they have a credible artist and song then fingers crossed.
There’s a lot of luck needed to combine a good artist with a good song in those types of show. You may have a good artist, that gets eliminated, because the song doesn’t match his style or voice, and you may lose a good song, because two battling singers didn’t perform it well. For Germany it worked out in 2010, but in 2017 the second element was underwhelming. Good luck anyway, Bonnie Tyler said “believe in me”, I say – believe in UK!
Please let there be three outstanding songs.
In my opinion, only Jessica Garlic, Jade, Molly & Lucie Jones have sent worthy songs to the concert since we last won in 1997.
The UK can and should do so much better.
They must be very confident about the quality of the songs submitted this year so they decided to go with this format instead but I appreciate BBC experimenting.
This format has got disaster written all over it. I think the most reliable format from the BBC over the years has been the internally selected artist and six songs public vote – Michael Ball, Sonia, Frances Ruffelle… etc.
BBC stands for Before Brexit Countdown
Don’t bring politics into Eurovision thank you!
Brexit countdown
I Kahn’t wait
This selection format very rarely works but I wish them the best
Isn’t it kind of what happened with Lena, though? They had multiple people doing Satellite, and fortunately for everyone, hers was good enough to bring Germany victory.
Exactly! We had to decide between Lena’s and Jennifer’s version of Satellite (and another two songs by each of them). I also loved Jennifer Braun’s Satellite and her song “I care for you” was my winner of the National Final. Check that out 🙂
I think Lena is the exception, not the rule.
With Roman Lob too
Good luck the UK, I hope your artists and the 3 songs will be terrific as well as this duel concept. Fingers crossed. :3
Just stop playing it so safe been so mediocre and bland over the past few years from the bbc, please just take a chance on something that sounds modern could actually chart in the UK and as at least as some kinda relevance in 2019. I don’t ask for much.
exactly we don’t ask for nothing at all, just something different unique, and someone who can actually sing well. I’m still wanting a fast catchy, upbeat track, that’s possible isn’t it??
No ezz it’s not to much to ask for lol don’t think the bbc care enough tbh at the end of the day realistically if we made the bloody effort we could be in the top ten every year.
no you can’t.!! this theory is false. nobody knows how to do it, unless there are only seven countries and one camera man.
I love that reference to Petra and Mans singing! It is taken from “Story Of ESC”, the opening revue of Stockholm 2016 😀
Fingers crossed. You can do this, UK!
I think that neither the “3 songs for 6 singers” method nor songwriting camps are the right approach for the United Kingdom, as this reduces the creativity and the own envolvement of the singers in their songs. I would suggest the BBC to make an open call for finished or at least half-finished products in the future – from the song with its production to a plan for the stage performance in the actual contest. I really don’t think that the current way of the UK’s selection is appealing for songwriters, and mostly for singers…
It’s time to d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-duel! roll on Wednesday, btw I have read that 17 year old Holly Tandy is rumored to be one of the 6 acts and Laurell Barker (whom you did an article on the other day) has co-written one of the 3 songs.
“Song-offs”. Love that! It is battle time! Let’s Do This! 😀
They better get it right this time, please BBC!
Is is really hard to internally select an original singer songwriter who wanna compete? I really hate the way they choose the song and the artist.
We should really trust the BBC with internal selection shouldn’t we? When they pick stuff like Electro Velvet and Engelbert Dinklehump
Molly from 2014?
Awful process. This is Josh Dubovnie/ Stock Aitken Waterman nightmare scenario of 2010. Think of all the awful singing karaoke talent shows on at this time on British TV. The Voice, Dancing on Ice, whatever BBC limps to the barn with on Saturday night. What can’t the UK come up with an Melfest /Eesti Laul style show?
Practically whole essays about this topic have been written on Wiwibloggs since about 2013. But to save time, here is the short version:
BBC stranglehold, History, Pop Industry Bias, Wogan, Joke show, Joke to audience, Niche audience, Artists’ reputations ruined, Politics, Fatigue, Hoplessness.
oh please I’m crossing my fingers, toes, hoping we actually get a good line up to represent us this year, ill forget about our last entry, and look forward, hope these people deliver.
That’s basically been the U.K. fan mantra
It’s PopMaster time!
Thanks. It’s in my calendar. 🙂