James Newman My Last Breath Acoustic UK Eurovision 2020

In the days (and soon to be weeks) since Eurovision 2020’s cancellation, fans have been scouring the internet for any nuggets of content relating to this year’s acts. With no preview parties, live performances and such are hard to come by, especially for internally selected acts.

And so, we throwback to the only televised live performance to date of the United Kingdom’s James Newman singing “My Last Breath”.

James Newman “My Last Breath” Live

On 6 March — when dedicated fans were busy with national finals in Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Portugal — the BBC released a 15-minute special on its iPlayer platform. During this, James delivered his first (and to date last) live TV performance of “My Last Breath”.

Accompanied by a guitarist, a pianist and two backing vocalists, the award-winning songwriter delivers a more stripped back version of the track which most will only know from the studio cut.

Graham Norton interviews Graham Norton

The remainder of the special’s runtime consists of an interview with famed TV chatshow host Graham Norton. Of course, the Irishman is also the UK’s Eurovision longtime commentator. Those residing in Great Britain or Northern Ireland can watch the full conversation on the iPlayer.

However, the platform is blocked to viewers from elsewhere, so they must make do with the three-minute segment which has been uploaded to YouTube.

In it, James tells Graham how he came up with some of his biggest hits as a songwriter, including Rudimental’s “Waiting All Night” and Ed Sheeran’s “Lay It All on Me”.

An additional clip on Instagram, sees Graham introduce James to some of Eurovision’s “finest moments” from recent years. They include Australia’s Kate Miller-Heidke from 2019, Croatia’s Jacques Houdek from 2017, Austria’s Conchita Wurst from 2014 and the Netherlands’ Duncan Laurence from 2019.

As per the modern tradition for UK Eurovision acts, James was also expected to make an appearance on Graham Norton’s flagship Friday night chatshow. However, even though the series is set to continue airing, it is not clear whether James’ performance will go ahead.

What do you think of James’ live performance? Do you think the UK might select him again for 2021? Let us know in the comments.

Follow all of our United Kingdom Eurovision 2020 news.

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Jack
Jack
3 years ago

The song was lovely and there is no doubting his voice is unique, but with no disrespect… I still cannot believe that the BBC and BMG who have artists banging out tunes after tunes (for international artists) came up with this and thought that this would be worthy of being a Top 5 song, unless their intention was not to do that well. I truly believe that the reason why the UK is failing to pick a decent song is because they simply do not want to win. There is no way that someone from both sides chose this song… Read more »

Rosanne Maher
Rosanne Maher
3 years ago

I think this was a really good song and James must be gutted he cant perform it at Eurovision.
He should be given an opportunity to represent UK next year without a doubt.

Alex
Alex
3 years ago

He is a lovely guy, but I’d prefer to see someone else on stage and have him as songwriter only. I believe he lacks of stage charisma which is important in Eurovision. But the song is catchy and radio-friendly.

I think BBC should open the selection process to other artist for 2021 and maybe James can write the song.

Rosanne Maher
Rosanne Maher
3 years ago
Reply to  Alex

Hope James doesn’t read this. Talk about kicking someone when they are down.

Kosey
Kosey
3 years ago

He’s such a lovely guy, really down to earth, and with that gravelly voice, I think he would have stood out. I think this is the best entry from the UK for a while. I think it might have surprised people a bit.

Kim
Kim
3 years ago

I really like the UK’s song this year but still think it wouldn’t have troubled the top spots. May have got some jury votes but would have failed miserably on televote.