He’s the Brit award winner who was set to represent the United Kingdom at Eurovision 2020 before the contest’s cancellation. But now, James Newman is looking towards the future and continuing with new songwriting endeavours. And it’s possible that some of these tracks could be potential submissions for Eurovision 2021, with Newman having recently stated he already has some ideas for songs should the BBC ask him to wave the UK flag in 2021.
The British artist has spent this past week in Norfolk writing new material alongside fellow songwriters Ed Drewett, Adam Argyle and Iain James. These three were also the co-writers of Newman’s Eurovision 2020 entry “My Last Breath”.
James Newman has ideas for potential Eurovision 2021 song
There is still no official confirmation on whether James Newman will be given the opportunity to represent the United Kingdom at Eurovision 2021. Many fans hope he will be internally selected again after his chance to compete was snatched away from him earlier this year following Eurovision 2020’s cancellation due to COVID-19 precautions. As of yet, British public broadcaster BBC has not confirmed their participation for next year’s contest and a continued collaboration with record label BMG – though the BBC usually makes no major Eurovision announcements until autumn.
Despite the lack of official details, that hasn’t stopped James Newman from beginning to think of ideas for potential Eurovision 2021 songs.
In a recent interview with Eurovision Radio International, the Settle-born singer-songwriter confirmed again that he would definitely be up for participating at Eurovision 2021 if asked to:
“I would absolutely love to do it again next year, because I learnt so much about the Eurovision community and got to chat to so many amazing people about it and I was so excited to go there for a whole week and get to be in that Eurovision buzz. So it was kind of like the lead up to Christmas but without Christmas day, so I would love to do it again and have the Christmas day.”
If given the opportunity to compete next year, Newman also mentioned that he would want to be involved with the songwriting process of his entry. Indeed, he has already been thinking about what sort of song he would compete with:
“I’ve already started thinking of ideas for our song and I’ll definitely be writing the song if the BBC ask me.”
“A big banger”
This isn’t the first time James Newman has spoken about what sort of song he would want to compete with at Eurovision 2021.
During a Twitter Q&A session earlier this year, Eurovision fan Curtis asked Newman if he would want to perform something similar to his Eurovision 2020 entry “My Last Breath”, or if he would like to showcase something a bit different in 2021.
In response, the star noted “I’d defo come back with a big banger!”. It seems the British singer-songwriter is not opposed to turning up the BPM for any potential Eurovision 2021 song.
I’d defo come back with a big banger!
— James Newman (@JamesNewmanUk) April 29, 2020
Newman definitely has a successful history of composing upbeat pop-dance tracks. The star won a Brit award in 2014 for his involvement in co-writing “Waiting All Night” for British drum and bass band Rudimental, featuring Ella Eyre.
Some of his other songwriting credits include “Blame” by Calvin Harris (featuring John Newman) and “Therapy” by Armin van Buuren, which James Newman is a featured vocalist on.
James Newman composes new songs with “My Last Breath” songwriters
Since the release of his Eurovision 2020 entry “My Last Breath”, James Newman has regularly mentioned that the song was written when he and his fellow songwriter friends Ed Drewett, Adam Argyle and Iain James went to visit a loch in Scotland together in January.
And over this past week, the four songwriters have come together once again to write new songs. Taking to Twitter on Thursday morning, Newman posted “Had a productive week writing with my mates who I wrote My Last Breath with!”
Had a productive week writing with the my mates who I wrote My Last Breath with!
— James Newman (@JamesNewmanUk) August 27, 2020
The British star’s Instagram story have been full of clips of the group’s time together over the last few days. These revealed that the songwriters have been in Norfolk, where they’ve been writing songs while also finding time to hit the beach.
Ed Drewett is a majorly decorated songwriter, having written hits such as “Black Magic” and “Shout Out to My Ex” for Little Mix, as well as Jonas Blue’s “Rise”. He’s also written for One Direction, The Wanted, Olly Murs and Craig David.
Adam Argyle is credited on songs by Dua Lipa, former Spice Girls member Melanie C and James Arthur.
Iain James Farquharson has also written for big stars such as Little Mix, Olly Murs and One Direction amongst others. He’s also co-written two other previous Eurovision entries – Azerbaijan’s Eurovision 2011 winning entry “Running Scared” by Ell & Nikki, as well as Belgium’s Eurovision 2013 song “Love Kills” by Roberto Bellarosa.
With James Newman having stated that he already has ideas for potential Eurovision 2021 songs, it is possible that the four songwriters could have taken the time to write these while they were in Norfolk. Although we can only speculate about this, Newman may want to utilise the shared expertise and friendship between himself, Drewett, Argyle and James once again. After all, despite being involved with some songwriting camps for Eurovision 2020, it was ultimately the group-penned “My Last Breath” that was chosen.
If the group did compose some songs to submit to BMG and BBC for 2021 then this would have been far earlier than their 2020 writing session. Following the announcement of the internal selection and BBC’s collaboration with BMG in September 2019, Newman was first asked to represent the United Kingdom in November. “My Last Breath” was then written in January 2020 before being revealed at the end of February.
As of now though, we will have to wait for further official details surrounding the UK’s Eurovision 2021 participation and their artist selection.
Do you want to see James Newman represent the United Kingdom at Eurovision 2021? What sort of song do you think he should participate with? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
I’d be happy for James to write the song.and I do like his voice. But I feel he lacks any stage presence, Watching him perform MLB live was so boring.
I hope the BBC/BMG choose something original for 2021 with a much more distinctive and experimental sound that better represents the U.K. music scene.
I have a feeling that the BBC / BMG already pencilled in someone for 2021 even before Coronavirus. That’s not to say James won’t ever get another chance, but it might not come straight away.
BMG is a label with a lot of artists, some of them with international fame. The real question is: besides James, who would be willing to represent UK in ESC?
Unpopular opinion: I like “My last breath”, it had potential to become a surprise capable enough to achieve a good result for UK.
Hello dear Una! Do you think if “Bigger Than Us” had represented Sweden you would still consider it cringe? And if “Too Late For Love” had represented UK, still a cringe/anthem? And would it achieved the same finishing position?
Totally agree. At least in 2009 there was some sort of “effort” and it made a difference. Of course totally undone by the following year’s fiasco. No fault of the poor singer.
“Never Give Up On You” by Lucie Jones was not cringe, but a masterpiece 😉
Yes yes yes. I sincerely hope the BBC USE their common sense
James is a gentle soul. I hope he represents UK next year!
Or even better, his amazing brother John performing a song penned by James and his mates
Just saying, UK’s 2018 song was just called “Storm”.
I would love for James Newman to represent the UK in 2021 either as a singer or a songwriter. Looking at his previous songs hes wrote I would like him to do a collaboration with someone else and the person who I think he should sing with is Becky Hill. I think their voices would be great together. James Newman for the UK!!!
I actually think James was going to be one of the surprises of 2020 had it went ahead (and the UK managed to do a good job of implementing the staging ideas he had). The song was doing really well in the shows that the different broadcasters organised in terms of public voting.
Of course, there’s no harm in him going for a “bigger” sound. Look forward to what he comes up with.
I want to see something like “Amnesia” that he did with Jacob Plant. I still listen to that song now. Something upbeat radio friendly, maybe another house song which could get the televote back to liking us, which hasn’t happened since Blue in 2011
Nice reminder of the calibre of songwriters!
It’s a wonder they haven’t been asked to write a UK song before this year.
I really hope James gets another go, hopefully this time in-between he can home his performing skills somehow. Maybe the BBC could host a selection show, “A Song For James”
I really think it was the sleeper hit of 2020. The UK look to be on a good track!
Couldn’t agree more. My Last Breath was never going to win, but it felt like a solid improvement over the past couple of years, and a sign that the UK was going in the right direction as well. I can see the partnership with BMG being longer-term, and hope that we’ll get back into the top half for the first time since 2011, the top 5 for the first time since 2009, and hopefully our first win since 1997! This will of course take time, but I have faith that it will produce good fruit before too long.
i liked his 2020 entry, but it was forgettable unfortunately. I’d like a more memorable and televote-friendly song for 2021.