Our series of poll battles continues. A massive 26 artists will return to represent their countries following the cancellation of Eurovision last year. But as per the standard Eurovision rules, they’ve all got new songs for the 2021 contest.
Thus, comparisons to their previous entries are inevitable. So, we want to hear from our readers. We’re running a series of polls to ask — do you prefer the returning artists’ 2020 or 2021 songs?
Today, we’re saying hello to the United Kingdom. In 2020, James Newman was set to take “My Last Breath” to Rotterdam. This year, he’ll be singing “Embers” at Eurovision 2021. But which song is your favourite? Vote in our poll now!
Scroll down to vote in our poll.
“My Last Breath” (United Kingdom 2020)
British broadcaster BBC collaborated with record company BMG for Eurovision 2020. In the end, they chose James Newman to represent the United Kingdom with the song “My Last Breath”. The song was a steady pop song that James wrote with friends whilst on a trip to Scotland.
The Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — awarded “My Last Breath” a 6.08 out of 10. Wiwiblogger Natalie had the following to say about the song:
“Maybe give the UK another five to ten years and they’ll send a song that may be good enough to win Eurovision 2011. They’re slowly getting the picture, but in an era when dark pop music is the trend and Bulgaria and Romania are paying attention, the UK still thinks X Factor winners’ singles are the way to go. The lyrics are so bloody cheesy and the production is not original in the slightest. I can see it has a bit of spark and passion in it, but it takes a lot more than woah-oh-oh choruses to win Eurovision.”
“Embers” (United Kingdom 2021)
After a long wait, the BBC eventually revealed that James Newman would return to represent the United Kingdom at Eurovision 2021. This time, James is aiming to set the Rotterdam Ahoy stage on fire with “Embers”.
James’s 2021 entry turns the BPM up compared to his previous song. The singer noted that he wanted to return with a “big banger” and he does so with one full of brass instrumentation.
Poll battle — United Kingdom: Which James Newman entry do you prefer?
In this poll, you can only vote for one song — so choose wisely. And as always, you can only vote once. Let the battle commence!
[crowdsignal poll=10776145]
Which of James Newman’s Eurovision songs did you vote for? Are you Team “My Last Breath” or Team “Embers”? Let us know in the comments below!
embers is probably my favorite uk song ever
Im team “Last breath”
I don’t normally take a liking to UK entries, but Embers is grossly underrated. The most contemporary song the UK has sent for years
A lot of people are sleeping on the UK.. Embers is just great and will be a party on stage.. 12 points!!
“Embers” is maybe the most unique song that UK sent to esc in the last 10 years. I love it!!
Nearly all British fans of the contest never blame poor scores on Brexit. You can see quite clearly on most blogs and reports Brits are quite happy to admit poor scores come from poor quality songs that we have sent. Us “delusional” Brits have been bottom of the score board long before Brexit was even thought of because of bad entries its just a hand full of so called celebrities who like to flap their gums to the press about our poor scores and Brexit and suddenly everyone thinks we look for excuses.
Or the Astra Zeneca vaccine
Delusional Britons? We don’t care as we have the most iconic artists in the world.
100% behind you Princess
My last breath felt like a rehash of bigger than us.
Embers is not ground breaking but it is a huge step forward for the UK.
It’s modern, catchy, dancy and most importantly not cheesy, tacky about some generic, abstract self empowerment message.
I thought that “My last breath” was okay, though not very exicting. “Embers” on the other hand is one of my favorites this year. It just makes me really happy and I like the lyrics.
This comment made me wheeze. Thank you.
It’s true. I’m British and I know it’s true. The entry isn’t that bad, it is catchy etc but at the end of the day all of our entries ALWAYS sound so cheap. That is why we fail to make it into the top 15.
To me ‘Don’t Play That Song Again’ sounds mega cheap, like a karaoke machine. Maybe at the little national final that year it stood out but it desperately needed enhancing for the contest, the backing track sounded so crap in the big arena. I really don’t get why the fandom seems to love that song
kind of if your a Eurovision fan you kind of get it… your also a bit considerate to the diversity of others tastes which I guess is at the heart of music from different countries,,,, but if you have your head up your bum I understand why you don’t get it.
Neither to be completely honest
I actually like both songs a lot. Though I think Embers in the end, being more radio-friendly and accessible, would do better than My Last Breath had that entry been performed instead
“My Last Breath” is nice. Just nice. It’s not something I would listen to in my free time.
“Embers”, on the other hand, is far better than MLB but seems soooo autotuned…
Anyways, “Embers” nearly misses out of my top 10 sooooo that’s my pick
I quite liked ”My last breath”. “Embers” is in my bottom 5.
Last year’s was way better. My #14 from last year. That music video sold the song even better than I thought, and made me wonder if they would have sold it that way on stage. “Embers” will be lucky to finish in the top 20.
What ever you like Embers or not, you can’t deny that it’s their best entry in recent years.
Definitely not
I like both songs but I prefer “My last Breath”
My Last Breath gets my vote here (just). I like both songs but MLB had more of an emotional pull than Embers.