United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 2007

Eurovision Song Contest 2007
Country	United Kingdom
National selection
Selection process	Eurovision: Making Your Mind Up
Selection date(s)	17 March 2007
Selected entrant	Scooch
Selected song	"Flying The Flag (For You)"
Selected songwriter(s)	Russ Spencer Morten Schjolin Andrew Hill Paul Tarry
Finals performance
Final result	23rd, 19 points
United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2006 • 2007 • 2008►

Performing at the Eurovision Song Contest 2007.

The United Kingdom chose their entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 on the BBC programme Eurovision: Making Your Mind Up. The fourth and final edition of Making Your Mind Up took place on Saturday 17 March 2007 on BBC One. The main show aired at 19.30 GMT and the results showed at 21.30 GMT.

The six initial acts were reduced to two after a public vote. The two remaining acts participated in a final sing-off - and a final public vote decided the winner of the competition which was Scooch with their song "Flying the Flag (for You)". The United Kingdom finished 23rd, second to last in the competition, they did, however, receive the maximum award of 12 points from Malta. This is the first time since Jessica Garlick in 2002, that the UK received 12 points from a country.

Eurovision: Making Your Mind Up 2007

Results

Order	Act	Song	1st Round	2nd Round
1	Liz McClarnon	"(Don't It Make You) Happy!"	5th
2	Brian Harvey	"I Can"	6th
3	Big Brovaz	"Big Bro Thang"	3rd
4	Cyndi	"I'll Leave My Heart"		2nd (47%)
5	Scooch	"Flying the Flag (for You)"		1st (53%)
6	Justin Hawkins and Beverlei Brown	"They Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To"	4th

^[1]

Announcement blunder

After the sing-off and final public vote, Cyndi and Scooch returned to the stage for the final result. After several moments, Terry Wogan announced the winner to be Cyndi while simultaneously, co-host Fearne Cotton revealed the winner to be Scooch. Wogan's announcement was louder than Cotton's, leading many people to believe Cyndi had won the sing-off. After several seconds of confusion, it was finally confirmed that Scooch were the winners. The BBC later issued a written apology, blaming the blunder on "live TV".

Earlier rumours

Before the six acts were officially announced by the BBC on 28 February 2007, a number of rumours circulated about who would be entering a bid in Eurovision: Making Your Mind Up 2007. Such rumours included:

• Ace of Base (This rumour was later denied on their website sometime prior to BBC's official reveal)^[2]
• Scissor Sisters
• Morrissey (The BBC approached him in January 2007 to write the entry, not perform it, but a song wasn't produced in time)
• Queentastic^[3]
• Daz Sampson and Carol Decker (Sampson submitted a song entitled "Goodbye" but the BBC felt it was too soon for him to enter since he represented the UK in 2006)^[4]

Justin Hawkins and Beverlei Brown replaced The Puppini Sisters who had been earlier approached by the BBC, but whose submitted material, "And She Sang" and "Don't Call Again", were not considered suitable for the competition.

At Eurovision

As a member of the Big Four, the United Kingdom automatically qualified to compete in the final held on 12 May. Scooch was drawn to perform nineteenth in the line-up. At the end of the contest, the song finished second to last in 23rd place with only 19 points, ahead of only Ireland, who came last. Nevertheless, the United Kingdom still managed to receive a maximum score of 12pts from Malta.

Points Awarded by United Kingdom

Semi final 12 points  Turkey 10 points  Cyprus 8 points  Latvia 7 points  Denmark 6 points  Bulgaria 5 points  Serbia 4 points  Hungary 3 points  Poland 2 points  Malta 1 point  Albania

Final 12 points  Turkey 10 points  Greece 8 points  Ukraine 7 points  Sweden 6 points  Russia 5 points  Bulgaria 4 points  Latvia 3 points  Lithuania 2 points  Hungary 1 point  Germany

Points Awarded to United Kingdom (Final)

12 points	10 points	8 points	7 points	6 points
Malta			Ireland
5 points	4 points	3 points	2 points	1 point

Unofficial Representation

Despite Scooch being the official representatives, the UK was unofficially representing Eurovision for other countries.

• For the second year in a row Turkey employed British dancers.
• The Greek representative Sarbel was born and brought up in London.
• The Andorran lead singer is from the UK.
• One of the members of the Polish entry, The Jet Set is from UK.

See also

• United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest

References

1. Eurovision Song Contest Serbia 2008 | Live Shows
2. "Exclusive: Ace of Base: No to Sweden, Yes to UK". esctoday.com. 2006-10-11. Retrieved 2006-10-11.
3. "Queentastic rejected from Norwegian finals - looking to UK". esctoday.com. 2006-10-07. Retrieved 2006-10-07.
4. "Exclusive: Daz reveals song and duet partner for Eurovision". oikotimes.com. 2006-10-01. Retrieved 2006-10-01.

External links

• BBC Radio 2 - Eurovision: Making Your Mind Up 2007 - Official Site