September 16, 20195 yr Author Exciting news coming out of the BBC today - it sounds like we're going back to internal, and the BBC are partnering up with the record label, BMG! :o The BBC has confirmed the United Kingdom’s participation in the 65th Eurovision Song Contest which will be held in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in May 2020. BBC Studios will once again produce the BBC’s coverage of the biggest and most watched song competition in the world. Also announced is a brand new collaboration between BBC Studios and music company BMG in order to find a song and artist(s) to represent the United Kingdom in next year’s contest. Following a process in which BBC Studios approached a number of record labels to pitch ideas for 2020, it was clear that BMG shared the BBC and BBC Studios’ vision of selecting a song with broad international appeal and securing an artist who embodies the spirit and values of the Eurovision Song Contest. BBC Studios will be working alongside BMG’s UK music publishing and frontline recordings team based in London to select the United Kingdom’s Eurovision 2020 entry which will then be released and published by BMG. BMG has a proven track record in worldwide hits, publishing songs such as Someone You Love (Lewis Capaldi), Don’t Call Me Up (Mabel), Shotgun (George Ezra) and I’ll Be There (Jess Glynne), and also masterminding Kylie Minogue’s recent number one album Golden. No strangers to Eurovision, BMG published the 2015 winning entry for Sweden, Heroes performed by Mans Zelmerlow and signed Eurovision winner Netta following her win in 2018. Kate Phillips, Controller Entertainment Commissioning for the BBC, says: “Our commitment to finding the right song has never been higher and this collaboration with BMG, who have access to world class songwriters, is a genuinely exciting prospect and I am certain that together we can find the best song and artist possible for 2020.” Mel Balac, Creative Director for BBC Studios, says: “The Eurovision Song Contest is a huge global event and our collaboration with BMG marks an important turning point for the UK at Eurovision. We very much hope this marks the start of an exciting new chapter.” Alistair Norbury, President, Repertoire & Marketing UK for BMG, says: “Eurovision is the biggest television showcase for music in the world and it’s an honour to be selected to help choose the UK’s entry at Rotterdam 2020. Eurovision plays to our strength as the only fully-integrated publishing company and record label. We can’t wait to get started working with the BBC to give it the best possible shot we can.” https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnew...kname=corporate
September 16, 20195 yr Cautiously optimistic but this is the sort of news we want to be hearing. Maybe the idea that You Decide has been on the whole embarassingly budget has finally got through.
September 16, 20195 yr that sounds promising. I know we all complained about internal selection years ago but You Decide was even worse.
September 16, 20195 yr Well the only way is up and record label involvement is certainly promising. Definitely believe internal is the way to go, the British public cannot be trusted in a public vote.
September 16, 20195 yr Cautiously optimistic about this. It will hopefully be something credible in a similar vein to what The Netherlands tend to send. I wouldn’t be at all surprised at it being another MOR entry or even UK country leaning effort as BMG are currently behind the careers of the likes of Kylie and Rick Astley etc are they not? They are a decent label so hopefully will get the song, artist, staging and promo spot on, but I wouldn’t expect a major trend-following hit single out of it. I’m not anticipating the UK to suddenly turn everything around at all but it would be fantastic to escape the bottom ten at this point.
September 16, 20195 yr This should be good news - as BMG are a record label, they have a vested interest in selecting a song that is going to appeal to as many people across Europe in order to fill their coffers with that lovely, lovely money, so they're not going to go down the route of sending someone with a "story" (as has been the case with previous entries in the prior selection process), or someone that doesn't have a big appeal. I'm guessing they're either going to select an emerging artist from their roster with the hopes of Eurovision being their big platform, or a well known artist who still sells a decent (but not silver/gold selling) amount without troubling the singles chart as promotion for their latest album. Or they could just mess everything up. I still wouldn't put it past them to do so.
September 16, 20195 yr It was the only way to go - a record company knows what sells, it's why most modern hits are created by teams of established songwriters and produced to appeal to streaming. It's not exactly innovative, but then the UK hasn't been innovative in Eurovision since errr ever. All we ever did was get proper hitmaking songwriters and acts on board when we wanted to win, and then when they moved to random competitions of acts it became much more hit and largely miss with diminishing returns as the incentive for songwriters and acts to enter shrank to almost zero, we were so ridiculously bad and living on past glories moaning about everyone hating the UK when they just aren't fussed about the endless mostly-bland or old-fashioned entries...
September 16, 20195 yr Promising news. Lucie Jones with something along the lines of "Shady Lady" (with Mark Ronson "Late Night Feelings" album style production) I'd enjoy after the past few years...
September 16, 20195 yr Thank god for that! YouDecide was well-meaning but ultimately useless. I would love them to go bold and do a “Love injected” or something.
November 12, 20195 yr My song is finished, but just because Ive done my song doesnt mean that the rest of you have to rush to get songs finished. Weve only got about 2 months until TiBB Eurovision 2019 happens.
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