Nil Poi

2021 saw a new low for the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest. For the first time, the UK got exactly no points from either the national jury vote or the popular vote. However, the real question needs to be: Does coming last in the competition really mean you are a loser?

First, a little background for those not familiar with Eurovision. The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual competition held in Europe to ‘promote harmony between the nations of Europe’. It was first held in 1956 and it is fair to say that the UK has been reasonably successful over the years (winners five times). However, in recent years, the UK has felt the scoring (half by national juries of musical ‘experts’, half by national telephone votes) has gone against them. This is supported by the data: from 1957 until 1998, the UK had only been placed outside the top 10 places on two occasions. Since 1999, the UK has only been in the top 10 places on two occasions. One reason could be that the music produced in the UK is no longer to European tastes, but only a cursory glance at the Eurochart Hot 100 will see it full of UK artists and groups.

But does coming last in the competition really hinder the artist from being successful? First of all, you need to separate the facts from the myths. I thought I would start my research back 25 years ago with Gina G and her song, ‘Ooh Aah…Just a little bit’. I chose this as a starting point as, according to one news source, ‘this was the last time the UK were in the Top 10 song of the contest’: a statement completely negating the fact that the UK won the competition the following year. Gina G came a respectable eighth in the contest, which she built upon with number one singles in the UK and Israel (another Eurovision country, though not geographically in Europe), a number 9 on the Eurochart Hot 100 and a respectable number 12 on the US Billboard Hot 100. In 1996, Gina G sold 790,000 copies of her single, making it a very successful year for the Australian (singing for the UK: yes, it is a mixed up world).

As already highlighted, 1997 was the last time that the UK won the competition. Katrina and the Waves came number one in the competition with their song, ‘Love Shines A Light’. However, winning the competition does not necessarily lead to commercial success and record sales. The win gave Katrina and her Waves a number 3 in the UK and a number 5 in Europe (including a gold record in Norway) but no commercial success in the US. Though they may have won Eurovision, Gina G had been commercially more successful.

The UK went on to finish second in 1998, twelfth in 1999 (with a group containing Jenny Frost, before she became an Atomic Kitten) and a respectable third in 2002. Since then, apart from on one occasion, the UK entry has been placed outside the Eurovision top 10, in the bottom half of the competition table. But is coming last in the competition harmful to record sales? Does coming last make you a loser?

Since 2002, the UK have come last in the competition on five separate occasions. In 2003, Jemini flopped at the concert with their entry, ‘Cry Baby’. Their performance was out of tune, as they ‘were unable to hear the backing track’. Though they finished last in the competition, they managed a respectable fifteenth in the UK singles chart. In 2008, Andy Abraham finished joint last with ‘Even if’. However, his song wasn’t even a hit with the UK public, reaching only number 67 in the chart. Worse was to come in 2010, with Josh Dubovie and his song ‘That Sounds Good To Me’. It had been written for him by Pete Waterman and Mike Stock, two thirds of the SAW team who had been creating multiple number one singles with Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan and Rick Astley. This should have had competition winner written all over it, but instead it came last at Eurovision and peaked at a miserable number 179 in the UK chart. However, a last place in 2019 for Michael Rice proved commercially more lucrative. Though ‘Bigger Than Us’ was at the foot of the table in the competition, it reached number 27 in the UK download chart and peaked at number 8 in Sweden. This is a little ironic, as the song was written by Swedish singer-songwriter John Lundvik who had entered Eurovision himself with a different song. He finished the competition in fifth place.

No-one knows yet how coming last will affect this year’s entrant, James Newman, and his song ‘Embers’. Will it rise from the embers like a phoenix? The signs so far are looking good: it has so far reached number 42 in the UK Download chart.

Maybe coming last, or even first, in the competition will never equate to the commercial success of a song. Remember back in 2019, Michael Rice coming last at Eurovision but managing to get to number 27 in the UK chart? Well, the competition that year was won by Duncan Laurence, for The Netherlands, with his song ‘Arcade’. However, even though it won the competition, it only managed to peak at number 29 in the UK chart, two places behind Michael Rice.

When it comes to Eurovision, the UK do not come last as often as they think they do and being placed last on the night does not necessarily make you a loser when it comes to all important statistic: record sales.

P.S. Yes, I know they are mainly downloads now, but record sales sounds better and vinyl is making a comeback, as are ABBA.