United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1957
From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (June 2023) |
| Eurovision Song Contest 1957 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Country |  United Kingdom | |||
| National selection | ||||
| Selection process | Song: Festival of British Popular Songs Artist: Internal selection | |||
| Selection date(s) | Semi-finals 22 January 1957 29 January 1957 5 February 1957 Final 12 February 1957 | |||
| Selected entrant | Patricia Bredin | |||
| Selected song | "All" | |||
| Selected songwriter(s) |
| |||
| Finals performance | ||||
| Final result | 7th, 6 points | |||
| United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest | ||||
| ||||
The United Kingdom participated in the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time in 1957. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) organised a national final, a second edition of Festival of British Popular Songs, to select the United Kingdom's entry for the contest. The country was represented by Patricia Bredin with the song "All" written by Reynell Wreford and Alan Stranks.
Before Eurovision[edit]
Festival of British Popular Songs[edit]
| Festival of British Popular Songs 1957 | |
|---|---|
| Host | |
| Venue |
|
| Presenter(s) | David Jacobs |
| Host broadcaster | BBC |
| Participants | |
| Number of entries | 7 (1st semi final) 7 (2nd semi final) 5 (3rd semi final) 11 (final) |
| Vote | |
| Winning song | "All" by Malcolm Lockyer Quartet and Patricia Bredin |
The 1957 contest was the United Kingdom's first participation in the contest. The country did not participate in the inaugural contest in 1956, as the BBC had created their own contest, the Festival of British Popular Songs, aspects of which influenced the 1957 contest.[1]
The Festival of British Popular Songs 1957 consisted of three semi finals and a grand final. All shows were presented by David Jacobs, who would host many other British national finals the following years.[2] Seven singers presented one song each in the first two semi finals. In the third semi final, five songs took part. Most song titles and results in the heats were lost.
The songs were scored by ten twelve-member juries, representing Birmingham, Aberdeen, Cardiff, Newcastle, Belfast, Manchester, Bangor, Bristol, Glasgow, and London. Each juror awarded one point to their favourite song. Two songs in each heat advanced to the national final, where every song was presented twice by two different artists and with a different arrangement. With the exception of the song "Once", the first performance was by the singer who performed it in the semi-final, and the second performance was by an artist who had not taken part in the heats. After the show, the BBC internally chose Patricia Bredin to perform the song in Frankfurt.
Shows[edit]
Semi-finals[edit]
| Draw | Artist | Song | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lita Roza | "The Way It Goes" | Advanced |
| 2 | Denis Lotis | "Seven" | Advanced |
| 3 | Marian Ryan | Unknown | Eliminated |
| 4 | John Hanson | Unknown | Eliminated |
| 5 | Janie Marden | Unknown | Eliminated |
| 6 | The Keynotes | Unknown | Eliminated |
| 7 | Bill McGuffie Quartet | Unknown | Eliminated |
| Draw | Artist | Song | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jill Day | Unknown | Eliminated |
| 2 | Ronnie Hilton | "For Your Love" | Advanced |
| 3 | Edna Savage | Unknown | Eliminated |
| 4 | Bryan Johnson | Unknown | Eliminated |
| 5 | Lorrae Desmond | Unknown | Eliminated |
| 6 | Frank Horrox | Unknown | Eliminated |
| 7 | Frank Weir Quartet | "Once" | Advanced |
| Draw | Artist | Song | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Carole Carr | Unknown | Eliminated |
| 2 | Shirley Eaton | Unknown | Eliminated |
| 3 | Bill Maynard | Unknown | Eliminated |
| 4 | The Keynotes | "Don't Cry Little Doll" | Advanced |
| 5 | Malcolm Lockyer Quartet | "All" | Advanced |
Final[edit]
| Draw | First singer | Second singer | Song | Songwriter(s) | Points | Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Keynotes | Bill Maynard | "Don't Cry Little Doll" | Ron Grainer, David Dearlove | 14 | 4 |
| 2 | Pauline Shepherd | Carole Carr | "Once" | Barbara Killalee | 23 | 2 |
| 3 | Denis Lotis | The Keynotes | "Seven" | Peter Hart, Christopher Richardson | 13 | 5 |
| 4 | Malcolm Lockyer Quartet | Patricia Bredin | "All" | Reynell Wreford, Alan Stranks | 39 | 1 |
| 5 | Ronnie Hilton | Alan Bristow | "For Your Love" | Robert Kingston, Ronald Bridges, Ralph Ruvin | 13 | 5 |
| 6 | Lita Roza | Stan Roderick | "The Way It Goes" | Tony Osborne | 18 | 3 |
Commercial success[edit]
None of the competing songs reached the UK Singles Chart despite the popularity of some of the contestants. Hull born actress and occasional singer Patricia Bredin never recorded the winning song, the ballad "All", and it was therefore also never released as a single.[3] The only known studio recording of the song was released the same year by English singer Robert Earl. This version was later included on the compilation album "If You Can Dream" by Vocalion Records together with all other tracks from his first 17 singles.
At Eurovision[edit]
Patricia Bredin delivered an operatic performance of "All", performing third that night following Luxembourg and preceding Italy with "Corde della mia chitarra". The conductor was Eric Robinson. At a length of 1:52 minutes, it was the shortest entry in the history of the contest until Finland in 2015 as well as being the first song to be performed in English. The song also turned out to perform right before Italy's "Corde della mia chitarra", the longest entry in the history of the contest at 5:09 minutes.
At the close of voting, the United Kingdom had received six points and finished seventh among the ten countries, despite points from five of the nine other countries. It would take the United Kingdom until 1978 not to finish in the first half of the scoreboard again.
Voting[edit]
Every country had a jury of ten people. Every juror could give one point to their favourite song.
|
|
References[edit]
- ^ "Shining a light on the United Kingdom: 60 Years at Eurovision". eurovision.tv. 11 January 2017. Retrieved 24 May 2019.
- ^ "Festival of British Popular Songs 1957". songs4europe.com. Retrieved 24 May 2019.
- ^ "1957 - Diggiloo Thrush". Diggiloo.net. Retrieved 30 June 2023.
- ^ a b "Results of the Final of Frankfurt 1957". Eurovision Song Contest. Archived from the original on 27 March 2021. Retrieved 27 March 2021.