United Kingdom UNITED KINGDOM 2022 - Sam Ryder - Space Man

[escYOUnited]

If I was an astronaut, I'd be floating in mid-air
And a broken heart would just belong to someone else down there
I would be the centre of my lonely universe
But I'm only human, and I'm crashing down to earth

If I was an astronaut, I'd have a bird's eye view
I'd circle 'round the world and keep on coming back to you
In my floating castle, I'd rub shoulders with the stars
But I'm only human, and I'm drifting in the dark

I'm up in space, man
Up in space, man
I've searched around the universe
Been down some black holes
There's nothing but space, man
And I want to go home

If I was an astronaut, I'd speak to satellites
My navigation systems would search for other life
But I'd be up here thinking 'bout what I'd left behind
'Cause I'm only human with the real world on my mind

I'm up in space, man
Up in space, man
I've searched around the universe
Been down some black holes
There's nothing but space, man
And I want to go home

Gravity keeps pulling me down
As long as you're on the ground, I'll stick around
Stick around
I'll stick around

I'm up in space, man
Up in space, man
I've searched around the universe
Been down some black holes
There's nothing but space, man, no
Oh, I'm in the wrong place, man
Nothing but, nothing but, nothing but space, man
Nothing but, nothing but, nothing but space, man

I've searched around the universe
Been down some black holes
Nothing but space, man
And I want to go home​

 

[bstream]

I used to be a proponent of the UK National Final, but then I saw that they consistently had 6 variations of this every cycle:

The UK at one point in the last 5 years had the staging and singer down, but were missing the catchy song. Now it seems like they have none of these.

Granted, James Newman was a respectable effort, he genuinely cared and the song was current. But the song also sounded like a demo, and having the guy stand on a cylinder and shuffle a bit isn't staging.

 

[bstream]

This sent me into a UK 2018 rabbit hole Rediscovered this little gem from Raya. The staging was a little flat, but the song was fun and the energy is there

 

[TheJeb]

A NF will work however it needs to be a wide range of different music. Needs more than 6 songs. 12 minimum. The reason for this is that we need to see which song is able to stand out in a packed field. 6 just isn’t enough.

 

[Mimmon]

At this point I kinda want UK goes national selection but 1 artist and 3 diffrent songs....
Lets the public decide to song from the weak 3 songs which probably score low

P.S UK DID NOT DESERVE 0pts from Tele at Eurovision 2021

 

[Chrisiam]

I am not against the idea of having an NF on principle, my only worry is the kind of acts that would feature in it. I mean no offence to any of the acts who have put themselves forwards for it in the past, they are far better artists then I will ever be, but I don't want the UK to send yet another act that has next to no experience singing live and hasn't released an album yet let alone a solo single.

If the BBC were to get in contact with some of the acts who have come forwards since last week and said "We'll do it, give us a chance!" and put them in a UK Melfest or do a thing like Mimmon suggests (And something the UK used to do) where they select one act and they sing multiple songs and the one that gets the most vote is the one they do at the contest then I'd be far more happy at the prospect of a NF.

But my worry is that, if the BBC does go back to NFs then we'll just end up with the quality we had before the BMG partnership came on.

 

[ag89]

I think the UK needs a big name to wake up first and then we can talk about NF with diverse genres... Similar to the Netherlands in 2013. All these UK selections have been totally basic and amateurish. It's so strange such a relevant music industry produces these poor national selections. I know it's up to BBC, but it is sometimes funny to watch and believe these were UK national selections...
There is no magic formula.

 

[rasmuslights]

I think the UK needs a big name to wake up first and then we can talk about NF with diverse genres... Similar to the Netherlands in 2013. All these UK selections have been totally basic and amateurish. It's so strange such a relevant music industry produces these poor national selections. I know it's up to BBC, but it is sometimes funny to watch and believe these were UK national selections...
There is no magic formula.

exactly.. and they don't need Adele or Dua, just someone like Sam Fender or Paloma Faith... LIKE LITERALLY SO MANY OPTIONS. UK has probably the most artists per capita that would do great at esc yet they still refuse to do sth about it.

 

[Sean]

A UK NF would be great as long as the BBC has nothing to do with the song selection...

 

[Matt]

Looking at the entries at his millenia, entries chosen via a NF have been doing slightly better than internally selected entries.

NF Average Position: 18.93
Internal Choice Average Position: 20.33

I get it, nothing to brag about but NFs have statistically at least a better outcome in the UK so I'll say let's give it a shot. I mean it literally can't get any worse at this point.

 

[rasmuslights]

Looking at the entries at his millenia, entries chosen via a NF have been doing slightly better than internally selected entries.

NF Average Position: 18.93
Internal Choice Average Position: 20.33

I get it, nothing to brag about but NFs have statistically at least a better outcome in the UK so I'll say let's give it a shot. I mean it literally can't get any worse at this point.

But I do prefer James, Molly and Bonnie Tyler over Micheal Rice, Surie, and Joe&Jake... only good entry from the national selection was Lucie Jones and the only really bad entry from the internal selection was 2015... and their favorite entry came from an internal selection (Molly)...

and at least internal selections have more creative freedom than those artificial national finals where artists have zero say in their songs... so yeah when looking at the UK - internal over nf

 

[Zeus]

In The Netherlands there was a NF as well for a long time. But most of the time just semi-artists who flopped at X Factor or Idols or whatever showed up. Artists like Anouk and The Common Linnets would never enter such a competition. I think what the UK needs is a real, authentic artist, who just makes a song like any other of his/her songs. Don't try to produce or write a song that will succeed at Eurovision or something. You need to put faith in a real artist or band. Who is going to show up in that NF now? Probably not artists that are already established, they have more to lose than to win.

 

[GWTW1939]

They don't need a name or anything just someone who can hold a tune and perform well. Jade Ewen was a nobody but she could perform! Lucie had a average song but she could perform. The end result with both was positive. Molly had a song and not a bad voice but was too inexperienced (she disappeared right after the song reveal and given little practice, why?) and James had a decent voice and didn't have a terrible song he just had no charisma stage presence.

 

[rasmuslights]

In The Netherlands there was a NF as well for a long time. But most of the time just semi-artists who flopped at X Factor or Idols or whatever showed up. Artists like Anouk and The Common Linnets would never enter such a competition. I think what the UK needs is a real, authentic artist, who just makes a song like any other of his/her songs. Don't try to produce or write a song that will succeed at Eurovision or something. You need to put faith in a real artist or band. Who is going to show up in that NF now? Probably not artists that are already established, they have more to lose than to win.

exactly... this is also my opinion about it... Spain should also be doing the same...

 

[GWTW1939]

^^^^Lucie Jones was a X-Factor flop and she got the UK out of the bottom. Ruth Lorenzo was a X-Factor flop but got top 10 for Spain! Where the singer came from shouldn't matter as long as they can sing and perform.

 

[Zeus]

I didn't say that you're bad just because you participated in such a show. That's not the point.

 

[Chrisiam]

Well, that and having a decent song to back them up. Which has been an issue. There have been a great number of ex-talent show acts that have represented the UK with subpar songs which were 'Made for Eurovision' and rarely reflected the style and talents of the person singing them.

And that is the core issue; it doesn't matter if we have a NF with big names or unknows, people who have sold out arenas or just sing in the local pub, people who have been doing it decades or months, they all end up getting lumbered with a 'Eurovision' song.

So even if Little Boots finally writes her Eurovision song, or Bill Baily releases his original Eurovision song from '08 and it has folks like us demanding he does it, or Hurts finally get the nod to do it, or someone from the X Factor writes the song of the summer 2022, it will matter for naught if the BBC looks at them (As they have done whenever a well known name has tried to represent the UK) and says "That's great and all, but here is a song we'd rather you'd sing. It was written by one of the three writers on the 2015 winning song! Its made for Eurovision!!".

The less of a creative say the BBC has in the end result the better whether or not we'll see that now that the artist written song bombed so spectacularly this year I don't know.

But what I do know, or rather what I feel in my heart of hearts is, as others in this thread have said, we need someone who is going to come to this with a strong creative voice who is going to be given the freedom to perform something that isn't 'Made for Eurovision' and is something the BBC wouldn't otherwise have given the nod to.

 

[TheJeb]

The thing that I think made the BMG a fail at the end this year was they made James make too much of the decisions. Considering he hadn’t properly released an album and hasn’t been in the industry as a singer the bmg management should’ve been the ones controlling things. The management should’ve listen to all the songs and I’m sure one of them would’ve sounded the best and most suited to him. If a song isn’t suited to him they would usually discard it and hand it over to another artist if it’s good enough for that.

like with many songwriters you get hits and flops. James seemed to have chosen embers beucsse it was the one he had the most fun writing ( this is the problem with given a songwriter this power) yes they may be feeling a song personally but that doesn’t mean it’s the best song for Eurovision or even a single. In 2022 if they do have an up and coming artist either get someone to write a really good song for them as most of the viewing public don’t care if the performer has written the song or not. Record label management/marketing must be the ones to chose and song if non of the songs are good enough find another singer-songwriter

 

[Loindici]

A UK NF would be great as long as the BBC has nothing to do with the song selection...

I'd like the idea of letting BBC organize a PROPER NF, with BMG selecting the songs and performers. And by proper, maybe with 5-7 songs in one night in a bigger studio and a music show-like stage, not that You Decide bullcrap.

 

[Chrisiam]

One would have thought that was still an option. Well, depending on if the BBC BMG partnership is still going to continue.

I could honestly have seen the internal selection of James being as much of a data gathering exercise for BMG as it was an attempt to select a potentially decent act; they won't have the kind of experience selecting acts, promoting them in the contest, trying to figure out what acts work best at the contest, and all around just doing the grunt work to figure out what kind of acts to look for for the next year.

All of which would be good information to help them select the act for next year, or provide a selection of acts who could appear in a NF with BMG acts and songwriters being involved.

How true or not that is I don't know, but I'd like to hope that some element in all of this has learnt something that could aid the UK next year.

 

[rasmuslights]

One would have thought that was still an option. Well, depending on if the BBC BMG partnership is still going to continue.

I could honestly have seen the internal selection of James being as much of a data gathering exercise for BMG as it was an attempt to select a potentially decent act; they won't have the kind of experience selecting acts, promoting them in the contest, trying to figure out what acts work best at the contest, and all around just doing the grunt work to figure out what kind of acts to look for for the next year.

All of which would be good information to help them select the act for next year, or provide a selection of acts who could appear in a NF with BMG acts and songwriters being involved.

How true or not that is I don't know, but I'd like to hope that some element in all of this has learnt something that could aid the UK next year.

yeah BMG could definitely learn a lot this year! hope they use their knowledge wisely..