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United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1957

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Eurovision Song Contest 1957
Participating broadcasterBritish Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Country United Kingdom
National selection
Selection processSong: 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 artist(s)Patricia Bredin
Selected song"All"
Selected songwriter(s)
  • Reynell Wreford
  • Alan Stranks
Finals performance
Final result7th, 6 points
United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest
1957 1959►

The United Kingdom was represented in the Eurovision Song Contest 1957 with the song "All", composed by Reynell Wreford, with lyrics by Alan Stranks, and performed by Patricia Bredin. The British participating broadcaster, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), selected its entry through a national final, the second edition of Festival of British Popular Songs and, subsequently, the performer internally once the national final was over. This was the first-ever entry from the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest, and the first-ever entry performed in English in the contest.

Before Eurovision

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Festival of British Popular Songs 1957
Host
Venue
Presenter(s)David Jacobs
Host broadcasterBritish Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Participants
Number of entries7 (1st semi final)
7 (2nd semi final)
5 (3rd semi final)
11 (final)
Vote
Winning song"All" by Malcolm Lockyer Quartet and Patricia Bredin
1956 ← Festival of British Popular Songs

The United Kingdom was represented in the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time in 1957. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) did not participate in the inaugural contest in 1956, as it had created its own contest, the Festival of British Popular Songs, aspects of which influenced the 1957 Eurovision 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

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Semi-finals
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Semi-final 1 – 12 January 1957
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
Semi-final 2 – 29 January 1957
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
Semi-final 3 – 5 February 1957
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
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Final – 12 February 1957
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

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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

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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

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Each participating broadcaster assembled a ten-member jury panel. Every juror could give one point to their favourite song.

References

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  1. ^ "Shining a light on the United Kingdom: 60 Years at Eurovision". eurovision.tv. 11 January 2017. Retrieved 24 May 2019.
  2. ^ "Festival of British Popular Songs 1957". songs4europe.com. Retrieved 24 May 2019.
  3. ^ "1957 - Diggiloo Thrush". Diggiloo.net. Retrieved 30 June 2023.
  4. ^ a b "Results of the Final of Frankfurt 1957". Eurovision Song Contest. Archived from the original on 27 March 2021. Retrieved 27 March 2021.