United Kingdom: It's Sam Ryder with 'Space Man' to Eurovision 2022

• The British national broadcaster, BBC, has confimred that Sam Ryder will be representing the country at Eurovision 2022 singing 'Space Man'. 

  The United Kinddom have revealed their cards for Eurovision 2022 as BBC confirmed today that Sam Ryder will be defending the British colors in Turin. 

  Change of direction for BBC , after collaborating in 2020 with  company BMG in order to determine the next Eurovision act and entry, this year BBC joined forces with Tap Music in order to select their Eurovision 2022 hopeful. TaP Music is one of the biggest global music publishing and management companies behind some of the world’s most successful pop artists, such as Dua Lipa, Lana del Rey and Ellie Goulding. 

  Back in October Ben Mawson from TaP Music said: 

  “We’re really excited to be teaming up with the BBC for this event and will use Eurovision to authentically reflect and celebrate the rich, diverse and world-class musical talent the UK is globally renowned for.”

  Thus, Sam Ryder was internally selected via the colaboration between BBC and TaP and will be singing "Space Man" in Turin. 

  The United Kingdom will vote in the second Semi-Final on 12th of May and will compete directly in the Grand Final on 14th of May.

   

  A few words for Sam

  Sam Ryder was born in 1990 in Essex, UK. He is a singer/songwriter, rhythm guitarist who has been in music with various projects since 2009. He rose to fame after his sounds and music on TikTok went viral with many well known TikTok stars started making videos on his songs. 

  He formed rock band The Morning After who released two albums on Rising Records UK and JVC Victor in Japan. Their albums "You Can’t Hurt Steel" and "Legacy" have since shifted thousands of copies.

  In 2010 Sam was then recruited to tour and write with 80’s style glam metal band Blessed By A Broken Heart (Tooth & Nail/EMI) and contributed to their Billboard charting album "Feel The Power". After Blessed called it quits, Texas punk/hardcore band Close Your Eyes (Victory Records) asked Sam to join as their front-man and writer. In 2013 they released "Line In The Sand" which resulted in multiple song placements on MTV, NHL 2015 and MGM feature film "Max".

  Sam self-released his debut solo EP in March of this year and is putting the final touches of his full length album that he tracked in Nashville, TN with producer Bryan Wilson (Frightened Rabbit, John Newman).

  On November 2019, he released as a single a cover of N-Trance's 90's hit "Set You Free".

   

  The United Kingdom in Eurovision 

  The United Kingdom participated in the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time in 1957 and has been crowned winner five times (1967, 1969, 1975, 1981, 1997). The UK holds the record of finishing in the 2nd place the most times than every other country in the contest, specifically 15 times. Although big names of the music scene have represented the country in the past ( Sandie Shaw, Olivia Newton John, Lulu, Buckz Fizz, Brotherhod of Man, Cliff Richard, Sonia, Gina G, Bonny Tyler and many more) in the latest years its results are rather disappointing for a country with such a big share in the international music industry.

  In the latest years, UK followed the same formula of national selection in 2016 to select Joe and Jake who finished 24th. In  2017 through the same process Lucie Jones was decided to represent the UK ending in the final 15th while in Eurovision 2018 'You Decide 2018' winner, SuRie finished in the 24th place in the grand final. In 2019 Michael Rice won the national selection Eurovision You Decide 2019 and represented the British colours in Tel Aviv with his entry Bigger than Us, but scored another disappointing result for the Uk as he finished last in the Grand final.

  In 2020 James Newman was set to represent the country with the song “My last breath”. The song was signed by Ed Drewett, Adam Argyle and Iain James. Unfortunately we never got to see the song reach the Eurovision stage as the contest was cancelled due to the covid-19 pandemic. 

  Nevertheless, BBC internally decided to stick with James for Eurovision 2021 in Roterdam where the British act performed his song "Embers" , which sadly finished last with nul points by both, televoting and jury voting. 

   

  News source: BBC/ eurovision.tv/last.fm

  Image:Time.co.uk

   

   

   

AUTHORS

Angelos D.
Loyal follower of the Eurovision Song Contest since 1987, I've made the competition one of the stories of my life. After attending as accredited press the event for 13 consecutive years along with the 2017-2024 JESC editions, I also enjoy the last three years sharing more Eurovision music through the Eurofans radio's project.