United Kingdom: BBC teams up with TaP Music to select Eurovision 2022 act

United Kingdom: BBC teams up with TaP Music to select Eurovision 2022 act
Thursday, 21 October 2021

  • The British national broadcaster, BBC has confirmed today that along with BBC Studios they will be collaborating with TaP Music for the Eurovision 2022 selection.

    Change of direction for BBC as the British broadcaster, after collaborating in 2020 with  company BMG in order to determine the next Eurovision act and entry, is now joining 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. The well established company will be teaming up with BBC in order to seek for the next British act and song for Turin 2022. 

     Kate Phillips, Controller Entertainment Commissioning for the BBC says:

     “In the UK our love for Eurovision is as big as ever and we have grand ambitions for the 2022 Contest, so we’re really excited to announce this collaboration that will enable us to tap into some great music talent.”

     

    Suzy Lamb, Managing Director for BBC Studios stated on the new collaboration:

    “BBC Studios are proud to once again be producing the coverage of the biggest music competition in world. We’re excited to be collaborating with TaP Music. Their expertise in managing world class artists and finding huge international hit records speaks for itself and we look forward to working with them on the UK act and song for the 2022 contest.” 

     

    Ben Mawson from TaP Music says: 

    “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.”

     

    Despite the bad results in recent years of the contest the Eurovision Song Contest remain one of the most popular TV programms in the UK. Namely, this year BBC's  broadcast reached an average audience of 7.8 million while among the younger ages of 16-34 years old, 1.5 million tuned on the channel to watch the Grand final show. 

     

    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