United Kingdom: James Newman releases his Eurovision 2021 entry "Embers"

United Kingdom: James Newman releases his Eurovision 2021 entry
Thursday, 11 March 2021

  • The UK's Eurovision 2021 hopeful, James Newman, has dropped his song for Rotterdam titled "Embers".

    During Ken Bruce’s show on BBC Radio 2, James Newman unveiled his music proposal for Eurovision 2021 representing the United Kingdom in Rotterdam, titled "Embers". 

    James Newman was invited back this year to represent the UK at Eurovision 2021 after last year's unfortunate cancellation of the contest in Rotterdam due to the covid-19 pandemic. 

     

    James' Eurovision 2021 entry is a change of direction from last year's "My Last Breathe". This year 'Embers' is more pop and an uptempo song , which you can categorize it in the easy listening tracks. Along with the song was released the official music video which you can watch below: 

    The British act had previously stated on his ESC 2021 return: 

    “I’m so excited and honoured to be getting a second chance at representing my country in the Eurovision Song Contest. I haven’t stopped making new music in lockdown and I can’t wait for everyone to hear the song I’m taking to Eurovision in 2021.”

    After 4 years of national finals through the Eurovision: You Decide format,  BBC decided last year to swtich to an internal selection, selecting its representative in co-operation with record label BMG. An agreement was signed between the BBC and BMG in the summer of 2019. The BBC also announced the renewed collaboration between BBC Studios and music company BMG for this year’s contest. The song will be released and published by BMG, and BBC Studios will once again produce the BBC’s coverage of the biggest and most watched song competition in the world.

     

    A few words for James Newman

    James Newman is an English singer-songwriter based in London and  hails from Settle, Yorkshire, in North England.. He is the brother of pop star John Newman. At the 2014 Brit Awards, Newman won the Brit Award for British Single of the Year as a co-writer of “Waiting All Night” by Rudimental. He has also co-written hits such as “Blame” by Calvin Harris (feat. John Newman) and “Love Me Like You” by Little Mix.

    James is no stranger to the Eurovision family as he was co-writer of “Dying to Try” by Brendan Murray, who represented Ireland at ESC 2017, in Kiev. He has also collaborated with the Australian ESC 2015 act, Guy Sebastian, in his track “Keep Me Coming Back” which is included in his album entitled Conscious.

     

    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.

    Last year 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. Among others, they’ve written numerous hits for established acts, including Little Mix, Dua Lipa, One Direction and Olly Murs. Iain James is also a past Eurovision winner as he was co-writer of the ESC 2011 winning entry “Running Scared” by Ell & Nikki for Azerbaijan.

    James never had the chance to perform his entry in Rotterdam as the contest was cancelled due to the covid-19 pandemic, but will have the chance to complete his Eurovision journey this year.