United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010

Prior to the 2010 contest, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing the United Kingdom fifty-two times.^[1] Thus far, it has won the contest five times: in 1967 with the song "Puppet on a String" performed by Sandie Shaw, in 1969 with the song "Boom Bang-a-Bang" performed by Lulu, in 1976 with the song "Save Your Kisses for Me" performed by Brotherhood of Man, in 1981 with the song "Making Your Mind Up" performed by Bucks Fizz, and in 1997 with the song "Love Shine a Light" performed by Katrina and the Waves. To this point, the nation is noted for having finished as the runner-up in a record fifteen contests. Up to and including 1998, the UK had only twice finished outside the top 10, in 1978 and 1987. Since 1999, the year in which the rule was abandoned that songs must be performed in one of the official languages of the country participating, the UK has had less success, thus far only finishing within the top ten twice: in 2002 with the song "Come Back" performed by Jessica Garlick and in 2009 with the song "It's My Time" performed by Jade Ewen.

As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, the BBC organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. The broadcaster announced that it would participate in the 2010 contest on 9 November 2009.^[2] BBC has traditionally organised a national final featuring a competition among several artists and songs to choose the British entry for Eurovision. For their 2010 entry, the broadcaster announced that a national final involving a public vote would be held to select United Kingdom's entry.

Summarize Timeline Fact Check

Eurovision: Your Country Needs You 2010 was the national final developed by the BBC in order to select the British entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2010. Six acts competed in a televised show on 4 March 2010 held at the BBC Television Centre in London and hosted by Graham Norton. The show was broadcast on BBC One and streamed online via the BBC iPlayer.^[3] The national final was watched by 2.9 million viewers in the United Kingdom with a market share of 12.6%.^[4][5]

On 9 November 2009, casting company Jayne Collins Casting announced an open application for interested artists to attend auditions.^[2] The received applications were reviewed and a shortlist was compiled by BBC producers. The shortlist was then presented to a professional panel including producer and songwriter Pete Waterman, who was announced on 29 January 2010 to have been selected to compose the 2010 British Eurovision song together with his Stock Aitken Waterman partner Mike Stock, that ultimately selected six finalists to compete in the national final following a second audition.^[6][7][8] The six contestants were announced on 5 March 2010.^[9][10]

Six acts competed in the televised final on 4 March 2010. In addition to their performances, guest performers included previous Eurovision Song Contest winner Alexander Rybak, who won the contest for Norway in 2009 with the song "Fairytale", and Sugababes (which among the members was Jade Ewen, who represented the United Kingdom in 2009 with the song "It's My Time") performing their song "Wear My Kiss".^[11][12] The contestants also performed the songs "Take a Chance On Me" and "Dancing Queen" by ABBA together.

A panel of experts provided feedback regarding the songs during the show. The panel consisted of Jade Ewen, Pete Waterman and Bruno Tonioli (choreographer, dancer and television personality).^[13][14] The winner was selected over two rounds of voting. In the first round, each of the artists performed a cover version of a Stock Aitken Waterman produced song and three were selected by Waterman to proceed to the second round. In the second round, the three remaining artists performed their versions of the British song "That Sounds Good to Me" and a public televote selected Josh Dubovie as the winner.^[15][16]

First Round – 4 March 2010

R/O	Artist	Song (Original artists)	Result
1	Karen Harding	"What Do I Have to Do" (Kylie Minogue)	—N/a
2	Alexis Gerred	"Never Gonna Give You Up" (Rick Astley)	Advanced
3	Uni5	"Last Thing on My Mind" (Bananarama)	—N/a
4	Esma Akkilic	"This Time I Know It's for Real" (Donna Summer)	Advanced
5	Josh Dubovie	"Too Many Broken Hearts" (Jason Donovan)	Advanced
6	Miss Fitz	"Better the Devil You Know" (Kylie Minogue)	—N/a

Second Round – 4 March 2010

R/O	Artist	Song	Place
1	Alexis Gerred	"That Sounds Good to Me"	2
2	Esma Akkilic		3
3	Josh Dubovie		1

Following the national final, the co-composer of "That Sounds Good to Me", Mike Stock, stated that the song would be remixed in order to be more suited for Josh Dubovie.^[17][18][19] The new version was presented to the public on 22 April 2010.^[20]

Josh Dubovie specifically promoted "That Sounds Good to Me" as the British Eurovision entry on 24 April by performing during the Eurovision in Concert event which was held at the Lexion venue in Zaanstad, Netherlands on 24 April and hosted by Cornald Maas and Marga Bult.^[21][22] Dubovie also performed "That Sounds Good to Me" in the Netherlands during the RTL 4 programme Life 4 You on 25 April. In addition to his international appearances, on 2 May, Josh Dubovie performed during the UKEurovision Preview Party, which was held at the La Scala venue in London, United Kingdom and hosted by Nicki French and Paddy O'Connell.^[23]