United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019

Prior to the 2019 contest, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing the United Kingdom sixty-one 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. For the 2018 contest, the United Kingdom finished in twenty-fourth place out of twenty-six competing entries with the song "Storm" performed by SuRie.

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 2019 contest on 19 September 2018.^[2] Between 2011 and 2015, BBC opted to internally select the British entry, while the broadcaster organised a national final featuring a competition among several artists and songs since 2016. For their 2019 entry, BBC announced that a national final involving a public vote would be held to select United Kingdom's entry.

Eurovision: You Decide was the national final developed by the BBC in order to select the British entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2019. Six acts competed in a televised show on 8 February 2019 held at Dock10 venue at the MediaCityUK in Salford and hosted by Mel Giedroyc and previous Eurovision Song Contest winner Måns Zelmerlöw who won the contest for Sweden in 2015 with the song "Heroes". The winner was selected through a professional jury and a public televote. The show was broadcast on BBC Two as well as streamed online via the BBC iPlayer. The national final was watched by 1.17 million viewers in the United Kingdom with a market share of 6.4%.^[3]

On 19 September 2018, BBC announced an open submission for interested songwriters to submit their songs until 26 October 2018.^[4] The received submissions from the open call were reviewed and a shortlist was compiled by the UK branch of the international OGAE fan club. Additional entries were provided to the BBC by songwriter, publisher and co-founder of DWB Music, Greig Watts, who held songwriting camps with professional songwriters.^[5] Songs from both entry methods were included in a final ten-song shortlist which was presented to an international professional panel that ultimately selected three songs to compete in the national final.^[6][7] The three competing songs were then matched with two artists each, which were announced via social media and the BBC Eurovision website on 23 January 2019.^[8]

Six acts competed in the televised final on 8 February 2019. In addition to their performances, guest performers included previous Eurovision Song Contest winners Bucks Fizz, who won the contest for the United Kingdom in 1981 with the song "Making Your Mind Up", and Katrina Leskanich, who won the contest for the United Kingdom in 1997 as the lead vocalist of the band Katrina and the Waves with the song "Love Shine a Light", performing a medley of past British Eurovision songs with Måns Zelmerlöw. Guest performers also included previous Eurovision Song Contest winner Netta, who won the contest for Israel in 2018 performing the song "Toy", and SuRie, who represented the United Kingdom in 2018 performing a piano rendition of the song "Storm".^[9]

The winner was selected over two rounds of voting. In the first round, each of the three songs were performed by two artists in different versions and a three-member professional jury selected one artist per song to proceed to the second round. The jury consisted of Rylan Clark-Neal (television presenter and Eurovision fan), Marvin Humes (DJ, producer and radio presenter) and Mollie King (singer-songwriter and radio presenter).^[10] In the second round, a public vote consisting of televoting and online voting selected the winner, "Bigger than Us" performed by Michael Rice.^[11]

Michael Rice made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "Bigger than Us" as the British Eurovision entry. On 31 March, Michael Rice took part in promotional activities in Croatia where he performed "Bigger than Us" during Zvijezde pjevaju, the Croatian version of Just the Two of Us.^[12] On 14 April, Rice performed during the Eurovision in Concert event which was held at the AFAS Live venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands and hosted by Edsilia Rombley and Marlayne.^[13] On 21 April, Rice performed during the Eurovision Pre-Party Madrid event, which was held at the Sala La Riviera venue in Madrid, Spain and hosted by Tony Aguilar and Julia Varela.^[14] On 24 April, Rice performing during the Eurovision Pre-Party, which was held at the Vegas City Hall in Moscow, Russia and hosted by Alexey Lebedev and Andres Safari.^[15]

In addition to his international appearances, on 14 April, Michael Rice performed during the London Eurovision Party, which was held at the Café de Paris venue in London and hosted by Nicki French and Paddy O'Connell.^[16] On 3 May, Rice was part of the guest line-up for the BBC One programme The Graham Norton Show where he performed "Bigger than Us" live and were interviewed by host Graham Norton.^[17]