United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1957

Eurovision Song Contest 1957
Participating broadcaster	British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Country	United Kingdom
National selection
Selection process	Song:Festival of British Popular Songs Artist: Internal selection
Selection date(s)	Semi-finals 22 January 1957 29 January 1957 5 February 1957 Final 12 February 1957
Selected artist(s)	Patricia Bredin
Selected song	"All"
Selected songwriter(s)	Reynell Wreford Alan Stranks
Finals performance
Final result	7th, 6 points
United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest
1957 • 1959►

The United Kingdom was represented in the Eurovision Song Contest 1957 with the song "All", composed by Reynell Wreford, with lyrics by Alan Stranks, and performed by Patricia Bredin. The British participating broadcaster, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), selected its entry through a national final, the second edition of Festival of British Popular Songs and, subsequently, the performer internally once the national final was over. This was the first-ever entry from the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest, and the first-ever entry performed in English in the contest.

Before Eurovision

Festival of British Popular Songs 1957

Festival of British Popular Songs 1957
Host
Venue	King's Theatre, London
Presenter(s)	David Jacobs
Host broadcaster	British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Participants
Number of entries	6 (semifinals) 11 (final)
Vote
Winning song	"All" by Malcolm Lockyer Quartet and Patricia Bredin
1956 ←  Festival of British Popular Songs

The United Kingdom was represented in the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time in 1957. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) did not participate in the inaugural contest in 1956, as it had created its own contest, the Festival of British Popular Songs , aspects of which influenced the 1957 Eurovision contest. ^[1]

The Festival of British Popular Songs 1957 served as the selection for the United Kingdom's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 1957. ^[2] A number of music publishing companies were invited to submit each one song for the national selection. ^[2] Around 70 to 80 songs were reportedly submitted. ^{[3] [4]} A jury consisting of Jack Payne, Harry S. Pepper, Cyril Stapleton, Walter Ridley and Frank Lee met in December 1956 to select the competing entries of the live shows. ^{[3] [5]} The interpreting artists were chosen separately by the BBC production team. ^[2]

The Festival of British Popular Songs 1957 consisted of three semi finals and a grand final. ^[2] All shows took place in the King's Theatre, Hammersmith (West London). ^[6] They were produced by Francis Essex. ^[7] The presenter was David Jacobs, who would host many other British national finals the following years. ^[8]

Six songs competed in each semi-final. ^[8] The songs were scored by ten regional juries, each consisting of twelve members of the general public. ^[9] Each juror awarded one point to their favourite song. ^[9] Two songs in each heat advanced to the national final, where every song was presented twice by two different artists and with a different arrangement. With the exception of the song "Once", the first performance was by the singer who performed it in the semi-final, and the second performance was by an artist who had not taken part in the heats. After the show, the BBC internally chose Patricia Bredin to perform the song in Frankfurt.

Semi-finals

The first semi-final took place on 22 January 1957 at 19:45 GMT. ^{[10] [11]} The artists were accompanied by the Bill McGuffie Quintet and an orchestra under the musical direction of Eric Robinson. ^[11] For the interval, Dennis Lotis performed "Everybody Fall in Love With Someone", the winning song of the Festival of British Popular Songs 1956. ^[9] The ten regional juries in the first semi-final were from the cities of Birmingham, Aberdeen, Cardiff, Newcastle, Belfast, Manchester, Bangor, Bristol, Glasgow and London. ^[12] The broadcast was watched by 6.8 million viewers in the United Kingdom. ^[12]

Semi-final 1 – 22 January 1957 ^{[13] [14]}

First performance		Second performance		Song	Songwriter(s)	Place
R/O	Artist 1	R/O	Artist 2
1	The Keynotes	5	Lita Roza and Dennis Lotis	"April Heart"	John Watson	Eliminated
2	Dennis Lotis	8	The Keynotes	"Seven"	Peter Hart Christopher Richardson	2
3	Marion Ryan	No second performance		"The Teenage Waltz"	Tony Osbourne	Eliminated
4	John Hanson	6	Janie Marden	"There's a Place Called Paradise"	Judy Reynolds Harry New	Eliminated
7	Marion Ryan	10	John Hanson	"Turn Around and Face the Sun"	Cliff Adams Robert Brown George Elrick	Eliminated
9	Lita Roza	No second performance		"The Way It Goes"	Tony Osbourne	1

The second semi-final took place on 29 January 1957 at 21:00 GMT. ^[15] The artists were accompanied by the Frank Weir Quintet as well as by an orchestra conducted by Stanley Black. ^[15] For the interval act, the Frank Weir Quartet performed "The Way It Goes", the winning song from the first heat. ^[16] The ten regional juries in the second semi-final were from the cities of Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh, Swansea, Bangor, Plymouth, Bristol, Belfast, Nottingham and London. ^[17] 7.1 million viewer in the United Kingdom watched the program. ^[17]

Semi-final 2 – 29 January 1957 ^[18]

First performance		Second performance		Song	Songwriter(s)	Place
R/O	Artist 1	R/O	Artist 2
1	Bryan Johnson	3	Lorrae Desmond	"You Can't Take It With You"	Harold Elton Box Desmond Cox Ralph Butler	Eliminated
2	Edna Savage	10	Jill Day	"Once"	Barbara Killalee	1
4	Bryan Johnson	11	Lorrae Desmond	"Red Wine and Ruby Lips"	Derek New Geoffrey Venis	Eliminated
5	Ronnie Hilton	7	Frank Horrox	"For Your Love"	Robert Kingston Ronald Bridges Ralph Ruvin	2
6	Jill Day	8	Edna Savage and Ronnie Hilton	"A Girl, a Boy and a Bike"	Peter Hart	Eliminated
9	Frank Weir	No second performance		"Lonely Wind"	Gordon Ross	Eliminated

The third semi-final took place on 5 February 1957 at 19:45 GMT. ^[19] The artists were accompanied by the Malcolm Lockyer Quartet as well as by an orchestra under the musical direction of Frank Chacksfield. ^[19] The ten regional juries in semi-final 3 were from the cities of Swansea, Glasgow, Plymouth, Leeds, Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Aberdeen, Cardiff and London. ^[20] The program was watched by 7.1 million viewers. ^[21] The song "Don't Cry Little Doll" was subject to controversy since the songwriters had sold the copyright to a different music publisher before and it was not clear whether the song had been published before. ^[21] Finally, it turned out that the song had only been on a test pressing and the BBC allowed the song to compete in the final. ^[21]

Semi-final 3 – 5 February 1957 ^[22]

First performance		Second performance		Song	Songwriter(s)	Place
R/O	Artist 1	R/O	Artist 2
1	The Ken-Tones	11	Shirley Eaton and Bill Maynard	"Choose a Cosy Corner"	John Dunbar Leslie Herbert Osborne	Eliminated
2	Lee Lawrence	7	Carole Carr	"How Right You Were"	Harold Geller Richard Frank Dr T. Richardson	Eliminated
3	Shirley Eaton	9	Patricia Bredin	"Hurdy Gurdy Joe"	Tommie Connor	Eliminated
4	The Ken-Tones	8	Bill Maynard	"Don't Cry Little Doll"	Ron Grainer David Dearlove	2
5	Patricia Bredin	10	Malcolm Lockyer	"All"	Reynell Wreford Alan Stranks	1
6	George Mitchell Singers	No second performance		"The Sycamore Tree"	Hubert Gregg	Eliminated

Final

The final of the Festival of British Popular Songs 1957 was held on 12 February 1957 at 19:45 GMT. ^[23] The artists were accompanied by an orchestra under the musical direction of three different conductors: The performances of "Don't Cry Little Doll" and "All" were conducted by Frank Chacksfield, "Once" and "For Your Love" were conducted by Stanley Black, "Seven" and "The Way It Goes" by Eric Robinson so that all songs in the final were conducted by the same conductor as in their respective semi-final. ^[24]

The regional juries for the final were from the cities of Belfast, Newcastle, Bangor, Edinburgh, Nottingham, Cardiff, Birmingham, Glasgow, Manchester and London. ^[25] A cup was presented to the winning composer, Reynell Wreford. ^[25] The broadcast was watched by 7.5 million viewers in the United Kingdom. ^[26]

Final – 12 February 1957 ^[27]

First performance		Second performance		Song	Songwriter(s)	Points	Place
R/O	Artist 1	R/O	Artist 2
1	The Ken-Tones	5	Bill Maynard	"Don't Cry Little Doll"	Ron Grainer David Dearlove	14	4
2	Pauline Shepherd	6	Carole Carr	"Once"	Barbara Killalee	23	2
3	Denis Lotis	9	The Keynotes	"Seven"	Peter Hart Christopher Richardson	13	5
4	Malcolm Lockyer	8	Patricia Bredin	"All"	Reynell Wreford Alan Stranks	39	1
7	Ronnie Hilton	11	Alan Bristow	"For Your Love"	Robert Kingston Ronald Bridges Ralph Ruvin	13	5
10	Lita Roza	No second performance		"The Way It Goes"	Tony Osborne	18	3

Commercial success

None of the competing songs reached the UK Singles Chart despite the popularity of some of the contestants. Hull born actress and occasional singer Patricia Bredin never recorded the winning song, the ballad "All", and it was therefore also never released as a single. ^[28] The only known studio recording of the song was released the same year by English singer Robert Earl. This version was later included on the compilation album "If You Can Dream" by Vocalion Records together with all other tracks from his first 17 singles.

At Eurovision

Patricia Bredin delivered an operatic performance of "All", performing third that night following Luxembourg and preceding Italy with " Corde della mia chitarra ". The conductor was Eric Robinson. At a length of 1:52 minutes, it was the shortest entry in the history of the contest until Finland in 2015 as well as being the first song to be performed in English. The song also turned out to perform right before Italy's "Corde della mia chitarra", the longest entry in the history of the contest at 5:09 minutes.

At the close of voting, the United Kingdom had received six points and finished seventh among the ten countries, despite points from five of the nine other countries. It would take the United Kingdom until 1978 not to finish in the first half of the scoreboard again.

Voting

Each participating broadcaster assembled a ten-member jury panel. Every juror could give one point to their favourite song.

Points awarded to the United Kingdom [29] Score Country 2 points    Switzerland 1 point   Austria   Belgium   Luxembourg   Netherlands

Points awarded by the United Kingdom [29] Score Country 2 points   Austria   Denmark   France   Italy 1 point   Luxembourg   Netherlands

References

1. "Shining a light on the United Kingdom: 60 Years at Eurovision". eurovision.tv. 11 January 2017. Retrieved 24 May 2019.
2. Roxburgh 2012, p. 102.
3. Payne, Jack (11 January 1957). "Nobody travels to a hunt ball on a horse". Daily Mail . No. 18, 889. p. 6. ISSN   0307-7578. OCLC   1368484171 – via Gale Primary Sources.
4. Roxburgh 2012, p. 103.
5. Roxburgh 2012, pp. 102, 108.
6. Roxburgh 2012, p. 105.
7. Roxburgh 2012, pp. 116, 127, 138, 149.
8. Roxburgh, Gordon. "Festival of British Popular Songs 1957". songs4europe.com. Retrieved 7 December 2024.
9. Roxburgh 2012, p. 115.
10. "Your TV and radio". Daily Mail . No. 18898. 22 January 1957. p. 10. ISSN   0307-7578. OCLC   1368484171 – via Gale Primary Sources.
11. Roxburgh 2012, p. 108.
12. Roxburgh 2012, p. 116.
13. Roxburgh 2012, pp. 109–116.
14. Spence, Ewan (25 February 2016). "Selecting a song for Eurovision". About the BBC Blog. Archived from the original on 18 August 2016. Retrieved 9 December 2024.
15. Roxburgh 2012, p. 120.
16. Roxburgh 2012, p. 126.
17. Roxburgh 2012, p. 127.
18. Roxburgh 2012, pp. 120–127.
19. Roxburgh 2012, p. 131.
20. Roxburgh 2012, p. 137.
21. Roxburgh 2012, p. 138.
22. Roxburgh 2012, pp. 131–137.
23. Roxburgh 2012, p. 141.
24. Roxburgh 2012, pp. 141–147.
25. Roxburgh 2012, p. 148.
26. Roxburgh 2012, p. 149.
27. Roxburgh 2012, pp. 142–148.
28. "1957 - Diggiloo Thrush". Diggiloo.net. Retrieved 30 June 2023.
29. "Results of the Final of Frankfurt 1957". Eurovision Song Contest. Archived from the original on 27 March 2021. Retrieved 27 March 2021.

Bibliography

• Roxburgh, Gordon (2012). Songs for Europe: The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Vol. One: The 1950s and 1960s. Prestatyn, United Kingdom: Telos Publishing. ISBN   978-1-84583-065-6.