United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1965

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Eurovision Song Contest 1965
CountryFlag of the United Kingdom.svg  United Kingdom
National selection
Selection processArtist: Internal selection
Song: A Song for Europe 1965
Selection date(s)29 January 1965
Selected entrant Kathy Kirby
Selected song"I Belong"
Selected songwriter(s)
Finals performance
Final result2nd, 26 points
United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄196419651966►

The United Kingdom held a national preselection to choose the song that would go to the Eurovision Song Contest 1965. It was held on 29 January 1965 and presented by David Jacobs.

Contents

The BBC internally selected the singer for the second time. They chose a solo female singer, Kathy Kirby, whose looks were compared to Marilyn Monroe and who had just scored four consecutive top 20 hit singles. The song was then selected by viewers of The Kathy Kirby Show on BBC1, casting votes on postcards via post, with the winner "I Belong", receiving 110,495 votes. Kirby released all six songs from the UK final on an Extended Play maxi single BBC TV's A Song for Europe, which reached number 9 in the UK EP top 20 chart. She subsequently re-recorded the winner and the runner up with different arrangements and released these tracks on a single, which peaked at number 36 in the UK singles chart. Chris Andrews had written one of the six finalists, One Day which was recorded by Sandie Shaw with whom he regularly collaborated. Shaw would be the artist selected to represent the UK in the 1967 contest, when again Andrews submitted a song.

At the Eurovision final in Naples, the UK finished in 2nd place for a record fifth time.

Before Eurovision

A Song for Europe 1965

DrawSongPlaceVotes
1"I Won't Let You Go"522,567
2"My Only Love"361,993
3"I'll Try Not to Cry"296,252
4"Sometimes"69,678
5"I Belong"1110,945
6"One Day"455,156

At Eurovision

"I Belong" won the national and went on to come 2nd in the contest.

At the Eurovision final the BBC TV commentary was provided by David Jacobs with David Gell providing the domestic BBC radio commentary. Ian Fenner provided radio commentary for British Forces Radio.

Voting

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John Barry Mason was an English singer and songwriter. A leading songwriter of the 1960s, he wrote the bulk of his most successful songs in partnership with Les Reed. Mason gained many gold and platinum awards for his work including five Ivor Novello Awards, the most recent of them in 1998.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kathy Kirby</span> Musical artist

Kathy Kirby was an English singer. She is best known for her cover version of Doris Day's "Secret Love" and for representing the United Kingdom in the 1965 Eurovision Song Contest where she finished in second place. Her popularity peaked in the 1960s, when she was one of the best-known and most-recognised personalities in British show business.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest</span>

The United Kingdom has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 65 times. It first took part in the second contest in 1957 and has entered every year since 1959. Along with Sweden and the Netherlands, the UK is one of only three countries with Eurovision victories in four different decades. It is one of the "Big Five" countries, along with France, Germany, Italy and Spain, that are automatically prequalified for the final each year as they are the biggest financial contributors to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). The British national broadcaster, the BBC, broadcasts the event and has, on multiple occasions, organised different national selection processes to choose the British entry. The United Kingdom has won the Eurovision Song Contest five times, and has finished as runner-up on a record sixteen occasions. The UK has hosted the contest a record nine times, four times in London and once each in Edinburgh (1972), Brighton (1974), Harrogate (1982), Birmingham (1998), and Liverpool (2023).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sandie Shaw</span> English pop singer (born 1947)

Sandie Shaw is a retired English pop singer. One of the most successful British female singers of the 1960s, she had three UK number one singles with "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me" (1964), "Long Live Love" (1965) and "Puppet on a String" (1967). With the latter, she became the first British entry to win the Eurovision Song Contest. She returned to the UK Top 40, for the first time in 15 years, with her 1984 cover of the Smiths song "Hand in Glove". Shaw retired from the music industry in 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">I Belong (Kathy Kirby song)</span> Song

"I Belong" is a song that served as the United Kingdom's entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1965. Its music was written by singer Daniel Boone, and its lyrics were written by Phil Peters. It was performed at Eurovision by Kathy Kirby, where it came in 2nd place, losing to Luxembourg's "Poupée de cire, poupée de son", performed by France Gall. Kirby also recorded the song as a single, and it peaked on the music charts at No. 36 in Britain and No. 5 in Singapore.

References

  1. 1 2 "Results of the Final of Naples 1965". Eurovision Song Contest. Archived from the original on 6 April 2021. Retrieved 6 April 2021.