Eurovision Song Contest 1957
Country United Kingdom
National selection
Selection processSong: 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 entrantPatricia Bredin
Selected song"All"
Selected songwriter(s)
  • Reynell Wreford
  • Alan Stranks
Finals performance
Final result7th, 6 points
United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest
1957 • 1959►

The United Kingdom participated in the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time in 1957. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) organised a national final, the Festival of British Popular Songs, to select the United Kingdom's entry for the contest. The country was represented by Patricia Bredin with the song "All" written by Reynell Wreford and Alan Stranks.

Before Eurovision

Festival of British Popular Songs 1957
Host
Venue
Presenter(s)David Jacobs
Host broadcasterBBC
Participants
Number of entries7 (1st semi final)
7 (2nd semi final)
5 (3rd semi final)
11 (final)
Vote
Winning song"All" by Malcolm Lockyer Quartet and Patricia Bredin

The 1957 contest was the United Kingdom's first participation in the contest. The country did not participate in the inaugural contest in 1956, as the BBC had created their own contest, the Festival of British Popular Song, aspects of which influenced the 1957 contest.[1]

The Festival of British Popular Songs 1957 consisted of three semi finals and a grand final. All shows were presented by David Jacobs, who would host many other British national finals the following years.[2] Seven singers presented one song each in the first two semi finals. In the third semi final, five songs took part. Most song titles and results in the heats were lost.

The songs were scored by ten twelve-member juries, representing Birmingham, Aberdeen, Cardiff, Newcastle, Belfast, Manchester, Bangor, Bristol, Glasgow, and London. Each juror awarded one point to their favourite song. 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.

Shows

Semi-final 1 – 12 January 1957
DrawArtistSongResult
1Lita Roza"The Way It Goes"Advanced
2Denis Lotis"Seven"Advanced
3Marian RyanUn­knownEliminated
4John HansonUn­knownEliminated
5Janie MardenUn­knownEliminated
6The KeynotesUn­knownEliminated
7Bill McGuffie QuartetUn­knownEliminated
Semi-final 2 – 29 January 1957
DrawArtistSongResult
1Jill DayUn­knownEliminated
2Ronnie Hilton"For Your Love"Advanced
3Edna SavageUn­knownEliminated
4Bryan JohnsonUn­knownEliminated
5Lorrae DesmondUn­knownEliminated
6Frank HorroxUn­knownEliminated
7Frank Weir Quartet"Once"Advanced
Semi-final 3 – 5 February 1957
DrawArtistSongResult
1Carole CarrUn­knownEliminated
2Shirley EatonUn­knownEliminated
3Bill MaynardUn­knownEliminated
4The Keynotes"Don't Cry Little Doll"Advanced
5Malcolm Lockyer Quartet"All"Advanced
Final – 12 February 1957
DrawFirst singerSecond singerSongSongwriter(s)PointsPlace
1The KeynotesBill Maynard"Don't Cry Little Doll"Ron Grainer, David Dearlove144
2Pauline ShepherdCarole Carr"Once"Barbara Killalee232
3Denis LotisThe Keynotes"Seven"Peter Hart, Christopher Richardson135
4Malcolm Lockyer QuartetPatricia Bredin"All"Reynell Wreford, Alan Stranks391
5Ronnie HiltonAlan Bristow"For Your Love"Robert Kingston, Ronald Bridges, Ralph Ruvin135
6Lita RozaStan Roderick"The Way It Goes"Tony Osborne183

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.[3] 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

Every country had a jury of ten people. Every juror could give one point to their favourite song.

References

  1. ↑ "Shining a light on the United Kingdom: 60 Years at Eurovision". eurovision.tv. 11 January 2017. Retrieved 24 May 2019.
  2. ↑ "Festival of British Popular Songs 1957". songs4europe.com. Retrieved 24 May 2019.
  3. ↑ "1957 - Diggiloo Thrush". Diggiloo.net. Retrieved 30 June 2023.
  4. 1 2 "Results of the Final of Frankfurt 1957". Eurovision Song Contest. Archived from the original on 27 March 2021. Retrieved 27 March 2021.
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