Three years ago I believe the best chance for the United Kingdom to win The Eurovision Song Contest was ignored. Instead of choosing Adele, the BBC sent Bonnie Tyler and the idea of escaping the right hand side of the score table was shown to be little more than a dream.
But sometimes you get the chance to revisit a decision and make the other choice. There is one performer, and one song, that could storm up to Stockholm and seize the glass microphone for Queen and Country. Step forward Sam Smith. Step forward Spectre.
You Know His Number…
One of the biggest weapons in any Eurovision entry’s armoury is to be recognised. Although the basic principle is that the majority of the audience will not be familiar with the songs, the current heady mix of National Finals, voracious online reporting of the Contest, and the ubiquity of social networks and video playback sites, means that part of the battle to win the Song Contest is to be a known quantity in the run up to the Contest. Not only does it help your chances of gaining public votes, a well-known song has more chance of being sent to the end of the running order to make ‘good television’,
The title track from the latest James Bond film ‘Spectre‘ is going to get rather a lot of airplay in the next few months. That’s further away from the Contest than a traditional pick, but there have been a number of songs that have had their lifespan starting in September, Mandinga’s ‘Zaleilah‘ springs to mind.
That title track (called ‘Writing’s On The Wall‘) also fits in with the westernised view of the Eurovision Song Contest as a variety show. While there is a lot of musical credibility around the James Bond theme, it’s very much a piece of entertainment with the spectacle around it – from the mystery of who will sing and the reveal of the song, to the magic of the opening credits during the film and how the sexist, misogynistic, dinosaur will be projected onto a fashion model.
Bond stars have a good strike rate for the BBC
You Know His Name…
Then there’s the singer. Sam Smith is an absolutely huge name in the music industry. Perhaps the time for the BBC to ask him was two years ago as part of the BBC Introducing… strategy that saw Molly Smitten-Downs get the pick. There’s certainly some Eurovision in Smith’s past. Appearing on The Graham Norton Show opposite Conchita Wurst last year, and asked about an appearance at the Song Contest, his reply was “I’d love, we had conversations…”
That was in the past, before he literally stood astride the music industry like a prince. Whether he would still be up for it in 2016 is another question, and I can imagine his management would be very hesitant to take a chance on such an open Contest.
The Bulletproof Entry…
Entering the Eurovision Song Contest is a risk for any artists, but I would argue that sending Sam Smith and ‘Writings On The Wall’ is the most risk-free option for the UK (after Iron Maiden, but Harris’ band will be on tour in Australia during May).
People will rarely ask ‘what if I win’, instead focusing on ‘what if I lose?’ From a PR point of view, a loss at the Song Contest is very easy to frame. The first is the most obvious… it’s a Bond theme, we tried, and it didn’t quite work. But hey, it has an Oscar nomination, platinum level sales, so it’s not a bad song! As long as it entertains Europe and ticks the ‘variety show’ box, all will be fine.
There will also be the name attached to the song. Smart staging and presentation could push ‘James Bond’ to have more attachment to the song than ‘Sam Smith’ which would prove a useful lightning rod to deflect attention.
Set Your Sights On Sam Smith
The Reality
Let’s be honest though. Sam Smith is in the most productive part of his career. History suggests it’s only a few years before he fades away, so he needs to capitalise on this moment to bring in enough money for the rest of his life (a decision rooted in the Economic Prospect theory, which is discussed on ESC Insight here). The backlash from the UK media and music industry would damage that potential, even if he did win the Eurovision Song Contest.
There’s also another partner that would have to agree, and that’s the team behind the James Bond franchise. There is no upside at all for the Bond franchise to entertain this.
Which is a shame. The last time the BBC sent a singer in the year after they sung the James Bond theme song, Matt Munro did quite well…
Agree with you Ewan, It would be absolutely amazing but we all know it won’t happen…
Internal Selection this year – maybe Claire Richards? Atomic Kitten? We haven’t used the 1990s for our ‘former UK pop star’ entry yet!
Yuss!
What’s in it for Sam Smith? He already has an internationally successful pop career. He’s made it in America, which is about as big as it gets. Wouldn’t this feel like a step backwards for him?
Unless he turned out to be a major ESC fanboy who’d been waiting all his life to be asked…
I think, the audience would recognize that song as a James Bond-Song rather than a Eurovision Song and that seems to be a problem for me. It would also cut off the novelty from hearing a Eurovision song for the first time on saturday night for most of the casual viewers. Nevertheless it would sound too much like “Rise Like a Phoenix”, in my opinion.
But I think that it’s very important to send a big star once in a while, especially for a country like the UK, where there are lots of international music stars. In that regard, the Netherlands made a good choice, kind of.
Robyn, indeed there is very little in it for Sam Smith (see the last section) but there’s always scope for a bit of fun!
Most of Europe already knew Lena’s “Satellite” when it aired on ESC thanks to its chart dominance.
we need to be objective here and ask “is competing, eurovsion, for a big star (SAM smith and alike), a good PR move?” or even a good career move?
we can all wish up a star [insert famous singer/band here] represent UK next year. but all of that is just a wish.
we need to be realistic. the UK music industry does not want touch eurovision with a ten meter long stick. the up and coming artist have other avenues of getting discovered (ironically, the BBC has done a good job promoting new talent like BBC introduction and T in the park) and the audience think it’s a campfest, there for we must send a campfest
it a bad situation between a rock and a hard with knives.
so what should the UK do?
ask Australia. the chances of OZ coming back the the contest are a million to one. so maybe aussie-son can help mother Britain out on her song selection.
He didn’t seem that interested when Graham Norton rather joking asked him to represent the uk on his show (the one when Conchita came on after winning)