Eurovision 2021 United Kingdom profile: 'Embers' by James Newman

The UK in Eurovision

The United Kingdom (UK) is one of most successful and longest competing countries in the Eurovision Song Contest. They have competed in every Eurovision Song Contest excluding only the first contest in 1956 as well as 1958.

The UK has won the Eurovision Song Contest five times, and has finished as runner-up on a record fifteen occasions.

The UK topped the scoreboard in 1967, 1969, 1976, 1981 and most recently 1997.

The UK only placed outside the top 10 three times prior to the year 2000.

Since the UK's last win, their fortunes have dwindled significantly, with the UK finishing in the top 10 only twice since the millennium, three of these placements being the dreaded last place.

The UK's infamous 2003 entry 'Cry Baby' was the first English language song to receive nil points.

2021 Entry: James Newman – ‘Embers’

• As a 'Big 5' member, the UK receive an automatic pass to the Final

• My Eurovision Scoreboard fan ranking: 27th out of 39 entries

• Odds to win ranking: 23rd out of 39 entries

(Rankings as of 29 April 2021)

About The Artist

James Newman is a multi-award winning, multi-platinum selling English singer-songwriter based in London.

Newman first hit number one on the UK charts with 'Waiting All Night' by Rudimental, even winning the coveted Brit Award for Best British Single of the Year in 2014 due to his co-writing credit on the track.

Music runs through Newman's family with his brother John Newman also being a successful recording artist in the UK. Together, the brothers wrote a song with Calvin Harris entitled 'Blame' which also peaked at number one on the UK singles chart.

Some other British hits written by Newman are ‘Lay It All On Me’ by Rudimental ft. Ed Sheeran, ‘All I Am’ by Jess Glynne and ‘Love Me Like You’ by Little Mix. Newman has also contributed to album tracks by Jessie Ware, Kesha, Olly Murs, ZAYN, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson and James Arthur.

Newman's 2020 Eurovision entry 'My Last Breath' was his first song released with himself as the solo-credited lead artist.

About the Song

'Embers' was written by James Newman, Conor Blake, Danny Shah, Tom Hollings and Samuel Brennan.

The group of writers together have combined Spotify streams of over 4 billion amassed from their collective past works.

The track features a heavy brass breakdown on the chorus which will be sure to get toes tapping across Europe and the world when it hits the main stage at the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 grand final.

The brass section was composed by Mattias Bylund and Magnus Johansson who have previously worked with Swedish pop music super-producer Max Martin and The Weeknd.

Interview with the artist

Our own Kyriakos Tsinivits chatted to James Newman, the UK Eurovision entrant for 2021, about his Eurovision experience so far and his song 'Embers'.

In the interview they covered the meaning behind the song 'Embers', which Australian musicians James would like to work with, his new music project, the importance of bringing in big names to represent the UK at Eurovision and the three essential items to take to a big party!

James Newman also sung a little bit of his favourite Westlife song!!

Aussievision podcast UK episode

Check out the Aussievision podcast review and rank episode including comments from the team. Listen via:

Apple

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