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| United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1983 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eurovision Song Contest 1983 | ||||
| Participating broadcaster | British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) | |||
| Country |  United Kingdom | |||
| Selection process | A Song for Europe 1983 | |||
| Selection date | 24 March 1983 | |||
| Competing entry | ||||
| Song | "I'm Never Giving Up" | |||
| Artist | Sweet Dreams | |||
| Songwriters |
| |||
| Placement | ||||
| Final result | 6th, 79 points | |||
| Participation chronology | ||||
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The United Kingdom was represented at theEurovision Song Contest 1983 with the song "I'm Never Giving Up", written byRon Roker, Phil Wigger, and Jan Pulsford, and performed by the bandSweet Dreams. The British participating broadcaster, theBritish Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), selected its entry through a national final.
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TheBritish Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) used once again the television showA Song for Europe to select its entry, as it had since its debut at the contest in 1957.
About 445 entries were submitted for the national final.[1] Of the entries, songwritersTony Hiller,Martin Lee andPaul Curtis had had songs in the Eurovision final before. Stephanie De Sykes and Stuart Slater had twice won theA Song for Europe contest previously, in both1978 and1980. SongwriterMarty Kristian had competed withthe New Seekers in 1972. His group featured former New Seekers singer Kathy Ann Rae and former entrant Lance Aston (ofPrima Donna). "When the Kissing Stops", written by Martin Lee and Barry Upton ofBrotherhood of Man together with their longtime writing partner Tony Hiller (who had co-written "Save Your Kisses For Me" with Lee), was originally intended for the group themselves, but they decided it would be best not to risk losing and thus not to take part; although all four members of the group attended the broadcast. The group did go on to record the song however and it featured on their albumLightning Flash. The writers of "Keeping Our Love Alive", Doug Flett and Guy Fletcher had written many previous British finalists, including the1973 winner "Power to All Our Friends". The group Casablanca were short lived, but the three main artists, Des Dyer, Samantha Spencer-Lane and Carla Donnelly all featured in other editions of the British final.
The final was held on 24 March 1983 at theBBC Television Theatre inLondon, and was hosted byTerry Wogan. TheBBC Concert Orchestra under the direction ofJohn Coleman as conductor accompanied all the songs, but all the music was pre-recorded. Prior to the voting, a dance and song montage filmed at theRoyal Mint was played featuring the song "Money (That's What I Want)". The votes of eight regional juries based in Cardiff, Belfast, Norwich, Glasgow, Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester and London decided the winner. Each jury region awarded 15 points to their favourite song, 12 points to the second, 10 points to the third and then 9, 8, 7, 6 and 5 points in order of preference for the songs from 4th to 8th.
| Draw | Artist | Song | Songwriter(s) | Points | Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sweet Dreams | "I'm Never Giving Up" | Ron Roker, Phil Wigger, Jan Pulsford | 109 | 1 |
| 2 | Sam Childs | "I'm Going Home" | Geoff Stephens,Graham Preskett | 50 | 8 |
| 3 | Stuart Slater | "All Around the World" | Stephanie De Sykes, Stuart Slater | 63 | 5 |
| 4 | Casablanca | "With Love" | Des Dyer,Clive Scott | 72 | 3 |
| 5 | Mirror | "We've Got All the Time in the World" | Tony Hiller,Paul Curtis | 91 | 2 |
| 6 | Audio | "Love on Your Mind" | Marty Kristian,Trevor Spencer | 68 | 4 |
| 7 | Rubic | "When the Kissing Stops" | Tony Hiller,Martin Lee,Barry Upton | 63 | 5 |
| 8 | Ritzy | "Keeping Our Love Alive" | Guy Fletcher, Doug Flett | 60 | 7 |
| Draw | Song | Cardiff | Belfast | Norwich | Glasgow | Bristol | Birmingham | Manchester | London | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "I'm Never Giving Up" | 15 | 12 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 10 | 12 | 109 |
| 2 | "I'm Going Home" | 10 | 5 | 6 | 8 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 50 |
| 3 | "All Around the World" | 6 | 7 | 12 | 9 | 10 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 63 |
| 4 | "With Love" | 5 | 10 | 10 | 5 | 8 | 12 | 7 | 15 | 72 |
| 5 | "We've Got All the Time in the World" | 12 | 15 | 8 | 12 | 12 | 7 | 15 | 10 | 91 |
| 6 | "Love on Your Mind" | 8 | 9 | 5 | 10 | 6 | 9 | 12 | 9 | 68 |
| 7 | "When the Kissing Stops" | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 10 | 8 | 8 | 63 |
| 8 | "Keeping Our Love Alive" | 7 | 6 | 9 | 7 | 9 | 8 | 9 | 5 | 60 |
| Jury Spokespersons[2] | ||||||||||
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AfterBardo's "One Step Further" in theEurovision Song Contest 1982, the United Kingdom placed one spot better at sixth place, scoring 79 points, with "I'm Never Giving Up" by Sweet Dreams.[3]
The contest was broadcast onBBC1 (with commentary byTerry Wogan).[4] Wogan also provided commentary to viewers in Ireland (RTÉ 1) and Australia (Channel 0/28).[5][6][7]
Due to the contest being held onSt. George's Day,BBC Radio 2 opted not to broadcast the contest as they had already made plans to broadcastThe St. George's Day Concert held at the same time.Colin Berry returned as spokesperson for the UK jury.[citation needed]
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