United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1986

Eurovision Song Contest 1986
Country United Kingdom
National selection
Selection processA Song for Europe
Selection date(s)2 April 1986
Selected entrantRyder
Selected song"Runner in the Night"
Selected songwriter(s)
Finals performance
Final result7th, 72 points
United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄1985 1986 1987►

The United Kingdom participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 1986 with its entry "Runner in the Night" performed by the group Ryder. The song was chosen through the A Song for Europe national final which consisted of eight songs in 1986. At the Eurovision Song Contest 1986 held in Bergen, Norway, Ryder and the song placed seventh with 72 points.

A Song for Europe

The British national final to select their entry, A Song for Europe 1986, was held on 2 April at the BBC Television Centre, London in Studio 1, and was hosted by Terry Wogan. The BBC Concert Orchestra under the direction of Ronnie Hazlehurst as conductor accompanied all but the winning song, but despite performing live, the orchestra were off-screen, behind the set. The rule introduced for 1984 prohibiting groups or 'made for Eurovision' acts from participating was rescinded. The winning song was decided by the votes of eleven regional juries across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The scoreboard was incorrectly adjusted during the broadcast and the final tallies shown on screen did not correspond with the scores announced on air.

The show was opened by 1985's Eurovision winners, Bobbysocks, who sang "Let it Swing," the English-language version of their winning song "La det swinge". They were joined onstage by a large number of backing dancers, choreographed by Anthony van Laast. The duo were also going to sing their brand new single "Waiting for the Morning", but the producers finally decided to cancel that part of the plan and instead, the two members of the group were interviewed by Terry Wogan during the interval.

The winning entry was "Runner in the Night!, performed by the sextet Ryder, composed by Brian Wade, with lyrics written by Maureen Darbyshire.

The songs

Results

The result was determined by 11 regional juries located in Leeds, Newcastle, Plymouth, Birmingham, Cardiff, Manchester, Belfast, Edinburgh, London, Norwich and Bristol. Juries ranked the songs internally and awarded 15 points to their favourite, 12 to the second, 10 to the third, 9 to the fourth, 8 to the fifth, 7 to the sixth, 6 to the seventh and 5 to their least preferred. The final scores accord with the announced scores during the broadcast, whereas the scoreboard used in the telecast was incorrect due to a technical issue.

A Song For Europe – 2 April 1986
Draw Artist Song Points Place
01 Vanity Fare "Dreamer" 99 3rd
02 Palace "Dancing with You Again" 91 5th
03 Colin Heywood "No Easy Way to Love" 80 6th
04 Chad Brown "I'm Sorry" 78 7th
05 Kenny Charles "Tongue-Tied" 93 4th
06 Ryder "Runner in the Night" 145 1st
07 Jump "Don't Hang Up On Love" 137 2nd
08 Future "War of the Roses" 76 8th

At Eurovision

Ryder performed fifth on the night of the Contest, following Norway and preceding Iceland. At the close of the voting the song had received 72 points, placing 7th in a field of 20 competing countries.

Terry Wogan once again provided the television commentary on BBC 1. BBC Radio 2 also returned broadcasting the contest, with commentary provided by Ray Moore. Colin Berry served as spokesperson for the UK Jury.

External links



This page was last updated at 2019-11-12 22:51 UTC. Update now. View original page.

All our content comes from Wikipedia and under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.


Top

If mathematical, chemical, physical and other formulas are not displayed correctly on this page, please useFirefox or Safari