Festival of British Popular Songs

The Festival of British Popular Songs was a song competition organised by the BBC. It began in 1956 following the success of the Eurovision Song Contest. Due to being so long ago, the names of performers and songs who took part are no longer known.

 1956 Festival 
The first Festival of British Popular Songs was held from May to October 1956. 36 songs took part across six semi-finals. Each semi-final had six songs and the winning song of each semi-final went through to the final. The winning song was decided by music experts, who used a scoreboard to rank the songs by points.
EntryPlacePerformer 1Performer 2SongLester FergusonJean Campbell"Cloudy Moon"3rdDennis LotisThe Keynotes"Everybody Falls in Love with Someone"1stRonnie CarrollLaurie Payne"For You and Me"3rdShirley AbacairBill McGuffie"Little Ship"2ndCarole CarrMax Jaffa"No Love Could Be"3rdPetula ClarkThe Bill McGuffie Quartet"Wibbly Wobbly Moon"3rd

 1957 Festival 
In 1957, the United Kingdom joined the Eurovision Song Contest. The Festival of British Popular Songs was used to decide the UK's entry. The Festival was made shorter, with three semi-finals instead of six. The two winners of each semi-final went through to the final. The songs were scored by ten twelve-member juries representing major cities around the UK.
Performer 1Performer 2SongPointsPlace1The KeynotesBill Maynard"Don't Cry Little Doll"1442Pauline ShepherdCarole Carr"Once"2323Denis LotisThe Keynotes"Seven"135/64Malcom Lockyer QuartetPatricia Bredin"All"391st5Ronnie HiltonAlan Bristow"For Your Love"135/66Lita RozaStan Roderick"The Way It Goes"183

 References 

Category:Music competitions