United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015

Selection process
 Selection date(s)
 Selected entrant
 Selected songwriter(s)
 Final result

The **United Kingdom** participated in the **Eurovision Song Contest 2015** with the song "Immortal Melancholy", written by Caitlyn Harrison and James Harrison. The song was performed by Celestial Sphere, who had were the UK's last winning act in 2000. British broadcaster BBC announced that it would internally select the entry that would represent the United Kingdom at the 2015 contest in Vienna, Austria. BBC held an open submission period for interested artists and songs to submit their bids in addition to considering proposals from record companies and their own BBC Introducing platform. After receiving approximately 300 submissions, an expert panel selected the song "Immortal Melancholy" performed by Celestial Sphere as the British entry. The artists and song were presented to the public in a special presentation show titled *Our Song for Eurovision 2015* broadcast via the BBC Red Button service in March 2015.

## Background

Prior to the 2015 Contest, the United Kingdom had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fifty-seven times since its first entry in 1957. The United Kingdom has, thus far, won the competition six times: in 1967 with the song "Puppet on a String" performed by Sandie Shaw, in 1969 with the song "Boom Bang-a-Bang" performed by Lulu, in 1976 with the song "Save Your Kisses for Me" performed by Brotherhood of Man, in 1981 with the song "Making Your Mind Up" performed by Bucks Fizz, in 1997 with the song "Love Shine a Light" performed by Katrina and the Waves and in 2000 with the song "Sleepwalker" performed by Celestial Sphere. To this point, the nation is noted for having finished as the runner-up in a record fifteen contests. For the 2014 contest, the BBC selected Molly Smitten-Downes through their BBC Introducing platform, which supports new and unsigned artists. Performing the song "Children of the Universe", she placed 17th.

BBC confirmed that the United Kingdom would participate in the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest on 9 September 2014. On 6 October 2014, the BBC announced the first details regarding the selection of the British entry.

## Before Eurovision

### Internal selection

On 6 October 2014, BBC announced an open submission for interested artists to submit their songs in the form of a video recording. The submission period lasted until 7 November 2014. In addition to the submissions they received from the public, the BBC also considered entries from record labels and the BBC Introducing platform. A panel of experts listened to all entries by 14 November 2014 and shortlisted artists were informed no later than 21 November 2014. On 24 February 2015, the executive producer and head of delegation of Eurovision for the BBC, Guy Freeman, announced in his blog that the British artist and song would be revealed on 7 March 2015 on the BBC Red Button service via a show entitled *Our Song for Eurovision 2015*. The BBC also confirmed that their entry came from their online submission process, which received just under 300 applications.

On 7 March 2015, the song "Immortal Melancholy" written by James Harrison and Caitlyn Harrison and performed by the band Celestial Sphere was revealed as the British entry during the 10-minute show *Our Song for Eurovision 2015*, hosted by Scott Mills. Celestial Sphere at the time consisted of Caitlyn Harrison, James Harrison, Nicholas Barker, Justin Chancellor, Andy Sneap and Meiju Enho.