Britain will be attempting to win its sixth Eurovision Song Contest on May 14 in Turin, Italy. What do you need to know about this event and the chance of the UK’s entry winning it?

The British Entry

Space Man by social media star Sam Ryder is the song that the UK’s fans will be supporting when the action begins. The singer co-wrote this effort with Amy Wadge and Max Wolfgang, and he called it uplifting.

According to Paddy Power’s latest Eurovision betting, the British song is fourth favourite at 10/1, behind Ukraine, Italy and Sweden. The country is also listed as second favourite of the so-called Big Five countries, with only Sweden ahead of the British song in this respect.

Space Man was released online in February this year and has been widely praised for the lyrics and vocals. The song quickly racked up a couple of million views on YouTube and has been streamed on Spotify more than twice as many times as that, to date.

It was back in 1997 when a British song last won the Eurovision Song Contest, when Love Shines a Light by Katrina and the Waves was a runaway winner in Dublin. It gained a massive 227 points to finish well clear of the second-placed Irish song, Mysterious Woman by Marc Roberts.

Last year saw a disastrous UK performance, as the first country in the history of the competition to get absolutely no points from the judges or from the televote. Embers by James Newman was the second British song to finish in last place and it was the second time that the UK has ended with no points.

What Songs Is Space Man Up Against?

At the time of writing, the favourite to win this contest is the Ukrainian entry, Stefania, by Kalush Orchestra. Next on the list is the Italian entrant, which is titled Brividi and is to be performed by Mahmood and Blanco. Of course, the event is being held in Italy because they won the 2021 version with Zitti e buoni by Måneskin.

Sweden has a similar record to the UK in Eurovision, with just one more win to their name. Their last victory came in 2015 with Heroes, and perhaps the most famous Swedish win was in 1974, when Waterloo by Abba swept to victory. This year, Swedish hopes will be pinned on Hold Me Closer by Cornelia Jakobs.

What Else Do You Need to Know?

2022 marks the 66th Eurovision Song Contest and it will be hosted by Alessandro Cattelan, who is an Italian TV presenter. We’ll also see Mika and Laura Pausini help to present the show, as well as sing some of their own songs.

There are 40 countries in total heading to Turin, although the semi-finals that take place before the main event will see the final group cut down to 25 countries. As one of the Big Five countries, the UK is guaranteed to be in the final, though.

This looks like being one of the most interesting Eurovision events of recent years and there’s no doubt that the British song has a good chance of performing well once the votes start to roll in from across the continent.