United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1957

The United Kingdom was represented in the Eurovision Song Contest 1957 with the song "All", composed by Reynell Wreford, with lyrics by Alan Stranks, and performed by Patricia Bredin. The British participating broadcaster, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), selected its entry through a national final, the second edition of Festival of British Popular Songs and, subsequently, the performer internally once the national final was over. This was the first-ever entry from the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest, and the first-ever entry performed in English in the contest.

Eurovision Song Contest 1957
Participating broadcaster	British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Country	United Kingdom
National selection
Selection process	Song: Festival of British Popular Songs Artist: Internal selection
Selection date(s)	Semi-finals 22 January 1957 29 January 1957 5 February 1957 Final 12 February 1957
Selected artist(s)	Patricia Bredin
Selected song	"All"
Selected songwriter(s)	Reynell Wreford Alan Stranks
Finals performance
Final result	7th, 6 points
United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest
1957 • 1959►

Before Eurovision

Festival of British Popular Songs 1957

Festival of British Popular Songs 1957
Host
Venue	Semi-finals: BBC Studios, London Final: King's Theatre, London
Presenter(s)	David Jacobs
Host broadcaster	British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Participants
Number of entries	7 (1st semi final) 7 (2nd semi final) 5 (3rd semi final) 11 (final)
Vote
Winning song	"All" by Malcolm Lockyer Quartet and Patricia Bredin

The United Kingdom was represented in the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time in 1957. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) did not participate in the inaugural contest in 1956, as it had created its own contest, the Festival of British Popular Songs, aspects of which influenced the 1957 Eurovision contest.

The Festival of British Popular Songs 1957 consisted of three semi finals and a grand final. All shows were presented by David Jacobs, who would host many other British national finals the following years. Seven singers presented one song each in the first two semi finals. In the third semi final, five songs took part. Most song titles and results in the heats were lost.

The songs were scored by ten twelve-member juries, representing Birmingham, Aberdeen, Cardiff, Newcastle, Belfast, Manchester, Bangor, Bristol, Glasgow, and London. Each juror awarded one point to their favourite song. Two songs in each heat advanced to the national final, where every song was presented twice by two different artists and with a different arrangement. With the exception of the song "Once", the first performance was by the singer who performed it in the semi-final, and the second performance was by an artist who had not taken part in the heats. After the show, the BBC internally chose Patricia Bredin to perform the song in Frankfurt.

Shows

Semi-finals

Semi-final 1 – 12 January 1957

Draw	Artist	Song	Result
1	Lita Roza	"The Way It Goes"	Advanced
2	Denis Lotis	"Seven"	Advanced
3	Marian Ryan	Un­known	Eliminated
4	John Hanson	Un­known	Eliminated
5	Janie Marden	Un­known	Eliminated
6	The Keynotes	Un­known	Eliminated
7	Bill McGuffie Quartet	Un­known	Eliminated

Semi-final 2 – 29 January 1957

Draw	Artist	Song	Result
1	Jill Day	Un­known	Eliminated
2	Ronnie Hilton	"For Your Love"	Advanced
3	Edna Savage	Un­known	Eliminated
4	Bryan Johnson	Un­known	Eliminated
5	Lorrae Desmond	Un­known	Eliminated
6	Frank Horrox	Un­known	Eliminated
7	Frank Weir Quartet	"Once"	Advanced

Semi-final 3 – 5 February 1957

Draw	Artist	Song	Result
1	Carole Carr	Un­known	Eliminated
2	Shirley Eaton	Un­known	Eliminated
3	Bill Maynard	Un­known	Eliminated
4	The Keynotes	"Don't Cry Little Doll"	Advanced
5	Malcolm Lockyer Quartet	"All"	Advanced

Final

Final – 12 February 1957

Draw	First singer	Second singer	Song	Songwriter(s)	Points	Place
1	The Keynotes	Bill Maynard	"Don't Cry Little Doll"	Ron Grainer, David Dearlove	14	4
2	Pauline Shepherd	Carole Carr	"Once"	Barbara Killalee	23	2
3	Denis Lotis	The Keynotes	"Seven"	Peter Hart, Christopher Richardson	13	5
4	Malcolm Lockyer Quartet	Patricia Bredin	"All"	Reynell Wreford, Alan Stranks	39	1
5	Ronnie Hilton	Alan Bristow	"For Your Love"	Robert Kingston, Ronald Bridges, Ralph Ruvin	13	5
6	Lita Roza	Stan Roderick	"The Way It Goes"	Tony Osborne	18	3

Commercial success

None of the competing songs reached the UK Singles Chart despite the popularity of some of the contestants. Hull born actress and occasional singer Patricia Bredin never recorded the winning song, the ballad "All", and it was therefore also never released as a single. The only known studio recording of the song was released the same year by English singer Robert Earl. This version was later included on the compilation album "If You Can Dream" by Vocalion Records together with all other tracks from his first 17 singles.

At Eurovision

Patricia Bredin delivered an operatic performance of "All", performing third that night following Luxembourg and preceding Italy with "Corde della mia chitarra". The conductor was Eric Robinson. At a length of 1:52 minutes, it was the shortest entry in the history of the contest until Finland in 2015 as well as being the first song to be performed in English. The song also turned out to perform right before Italy's "Corde della mia chitarra", the longest entry in the history of the contest at 5:09 minutes.

At the close of voting, the United Kingdom had received six points and finished seventh among the ten countries, despite points from five of the nine other countries. It would take the United Kingdom until 1978 not to finish in the first half of the scoreboard again.

Voting

Each participating broadcaster assembled a ten-member jury panel. Every juror could give one point to their favourite song.

Points awarded to the United Kingdom

Score	Country
2 points	Switzerland
1 point	Austria Belgium Luxembourg Netherlands

Points awarded by the United Kingdom

Score	Country
2 points	Austria Denmark France Italy
1 point	Luxembourg Netherlands