Report Card: UK at Eurovision in the 2020s

aussievision
Oct 10
4 min read

With five Eurovision Song Contests completed this decade, how is each nation faring?

In an ongoing series, the Aussievision team will rate the performance of each Eurovision nation in alphabetical order.

We’ll look back at their results from 2021 to 2025, their qualification record, give our team’s rating, and see how they stack up against other countries.

UK's Eurovision results of the 2020s

2021: James Newman – Embers: 26th in Grand Final
2022: Sam Ryder – Space Man: 2nd in Grand Final
2023: Mae Muller – I Wrote a Song: 25th in Grand Final
2024: Olly Alexander – Dizzy: 18th in Grand Final
2025: Remember Monday – What the Hell Just Happened?: 19th in Grand Final

Top 10s: 20%

Team rating of the UK: 47.3%

We asked the Aussievision team to rate UK's Eurovision 2020s entries on a scale of 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest).

This gave us an average overall score from the fourteen contributors who voted. We then converted that into a percentage.

The UK's score was: 47.3%

The scores ranged from 3/10 to 7/10, with five contributors giving UK a score of 5/10.

Team comments

Sam Ryder really is a special artist and I’m glad he got the chance to shine at Eurovision.

While some of these results are nowhere near as bad as the James Newman double nul points and last place finish, beyond that, the UK hasn’t touched last place in the final since then!

Despite their slightly improved showing being a step in the right direction compared to the doldrums of the past, the UK still has a lot of room for improvement at Eurovision, even if it is a nation with a music industry so thriving that it doesn’t need the contest to launch stars. We as fans know the UK are capable of more top-half finishes and even - dare we say it - a win? ~ Laura

I think we forget how bad the UK were. In the 2010s, they only made the Top 20 four times and they have already achieved that three times in the 2020s. Look, it's a low bar, but they are improving. Clearly, the highlight was Sam Ryder with their best result since 1998. However, what is more promising is the way the UK have leaned into what their music industry sounds like. It's a promising trajectory and they are either going to hit gold and get your Top 5s or Europe will go 'meh' if it's not top calibre (a little like Australia). Good direction, some execution coudl be better. ~ Dale

The songs have for the most part been some of the best the UK have sent. The nation has been approaching the contest by selecting an act and delivering an authentic song to that performer (which is great!). Many countries who find success do exactly that but the problem that the UK faces is that these authentic acts may not be the most “Eurovision friendly” pieces. The UK fall flat on their faces when it comes time to the live performance and the song doesn’t deliver well on the night. They were truly at rock bottom in 2021 but since they’ve been making baby steps in the right direction. ~ Cooper

Despite Sam Ryder's amazing runners-up finish in 2022 I do have to rate the UK's performance at Eurovision as slightly below average this decade. Scoring nul puan with the televote in three out of five years is truly shocking. A nul puan overall under this voting system in 2021 is almost a statistical miracle. Given the UK's size in terms of population and impact on the global music industry they should be doing a lot better. Yes Europe's negative bias towards the UK and lack of diaspora may be factors to a certain extent. But Switzerland and Austria's recent victories and Sam Ryder's runners-up finish demonstrate to the UK that they can do well despite these circumstances - its mainly about quality and appeal of the song and live performance. @Sam

Back-to-back nul points from the televoting show how the cliff for the United Kingdom has fallen, and unless the public should do more on its acts, its second place finish in 2022 might be a one-off in this decade. ~ John Christian

I still believe homophobia had a lot to do with the harsh score poor Olly received ~ Troy

Updated rankings:

Here’s how the leaderboard looks so far in our 2020s Report Card series:

1st: Sweden - 91.7%

2nd: Italy - 90.7%

3rd: Ukraine - 88.5%

4th: Finland - 88.1%

5th: Switzerland - 84.4%

6th: Portugal - 83.6%

7th: France 81.1%

8th: Greece - 80.8%

9th: Estonia - 80%

10th: Lithuania - 77.2%

11th: Austria - 71.4%

12th: Armenia - 70.8%

13th: Luxembourg - 68%

14th: Albania - 67.5%

15th: Cyprus - 66.4%

16th: Norway - 65.4%

17th: Croatia - 64.4%

18th: Serbia - 64.3%

19th: Moldova - 63.7%

20th: Netherlands - 63.3%

21st: Poland - 63%

22nd: Israel 57.7%

23rd=: Belgium - 53.3%

23rd=: Czechia - 53.3%

23rd=: Iceland - 53.3%

26th: Malta - 53%

27th: San Marino - 52.8%

28th: Latvia - 50%

29th: United Kingdom - 47.3%

30th: Australia - 45.4%

31st: Germany - 41%

32nd: Romania - 35%

33rd: Azerbaijan - 32.5%

34th: Ireland - 32%

35th: Denmark - 28%

36th: Georgia - 26.1%

37th: North Macedonia - 21.3%

38th: Montenegro - 18.2%

How would you rate UK at Eurovision in the 2020s?

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