United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1981

The BBC reduced the number of finalists from twelve to eight in 1981. Terry Wogan hosted the contest on 11 March. It was held at the Television Theatre. 581 songs were submitted to the Music Publisher's Association to pick eight songs. The BBC Concert Orchestra under the direction of John Coleman as conductor accompanied all the songs, but all the music was pre-recorded. The show was the 16th most watched programme of the week with a rating of 12.4 million viewers, the highest for three years.[1] Johnny Logan was scheduled to appear as a guest on the programme, but had to cancel shortly before the air date.

Seven regional juries voted on the songs. They were based in Birmingham (spokesperson: David Stevens), Cardiff (Ewan Thomas), Manchester (John Mundy), Belfast (Peter Dixon), Edinburgh (Jim O' Hara), London (Ray Moore) and Bristol (Andy Battern Foster). The regional juries voted internally and awarded 15 points to their favourite song, 12 points to the second, 10 points to the third and then 9, 8, 7, 6 and 5 points in order of preference for the songs from 4th to 8th. Before the reprise, Terry Wogan incorrectly read the title of the winning song as "Where Are You Now." The prizes were presented by Wogan to John Danter, one of the songwriters, and to Mike Nolan, one of the performers.

Headache were: Dave Cooke (husband of Blue Peter presenter Tina Heath), Jean Gilbert, Luis Jardim, Val McKenna and Martyn David.

Unity was led by Sue Glover, who as one half of Sue and Sunny had accompanied Lulu as a backing vocalist when the UK had won the Eurovision Song Contest 1969. Glover also sang backing vocals at the Eurovision Song Contest 1975 for Joy Fleming of Germany and returned to back the British entry in 1985 for Vikki. The remaining members of Unity were five young girls dressed as Edwardian era children and included Annabel Layton, who attempted to represent the UK at Eurovision again in 1985 and former Grange Hill actress Lindy Brill.

Beyond were: Steve Stroud (later Cheryl Baker's husband), Adrian Shepherd (later Cheryl Baker's fiancé), Gary Deans, Alan Ashe and Derek Austin.

The group Gem featured both Andy Hill and Nichola Martin, who produced and managed Bucks Fizz. They changed their name from 'Paris' for the contest and released the single of Have You Ever Been In Love? under that name.

Unusually for the UK competition, three of the finalists reached the UK singles chart. Making Your Mind Up spent three weeks at number one, whilst the runner-up, Don't Panic! reached number 42 at more-or-less the same time. Have You Ever Been In Love? was a UK no.10 hit for Leo Sayer in 1982, also reaching no.4 in Australia. The track was covered by many other artists, including Peter Cetera and Westlife. For Only A Day was later used as the theme song for the 1983 Miss World contest, performed live by all the contestants during the broadcast.

1981 was the year that Bucks Fizz won the Eurovision Song Contest for the United Kingdom with their song "Making Your Mind Up". It received 136 points from the 19 juries, beating West Germany's Lena Valaitis with the song "Johnny Blue".

Points awarded by the United Kingdom

12 points	Switzerland
10 points	Cyprus
8 points	Greece
7 points	Germany
6 points	Netherlands
5 points	Denmark
4 points	Israel
3 points	Belgium
2 points	Sweden
1 point	France

• Bucks Fizz Official Website