United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008

One of the rumours about the show was that the finalists of UK TV shows How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? and Any Dream Will Do would participate in a newly revamped Making Your Mind Up with songs written by the likes of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Gary Barlow.[2] This format was partially used in the final format, with one of the categories being 'Joseph Vs. Maria', with one artist from each show competing to make it into the semi-final.

There were wide sweeping rumours about which artists were going to try for Eurovision, one in particular was Bill Bailey however his tour in Australia kept him out, however he said that he might try out for next year.

Terry Wogan announced on his radio show, Wake Up To Wogan on 13 February 2008 that a new national final show would be titled Eurovision: Your Decision, to replace Making Your Mind Up. The show aired at 19.00 GMT and the results showed at 21.30 GMT. Terry Wogan hosted the show along with Claudia Winkleman, who replaced Fearne Cotton. There was a panel of three judges headed by Terry Wogan, with John Barrowman and Carrie Grant as the other two judges.

The format consisted of 3 categories, each with 2 songs in. One song qualified from each category, with a fourth wildcard song being picked by Terry Wogan. Then 2 participants with the highest number of phone votes sang again in a 'superfinal' later that evening.

The first category featured two different girl groups. LoveShy is the creation of two former members of girl group Clea. Emma Beard and Aimee Kearsley left the band and created the single Mr. Gorgeous which they performed on Your Decision. The other group in the category were named The Revelations and were made up of three friends.

In the second category the theme was Josephs v Marias. There were two finalists from reality TV shows How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? and Any Dream Will Do. Simona Armstrong from Maria and Rob McVeigh from Any Dream Will Do, performed to make it to the next round. The judges chose Simona 2 to 0, saying that Rob's performance had "pitch problems".

In the final category two soloists performed for the chance to represent the UK. Ex-Eastender star turned singer Michelle Gayle sang "Woo (U Make Me)", and got through hands down to the semi-final and then preceded to the final after the public vote. Andy still got through, after Terry Wogan used his wildcard to keep him in the competition.

The semi-final consisted of all the acts who made it through the first rounds and the wildcard Andy Abraham who was voted in by Terry Wogan. After the public vote only two of the four acts made it to the final. Simona Armstrong and The Revelations received the lowest number of public votes, blocking them from entering the final. Michelle Gayle and Andy Abraham, the two soloists, proceeded to the final.

In the final, the winner was chosen by televoting, and thus represented the United Kingdom in Serbia. Andy won and did represent the UK in the final of Eurovision 2008.

BBC Eurovision host Terry Wogan called Abraham's song, "Even If", "the best UK entry for a while",[5] expressed frustration with the contest result and suggested that Britain follows Italy's suit and no longer enter the competition.[6] In his radio show on 27 May, Wogan remarked on a conversation with Abraham, who had said that he was not expecting a high vote for the usual 'block voting' reasons, and 'another reason' which Wogan was not prepared to discuss on air, presumed to be related to Abraham's race. In an interview, Swedish group Bodies Without Organs stated that if the UK put in more effort then they can win. They also mentioned in the interview that they had been invited to participate in a United Kingdom national final before, but refused as they were not allowed to write their own song.[7]