Country United Kingdom Selection date(s) 24 March 1983 Selected song "I'm Never Giving Up" | Selection process A Song For Europe Selected entrant Sweet Dreams | |
Selected songwriter(s) Ron Roker
Phil Wigger
Jan Pulsford | ||
The United Kingdom was represented in the Eurovision Song Contest 1983 by Sweet Dreams with the song "I'm Never Giving Up". It was chosen as the British entry through the A Song for Europe national selection process and placed sixth at Eurovision, receiving 79 points.
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A Song for Europe 1983
The television show A Song for Europe was used once again to select the British entry, as it had since the United Kingdom's debut at the Contest in 1957. Terry Wogan was once again the host and the show was staged at the Television Theatre on Thursday 24 March. Of the entries, songwriters Tony Hiller, Martin Lee and Paul Curtis had had songs in the Eurovision final before. Songwriter Marty Kristian had competed with The New Seekers in 1972. His group featured former New Seekers singer Kathy Ann Rae and former entrant Lance Aston (of Prima Donna). "When the Kissing Stops" was originally intended for former winners Brotherhood of Man, but they declined the offer to appear. The group did go on to record the song however and it featured on their album Lightning Flash.
Regional juries were based in Cardiff, Belfast, Norwich, Glasgow, Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester and London. They awarded 15,12,10,9,8,7,6 and 5 points.
At Eurovision
After Bardo's "One Step Further" in the 1982 Eurovision Song Contest, the United Kingdom placed one spot better at sixth place, scoring 79 points, with "I'm Never Giving Up" by Sweet Dreams.
Terry Wogan provided the television commentary for BBC 1, additionally Wogan also provided commentary for viewers in Ireland and Australia for RTÉ 1 and SBS via the BBC. Due to the contest being held on St. George's Day, BBC Radio 2 opted not to broadcast the contest as they had already made plans to broadcast The St. George's Day Concert held at the same time. Colin Berry returned as spokesperson for the UK jury.