Country United Kingdom Selection date(s) 10 April 1987 Selected song "Only the Light" | Selection process A Song For Europe Selected entrant Rikki Selected songwriter(s) Richard Peebles | |
A Song for Europe 1987 was held on 10 April, live from the BBC Television Centre, London. The contest was hosted by Terry Wogan. It was also broadcast on BBC Radio 2, and this was the first and only instance in which the radio commentator could also be heard on television, passing comment after each song, and during the interval act.
Contents
An orchestra was once again used, conducted by Ronnie Hazlehurst for the second time, having taken over from John Coleman in 1986. As usual for A Song for Europe], the orchestra was not seen on stage. The title music had changed from previous years, as an upbeat arrangement of the traditional Te Deum music.
A Song for Europe
In a change to previous years, 10 songs were performed instead of the usual eight. None of the performers had ever performed in A Song for Europe before, and none of the writers had ever written for the contest before. As well as Music Publisher's Association selecting some of the songs, songs from record publishers were also submitted. They were selected in the following manner (as recounted by the radio commentator during the interval act): "Around 400 songs were selected by the Music Publisher's Association and the British Phonographic Industries. These songs were reviewed by 10 juries of 6 people, whittling them down to 50 songs. They were down reduced to 20 songs, which were sent to the BBC, and the 10 were chosen by producer Brian Whitehouse, Mike Batt, Bruce Welch, some radio and television producers, and representatives from the MPA and BPI". The interval act was a dancing performance by the Anthony Van Laast dancers.
Nine regional juries (Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Manchester, London, Newcastle and Norwich) cast their votes.
At Eurovision
The 1987 Eurovision Song Contest saw the UK's worst performing entry up to that point, as Rikki's "Only the Light" received only 47 points, reaching 13th place overall. Johnny Logan repeated his 1980 success and won again for Ireland.