James Newman presents ‘My Last Breath’, his song for the Eurovision Song Contest 2020

James Newman has been confirmed as the artist representing the UK at The Eurovision Song Contest 2020 with his song ‘My Last Breath’, played on BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2 this morning. The 65th Eurovision Song Contest will be held in Rotterdam, The Netherlands on May 16th 2020.

James Newman is a hugely successful Brit Award winning and Grammy nominated songwriter. He won a Brit for British Single of the Year (2014) for ‘Waiting All Night’, performed by Rudimental and Ella Eyre. He has also written hit singles ‘Lay It All On Me’ performed by Rudimental ft Ed Sheeran, ‘Blame’ performed by Calvin Harris ft. John Newman, and ‘Therapy, performed by Armin Van Buuren and James Newman.

James Newman says: “It’s such an honour to be representing the United Kingdom this year at Eurovision – I still can’t quite believe it! I’m also so proud to be taking ‘My Last Breath’ as the song. I wrote it with some of my best friends, who are amazingly talented songwriters in their own right. I knew it was ‘the one’ after first recording it. I just loved the simplicity and universal message of the song.”

James co-wrote ‘My Last Breath’ with acclaimed British songwriters Ed Drewett, Iain James and Adam Argyle who have collectively written songs for One Direction, Little Mix, Olly Murs, Professor Green, Leona Lewis, Dua Lipa and James Bay, with Iain also having co-written the winning Eurovision song for Azerbaijan, ‘Running Scared’ performed by Ell & Nikki in 2011.

Kate Phillips, Controller of Entertainment Commissioning, says: “I’m absolutely thrilled to have James on board to represent the UK at this year’s contest. Eurovision is all about the song, and as an award-winning singer-songwriter with a proven track record I know James will do all he can to get us on the left-hand side of the board - it’s a very exciting year for the UK!”

Suzy Lamb, MD for BBC Studios, Entertainment and Music says: “BBC Studios are delighted to be collaborating with BMG on this year’s UK Eurovision entry. We are thrilled that James has written and will be performing such a fantastic song. James has a great track record of writing multi-platinum selling pop songs and we are excited he has taken on the challenge to hopefully put the UK on the Eurovision map again”

Alistair Norbury, President, Repertoire & Marketing UK for BMG, says: “We started with the sole aim of changing the perception of the contest by working with the very best UK songwriters. James has consistently written international hit songs and was top of our list. Having co-written the song it was a natural fit for James to deliver such an outstanding and powerful vocal both on record and now in Rotterdam”.

BBC Studios will once again produce the BBC’s coverage of the biggest and most watched song competition in the world.

BMG has a proven track record in worldwide hits, publishing songs such as Someone You Love (Lewis Capaldi), Don’t Call Me Up (Mabel), Shotgun (George Ezra) and I’ll Be There (Jess Glynne), and also masterminding Kylie Minogue’s recent number one album Golden. No strangers to Eurovision, BMG published the 2015 winning entry for Sweden, Heroes performed by Mans Zelmerlow and signed Eurovision winner Netta following her win in 2018.

James Newman will also be interviewed by BBC Eurovision host Graham Norton for a special programme for BBC iPlayer to be released in March.

Check out the single HERE