MPs will review how the UK picks its Eurovision song as Ireland sits out

A committee of MPs will look into how the UK chooses its Eurovision entrant, after a run of results that has made the question hard to avoid. Dame Caroline Dinenage, who chairs the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee, said members want to "get to the bottom of who chooses our entrant", on what basis, and whether the record of recent years comes down to bad song choice, weak performance or something else again.

The record itself is the case for the inquiry. This year Look Mum No Computer, the artist Sam Battle, finished twenty-fifth and last, picking up a single point from the juries and none at all from the public. That made him the third UK act in a row to take nul points in the public vote, after Remember Monday in 2025 and Olly Alexander in 2024. Mae Muller finished second from bottom in 2023, and James Newman came last two years before that.

How the entrant gets picked is the thing under examination. The BBC selects the act, sometimes working alongside a record label or a management company, and the last time the choice was put to a televised public vote was 2019, with the show Eurovision: You Decide. That process produced Michael Rice, who went on to come last in Tel Aviv.

There is one recent counterexample, and it is instructive. Sam Ryder finished runner-up with Space Man in 2022, the UK's best result since 1998 and the only time in living memory it has placed higher than fifteenth. The team behind that entry was TaP Music, the publishing and management company whose roster has included Dua Lipa, Lana Del Rey and Ellie Goulding, and whose Ben Mawson told NME at the time that the industry had been too casual about a contest with a very particular formula to it.

The hearing forms part of the committee's State of Play inquiry, a standing route by which members of the public can ask for an evidence session on a subject of concern. Figures from the BBC and music industry experts are expected to be called, written submissions are likely, and a short report with recommendations to the BBC may follow. No date has been set beyond a hearing over the coming months.

Ireland will not be watching. RTE has confirmed it will neither broadcast nor take part in the 2027 contest, saying participation cannot be justified given the loss of life and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and adding that it remains deeply concerned at the continued denial of independent access to the territory for international journalists. Ireland stayed out of the 2026 contest as well, alongside Iceland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain, over Israel's inclusion. This year RTE aired an episode of Father Ted in the final's slot instead.

That is a heavy absence for the contest to carry, because Ireland has won it seven times between 1970 and 1996, more than any other country. The Dutch broadcaster Avrotros also pulled out of 2027 last month, citing the suffering in Gaza and the restrictions on press freedom. Israel, for its part, finished second in 2026 behind Bulgaria, having also been runner-up in 2025.

The 2027 contest goes to Burgas in Bulgaria, and Canada will enter for the first time. It will also mark thirty years since the UK last won, with Katrina And The Waves and Love Shine A Light, which is the number the committee is really being asked about. Eurovision rule changes and host city news sit on award watch; we covered the rewritten rules for countries at war and the choice of host city earlier this year, and more pop coverage is on the pop hub.