SAM RYDER scored the best result for the United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest in 24 years, finishing as a valiant runner-up to the entry from war-torn Ukraine.
TikTok star Ryder topped the jury vote - and also scored well with the public - but his lead was swallowed up by a massive outpouring of support for the folk-rap group Kalush Orchestra.
The winning song Stefania took an incredible 431 points out of a maximum possible 468 from the European public - becoming the first song sung entirely in Ukrainian and the first rap song to win the competition.
Nevertheless, Ryder can still be extremely proud of putting the UK right back into the Eurovision spotlight after years of underperformance.
Instead, this year, the UK took a maximum of douze points in the jury vote from a disparate set of nations: Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Georgia, Germany, and Ukraine.
In fact, only four of the juries failed to reward Ryder with any points - Armenia, Australia, Croatia, and Greece.
Meanwhile, in the televote, only Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Slovenia - all of which are former republics of Yugoslavia - failed to catch the mood.
In short, outside of the Balkans, Space Man was a fabulous success.
"This is the tip of an iceberg," Ryder told the BBC afterwards. "The UK is going to be a force next year. It's gonna be mad."
"This is a red letter moment," added Graham Norton, who presented the contest on BBC One. "I am so happy for [Sam], for the UK and for the BBC who have worked so hard to turn our fortunes."
Overall, the UK actually still holds a proud record at Eurovision, winning the competition on five occasions, a total beaten only by Ireland (seven) and Sweden (six).
However, the most recent British victory was now a quarter of a century ago when Katrina and the Waves achieved Eurovision glory in 1997 with Love Shine a Light.
In 1998, Imaani provided a strong defence with Where Are You - while, in 2002, Jessica Garlick finished in third place with Come Back.
Just a year later, though, the UK suffered its first ever occurrence of nul points following a distinctly off-key performance of Cry Baby by Jemini.
Four further bottom-placed finishes would follow starting with Andy Abraham in 2008 and Josh Dubovie in 2010 who sandwiched a strong performance by Jade Ewen.
Then, in the two most recent years in which a Contest has been held - in 2019 and 2021 - the UK picked up the wooden spoon on both occasions, with a second humiliating instance of nul points for James Newman last year.
That was perhaps not much of a surprise as large swathes of the European public demonstrated their dislike towards the British entries following the Brexit vote.
But, even in the years before the political landscape shifted, the UK had treated the Contest with some disdain.
Arguably, the low point came not with the bottom-placed finishes - but in the successive years of 2012 and 2013 when the UK put forward then-76-year-old Engelbert Humperdinck followed by comparatively sprightly 1980s star Bonnie Tyler.
The selection and performance of the hugely likeable Ryder, however, was the antithesis of those tired choices.
For a start, Ryder did so well because of his falsetto singing ability which goes a long way to explain his massive popularity on social media.
In the background, he was also part of a crack team of writers which also included Amy Wadge, who has also written hits with Ed Sheeran, Camila Cabello, Kylie Minogue and Alicia Keys.
The song itself, Space Man - pieced together over a Zoom call - leaned heavily on reflecting the sound of British music legends like Elton John, David Bowie, and Queen.
Of course, a supranational competition will struggle to avoid having a political element to it - and Ukraine undoubtedly garnered no shortage of sympathy votes.
However, the politics of the Eurovision Song Contest has been grossly overstated in the past in Britain as an excuse for our woes.
True, the Croatian and Montenegrin public still helped Serbia to a top five finish with their votes - but Ukraine took douze points from the viewers of a record 28 different European countries, spread far and wide across the continent in solidarity.
For the UK, Ryder - an unassuming 32-year-old from Maldon in Essex - hit the right note on all counts with his tune in Turin.
Furthermore, his runner-up spot puts the UK with a strong shout of being the next host if Ukraine finds itself in the unfortunate position of being unable to stage the extravaganza next year.
That, of course, is hopefully not the case - but hostilities in Ukraine would surely need to be brought completely to a halt, and - even now - that does not appear likely any time soon.
So, although it would not be in the usual or expected way, Eurovision might once again be headed to these shores.
And for that we have to thank our very own Space Man - Sam Ryder.
| Artist - Song | Jury | Public | TOTAL | |||
| (1) | Ukraine | Kalush Orchestra - Stefania | 192 | 439 | 631 | |
| (2) | United Kingdom | Sam Ryder - Space Man | 283 | 183 | 466 | |
| (3) | Spain | Chanel - SloMo | 231 | 228 | 459 | |
| (4) | Sweden | Cornelia Jakobs - Hold Me Closer | 258 | 180 | 438 | |
| (5) | Serbia | Konstrakta - In corpore sano | 87 | 225 | 312 | |
| (6) | Italy | Mahmood and Blanco - Brividi | 158 | 110 | 268 | |
| (7) | Moldova | Zdob și Zdub and Advahov Brothers - Trenulețul | 14 | 239 | 253 | |
| (8) | Greece | Amanda Georgiadi Tenfjord - Die Together | 158 | 57 | 215 | |
| (9) | Portugal | Maro - Saudade, saudade | 171 | 36 | 207 | |
| (10) | Norway | Subwoolfer - Give That Wolf a Banana | 36 | 146 | 182 | |
| (11) | Netherlands | S10 - De diepte | 129 | 42 | 171 | |
| (12) | Poland | Ochman - River | 46 | 105 | 151 | |
| (13) | Estonia | Stefan - Hope | 43 | 98 | 141 | |
| (14) | Lithuania | Monika Liu - Sentimentai | 35 | 93 | 128 | |
| (15) | Australia | Sheldon Riley - Not The Same | 123 | 2 | 125 | |
| (16) | Azerbaijan | Nadir Rustamli - Fade To Black | 103 | 3 | 106 | |
| (17) | Switzerland | Marius Bear - Boys Do Cry | 78 | 0 | 78 | |
| (18) | Romania | WRS - Llámame | 12 | 53 | 65 | |
| (19) | Belgium | Jérémie Makiese - Miss You | 59 | 5 | 64 | |
| (20) | Armenia | Rosa Linn - Snap | 40 | 21 | 61 | |
| (21) | Finland | The Rasmus - Jezebel | 12 | 26 | 38 | |
| (22) | Czech Republic | We Are Domi - Lights Off | 33 | 5 | 38 | |
| (23) | Iceland | Systur - Með hækkandi sól | 10 | 10 | 20 | |
| (24) | France | Alvan and Ahez - Fulenn | 9 | 8 | 17 | |
| (25) | Germany | Malik Harris - Rockstars | 0 | 6 | 6 |
- In the Jury vote, United Kingdom gained points from...
12 Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Georgia, Germany, Ukraine
10 Albania, Bulgaria, Finland, Israel, Lithuania, Moldova, Portugal
8 Ireland, Latvia, Malta, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, San Marino, Sweden
7 Iceland
6 Denmark, Italy, Norway, Switzerland
5 Montenegro
4 Estonia, Netherlands
3 Cyprus, Spain
2 Slovenia
1 Serbia
- In the Public vote, United Kingdom gained points from...
12 Malta
10 Israel
8 Austria, Azerbaijan, Netherlands, Spain
7 Australia, Iceland, Ukraine
6 Cyprus, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Sweden
5 Estonia, Greece, Switzerland
4 Albania, Finland, Georgia, Lithuania
3 Belgium, Bulgaria, Latvia, Moldova, Poland, Romania
2 France, Czech Republic
1 Armenia
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