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Your Country Needs You 2010: Presents the Participants
United Kingdom: Six acts announced
A panel of experts selected six acts to compete in Your Country Needs You 2010. This year’s selection is similar to that applied last year. The already selected composer Pete Waterman and Jade Ewen, who is the most recent UK representative are amongst those to sit on the jury seats. Bruno Tonoli, who used to cast his votes in Strictly Come Dancing (the UK version of Dancing with the Stars) is also reported to occupy a jury seat. Jade is also expected to perform in the interval act along with Sugababes.
The participants
Alexis
The 20 year-old singer originally involved in drama will follow the footsteps of his dad who used to perform in various bands. Alexis attended the Kent and Surrey Academy of Performing Arts and he closely follow the Eurovision Song Contest on television with his family.
Josh
He started taking vocal lessons towards a school performance of Les Miserables. Josh’s vocal coach encouraged him to go one step forward and launch a singing career. He currently sings at charity and sports events.
Miss Fitz
The trio is composed of three girls named Marina, Gemma and Maiken. Miss Fitz are re-owned for their jazzy interpretations. Marina and Gemma used to attend dancing lessons while Maiken comes from this year’s Eurovision host city. Interesting enough is that Marina’s father read UK’s voting results for 25 years.
Esma
The singer with Kurdish roots was born in Austria. Esma used to attend a theatre school before going for vocal traning. In her childhood she used to sing Celine Dion’s songs while nowadays she diverted her musical tastes mainly to jazz, rap and hip hop.
Karen
Karen started taking singing lessons after showing a lot of interest in music at home. At the age of 16 she won a competition for unsigned artists and bands that was also contested by X Factor winner Joe McElderry. She really enjoys singing strong ballads and last year’s UK entry was one of her favourites.
Uni5
They specifically joined forces to compete for the ticket to Oslo. The group composed of Sam, Daniella, Dani, Amy and Lee is aiming to be UK’s famous five in Eurovision. They all own some performing arts experience. The chemistry between them is mainly based on strong dancing techniques and singing abilites.
Menawhile, this year’s Your Country Needs You will again be hosted by Graham Norton and it is scheduled for 12th March. Last year’s Eurovision winner Alexander Rybak will appear as special guest of the show.
Since the United Kingdom is one of the so called Big-4 countries the winner of the selection will represent the country in the next Eurovision Song Contest final.
Related polls
- Norway: Vote for your favourite song in the final of Melodi Grand Prix
- Azerbaijan: Vote for your favourite act in the final of Milli Seçim Turu
- Hungary: Vote for your favourite act in the final of A Dal
- Iceland: Vote for your favourite song in the final of Songvakeppni Sjonvarpsins
- Malta: Vote for your favourite act in the final of Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2012
- Hungary: Vote for your favourite act in the second semifinal of A Dal
- Norway: Vote for your favourite song in the third semifinal of Melodi Grand Prix
- Sweden: Vote for your favourite act in the first semifinal of Melodifestivalen
- Malta: Vote for your favourite act in the semifinal of Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2012
- Bulgaria: Vote for your favourite act in the Bulgarian national final 2012
- Latvia: Vote for your favourite act in the final of Eirodziesma 2012
- Belarus: Vote for your favourite act in the final of EuroFest 2012
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horray i just got my 4 etickets
tony make sure you get there at least 2-3hours before the gates open or you wont get in, i have been a few times and seen hundereds of people turned away even though they get there well before the opening time
Just got my ticks for YCNY
Has anyone received tickets yet from SRO Audiences... I've applied and was hoping to know if anyone else had gotten theirs... then i can judge when and if to expect some?
Brilliant move by the One Show.
Each "candidate" will have the opportunity to try to convince of why we should "elect" them.
I also see this year's selection is following the final from last year.
Just to remind everyone, each of the 6 finalists will be appearing on BBC One's The One Show at 7pm from Monday - Thursday 
just read that the selectionprocess will have the 6 acts performing songs of their choice, and the 3 highest vote acts will perform petes song and then the winner will be chosen
Also, Karen is from the North-East and I'm one half North-East, so I'll be keeping an eye on her and Uni5.
I here Uni5 have a bloke called Sam!!!
I reckon he'll go far that lad!!!!
If we send Alexis to Oslo next Friday, I will support him seeing as he's a fellow Kentishman.
Although, I also like the look of Esma. As a language speaker myself I'm a great believer that being able to speak languages can only help you.
As to a winner, I won't be able to see it live. I'll have to watch it on iPlayer and hope we sent the right act on the night.
Fingers crossed!!!
@ Will T
I've seen the advert
hey has anyone seen any adverts for the show yet? I haven't (but I don't watch the BBC that much)
@ paul c , you ll never walk alone is an a,erican song from the musical carousel . dear dear me , you didnt seriousley believe it was written by liverpool fans tch tch tch
See, the thing is, the UK music industry being as big as it is, that does not give us an automatic excuse to send our biggest stars just like the others do. As much as I would really enjoy it obviously, there is almost no value in it.
I hate to brag, but the truth is, if we were sending Britain's finest, then most years you may as well call the contest off. People here moan that countries such as Turkey and Armenia "automatically" do well because of heavy diaspora support.
Has the thought not even crossed your mind that the tables could completely turn, and the rest of Europe will get annoyed with us? The UK "automatically" does well because they always send internationally famous artists?
One could argue that the UK constantly sending high quality material could raise the bar in the contest...
OR
Half of Europe withdraws.
Which looks more likely to happen?
To echo something another person said earlier... in response to Lee Roberts, it really is mostly because our big name acts already have more or less easy access to the charts across Europe. They have absolutely no need to represent us in Eurovision other than pure genorisity, which would be great! Although, I can virtually guarantee plenty of people will be more than willing to play the "publicity stunt" card in that case, you can't please everyone! But either way, that's mostly the reason Andrew Lloyd-Webber and Pete Waterman are even writing our songs!
The BBC being a publically funded broadcaster, big name acts are in a position to demand a lot of money to participate in this contest, which some of them feel could endanger their careers if they do badly, (or even regardless of results!) It only makes sense to ask for a lot of money, as a kind of insurance policy, if you like. If the BBC was to pay them OUR money for this, they'd recieve heavy criticism.
The only other choice is to send struggling artists, (whether or not they had success in the past,) or embrace fresh talent. The BBC have been doing the former for years, and now it's time to do the more sensible thing for a while. Maybe, eventually, our big name acts will come around and give it a shot, but until then we need to be patient and hope for the best. At least we are much more likely to get better material, even if it is all put together a bit more unconventionally than before.
Besides, can anyone here tell me from the bottom of their heart, that if Leona Lewis took a spine-tingling power ballad to Eurovison and ran away with the trophy, do you think that many people here (particularly the media) would be all that surprised? Happy, yes. But would she become a national heroine? Would it do anything for her career? Would it introduce her music to a lot of NEW audiences. Would ANYONE not have seen it coming a mile away? No.
@ lee
the problem is , you cant make peopel take part. its not the bbc fault that the likes of take that are banging on the door
also i hadnt realise the esc was renowned for bad accoustics. always sounds great to me
actually im optimistic about our chances, im sure pete will write a good pop song for us
obviously we havent heard the song, but singing wise, we should definately send Miss fitz, if Pete Waterman wrote them a great song, I think we could maintain our Top 5 stance at least. Compared to the rest of whats on offer this year, a potential win even??? Or is that just being overly wishful?
I hate to be critical, especially when it concerns our own entry, but I'm a little concerned at how little effort the BBC seem to put into the selection process. Many other countries send acts which are already very well known in their own countries (and often well known across Europe), yet the UK insist on sending relatively minor personalities, who have never performed at such a large scale event, nor have ever encountered the poor acoustics for which the ESC is renowned. Surely it's about time to step up our game, and send an entry that is worthy of our rich musical heritage. Frankly, I feel a little embarrassed for us, and that's not something I enjoy saying. Sorry.
However, on a lighter note, good luck to whoever does go to represent us in Oslo. Do us proud and prove me wrong! Please!?!?
i still think its going to be usual pop what i dont like. Ofcourse it easier to carry on the same road, than turn away from the highway and try something new and interesting.
I think I'm going to remain on the fence about all of the acts until I've heard them (or 3 of them at least) sing THE song. How can you judge otherwise?
Example: Mariah Carey is a great singer. Bohemian Rhapsody is a great song. But Mariah Carey singing Bohemian Rhapsody????????
You get my point 
Here's the problem guys, we all have our favourites here (Miss Fitz for me) and they might be great singers but we still have no clue as to what the song Pete has written is. There's a big chance 1 or 2 of the acts in the final 3 the song really won't suit. It's all about the one song that the UK hopes to win Europe over with.
Also @Avatar, nice to see we share the same opinion this year 
I can't really comment on any of these, apart from remembering that I liked Josh Dubovie's voice on a video I watched a few weeks back...
I'm still wondering about that BBC messageboard though. Only a week until our own selection, and it still isn't up yet!
Miss Fitz will give a result like Germany get with such an act. Josh & Karen have the largest potential.
Send Miss Fitz to Oslo,
oh and Im so looking forward to the irish national selection
well anyway they are Liverpool /Northern songwriters it seems so we will get a great "Northern song" I hope (me a Southerner!), something like "You'll never walk alone" with a Stock, Aitken, Waterman beat!! I hope so!! if you look at all their songs/singers in UK it followed that Northern line (Sonia etc), so good luck to all those northern singers!!
Send Miss Fitz! I remember in X Factor they were really good but at Bootcamp only turned up without Gemma 
I also remember from X Factor 2006 Gemma being solo and I really liked her. I hope Miss Fitz win and if not then ESMA!
UK 2011 WOULD BE AMAZING!
@Laila, I have the same concerns, and hope he keeps to his word. I must admit the songs he had more say in (not the most famous) imo have dated better than other stuff. What Pete is very good at is finding and developing talent, which I hope he does with these.
Hurray! It's only a week away until we will pick our entry for Oslo. I can't wait!
I'm pleased with the BBC's approach this year, and Waterman's attitude.
All of the acts seem really cool, although my favourite so far is Josh (but need to see the live performance).
I hope we send a fantastic pop song this year. I don't care if it's old fashioned, trapped in the 80s or the 90s. If it's good, it's good, and that's what counts, as long as the performer CAN sing live.
Will be watching the Irish selection tonight.
Love to you all X
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