The United Kingdom held a national preselection to choose the song that would go to the

Eurovision Song Contest 1965 The Eurovision Song Contest 1965 was the tenth edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Naples, Italy, following the country's victory at the with the song "Non ho l'età" by Gigliola Cinquetti. Organised by the European ...

. It was held on 29 January 1965 and presented by David Jacobs. The BBC internally selected the singer for the second time. They chose a solo female singer,

Kathy Kirby Kathy Kirby (born Catherine Ethel O'Rourke; 20 October 1938 – 19 May 2011) was an English singer, reportedly the highest-paid female singer of her generation. She is best known for her cover version of Doris Day's " Secret Love" and for re ...

, whose looks were compared to

Marilyn Monroe Marilyn Monroe (; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; 1 June 1926 4 August 1962) was an American actress. Famous for playing comedic " blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as wel ...

and who had just scored four consecutive top 20 hit singles. The song was then selected by viewers of '' The Kathy Kirby Show'' on BBC1, casting votes on postcards via post, with the winner " I Belong", receiving 110,495 votes. Kirby released all six songs from the UK final on an Extended Play maxi single ''BBC TV's A Song for Europe'', which reached number 9 in the UK EP top 20 chart. She subsequently re-recorded the winner and the runner up with different arrangements and released these tracks on a single, which peaked at number 36 in the UK singles chart. Chris Andrews had written one of the six finalists, ''One Day'' which was recorded by

Sandie Shaw Sandie may refer to: __NOTOC__ People * Sandie Clair (born 1988), French professional racing cyclist * Sandie Fitzgibbon, Irish former camogie player * Sandie Jones (1950/1951–2019), Irish singer * Sandie Lindsay, 1st Baron Lindsay of Birker (1879 ...

with whom he regularly collaborated. Shaw would be the artist selected to represent the UK in the

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 5 ** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establishing full consular and ...

contest, when again Andrews submitted a song. At the Eurovision final in Naples, the UK finished in 2nd place for a record fifth time.

Before Eurovision

A Song for Europe 1965

At Eurovision

"I Belong" won the national and went on to come 2nd in the contest. At the Eurovision final the

BBC TV BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 19 ...

commentary was provided by David Jacobs with

David Gell David Gell (born 23 August 1929) is a Canadian DJ and television presenter. Born in Canada, he worked for radio station CFAC in Calgary before relocating to Europe. He was a DJ on Radio Luxembourg, and later on the BBC Light Programme, Radio ...

providing the domestic BBC radio commentary. Ian Fenner provided radio commentary for British Forces Radio.

Voting

References

{{Eurovision Song Contest 1965

1965 Events January–February * January 14 – The Prime Minister of Northern Ireland and the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland meet for the first time in 43 years. * January 20 ** Lyndon B. Johnson is Second inauguration of Lyndo ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 1965

Eurovision The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...