The United Kingdom was represented in the Eurovision Song Contest 1983 by Sweet Dreams with the song "

I'm Never Giving Up "I'm Never Giving Up", written and composed by Ron Roker, Jan Pulsford, and Phil Wigger, was the 's entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 1983, performed by the trio Sweet Dreams. Sweet Dreams won the right to perform at Munich by winning the UK n ...

". It was chosen as the British entry through the ''

A Song for Europe A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes'' ...

'' national selection process and placed sixth at Eurovision, receiving 79 points.

Before Eurovision

A Song for Europe 1983

The television show ''

'' was used once again to select the British entry, as it had since the United Kingdom's debut at the Contest in 1957.

Competing entries

Of the entries, songwriters

Tony Hiller Anthony Toby Hiller (30 July 1927 – 26 August 2018) was an English songwriter and record producer. He was best known for writing and/or producing hits for Brotherhood of Man, including " United We Stand" (1970) and "Save Your Kisses for Me" (19 ...

Martin Lee Martin Lee Chu-ming, SC, JP (; born 8 June 1938) is a Hong Kong politician and barrister. He is the founding chairman of the United Democrats of Hong Kong and its successor, the Democratic Party, Hong Kong's flagship pro-democracy party. He ...

and Paul Curtis had had songs in the Eurovision final before. Stephanie De Sykes and Stuart Slater had twice won the ''A Song for Europe'' contest previously, in both

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd go ...

and

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC. * January 9 – ...

. Songwriter

Marty Kristian Marty Kristian (born Martins Vanags on 27 May 1947) is a German-born, British-based musician. He grew up, and started his musical career, in Australia, as a solo artist. He is a singer-song writer-guitarist and, in the 1970s, he became a heartt ...

had competed with

the New Seekers The New Seekers are a British pop group, formed in London in 1969 by Keith Potger after the break-up of his group, The Seekers. The idea was that the New Seekers would appeal to the same market as the original Seekers, but their music would hav ...

in 1972. His group featured former New Seekers singer Kathy Ann Rae and former entrant Lance Aston (of

Prima Donna In opera or commedia dell'arte, a prima donna (; Italian for "first lady"; plural: ''prime donne'') is the leading female singer in the company, the person to whom the prime roles would be given. ''Prime donne'' often had grand off-stage pers ...

). "When the Kissing Stops", written by Martin Lee and Barry Upton of

Brotherhood of Man Brotherhood of Man are a British pop group who achieved success in the 1970s. They won the 1976 Eurovision Song Contest with "Save Your Kisses for Me". Created in 1969 by songwriter and record producer Tony Hiller, Brotherhood of Man was initia ...

together with their longtime writing partner Tony Hiller (who had co-written "

Save Your Kisses For Me "Save Your Kisses for Me" was the winning song of the Eurovision Song Contest 1976, performed for the by Brotherhood of Man in The Hague, Netherlands. The lyrics and music were written by Tony Hiller, Lee Sheriden, and Martin Lee, the latter two ...

" with Lee), was originally intended for the group themselves, but they decided it would be best not to risk losing and thus not to take part; although all four members of the group attended the broadcast. The group did go on to record the song however and it featured on their album '' Lightning Flash''. The writers of "Keeping Our Love Alive", Doug Flett and Guy Fletcher had written many previous UK finalists, including the

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. ...

winner "

Power to All Our Friends "Power to All Our Friends" is a song by Cliff Richard which was chosen as the entry to the Eurovision Song Contest 1973, by a postal vote which was decided by BBC viewers after Richard performed six contending songs on ''A Song For Europe'', f ...

". The group Casablanca were short lived, but the three main artists, Des Dyer, Samantha Spencer-Lane and Carla Donnelly all featured in other editions of the UK final.

Final

The final was held on 24 March 1983 at the Television Theatre in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, and was hosted by

Terry Wogan Sir Michael Terence Wogan (; 3 August 1938 – 31 January 2016) was an Irish radio and television broadcaster who worked for the BBC in the UK for most of his career. Between 1993 and his semi-retirement in December 2009, his BBC Radio 2 weekd ...

. The BBC Concert Orchestra under the direction of John Coleman as conductor accompanied all the songs, but all the music was pre-recorded. Prior to the voting, a dance and song montage filmed at the

Royal Mint The Royal Mint is the United Kingdom's oldest company and the official maker of British coins. Operating under the legal name The Royal Mint Limited, it is a limited company that is wholly owned by His Majesty's Treasury and is under an exclus ...

was played featuring the song

Money (That's What I Want) "Money (That's What I Want)" is a rhythm and blues song written by Tamla founder Berry Gordy and Janie Bradford, which was the first hit record for Gordy's Motown enterprise. Barrett Strong recorded it in 1959 as a single for the Tamla label, dist ...

. The votes of eight regional juries based in Cardiff, Belfast, Norwich, Glasgow, Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester and London decided the winner. Each jury region awarded 15 points to their favourite song, 12 points to the second, 10 points to the third and then 9, 8, 7, 6 and 5 points in order of preference for the songs from 4th to 8th.

UK Discography

*Sweet Dreams - ''I'm Never Giving Up'': Ariola ARO333 (7" Single)/AROD333 (12" Single)/AROPD333 (7" Picture Disc). *Sam Childs - ''I'm Going Home'': Trident Records (Test pressing only. Not released). *Stuart Slater - ''All Around The World'': Chrysalis RAT1. *Casablanca - ''With Love'': RCA RCA324. *Suzanne Michaels - ''With Love'': CNR 145084. *Mirror - ''We've Got All The Time In The World'': Magnet MAG242. *Audio - ''Love On Your Mind'': Rex EURO1. *Rubic - ''When The Kissing Stops'': Epic A3243. *Brotherhood of Man - ''When The Kissing Stops'': EMI EMI5396. *Ritzy - ''Keeping Our Love Alive'': Chrysalis RITZY1.

At Eurovision

After

Bardo In some schools of Buddhism, ''bardo'' ( xct, བར་དོ་ Wylie: ''bar do'') or ''antarābhava'' (Sanskrit, Chinese and Japanese: 中有, romanized in Chinese as ''zhōng yǒu'' and in Japanese as ''chū'u'') is an intermediate, transitio ...

's "One Step Further" in the 1982 Eurovision Song Contest, the United Kingdom placed one spot better at sixth place, scoring 79 points, with "I'm Never Giving Up" by Sweet Dreams.

provided the television commentary for

BBC 1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

, additionally Wogan also provided commentary for viewers in Ireland and Australia for

RTÉ 1 (RTÉ) (; Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the national broadcaster of Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, while ...

and SBS via the BBC. Due to the contest being held on St. George's Day,

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 15 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the station broadcasts a wide range of content. ...

opted not to broadcast the contest as they had already made plans to broadcast ''The St. George's Day Concert'' held at the same time.

Colin Berry Colin Derrick Berry (born 29 January 1946) is a British radio disc jockey, presenter and newsreader, best known for his many years at BBC Radio 2. Career Early years Berry began his radio career reading news on Radio Caroline in 1965. Before ...

returned as spokesperson for the UK jury.

Voting

References

{{Eurovision Song Contest 1983

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 1983

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 ...