UK Eurovision entry Michael Rice blames Brexit for last place finish

The UK’s 2019 Eurovision entry Michael Rice has blamed Brexit for our performance in this year’s competition.

The 64th Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday night saw 26 countries performing live in Tel Aviv for votes from both viewers and expert juries.

Michael Rice represented the UK with his song Bigger Than Us, written by Laurell Barker, Anna-Klara Folin, John Lundvik and Jonas Thander.

Unfortunately for poor Michael, he finished the contest last in the Eurovision 2019 results.

Returning to the UK this week, Michael told The Sun newspaper: “I always knew I was going to come in this position because of Brexit.

“Do you know what? If it was Gary Barlow or Elton John, they still probably would have come last too.”

Michael, who previously appeared on The X Factor and won BBC One’s All Together Now BBC singing talent show, added: “I’ve still had so much fun and I’ve not once doubted my talent or my singing.”

There have been calls for the UK to pull out of the show given our lacklastre performance in recent years, last appearing in the Top 10 a decade ago.

However 7 million viewers still tuned in to the show on Saturday evening over more than four hours.

The number was up on the past two years and close to double the viewing figures that the likes of the BRIT Awards manage to achieve.

In Saturday’s contest, Michael had a total of 13 points from the juries of the 41 countries involved but just 3 points from viewers across Europe (and Australia), leaving him bottom of the leaderboard.

> See the Eurovision 2019 scoreboard in full.

As one of the ‘Big 5’, the UK automatically qualifies through to the final.

The winner of the competition was The Netherlands, who scored a total of 492 points from juries and viewers.

Giving the UK some hope for the future, they took the trophy home for the first time since 1975.