Former X Factor contestant Lucie Jones has graced the Eurovision stage in a bid to claim the UK’s first victory in the competition in 20 years.
The Welsh-born singer performed Never Give Up On You as the 18th act in Saturday night’s grand finale at the Kiev International Exhibition Centre in Ukraine.
Graham Norton, who is guiding UK viewers through the contest on BBC One, described Lucie’s performance as “stunning”, adding: “It has to be one of our strongest entrants in years.”
WHOOOOOOP. United Kingdom! THE INCREDIBLE @LucieJones1 #Eurovision ???? pic.twitter.com/dyaC4iChUJ
— BBC Eurovision (@bbceurovision) May 13, 2017
Lucie will be hoping the three-minute love song will go down better than last year’s entry, Joe and Jake, who came a disappointing 24th out of 26 with their track You’re Not Alone.The UK’s last win came in 1997 with Katrina And The Waves, with Katrina Leskanich saying Lucie “absolutely smashed it” in a post on Twitter.
Wow @luciejones1 absolutely smashed it! Fantastic performance. I had goosebumps.
— Katrina of The Waves (@KatrinasWeb) May 13, 2017
This year’s showdown looks to be tougher than ever following this week’s semi-finals – which saw Ireland knocked out, and is the first since the UK voted to leave the EU.
Earlier Graham had urged viewers to toast the “late, great” Sir Terry Wogan, who was the BBC’s Eurovision commentator for almost 35 years.
