Who will represent the United Kingdom in 2019?

Three songs

The BBC has selected three songs for their selection, each to be performed by two different artists:

• Bigger Than Us (written by Laurell Barker, Anna-Klara Folin, John Lundvik and Jonas Thander)
• Freaks (written by Jon Maguire, Rick Parkhouse, Corey Sanders and George Tizzard)
• Sweet Lies (written by Maria Broberg, Lise Cabble and Esben Svane)

Six artists

Anisa - Sweet Lies (LISTEN)

She is 31 years old and comes from Manchester. She co-wrote the song Piano for Ariana Grande and has co-written the next songs for Frans, the Swedish participant in the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest.

Anisa: “I always like ballads so I took the tempo down, added loads of harmonies, loads of layers and lots of backing vocals - I wanted to get the emotion across.” She continues: "Sweet Lies is about being in a situation in life and taking the good with the bad, about being vulnerable and diving in head first.”

Holly Tandy - Bigger Than Us (LISTEN)

The 17-year-old comes from Barnsley and reached the semi-final of The X Factor UK in 2017. 

Holly: “My version of Bigger Than Us is a country pop song which is really current and cool, and similar to a Taylor Swift / Miley Cyrus vibe.” She continues: “To me Bigger Than Us is about love. It’s so much bigger than all of us, and no matter what’s going on in the world - love is huge.” 

Jordan Clarke - Freaks (LISTEN)

The 24-year-old from Essex rose to fame in 2013, when he performed in the live final of Britain's Got Talent as part of the group The Luminites. Their audition was viewed 13 million times and they performed live at The Royal Albert Hall.

Jordan: “My version of Freaks has a rock element to a pop song, it has a strong vocal with an anthem vibe - I wanna get the crowd singing along!” He continues: “To represent my country at Eurovision would mean so much, it’s like representing England at the World Cup if you’re a footballer, this is my World Cup - I’m so excited!”

Kerrie-Anne - Sweet Lies (LISTEN)

The 32-year-old from London is a former teacher who used to live and work in Dubai, she has spent a lot time living abroad and is known for multi-lingual performances in Tagalog (Philippines), Spanish, Korean and Italian.

Kerrie-Anne: The style of my song is up-tempo but at the same time the lyrics are quite poignant - it’s all about blissful ignorance. You know something is drastically wrong with your relationship but you choose to ignore those signs because you love that person.”

MAID - Freaks (LISTEN)

Blythe (24) is from Edinburgh, Miracle (26) from Devon and Kat (27) is from Bristol. The three met each other in drama school, are all classically trained and write their own music and play various instruments. Fun fact: Blythe is currently performing in Aladdin in the West End as swing and understudy to Jade Ewen's Jasmine. Jade ranked 5 in the Grand Final of the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow.

MAID say: "Freaks is about celebrating everyone’s individual personality, about the people who maybe don’t fit in and it’s about bringing everyone together” They continue: “Our version of Freaks is quite ethereal and dark”

Michael Rice - Bigger Than Us (LISTEN)

The 21-year-old is from Hartlepool, won the first series of the BBC One entertainment show All Together Now in 2018. Michael taught himself to play piano from watching videos online and came to the attention of the wider public through a viral video of him singing a Years And Years song.  

Michael says: “My version of Bigger Than Us is such an epic, big song with a big key change and harmonies, and I think the lyrics resonate with everyone” He continues: “Bigger Than Us is about love, coming together, it’s a really powerful song. You just connect with it. It’s all about emotion” 

The show

On Friday the 8th of February, Mel Giedroyc, and winner of the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest, Måns Zelmerlöw will host the final of Eurovision: You Decide, live from Media City UK in Salford. Måns will not only be hosting the show, he is also set to give an exciting live performance during the broadcast.

Each of the three songs will be performed in two musically different ways, by two different acts. The first part of the show will see three rounds of the “Song-Off”. After all six acts have performed the expert judges will decide which three acts and version of each song will go forward to face the public vote.

The three final acts will then perform one more time before the voting lines are opened as the public chooses which song and performer will represent the United Kingdom at the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv.

Who would you like to see as the United Kingdom's representative this year? Let us know in the comments!