Festival of British Popular Songs
The Festival of British Popular Songs was a song competition organised by the BBC. It began in 1956[1] following the success of the Eurovision Song Contest. Due to being so long ago, the names of performers and songs who took part are no longer known.
1956 Festival[change | change source]
The first Festival of British Popular Songs was held from May to October 1956. 36 songs took part across six semi-finals. Each semi-final had six songs and the winning song of each semi-final went through to the final. The winning song was decided by music experts, who used a scoreboard to rank the songs by points.
| Entry | Place | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Performer 1 | Performer 2 | Song | |
| Lester Ferguson | Jean Campbell | "Cloudy Moon" | 3rd |
| Dennis Lotis | The Keynotes | "Everybody Falls in Love with Someone" | 1st |
| Ronnie Carroll | Laurie Payne | "For You and Me" | 3rd |
| Shirley Abacair | Bill McGuffie | "Little Ship" | 2nd |
| Carole Carr | Max Jaffa | "No Love Could Be" | 3rd |
| Petula Clark | The Bill McGuffie Quartet | "Wibbly Wobbly Moon" | 3rd |
1957 Festival[change | change source]
In 1957, the United Kingdom joined the Eurovision Song Contest. The Festival of British Popular Songs was used to decide the UK's entry. The Festival was made shorter, with three semi-finals instead of six. The two winners of each semi-final went through to the final. The songs were scored by ten twelve-member juries representing major cities around the UK.
| R/O | Performer 1 | Performer 2 | Song | Points | Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Keynotes | Bill Maynard | "Don't Cry Little Doll" | 14 | 4 |
| 2 | Pauline Shepherd | Carole Carr | "Once" | 23 | 2 |
| 3 | Denis Lotis | The Keynotes | "Seven" | 13 | 5/6 |
| 4 | Malcom Lockyer Quartet | Patricia Bredin | "All" | 39 | 1st[2] |
| 5 | Ronnie Hilton | Alan Bristow | "For Your Love" | 13 | 5/6 |
| 6 | Lita Roza | Stan Roderick | "The Way It Goes" | 18 | 3 |
References[change | change source]
- ↑ "1956 |". www.songs4europe.com. Retrieved 2023-10-28.
- ↑ "United Kingdom: Festival Of British Popular Songs". Eurovisionworld. Retrieved 2023-10-28.