AS all eyes turn to Liverpool for the Eurovision Song Contest, how many times has the UK scored the dreaded 'nul points'?
The UK is gearing up to host the glittering competition on behalf of war-torn Ukraine with the final taking place on Saturday, May 13.
TikTok star Mae Muller will be flying the flag for the UK on home turf and will be representing the country with the tune 'I Wrote A Song'.
The annual singing competition is well known for its complex voting system and for its fun and flamboyance.
Hang it in the Tate Modern! Go BTS of Mae Muller’s #Eurovision2023 postcard 🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/WkiCZvlAH4
— BBC Eurovision (@bbceurovision) May 8, 2023
The now highly-anticipated calendar event was first held on May 24, 1956, in Lugano, Switzerland.
In its 66-year history, the UK has won an impressive 5 times - the same as Luxembourg, France and the Netherlands.
Which country has won Eurovision the most?
Ireland is the most successful country at the contest, securing 7 victories.
It is closely followed by Sweden which has won the contest 6 times.
Meanwhile, Luxembourg, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom are tied on 5 times each.
What does 'nul points' mean?
Eurovision voting is not exactly straightforward - the public vote makes up 50% of the total with the other half being decided by a professional jury of experts in each participating country.
Each country has a national spokesperson who will announce the public vote from their country.
The spokesperson will then reveal how the professional jury voted, awarding points from zero or ('nul') to the maximum and highly sought-after “douze points”.
After the presentation of the scores from the juries, the public points from all participating countries will be combined to get one score for each song.
When was the last time that the UK won Eurovision?
The UK has been crowned a Eurovision winner for quite some time - for over 20 years in fact.
We last won the competition in 1997 with Katrina and the Waves and the song Love Shine a Light'.
How many times has the UK scored no points?
We have scored at the bottom of the leaderboard four times in our Eurovision history.
However, we have only scored zero points twice, including once in 2003 and again in 2021.
The Liverpool-based group were chosen to be part of Eurovision that year with the song 'Cry Baby', after a public phone poll during the TV show A Song for Europe competition.
In 2021, bad luck struck twice with James Newman's song 'Embers' which also failed to win a single point.
When is Eurovision 2023 and where is it being held?
The 2023 Eurovision Singing Contest grand final will be held on Saturday, May 13.
The epic show will be held in the 11,000-capacity Liverpool Arena with the semi-finals taking place earlier in the week on May 9 and 11.
The three live shows of the 67th edition of the competition will be presented by British singer and Britain's Got Talent judge Alesha Dixon, British actress Hannah Waddingham, and Ukrainian singer Julia Sanina.
Irish TV presenter and British commentator for the contest since 2009, Graham Norton, will join the lineup for the final.
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