The United Kingdom 2021- James Newman with ‘Embers’

James Newman has gone for a different approach this year, with his ‘banger’ premiering on UK radio today:

The problem here is obvious and is the same one plaguing the UK (and Spain) for much of the last decade:

Do you like it? Yeah-It's my 8th favourite this year.

Or in my case, I'll slap this with a 7/10. But nobody is voting for their 8th favourite or their 7/10.

James is fine, the song is good and is a step up from last year and this comes from a good place in trying to improve the standard and professional the process but it's going to struggle still.

I don't trust the UK to stage this although we'll have to see what steps have been made in this direction. Backing vocals have long been a problem and they feature heavily here. Also I do like James, but he's not the most natural performer and I'm concerned what they're going to do with him during the instrumentals and that could be where this falls apart. There is potential for this to get messy on stage, which would kill what should be a middling jury score of 15th-20th, something that can't happen given the UK's low base vote.

I'm sure it wouldn't be for viewing figures reasons, but this would be a good opener if it drew first half. Instead, expect this to be used as filler next to a ballad favourite.

The Czechs seem to like him though so there is that.

Personal Rating: 7/10 Competitive Rating: 5/10 Early Prediction: 19th-23rd