Engelbert Humperdinck will sing a ballad called Love Will Set You Free as Britain’s song at this year’s Eurovision contest, it was announced today.
Unveiled on the Eurovision website this morning, the slow, melancholic love song was written by the Grammy award-winning producer Martin Terefe and the Ivor Novello winner Sacha Skarbek, who co-wrote James Blunt’s You’re Beautiful and Lana Del Rey’s Born To Die.
To the backing of plucked Spanish guitar and crescendos of violin, Humperdinck builds to a chorus: “If you love someone, follow your heart, ‘cos love comes once if you’re lucky enough. Though I’ll miss you forever, the hurt will run deep, only love can set you free.”
The singer, who at 75 will be the second oldest act in Eurovision history - beaten only by Russia’s entry for this year, a group called “The Buranovo Grannies” - is to perform the song on May 26 at the contest held in Baku, Azerbaijan.
After seeing Britain landing in last place three times in the past ten years, BBC entertainment bosses are pinning their hopes on the veteran crooner’s rendition of the ballad to reverse their fortunes. Last year, the British boy band Blue came 11th, and in 2010 Josh Dubovie were last.
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Humperdinck, who was born Arnold George Dorsey, last recorded a Top 40 single in 1972 but has an ardent following in Eurovision countries such as Israel, Russia and the Netherlands, all of which he has toured in the past year.
The BBC changed its rules last year so that Eurovision entrants were no longer chosen by the public but by a panel of executives, including Katie Taylor, the corporation’s head of entertainment, and Derek McLean, creative director of entertainment.
Humperdinck said that he felt honoured to have been chosen. “It felt just right for me to be a part of an institution like Eurovision. I’m excited and raring to go and want the nation to get behind me.”