<Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> For the most recent participation see United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 </Td> </Tr> <P> The United Kingdom has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 60 times and is one of the most successful countries to compete in the contest . They first participated in the second contest in 1957 . The UK has entered every year since 1959, and has won the contest a total of five times . Along with Sweden, the UK is one of only two countries with Eurovision victories in four different decades . The United Kingdom is one of the "Big 5", along with France, Germany, Italy and Spain who are automatically allowed to participate in the final as they are the five biggest financial contributors to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). </P> <P> Up to and including 1998, the UK had only twice finished outside the top 10, in 1978 (11th) and 1987 (13th), with their five winners being Sandie Shaw with the song "Puppet on a String" in 1967, Lulu with "Boom Bang - a-Bang" in 1969 (tied), Brotherhood of Man with "Save Your Kisses for Me" in 1976, Bucks Fizz with "Making Your Mind Up" in 1981 and Katrina and the Waves with "Love, Shine a Light" in 1997 . In addition, the UK has finished as runner - up on a record 15 occasions; including Pearl Carr & Teddy Johnson (1959), Matt Monro (1964), Kathy Kirby (1965), Cliff Richard (1968), Mary Hopkin (1970), The New Seekers (1972), Scott Fitzgerald (1988), Michael Ball (1992), Sonia (1993) and Imaani (1998). Since 1999, the year in which the rule was abandoned that songs must be performed in one of the official languages of the country participating, the UK has had less success, only finishing within the top ten twice . Jessica Garlick in 2002 finished joint third and Jade Ewen in 2009 finished fifth, Ewen in particular was praised after her performance of "It's My Time" for ending the run of poor results the country had suffered for much of the decade . </P> <P> The British public broadcaster, the BBC, broadcasts the event each year and organises the selection process for the entry . In all cases (prior to 2011), a televised national final has selected the British Eurovision entry, varying between both a selection of performer and song, or just a song selection with an internal selection for the artist being held . For most years, the public had been able to vote for the winner, using in the past postcard voting, where the viewers sent postcards with their vote to the BBC, but more recently televoting . In 2009 and 2010, a new national selection format was held to find the singer who would go on to sing the internally selected song at the contest . From 2011 to 2015, for the first time in UK's Eurovision history, the entry was selected internally by the BBC . This resulted in the national selection process being suspended; however, this returned in 2016 . </P>

When was the last time the united kingdom won the eurovision song contest