"I Can" is a song released by

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

boy group

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, taken from their fourth studio album, ''

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''. It was the United Kingdom's entry for the

Eurovision Song Contest 2011 The Eurovision Song Contest 2011 was the 56th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Düsseldorf, Germany, following the country's victory at the with the song "Satellite" by Lena. Organised by the European Broadcasting Uni ...

, in

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, Germany. It was written by group members

Duncan James Duncan Matthew James Inglis (born 7 April 1978) is an English singer, actor and television presenter. He became widely known in 2001 as a member of the boy band Blue and later for playing Ryan Knight in the British soap opera ''Hollyoaks''. E ...

and

Lee Ryan Lee Ryan (born 17 June 1983) is an English singer, songwriter, and voice actor. He is best known as the lead singer of the boy band Blue. Early life Lee Ryan was born in Chatham, Kent. His parents split up when he was six years old. Ryan most ...

with Ciaron Bell, Ben Collieer, Ian Hope, Liam Keenan, and NoThwegian production team StarSign. "I Can" finished in 11th place and scored 100 points. It peaked at number sixteen on the UK Singles Chart, and reached the top ten in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. It also charted in Belgium, Ireland, and Scotland.

Critical reception

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gave the song three stars out of five, and wrote: "I've never lost anything quite like this/ No second chances if I don't find it," the band continue over juddering synths that give way to a fist-clenching, Blue for 2011 chorus that sadly just misses the spot - the watered down production suggesting they aren't as cocksure of this plan as they claim. ..Still - call them crazy, but there's enough here to suggest they might just pull the whole thing off."

Promotion

During an appearance on ''

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'' on 9 February 2011, Blue confirmed that the song was written before they were asked to represent the UK in Düsseldorf, and described it as "a mix of pop, anthem and typically Blue sounding". On 12 February 2011, Blue began their promotional tour with an appearance on '' Malta Eurosong 2011''. As 'I Can' had not yet finished production, the group sang their previous hit " If You Come Back". This was followed by another guest appearance, singing " Breathe Easy" on the Spanish national final '' Destino Eurovisión'' on 18 February. The band performed the song for the first time on 11 March 2011 on ''

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''. A promotional video for the song has also been released by BBC One with the blue London skyline in the background. They appeared at various events including at ''

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'' on 17 March 2011 and on the ''Italian'' version of ''

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'' on 21 March. The official music video was launched on 14 April 2011. The BBC aired a special one-hour documentary entitled '' Eurovision: Your Country Needs Blue'' on 16 April 2011, to mark their preparations for the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest. The single was released on 1 May 2011. Blue also appeared nude in British gay monthly ''

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'' in the magazine's annual Naked issue. Blue was featured both on the cover and in an inside major article in promotion of the British bid to Eurovision. Blue performed the song on ''

Paul O'Grady Live ''Paul O'Grady Live'' is a British comedy chat show hosted by Paul O'Grady, that began airing on 10 September 2010 on ITV. The show is a Friday night chat show that features a mixture of celebrity guests, airing at 21:00. The show culminates w ...

'' on 29 April and on the '' So You Think You Can Dance UK'' results show.

Eurovision Song Contest

It was the first time in

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...

history that the

entry has been decided internally by the

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. An announcement was made on 29 January 2011 through the

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and official

websites. It finished in 11th place in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011. Bulgaria gave the song 12 points (the highest possible score), Italy 10 points, Malta 7 and Turkey 6. Overall, if the jury vote had not been counted the song would have finished in 5th place as it did from televotes.

Track listing

Notes * signifies an additional producer

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Release history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:I Can (Blue Song) Eurovision songs of 2011 Eurovision songs of the United Kingdom 2011 singles Blue (English band) songs Dance-pop songs Songs written by Lee Ryan Songs written by Duncan James 2011 songs