The United Kingdom was represented at the

Eurovision Song Contest 1972 The Eurovision Song Contest 1972 was the 17th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom and was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster British Broadcasting Corpo ...

with the song "

Beg, Steal or Borrow "Beg, Steal or Borrow" was the entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1972, performed in English by The New Seekers. The song was composed and written by Tony Cole, Steve Wolfe and Graeme Hall. It is a love song to a former lover claiming th ...

", written by Tony Cole, Steve Wolfe, and Graeme Hall, and performed by

The New Seekers The New Seekers were a British pop group, formed in London, in 1969, by Keith Potger, after the break-up of his group, the Seekers. The idea was that the New Seekers would appeal to the same market as the original Seekers, but their music wou ...

. The British participating broadcaster, the

British Broadcasting Corporation The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public broadcasting, public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved in ...

(BBC), selected its entry through a national final, after having previously selected the performers internally. In addition, the BBC was also the host broadcaster and staged the event at the

Usher Hall The Usher Hall (Scottish Gaelic: ''Talla Usher'') is a concert hall in the West End of Edinburgh, Scotland. The hall is owned and managed by the City of Edinburgh Council, and has hosted concerts and events since its construction in 1914. Th ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, after the winner of the , (TMC) from , opted not to host the event.

Before Eurovision

Artist selection

Contemporary press reports suggested that

Cliff Richard Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is a British singer and actor. He has total sales of over 21.5 million singles in the United Kingdom and, as of 2012, was the third-top-selling artist in UK Singles Chart histo ...

was the first artist selected to represent the UK in 1972 by the BBC, but he was already committed to a concert on the date of the contest - 25 March 1972 - and was thus unavailable. As The New Seekers were booked to appear on his 1972 UK series, the BBC opted to offer them the opportunity. The group had just spent five weeks at No.2 with the song "Never Ending Song of Love" when they were confirmed as the UK entrants and their single "

I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony)" is a pop song (originally known as "True Love and Apple Pie") by British hit songwriters Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway, and sung by Susan Shirley. The lyrics were rewritten by the ...

" hit No.1 for four weeks at the same week the group began presenting the six short listed songs weekly on the Cliff Richard show.

''A Song for Europe 1972''

The show was held on 12 February 1972 and presented by Cliff Richard as a special edition of his BBC1 TV series ''

It's Cliff Richard! Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is a British singer and actor. He has total sales of over 21.5 million singles in the United Kingdom and, as of 2012, was the third-top-selling artist in UK Singles Chart hist ...

'' All songs were performed by the group

, the first group ever to represent the UK in the contest and the first quintet ever to appear in Eurovision as a group. "

" was chosen by viewers who cast votes via postcard through the mail. The UK was undergoing national and regional power cuts during the winter of 1972, due to a coal mining strike, leading to many viewers missing the broadcast of the six songs and the result the following week. The postal vote was thus lower than in previous years, but the winner still received 62,584 votes.

Chart success

The group released all six songs from the UK final shortly after the contest. The winner, together with the runner up "One By One", was released on single and spent three weeks at No. 2 in the UK singles chart. Both tracks were then included in the album ''

We'd Like to Teach the World to Sing ''We'd Like to Teach the World to Sing'' is the name given to two albums by UK pop group The New Seekers. The first of these, released in late 1971, was a repackaging of their previous album ''New Colours'' and was released in the US. The second ...

'', together with the last placed song "Songs of Praise". The album was also a No. 2 hit in the UK.

Roy Wood Roy Wood (born 8 November 1946) is an English musician, singer and songwriter. He was particularly successful in the 1960s and 1970s as member and co-founder of the Move, Electric Light Orchestra and Wizzard. Wood formed the Move in 1965, and ...

who had composed the last placed entry released his own version of the track on the B-side of his 1973 No. 18 hit " Dear Elaine". Later in 1972, the remaining three songs from the UK final were released by The New Seekers in the budget LP ''What Have They Done To My Song, Ma?'' released on the Contour label. In subsequent years, all six songs by the group have been released on CD compilations.

At Eurovision

"Beg, Steal or Borrow" won the national and went on to come second in the contest. This was also the only Eurovision Song Contest between 1971 and 2008 in which

Terry Wogan Sir Michael Terence Wogan (; 3 August 1938 – 31 January 2016) was an Irish radio and television broadcaster who worked for the BBC in Britain for most of his career. Between 1993 and his semi-retirement in 2009, his BBC Radio 2 weekday brea ...

had no involvement with. Actor and royal commentator Tom Fleming provided the BBC Television commentary, whilst Pete Murray provided the radio commentary for

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and Contemporary hit radio, current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including ...

and 2 listeners. The contest was seen by 9.1 million viewers. Each country nominated two jury members, one below the age of 25 and the other above, who voted for their respective country by giving between one and five points to each song, except that representing their own country. All jury members were colocated in the Grand Hall of

Edinburgh Castle Edinburgh Castle is a historic castle in Edinburgh, Scotland. It stands on Castle Rock (Edinburgh), Castle Rock, which has been occupied by humans since at least the Iron Age. There has been a royal castle on the rock since the reign of Malcol ...

. The jury members from the United Kingdom were Doreen Samuels and Robert Walker.

Voting

References

{{Eurovision Song Contest 1972

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 1972

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