John Ballard has spoken about how he’s written a song for the UK to send to the Eurovision Song Contest in the past.

The Scottish born Singer,Songwriter and Producer has written a number of songs for the Eurovision Song Contest in the past including:

-Tolmachevy Sisters “Shine” (Placed 7th, 2014)

-Sergey Lazarev “You are the only one” (Placed 3rd, 2016)

-Farid Mammadov “Hold me” (Placed 2nd, 2013)

John has also written songs for the Swedish band Ace of base, however the Scottish born John has yet to send a song to Eurovision to represent his native UK.

Speaking to the Eurovision Legends podcast, when asked if John had submitted a song for the UK in the past, John replied:

We sent a few songs to different countries and some of them (for the UK) I was in the last 8, or something like that a couple of times, 2 years ago with the BBC. The A&R people at the BBC Johnson and John said “This is a favourite.” But what they do is they took 6 people from The X Factor and they gave them a song so they had a song to choose from the last 12 songs.They chose their favourite to sing but none of them chose our song.

Talking about the song that John sent, John continued:

It was a big song and it required a big vocal and none of them had that.

Although John talks about the songs being submitted 2 years ago, the BBC did choose James Newman with record company BMG in 2020, so John could be referring to 2019, or even 2017 when all 6 entrants that the BBC chose for the TV show Eurovision: You Decide were from The UK version of The X Factor.

Aswell as writing songs, John took part in the Melodifestivalen in 1983 where he finished 5th and then the following year in 1984 where he finished in 3rd position (You can hear both of these songs below)

Aswell as the UK, John also spoke about what it was like writing for his other songs, including Sergey Lazarev’s ‘You are the only one’, adding:

There was some discussions. Originally Dimitris (Songwriter Dimitris Kontopoulos) They didn’t like “Thunder and lightning, it’s getting exciting”. They thought it was cheesy and I didn’t agree because I thought that’s what people are gonna remember…

John also revealed that he sent 2 other songs for Sergey to sing at Eurovision including ‘Yesterday’ and ‘On the other side’ which you can hear below:

For many of the songs that made it to the Eurovision, John collaborated with fellow songwriter Dimitris Kontopoulos. When John was asked why he hadn’t worked with Dimitris recently, John replied:

The last time I was there (at Eurovision) with half an hour before, you’re told you can’t sit in the Green Room. I basically told him to f**k off.

You can hear more from John in the Eurovision Legends podcast by clicking here for Part 1 and here for Part 2.

You can see some of the songs that John has co-wrote below:

As we know the UK has struggled at Eurovision for quite some time, finishing last both last year and in 2019.

What kind of song are you hoping the UK sends for this year’s Eurovision? Let us know in the comments section below!