Sam Ryder has said the “stigma” about the UK’s Eurovision performance has finally been “destroyed” after he brought home our best result in 24 years.
The singer led the UK to second place during Saturday night’s Song Contest in Turin, Italy, with his song Space Man.
It was the the highest the UK has placed since 1998, when Imaani’s Where Are You? finished just behind Israel’s Dana International, who won with her song Diva.
In the years since, Britain has suffered a number of embarrassment moments, receiving the dreaded “nul points” in 2003 with Jemini’s Cry Baby and in 2021 with James Newman’s Embers.
Following Saturday’s astonishing result, Sam celebrated with the BBC’s Eurovision semi-final commentators Scott Mills and Rylan Clark.
In a video Scott posted, he said: “We did it, we just destroyed the stigma!
“Thanks everyone for supporting. That was an incredible, incredible, rewarding journey. I hope you enjoyed coming along on it.”
The United Kingdom had led the vote for most of Saturday night’s results after Sam’s performance came out on top of the jury vote.
However, the public overwhelmingly backed Ukraine, who won the competition with 631 points on the leaderboard, with the UK securing 466 points.
The results had many fans in sheer disbelief on social media, while prime minister Boris Johnson said he was “incredibly proud” of Sam and how “he brilliantly represented the UK”.