Duncan James was feeling quietly confident, and perhaps with good reason. “All the bookies were behind us,” he says. “Paddy Power had us as favourites to win.” It was 2011, and Blue – one of those rare British boybands whose career was stretching on into adulthood – had been tempted out of semi-retirement to represent the UK at Eurovision. The band had taken a break back in 2005, James says, “to pursue different areas of the entertainment business”. But the BBC, which screens the singing competition each year and helps oversee the UK’s choice of entry, had come calling because it found itself in a tight spot. After several years of poor (and sometimes catastrophic) results, they urgently required a safe pair of hands. Blue were already established, and enduringly popular. They’d excel, surely?
“Well, that was the hope,” James says.
