Sam Ryder made a passionate plea for support behind the scenes at Eurovision, before finishing in a tremendous second place.
After the doom and gloom of last year when UK Eurovision entry James Newman finished rock bottom of the leaderboard with no points from either the juries or the voting public, some people assumed there'd be more of the same this year, as Italy hosted the Eurovision Song Contest.
But how wrong they were as the UK's Sam Ryder, after being declared winner in a Eurovision rehearsal on Friday, the Space Man singer came very close to winning for real, after coming top with the juries before the always game changing Eurovision voting twist handed Ukraine victory after a huge triumph in the televote. Having toured Europe in the run up to his participation in the annual event to promote the song, Sam got the plaudits he deserved, with the UK getting their best placing since Katrina and the Waves won back in 1997.
