The British Academy of Songwriters and Composers (BASCA) Song Search competition is over for this year and only five entries from the 530 received will be sent to the BBC to be considered for the United Kingdom�s Eurovision Selection, �Making Your Mind Up�.
BASCA can no longer be guaranteed a place at 'Making Your Mind Up' for the winner of their competition. In previous years it was up to BASCA to find the songs which would compete in the British national finals, but after recent poor results the BBC reduced the role BASCA played in the selection, and they only supplied just one song to �Making Your Mind Up� 2004. The song �It Just Gets Better', by Madison Taylor came third and topped the Pop Category in the Song Search Contest.
Although the contest has seven categories (Pop, Contemporary Pop, Rock, Country, Ballad, Contemporary Christian and Easy Listening), BASCA announced in July that only the winner of the Contemporary Pop category will be �considered� by the BBC for �Making Your Mind Up.'
BASCA have stated they received 530 songs overall for the competition. They have not specified how many writers entered the �Contemporary Pop� section. The five songs have been sent to the BBC and Sony Music, three from the �Contemporary Pop� section and the winners of both the �Ballad� and �Pop� sections. The academy has not yet announced the titles of the songs through to the final. This is because the BBC avoids naming the writers and composers of songs in �Making Your Mind Up� so each can be judged on its own merit, without any consideration of who wrote each song. However BASCA have stated that the standard of entries for this year�s competition was higher than last year and that “more entrants were prepared to take into account the styles that appear to be working in the current climate”.
The BBC holds the right to re-recorded an entry to be entered for the public selection using a different recording artist. Established music producers will also be used to re-record the winning song in order to create a more suitable remix for Eurovision, and to heighten the United Kingdoms chances at the Eurovision Song Contest this May in Kiev.
The BBC will announce more details of the songs chosen for the 2005 edition of 'Making Your Mind Up' in the New Year. Most entries will be directly commissioned through Sony Music. The selection is likely to be very similar to last year. The BBC, who recently conducted a survey into how to make the selection process more interesting and to secure a higher share of the viewing audience found that it was elements such as the voting in the selection, (which mirrors the voting procedure in the actual Eurovision Song Contest) that is most enjoyed by the public, and is therefore likely to be made more prominent as each region in the United Kingdom is called, and points awarded.
