{"id":107751,"date":"2025-05-17T01:18:24","date_gmt":"2025-05-17T01:18:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/107751\/"},"modified":"2025-05-17T01:18:24","modified_gmt":"2025-05-17T01:18:24","slug":"eurovision-united-kingdom-sophie-ellis-bextor-to-announce-jury-votes-instead-of-ncuti-gatwa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/107751\/","title":{"rendered":"Eurovision United Kingdom: Sophie Ellis-Bextor to announce jury votes instead of Ncuti Gatwa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Due to unforeseen circumstances, actor Ncuti Gatwa has withdrawn from his role as the United Kingdom\u2019s spokesperson for the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 Grand Final. The BBC has confirmed that singer and BBC Radio 2 DJ Sophie Ellis-Bextor will step in to deliver the UK jury\u2019s votes during the live broadcast from Basel, Switzerland, on 17 May.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The news was announced on <strong>16 May<\/strong>, just the day before the Grand Final. While the reason for <strong>Ncuti Gatwa<\/strong>\u2019s withdrawal has not been disclosed, the <strong>BBC<\/strong> <strong>Press Office<\/strong> quickly confirmed that a familiar and much-loved <strong>British pop star<\/strong> would take on the responsibility of presenting the UK\u2019s jury scores.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" style=\"background: #FFF;border: 0;border-radius: 3px;margin: 1px;max-width: 540px;min-width: 326px;padding: 0;width: calc(100% - 2px)\" data-instgrm-captioned=\"\" data-instgrm-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DJsFp9cIBOP\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" data-instgrm-version=\"14\">\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Sophie Ellis-Bextor<\/strong>, known for her early <strong>2000s<\/strong> hits such as Murder on the dancefloor and Groovejet (If This Ain\u2019t Love), expressed her enthusiasm about joining the Eurovision Grand Final. She said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>I love Eurovision and it\u2019s a privilege to be part of 2025\u2019s Grand Final. What an honour it is to announce the UK\u2019s jury score on such a special show which always puts music front and centre. I am very much looking forward to delivering the iconic douze points from the United Kingdom!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The <strong>Eurovision Song Contest 2025 Grand Final<\/strong> will take place on <strong>17 May<\/strong> at the <strong>St. Jakobshalle arena in Basel, Switzerland<\/strong>. The <strong>UK\u2019s<\/strong> entry this year is the girl group <strong>Remember Monday<\/strong> with their song What the hell just happened?.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>                <script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; Due to unforeseen circumstances, actor Ncuti Gatwa has withdrawn from his role as the United Kingdom\u2019s spokesperson&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[748,393,41946,41947,4884,15215,1144,5512,712,45958,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-107751","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-eurovision-news","12":"tag-eurovision-song-contest-2025","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-ncuti-gatwa","15":"tag-northern-ireland","16":"tag-remember-monday","17":"tag-scotland","18":"tag-sophie-ellis-bextor","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom","21":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114520542871570293","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}