The United Kingdom was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 1985 with the song "Love Is...", written by Jimmy Kaleth and Vikki Watson, and performed by Vikki herself. The British participating broadcaster, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), selected its entry through a national final.
Before Eurovision
A Song for Europe 1985
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) held the national final, A Song for Europe 1985, on 9 April 1985 at Studio 1 of the BBC Television Centre in London, hosted by a suited Terry Wogan. The BBC Concert Orchestra under the direction of John Coleman as conductor accompanied all the songs, but despite performing live, the orchestra was off-screen, behind the set.
In all, 333 songs were originally submitted to the Music Publisher's Association, with 8 songs chosen. Songwriters could only submit a maximum of two songs to the MPA, but the identity of the writers was not disclosed to the MPA judges. Due to the poor reception of the British entry in the previous year's Eurovision Song Contest, the BBC wanted to revert to the method used to select its entry used in 1964–1975 and approached both Bonnie Tyler and when she was unavailable, Lena Zavaroni to represent the United Kingdom and perform all the shortlisted songs in the national final. The MPA rebuffed the BBC's concept, wanting the composers and authors the option of choosing their own performers. A compromise rule was introduced, stating that no groups (more than 2 performers) were allowed to take part and writers would be limited to two entries each, however this rule was only in place for this one year. The songs were selected by around 90 people, DJs, producers and publishers.
Notable songwriters and performers included Paul Curtis who had had entries in the Eurovision final as well as a large number of previous entries in various British national finals, including writing the winning song in . Despite the rule limiting song-writers to two entries, both his songs written with Graham Sacher reached the final eight. Together, Curtis and Sacher had won the ' contest. 1970s glam rock singer Alvin Stardust (who had recently enjoyed a comeback in the charts) appeared as a performer as did Fiona Kennedy who was at the time a presenter of Record Breakers. Annabel was Annabel Layton who competed at ' contest as part of Unity. Des Dyer had been the lead singer of the group 'Casablanca' who'd placed 3rd in the ' contest.
Final
The show opened with a group of dancers, dancing to old Eurovision songs: "Making Your Mind Up", "Waterloo", "Puppet on a String", "Save Your Kisses for Me", "Boom Bang-a-Bang", and "Congratulations". The artists were introduced on stage with captions on screen, followed by presenter Terry Wogan. The songs had been first previewed in the previous week on the Wogan television show.
Nine regional juries located in Birmingham, Cardiff, Manchester, Belfast, Glasgow, London, Norwich, Plymouth and Bristol voted for the songs. Each jury region awarded 15, 12, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6 and 5 points to the songs.
{| class="sortable wikitable plainrowheaders" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto; text-align:center"
|+ A Song for Europe 19859 April 1985
|-
! scope="col" |
! scope="col" | Artist
! scope="col" | Song
! scope="col" | Songwriter(s)
! scope="col" | Points
! scope="col" | Place
|- style="font-weight:bold; background:gold;"
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 1
| align="left" | Vikki
| align="left" | "Love Is..."
| align="left" |
| 124
| 1
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 2
| align="left" | Peter Beckett
| align="left" | "I'm Crying"
| align="left" | Jonathan Cregg
| 59
| 7
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 3
| align="left" | Alvin Stardust
| align="left" | "The Clock on the Wall"
| align="left" |
| 90
| 3
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 4
| align="left" | James Oliver
| align="left" | "What We Say With Our Eyes"
| align="left" | James Oliver
| 66
| 6
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 5
| align="left" | Des Dyer
| align="left" | "Energy"
| align="left" |
| 77
| 4
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 6
| align="left" | Annabel
| align="left" | "Let Me Love You One More Time"
| align="left" |
| 72
| 5
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 7
| align="left" | Kerri Wells
| align="left" | "Dancing in the Night"
| align="left" |
| 101
| 2
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 8
| align="left" | Mike Redway and Fiona Kennedy
| align="left" | "So Do I"
| align="left" | Mike Redway
| 59
| 7
|}
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto; text-align:center;"
|-
|+ Detailed Jury Votes Although the song did not receive any country's twelve points, it still managed to score with every jury but one (Cyprus). The British jury awarded their twelve points to the eventual winners, Norway's "La det swinge" by Bobbysocks!.
Voting
{| class="wikitable"
|-
|+ Points awarded to the United Kingdom
|-
! scope="col" width="20%" | Score
! scope="col" | Country
|-
! scope="row" | 12 points
|
|-
! scope="row" | 10 points
|
|-
! scope="row" | 8 points
|
|-
! scope="row" | 7 points
|
|-
! scope="row" | 6 points
|
|-
! scope="row" | 5 points
|
|-
! scope="row" | 4 points
|
|-
! scope="row" | 3 points
|
|-
! scope="row" | 2 points
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1 point
|
|}
{| class="wikitable"
|-
|+ Points awarded by the United Kingdom