James Newman says there's a "silver lining" to Eurovision experience after receiving nil points
Despite finishing dead last, Newman's song Embers has reached number one in the iTunes chart.
It's safe to say that Saturday night was not a Eurovision to remember for the UK – with James Newman's performance of Embers failing to earn a single point from either the juries or the public.
But according to Newman, it wasn't all bad news – and the singer-songwriter has said that seeing his song climb the singles charts in the wake of the contest has given him a real boost.
Speaking on this morning's episode of Lorraine on ITV, he said, "The whole reason I got into doing this is so I could sing music to people and get my song out to the world.
"So, it’s definitely done that job. Coming home and seeing my song was Number 1 on iTunes in the UK. I was like ‘Oh my God, that is amazing’ so everything has a silver lining.”
Newman added that despite the nil points in the final Eurovision results, he was pleased with his performance on the night, and he was especially pleased to see the crowd rally behind him after his score was revealed.
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"We went there and we tried our hardest," he said. "I think we took the best of British. I was really happy with the song, really happy with the performance.
"But the best thing for me was how the crowd just went absolutely crazy when they said ‘nil points’ but the audience was cheering me, everyone was cheering me.”
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He went on to explain that he couldn't tell how he was going to do before the results came in, but he says he did try to visualise winning to "put a positive vibe on it all."
"You just can’t tell," he said, "Writing songs and singing to people, you can’t guarantee it’s going to connect with an audience.
"I think, for me, I just wanted to go and try my best and we definitely did. My whole team was so amazing. It was such a great time. I wouldn’t change it for the world.”
And he said he has no regrets about having taken part, describing the event as "one of the best nights of my life."
"I sang in front of 200 million people and I got into music because I wanted to sing on stage to people and that was what I was doing," he said. "I got to work with all these amazing, talented people. No regrets at all.”
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