EastEnders bosses made a last minute change to Monday night's episode to reference the United Kingdom's unexpectedly good result at Eurovision.
While there was a lot more optimism around the UK's chances this year, thanks to the efforts of the BBC team and music management team TAP to put us in a much stronger position than 12 months ago, not many people would have forecast a second place finish on Saturday night as newly crowned national treasure Sam Ryder was beaten by only pre-Eurovision Song Contest favourites Ukraine.
Space Man singer Sam had been touting Europe in the run up to the annual event, taking to the stage at big pre-parties in the likes of London and Amsterdam and performing on the streets of Madrid and Berlin to name just two cities. The UK could not have asked for a better ambassador than the TikTok star and on Saturday night he delivered an absolutely fantastic performance of the song that is now sitting pretty at the top of the UK iTunes chart.
READ MORE: Graham Norton issues 'trigger' warning before Eurovision performance
The 32-year-old was rewarded with a tremendous result, which saw him score points with nearly every country and get the covered douze points' from a number of them. While, as expected, the Ukraine's Kalush Orchestra got a massive televote from viewers at home, seeing their score rocket and soar past Sam who was top after the juries. BBC commentator Graham Norton told Sam he was 'saviour of Eurovision,' in the aftermath of Saturday night's show and he has been at the centre of overwhelming praise from fans.
And Sam's Eurovision exploits forced EastEnders producers to hastily film one of the scenes of Monday's show again to honour the UK's result. The scene saw Callum and Frankie, played by Strictly champion Rose Ayling-Ellis sitting in the kitchen talking about watching the final as Space Man played in the background.
Noticing Calum's glum expression Frankie asked: "This is about the Eurovision isn't it? But Ukraine deserved that win and there's always next year." He replied: "i never used to watch it and then Ben got me into it...nil points every year and the one year we don't watch it together, we get second."
UK based Eurovision fans loved the nod to the contest and Sam's result, with one tweeting: "Excellent stuff here from @bbceastenders. Timely reference to #Eurovision in tonight’s episode - the tide really is turning for the reputation in the UK!" A second reacted: "Loving that by #Eastenders, talking about Eurovision and our @samrydermusic coming second all whilst #SpaceMan played in the background. Good update from them."
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