Boffins tuning into heart beats may have the key to UK Eurovision Song Contest glory.
A viewer’s neuro responses and heart rate while watching a song may be linked to its contest success, researchers believe. The technology could help UK song selectors choose the best entry in the future.
We have won Eurovision five times, including in 1981 with Making Your Mind Up by Bucks Fizz. But the nation has finished last five times in the 21st century, including “nul points” for Jemini in 2003 and James Newman in 2021.
In a bid to improve UK fortunes, 100 people will be monitored over four days to watch some of this year’s Eurovision entries.
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University College London’s Prof Daniel Richardson said: “We think we can measure how engaged you are in the song, how much it drives your attention and affects your emotion.”
The research will use songs that will be in the final in Turin, Italy, on May 14 – but not this year’s UK entry Space Man, by Sam Ryder, in a bid to avoid any possible patriotic bias affecting results.
