JUST WHEN you thought this year’s Eurovision Song Contest could have gone any worse for the UK, a fresh twist has seen Michael Rice’s entry slip further down the standings.
Rice’s song Bigger Than Us had already suffered the ignominy of finishing dead last on the night with a paltry 16 points.
But things have now gone from bad to worse after organisers revealed the song had actually scored 11 points during Saturday’s finale.
The Eurovision Broadcasting Union confirmed that the error was down to an incorrect calculation used to create a substitute score after the Belarussian jury was dismissed.
In a statement, the union blamed "human error" adding that it "deeply regrets" the mistake.
Eurovision's top four - including winner Duncan Laurence from the Netherlands - remained unchanged, though Norway, unfortunately, also had points deducted dropping from fifth to sixth.
In fact, Laurence's winning song Arcade actually gained six points following the error, bringing it to a total of 498.
Belarus' jury was dismissed from the competition after its semi-final votes were publicly revealed, in a move that broke contest rules.
Reacting to the result, Rice told The Sun: “I always knew I was going to come in this position because of Brexit. Do you know what? If it was Gary Barlow or Elton John, they still probably would have come last too.”
Despite the disappointing result, Rice could at least argue he fared better than Ireland’s entry to this year’s Eurovision.
Sarah McTernan scored the lowest number of votes out of any of the artists competing in this year’s semi-finals.
See More: Eurovision, Michael Rice, Song
