Eurovision 2016: Do the UK's entry Joe and Jake actually stand a chance of winning this year?

We haven't won the competition since 1997

Pre-2002, the UK was actually pretty good at Eurovision; we actually won the competition five times, came second 15 times (!!!) and third three (including 2002 itself).

Unfortunately, after our involvement in the Iraq War, things went south very quickly. In 2003, our act - Jemini - came in last place, scoring a grand total of zero points. Nought. Absolutely nothing.

It wasn’t until 2009, when Jade Ewen went up for the UK, that we managed to somewhat recover, finally scoring over 30 points post-Jemini. 2010 was another bad year, with Josh Dubovie coming in last, but Blue managed to get us back on track, scoring 100.

The boy band were our last peak, the following five acts failing to score above 40. Last year’s Electro Velvet only scored five, our worst outing since the aforementioned Jemini, and second lowest UK score of all time.

With our bad luck hopefully having run out, can Joe and Jake finally take us back to Eurovision glory?

First up, let’s look at our political situation quickly. As many people are well aware, politics has always played an integral part in Eurovision, as proven with our post-Iraq points crash. This year, there are a couple of issues that may affect the UK, the most likely being our current stance on the EU.

With the likes of Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage wanting the UK to leave the European Union, our country isn’t exactly making friends in Brussels, something that could very well effect Jo and Jake's result. There’s a lot more at play here, but let’s move on, shall we?

Onto the boys’ odds. According to bookies William Hill, after just their rehearsal, things were dropped from 50/1 to 25/1. Still not amazing, but they definitely look set to top Electro Swing’s five points.

Some more stats for you. According to MyVoucherCodes, only 78 percent of the past winners were solo artists, so things aren’t in their favour there. Also, a staggering 82 percent of winning contestants have been female.

However, Joe and Jake’s song choice, “You’re Not Alone” is in-keeping with the winning trend; 85 percent of winning songs were of the pop genre while 71 percent feature lyrics about love. In some more shocking stats, over 94 percent of all winners over the last 59 years have been Caucasian - Europe really can be archaic at times.

The song itself is a pretty standard pop song - not likely to offend anyone and should appeal to all those One Directioners out there. “You’re Not Alone” is actually written by an ex-Wanted member which may explain its mass appeal.

Could this go against the duo, though? Often, Eurovision is won by the acts who stand out as different, not those who fall into those same clichés. Perhaps playing it safe could serve us well?

With all that on board, this looks to be an OK year for the UK. Hopefully, we’ll pick up a few points, and with the pair looking confident in the semi-finals, all they need to do is put in another solid performance and they won’t go down as the worst UK contestants in Eurovision history.

Want to find out some more about Jo and Jake? Check out our “Who are Joe and Jake?” piece here, and catch all the latest on Eurovision here.