Sam Ryder announced as UK's Eurovision Song Contest act

The UK's Eurovision Song Contest act has been named for this year as TikTok star Sam Ryder.

He was confirmed as the 2022 representative by the BBC, with hopes that his 12 million followers and 100 million likes as TikTok's most-followed UK music artist will transfer into votes and points.

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Comedian Bill Bailey had previously thrown his hat in the ring to sing for the UK at Eurovision, but Ryder's social media success has seen him selected as the act who could finally lift us to the winning spot after many years languishing at the bottom of the points table.

Scott Mills announced the news on Radio 1 Breakfast with Greg James on Thursday morning, confirming that Ryder would sing his track SPACE MAN which has previously been Tune of the Week on Scott Mills’ Afternoon Show on BBC Radio 1.

As the world went into lockdown in March 2020, Ryder uploaded the first of his now famous covers onto TikTok and quickly caught the attention of celebrity fans including Justin Bieber, Sia and Alicia Keys, who even posted her own video reacting to Ryder’s cover of her song If I Ain’t Got You.

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Ryder's TikTok, Instagram and Facebook followers combined now sit at well over 17 million, which looks promising for his chances at Eurovision, and he has since signed with Parlophone, released his debut EP and completed a sold-out UK tour.

The Eurovision Song Contest will take place in Turin, Italy in May, where the UK are guaranteed a spot at the grand final as one of the event's big five financial contributors - despite having been the only country to receive nil points in 2021 with James Newman's performance.

It was recently announced that Russia would be banned from this year's contest as one of the sanctions imposed over their attack on Ukraine.

Organisers the European Broadcasting Union had originally said that they intended to allow Russia to take part as it was a "non-political cultural event", but a number of other countries threatened to withdraw if they were not banned.

Watch: Eurovision 2016 winner Jamala flees Ukraine