The UK was humiliated in the showpiece singing competition on Saturday night after London-based artist James Newman finished in last place. The 35-year-old was the only entry not to score a single point from either the jury vote or public vote in the finale of the competition in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
More than seven million people watched the event on the BBC and some observers believe the UK was punished for Brexit.
The UK has seen its share of the vote significantly fall ever since the divisive 2016 EU referendum.
Britain is one of the major financial contributors to the event and a subsequent poll of more than 15,000 Express.co.uk readers has found the vast majority believe the UK should stop funding the contest.
The poll took place from 7am on May 25 to 10.45am on May 26, with 15,324 online readers asked: “Should the UK withdraw all financial support for the Eurovision Song Contest?
A huge 90 percent (13,758) said the UK should pull the plug on financing the event and voted “yes”.
The remaining 10 percent (1,566) thought the UK should continue to pay and voted “no”.
A number of passionate Express.co.uk readers let their opinions known in the comments section of the poll story.
One reader wrote: “Why waste OUR money every year on this load of mostly rubbish? No-one from any country should ever be so humiliated like that.”
A second added: “I’m just shocked we were paying into this in the first place.”
A third commented: “It’s not a song contest it’s purely political.”
Meanwhile, a fourth said: “Withdrawing financial support immediately is going to look an awful lot like sour grapes.
“Probably better to phase out participation over time. Let’s face it the whole thing is a joke whoever wins.”
The UK along with France, Germany and Spain, automatically qualify for the annual contest as the four nations are the biggest financial contributors to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).
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In 2019, the UK finished with just 11 points, while this year’s results marked the worst outcome experienced by Britain in 18 years.
The UK’s entry this year said he had “no regrets at all” about entering Eurovision.
Mr Newman told ITV’s Lorraine: “Saturday was one of the best nights of my life. I sang in front of 100 or 200 million people or whatever it was. I got into music because I want to sing on stage to people and that was literally what I was doing.
“And I got to work with all these amazingly talented people and just have such a great time so, no regrets at all.”
On the results, he added: “What can you do? We went there and we tried our hardest. I think we took the best of British.
“I was really happy with the song, really happy with the performance. But the best thing for me was how the crowd just went absolutely crazy when they said ‘nil points’ but the audience was cheering me, everyone was cheering me.”
Eurovision 2021 was won by Italy’s rock band Maneskin with their song Zitti E Buoni.
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