“My Last Breath” is a track by English singer/songwriter James Newman. It is a heart-warming track in which Newman expresses his perseverance in the face of all difficulties he has to go through. “If we were deep-sea divers, and no one came to find us,” sings Newman. “If you had nothing left, I’d give you my last breath.”

This year’s UK musical warrior wrote this song when he was in Scotland with his fellow songwriters Ed Drewett, Iain James, and Adam Argyle. The song received an inspiration from a documentary about a diver in the North Sea who was rescued due to him getting lost with his crew, and the story has been portrayed in the music video for the track, which features Wim Hof, a Dutch cold water swimmer.

Newman has expressed his pride to be the UK’s representative for Eurovision this year, which fulfills his dream of becoming a performer: “Since I was a little kid, I’ve always wanted to be an artist and performer myself,” says James. “It just feels like the right time to start putting songs out.”

ดูโพสต์นี้บน Instagram

Feeling very honoured and very excited to announce that I have been chosen to represent the UK in @eurovision 2020!! I will be performing my brand new single ‘My Last Breath’, which is out today! Watch the video now at the link in my bio x . . . . #Eurovision #OpenUp #MyLastBreath

โพสต์ที่แชร์โดย James Newman (@jamesnewman) เมื่อ ก.พ. 27, 2020 เวลา 2:10am PST

Newman is no stranger to the music scene in the UK. The singer is behind the success of smash hits with the likes of Calvin Harris’ “Blame” and Rudimental’s “Waiting All Night”, as he is one of the writers of those two tracks. Furthermore, Newman is a frequent collaborator with Rudimental for multiple tracks on their 2015 album We the Generation, with “Lay It All on Me” as one of the massive hits.

Interestingly, he already had an experience with Eurovision before his entry this year. Newman co-wrote Ireland’s 2017 bid “Dying to Try” by Brendan Murray; however, the track was not able to pass the semi-finals.

Newman also has many impressive credits for writing numerous songs with A-listed pop stars. Among the tracks he helps co-write appear Jess Glynne’s “All I Am”, Little Mix’s “Love Me Like You”, Kesha’s “Let Em Talk”, Louis Tomlinson’s “Don’t Let It Break Your Heart”, and the list keeps going on.

Another fun fact: James Newman is the older brother of vocal powerhouse John Newman. And the brothers have helped each other write many songs together, one of which is John’s track “Fire in Me”.

UK’s entry this year is different from other previous entries. Normally, the song entry of the UK is chosen by the public-voted show Eurovision: You Decide. In contrast, 2020’s track is picked up by the BBC in partnership with BMG, the record label that signs James Newman, who shared the vision of “selecting a song with broad international appeal and securing an artist who embodies the spirit and values of the Eurovision Song Contest.”

James Newman will be the UK competitor for the finals of Eurovision in Rotterdam on May 16.

The London based four-piec, is made up of Laura Hayden fronts the band on vocals, Joshua Rumble is on bass, Charles Monneraud is on guitar, and Harry Balazs is on drums, kick off their tour on the 10th of October in Brighton and are set to conclude their tour on the 17th of October in Nottingham.

“We love to disguise sadness behind happy songs. If you’re sad, the best medicine is laughter, so we like and have fun with our songs, regardless of the subject matter. We call it Bitter Dream Pop,” says frontwomen Hayden.

Before coming together as a quartet and doing this in the big time and not just in their spare time, the band all had other careers: Hayden, who is trilingual, is a former MTV Spain presenter and occasional DJ while Rumble does graphic design, guitarist Charles Monneraud used to work in McDonald’s and is now a session musician, and drummer Harry Balazs was formerly a consultant sound engineer for Iranian weddings.

They are now going from strength to strength: they were one of Annie Mac’s New Names for 2016 and were invited to open on the Other Stage at Glastonbury. One of their tracks, ‘The Beat’, was Radio 1’s single of the week.

“We’re trying to focus on taking everything one step at a time. We said at the beginning of last summer we wanted to sort of take everything as it comes and just focus on the present and actually try and enjoy it, instead of being paranoid about what’s going to be happening in the future. I think that’s our approach to music, just do that and not try and follow trends – ‘cause I think once you get caught up in that, you just lose the authenticity of the band really,” Hayden says, speaking about the band’s growing popularity.

10/10/2018 – Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar – Brighton

11/10 – The Garage – London

12/10 – Rough Trade – Bristol

14/10 – Soup Kitchen – Manchester

15/10 – King Tut’s – Glasgow

16/10 – The Wardrobe – Leeds

17/10 – Rough Trade – Nottingham