As a member of the "Big Four", the United Kingdom automatically qualified to compete in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest.

For the 1999 contest, it finished in twelfth place out of twenty-three competing entries with the song "Say It Again" performed by Precious, which was its worst result since 1987.

The broadcaster has traditionally organised a national final featuring a competition among several artists and songs to choose its entry for Eurovision.

For its 2000 entry, the BBC announced that a national final involving a public vote would be held to select its entry, reverting to the historic A Song for Europe title but retaining the format from the previous selection show The Great British Song Contest (1996–99).

[4][5] The 1,000 received submissions were reviewed and a 25-song shortlist was compiled (the song "Stand Up" written by Richard Silver was automatically included in the shortlist after winning the London International Song Contest which was also ran by BASCA) and presented to a professional panel headed by music producer Jonathan King that ultimately selected eight semi-finalists to compete in the national final.

[5][6][7][8] The eight artists were announced on 15 December 1999, while the competing songs were premiered during The Ken Bruce Show and Wake Up to Wogan on BBC Radio 2 between 10 and 13 January 2000.

[9][10] Four acts competed in the televised final on 20 February 2000 which was held at the BBC Elstree Centre in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire and hosted by Katy Hill.