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

For the 2017 contest, the United Kingdom finished in fifteenth place out of twenty-six competing entries with the song "Never Give Up on You" performed by Lucie Jones.

[2] Between 2011 and 2015, BBC opted to internally select the British entry, while the broadcaster organised a national final featuring a competition among several artists and songs in 2016 and 2017.

[4] On 29 September 2017, BBC announced an open submission for interested artists to submit their songs in the form of a video recording.

[5] The received submissions from the open call were reviewed and a shortlist was compiled by the UK branch of the international OGAE fan club.

Additional entries were provided to the BBC by former music director of RCA Records and founder of Innocent Records, Hugh Goldsmith, who held songwriting camps with professional songwriters and consulted with music industry experts including independent writers and members of the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) in order to encourage entry submissions and involvement in the national final.

[11] On 14 April, SuRie performed during the Eurovision in Concert event which was held at the AFAS Live venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands and hosted by Edsilia Rombley and Cornald Maas.

The running order for the semi-finals and final was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other.

[20][21] During the performance, stage invader Dr ACactivism grabbed SuRie's microphone and shouted: "Modern Nazis of The UK media, we demand freedom!

[23] Three off-stage backing vocalists joined SuRie for the performance and were Charlotte Churchman, Debby Bracknell and Mark De-Lisser.

During an interview on ITV magazine programme This Morning after the contest, SuRie revealed she had some bruises on her hands where Dr ACactivism had grabbed her and also on her shoulder where he had barged into her, but stated that she had not been seriously harmed by the incident.

Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency.

This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act.

In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently.