SETTLE born Eurovision Song Contest hopeful James Newman scored nil points in Saturday’s competition but took defeat in good humour and later paid tribute to all his supporters and to being part of the ‘crazy experience’.

The competition, which was held in Rotterdam, Netherlands, in front of an audience of 3,500 people, was won by Italy with rock band Maneskin’s Zitti E Buoni.

Singer-songwriter James scored zero points from both the jury and from the public vote, the only entry on the night to score no points at all, and only the second UK act to perform so badly in 60 years of the contest.

James, the older brother of pop star, John Newman,had hoped to win over viewers with his rendition of upbeat track Embers, which was inspired by the end of lockdown.

He has previously worked with acts including Rudimental and Ed Sheeran, and was originally set to be the UK’s Eurovision entry last year before the event was cancelled due to the pandemic.

For the 2021 event, James replaced ballad My Last Breath with the bouncier Embers.

He received messages of support via social media ahead of Saturday’s evening’s contest, and Settle primary school children recorded a good luck video.

Immediately after the result was announced, a number of celebrity fans of the contest were also quick to send James their support including Matt Lucas and BBC breakfast’s Dan Walker.

Today(Monday) James tweeted how he would concentrate on the positive experiences of the event.

“I want to focus on the positives of this amazing experience. I stood on a stage and sang to hundreds of millions of people with a song that I wrote and love.

“I’ve learnt so much from the amazing people who gave everything to help me live my dream, the dancers, my choreographer, my vocal coach, everyone from my label, my manager and the BBC and all the people behind the scenes at Eurovision and the arena. All these people are the best in the business and I got the chance to work with them and share this crazy experience that I’m so lucky to have the chance to do.

“The thing about writing songs is that there is no guarantee that a song you think will connect with people will connect with an audience.

“Thank you to all the amazing fans who have supported me through the whole thing(and) made it all worth it. Because at the end of the day, they are the people who you do all this for.

I just want to say a huge massive thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who has been on this journey with me, supported me, listened to my music, and filled my life with positivity and love.The times when it doesn’t play out how you hoped it might, teach you how to pick yourself up and be stronger x”