The United Kingdom participated in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2004, which was held on 20 November 2004 in Lillehammer, Norway. National broadcaster ITV was responsible for their participation and organised a national final to select the British entry. Ultimately, Cory Spedding was selected with the song "The Best Is Yet to Come".
The British entry was selected to perform thirteenth in the running order, following the entry from Latvia and preceding the entry from Denmark. The United Kingdom finished in second position with 140 points, which remains the UK's highest placing in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest as of 2023.
A national final was held by Independent Television (ITV) to select the UK entry for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2004.[1] The final, broadcast on digital channel ITV2, was held on 4 September 2004 at the Granada Studios in Manchester and was presented by Holly Willoughby, Stephen Mulhern and Michael Underwood. Regional televoting was held to select the winner from the eight competing acts.[2]
| Draw | Artist | Song | Points | Place | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Samantha Seth | "Rockstar Wannabe" | 17 | 7 | |
| 2 | Kirsty Williams | "Sunshine" | 29 | 4 | |
| 3 | Nathan Sykes | "Born to Dance" | 34 | 3 | |
| 4 | Charlie Allan | "One in a Crowd" | 17 | 7 | |
| 5 | Loaded Dice | "Dill" | 24 | 5 | |
| 6 | Jessica Hamilton | "Because of You" | 19 | 6 | |
| 7 | Andrew Merry | "Together Again" | 46 | 2 | |
| 8 | Cory Spedding | "The Best is Yet to Come" | 48 | 1 |
| + Detailed regional televoting results[3] | |||||||||
| Draw | Song | Regional televoting | UK Text & Mobile | Total | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| South England | Scotland | Northern Ireland | North England | Wales | |||||
| 1 | "Rockstar Wannabe" | 1 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 17 | |
| 2 | "Sunshine" | 5 | 5 | 6 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 29 | |
| 3 | "Born to Dance" | 10 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 8 | 5 | 34 | |
| 4 | "One in a Crowd" | 3 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 17 | |
| 5 | "Dill" | 6 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 24 | |
| 6 | "Because of You" | 2 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 19 | |
| 7 | "Together Again" | 4 | 10 | 10 | 4 | 10 | 8 | 46 | |
| 8 | "The Best is Yet to Come" | 8 | 6 | 8 | 10 | 6 | 10 | 48 | |
The 2004 Eurovision Song Contest was initially to be held in Manchester. However, ITV abandoned the project due to finance and scheduling problems.[4] It was therefore moved to Lillehammer in Norway.
On the night of the contest, Cory Spedding performed 13th in the running order of the contest, following Latvia and preceding Denmark. At the close of the voting Cory received 140 points, placing 2nd of the 18 competing entries, beaten by María Isabel of Spain.[5]
In the United Kingdom, the show was televised on digital channel ITV2 (due to poor viewing figures the previous year) with commentary by Matt Brown. The British spokesperson, who announced the British votes during the final, was national finalist Charlie Allan. A delayed broadcast, consisting of highlights, was aired on ITV1 the following afternoon.