US writer pens UK Eurovision song

US songwriter Diane Warren will write the lyrics to Andrew Lloyd Webber's music for this year's UK Eurovision entry, it has been announced.

Warren, whose songs include Toni Braxton's Un-Break My Heart and How Do I Live by LeAnn Rimes, said she was thrilled to be working with a "legend".

Meanwhile, singer Damien Flood has become the first act to be thrown off BBC One show Your Country Needs You.

The act which wins the series will represent the UK in Russia in May.

Warren - who also wrote Cher's If I Could Turn Back Time, I Don't Want to Miss a Thing by Aerosmith, and Starship's Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now - said: "I hope that a song from Andrew Lloyd Webber and me will spell a change of fortune for the UK at Eurovision.

"This is a massively new direction for me and I cannot wait to get started"
Andrew Lloyd Webber

"We will write the best song possible for the event and for the artist."

Lloyd Webber, meanwhile, said he was excited to be working with "one of America's greatest songwriters".

"This is a massively new direction for me and I cannot wait to get started," he added.

On Saturday night's show, Graham Norton revealed that Flood and singer Charlotte Finlay-Tribe had polled the least phone votes from viewers and asked Lloyd Webber to save one of the acts.

The act which will represent the UK in Moscow on 16 May will be announced on 31 January.

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