Songfacts®:

• James Newman is an English singer-songwriter who has co-penned hit songs for the likes of Rudimental ("Waiting All Night," "Lay It All On Me"), Jess Glynne ("All I Am") and Calvin Harris ("Blame"). His pop star brother John Newman supplied the vocals on "Blame."
• The BBC chose James Newman to represent the United Kingdom at The Eurovision Song Contest 2020 with this song. "My Last Breath" premiered on BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2 on February 27, 2020.
  
  The European Broadcasting Union announced on March 18, 2020 the cancellation of the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest because of the Covid-19 Pandemic.
• Newman co-wrote "My Last Breath" with British songwriters Ed Drewett, Iain James and Adam Argyle in January 2020. The four are friends, and they penned the tune in Scotland when they were staying near a loch.
• The four writers set out to write a simple, direct song with a universal message. A documentary about a diver in the North Sea who needs saving after getting cut off from the rest of his crew served as inspiration. "It got us thinking about what you would for other people," Newman told the BBC.
• After coming up with its "woah-oh" hook, they knew they'd captured something special. "We wanted to create an anthemic post-chorus that makes everyone feel involved," said Newman. "Can you imagine 20,000 people in the arena going 'woah-oh-ohhh'? It's something you can sing along to without knowing the lyrics."
• James has Eurovision history, having previously co-penned the winning Eurovision song for Azerbaijan, "Running Scared," performed by Ell & Nikki in 2011. Newman himself co-wrote Ireland's 2017 Eurovision entry, "Dying To Try," but it got knocked out in the semifinals.
• The reflective music video features an appearance from Dutch cold-water swimmer Wim Hof.