The 1985 edition of A Song for Europe was held at the BBC Television Centre on 9 April, hosted by a suited Terry Wogan. The theme music (as it has been in previous years) was Te Deum. There was an orchestra used to perform the songs, again this was off screen, with conductor John Coleman.

333 songs were originally submitted to the Music Publisher's Association, with 8 songs chosen. Song writers could only submit a maximum of two songs to the MPA, but the identity of the writers was not disclosed to the MPA judges. Due to the poor reception of the UK entry in the previous year's Eurovision Song Contest, the BBC approached both Bonnie Tyler and Lena Zavaroni to represent the UK and perform all the shortlisted songs in the UK heat. Tyler was unavailable and the MPA rebuffed the BBC's concept, wanting the composers and authors the option of choosing their own performers. A compromise rule was introduced, stating that no groups (more than 2 performers) were allowed to take part, however this rule was only in place for this one year. The songs were selected by around 90 people, DJs, producers and publishers.

The show opened with a group of dancers, dancing to old Eurovision songs: "Making Your Mind Up", "Waterloo", "Puppet on a String", "Save Your Kisses for Me", "Boom Bang-a-Bang" and "Congratulations". The artistes were introduced on stage with captions on screen, followed by presenter Terry Wogan. The songs had been first previewed in the previous week on the Wogan TV show.

Notable songwriters and performers included Paul Curtis who had had entries in the Eurovision final as well as a large number of previous entries in the Song for Europe. 1970s glam rock singer Alvin Stardust (who had recently enjoyed a comeback in the charts) appeared as a performer as did Fiona Kennedy who was at the time a presenter of TV's Record Breakers.

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