Duo Joe and Jake have been chosen to represent the UK at the Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm later this year. The pair, who met while competing on ‘The Voice’ last year, won the public vote during BBC4’s live 'Eurovision: You Decide' show on Friday night.

A photo posted by @joeandjakemusic on

Joe Woolford and Jake Shakeshaft beat five other hopefuls to win the right to represent the UK in Sweden on May 14th, after impressing the judging panel with track ‘You’re Not Alone’.

Judge Katrina Leskanich, who was the last British act to win the competition with her band Katrina and the Waves’ in 1997, told the duo she couldn’t get the song’s melody out of her head.

More: BBC Will Let Public Pick The UK Entry For 2016 'Eurovision Song Contest

Speaking to BBC Newsbeat after their win, Joe said the pair had quit their jobs to focus on Eurovision victory. "We thought, 'We want this that much,' we left our jobs," Joe said. ”We didn't have any money. We've just been singing and grafting.”

"It's great to know that it's paid off and the public have put their trust in us to represent the UK.” Jake added: "It was a big risk to just focus all of our time on this because obviously we could have not won.”

In 2015 they both competed on ‘The Voice’ separately and started working together after the show. "We were good friends on The Voice but once it was over we spent more time together and started working together a lot more,” Jake said.

More: Eurovision Song Contest Announces Significant Changes To Voting System

This year’s Eurovision will see a change to the voting format, with both juries and the public awarding a set of points separately. The juries will present their country’s results in the the traditional manner and then the public votes will all be revealed in one bloc.

This means that the winner will only be known right at the very end. “In previous years the winner has been known for up to 20 minutes before the end of voting and that’s not good TV,” executive Producer Martin Österdahl said. “This format change will inject a new level of excitement into the finish of the Eurovision Song Contest.”