UNITED KINGDOM 2025

The UK song and act were officially revealed on March 7th with the song's airing on BBC Radio 2,the  music video release on youtube and the track release on streaming platforms. Earlier in the year the BBC announced that the entry had been chosen but the song would be revealed at a later date. Going to Basel is Remember Monday with the song "What the hell just happened?" 

Remember Monday is made up of Lauren Byrne, Holly-Anne Hull and Charlotte Steele who are from Surrey in the south of England. In 2019 they performed on The Voice UK getting a 4 chair turn in their audition. After choosing Jennifer Hudson as their mentor, they won their battle round but were eliminated in the knockouts. During the pandemic, they posted acapella covers on TikTok, many of which became single releases, and accellerated their strong social media following. Last year they played the BBC Radio 2 stage at C2C Festival and performed a live session backstage with Bob Harris. Since their first song release in 2019, they have released twelve singles and two albums. Individually they also have a wealth of musical theatre experiences from Mary Poppins to Les Miserables, from The Phantom of the Opera to Matilda. The majority of their output is described as country-pop.

The video takes place in a grand house which has been used for a party. The 3 members are dressed rather similarly, in modern riffs on recency clothing in beige, cream, pinky tones. The outfits are complimented with expensive looking accessories such as fur (hopefully fake!) coats and jewellery. The girls connect well and the video narrative  - and song lyric -  gives the video a light-hearted and comedic edge. The song runs through three lots of verse and chorus however the first verse acts as an intro while the last chorus is a cappella and acts like a finale. There are many gear changes with the chorus being anthemic with long notes holds and vocal riffs, while the verses have a strong beat and is more wordy. The verses tend to be sang a person at a time, sometimes just taking a line at a time, while the chorus is where the trio sing together and in harmony.

There is a lot going on in this song. It is in a similar vein to "The Code" and "Cha Cha Cha" with multiple tones, timing changes and tempos used to create friction, grab attention and to make the watcher/listener stay interested. There is an underlying influence from musical theatre - notably SIX - focusing on story telling, vocal technique and harmonies. It could be a high risk strategy because if they get it wrong on the night(s) the vote will evaporate. The song's structure is enticing the juries who I feel will give this votes if they nail these elements. However, the televote may be more of a battle. Personally I find the song's stop-start nature jarring and the lack of flow stops me enjoying it. The song by itself doesn't work, which won't be good for radio play, but could be memorable for Eurovision if the show is good. This song is not for me but that doesn't mean it doesn't have its merits or appeal elsewhere. One question I can't wait to find out the answer to is -  in a song full of bits which bit will they use for the vote recap?

ARTIST - Remember Monday

SONG - What the hell just happened?

WRITING/PRODUCTION CREDITS - J Aagaard, S Brennan, L Byrne, T Hollings,  H-A Hull, K Kamara, C Steele, T Stengaard 

UNITED KINGDOM 2024

The British song was revealed on March 1st - with the song's release on streaming sites from midnight, the video premiere on YouTube later that morning and an in-depth interview with Graham Norton in the evening. On 16th December, during the grand final of Strictly Come Dancing, it was announced who the representative would be. The song title was made public at a later date, as were snippets of the song and video. The United Kingdom song for Malmö is "Dizzy" by Olly Alexander.

Oliver Alexander Thornton was born in 1990 in the former Eurovision host town of Harrogate. He studied Performing Arts at the Hereford College of Arts but dropped out after he started getting acting roles and prioritised these over his studies. Early roles included parts in CBBC show Summerhill, Channel 4's Skins as well as numerous film parts. He has also acted in the West End and was the main character in "God Help the Girl" a film was written by Stuart Murdoch frontman of Belle and Sebastian, The acting role he is most famous for was in Russell T Davies' "It's a Sin", which earned him much critical acclaim. Along side this he was also furthering his musical ambitions. The band Years & Years, which hired him as a singer, formed in 2010 and "I Wish I Knew" - their first release - came out in 2012. After signing with French label Kitsuné they released "Traps", their second song, in September 2013. In January 2015, they were announced as winners of the BBC's "Sound of 2015" poll. The band's most successful song "King" got to number 1 in the UK in 2015 as did the companion album "Communion". In 2021, Mikey Goldsworthy and Emre Türkmen left the band leaving Alexander to pursue Years & Years as a solo project.

Dizzy is a trance infused song with pop influences. The main part of the song follows a verse-chorus-verse-chorus structure. The verses are more sparse and soulful in the vocal and the backing track reflects this tone. During the chorus, the tune and beat becomes much more prominent. Olly's vocal is lower in the range during this part and has an intriguing quality. The chorus is also cleverly constructed as it is the same section repeated twice each time.  After the shorter second verse and chorus there is a brief post chorus which leads to the bridge. This part is a spoken/rapped part where he repeats the same lines over and over again. This section really builds up the end of the song and gives the song (and Olly) a chance to regroup before one last repetition of the chorus. After this the music echoes out to a finish which is a little on the sudden/unexpected side.

The video is well produced and has a revolving house setup. The fast paced movement really reflects the name of the song (quite literally). The cuts between shots are longer in the verses than the chorus mirroring the changes of pace. Although the full set up would not be possible on stage some of the more technical and televisual ideas might be used. Olly's choreography and execution is amazing and I quite enjoy the jerky movements in the bridge. There are rumours that he will be on stage with 4 dancers which will hopefully really set off that pop edge as well as create interactions that will echo the mood and lyrics of the track.This is a nice friendly radio tune which would be heard around Europe and the world. The verses and chorus really take their weight in the song all the way to the end. My main concern is that although this is a wonderfully written and produced track, I have always had concerns about Olly's live credentials. I have not always found his live vocals to be that palatable as he sometimes looks carried away by the performance, the dancing and the response from the crowd. Will he be able to perform this to a good enough standard live and balance the needs to the visual show? Although the performance needs to be memorable, if it is at the detriment of the vocal then the juries (who should lap this up) will penalise this entry.

ARTIST - Olly Alexander

SONG - Dizzy

WRITING/PRODUCTION CREDITS - Dimitris Kontopoulos, Elke Tiel

UNITED KINGDOM 2023

The British song and act were both  revealed on March 9th via an announcement on the Zoe Ball Breakfast show on Radio 2.  Here, the BBC announced that Mae Muller had internally selected as the UK's representative. The song she will sing in Liverpool is called "I wrote a song".

Muller grew up listening to an eclectic mix of music from The Dixie Chicks, Gwen Stefani and Simon & Garfunkel. Mae started writing her own music at the age of eight and later attended Fine Arts College in Belsize Park. Her first claim to fame was being cast in the video for "Grace Kelly" by Mika. After college, she uploaded songs SoundCloud and Instagram where she was then discovered by her manager. Her debut extended play "After Hours" was released in February 2018, and her debut album "Chapter 1" came out in 2019. She has supported Little Mix on tour and, of late, has collaborated on songs with Marshmello, Sigala and Neiked - the latter of these became part of a TikTok challenge.

The first verse in quite softly sang and this is mirrored in the backing track, this continues through the pre-chorus which ends with an echo and sets up the chorus really well. The chorus is repetitive in its lyric, Mae has a quiet fierceness in her delivery and the backing track in maintained. This then ends with the 'da-da-da' refrain which creates a buffer to the next verse but also maintains the playful take on the subject matter. This the procedure is repeated again, albeit with some slight Spanish embellishments in the backing track and then the song almost shuts down. Mae then starts a short spoken word part before the song builds up for the final chorus which end with the name of the song.

This is a great example of a modern British pop song. It has a good beat, a simple structure and plenty of personality. The meaning of the song is pretty universal, although I will admit I was a little concerned that the song lyrics might be a little too negative but actually their delivery is smoother and less angsty than I envisaged. The chorus is a very well crafted piece of work; you end up getting the name of the title three times in one chorus without being too in your face. This is strengthened by the use of simple but useful rhymes. I hope Mae's live show will emphasise the the power and catchiness of the song. It is in essence a simple song and should not be too taxing to sing. I would like the delivery to stay simple and not be an excuse for Mae to include vocal gymnastics to the mix. I also hope there is a slightly better dance routine than that in the video.

I love the 'pack mentality' show in the film clip. My favourite part is when everyone is outside the house holding hands and running away. I can absolutely imagine Mae and her dancers having a quiet kiki about her ex and then exploding into a fun dance routine. It would be a nice way of making it a very solo singing performance but also making it a very cohesive group stage show. I am expecting this to be quite dynamic and considering there is a real lack of girl groups in this years show a show of 'girl power' would also be a strong motif. I feel like the song will go down very well in the hall but the on-stage team will need to ensure she comes across well down the camera and compels people to vote.

ARTIST - Mae Muller

SONG - I wrote a song

WRITING/PRODUCTION CREDITS - Mae Muller, Alfred Parx, Karen Poole, Lewis Thompson

UNITED KINGDOM 2021

The UK song was released on March 11th, with its UK first play on BBC Radio 2 and the video reveal soon after. James Newman, who had been internally selected to represent the UK last year, was reselected after the cancellation of Eurovision 2020. The song, like last year, was also internally selected and is called "Embers"

The music video follows James driving a retro red car through the twisty countryside. Then it cuts to an night-time scenario which is where more of the action takes place. James is dressed in a dark top and trousers and a rather large coat, however he still moves about a fair bit and seems to be enjoying himself. He is singing the song (along with brass section and dancers) in an industrial setting almost like a lockdown drive-in disco situation. The end minute is filed with lots of smoke, fireworks, reddish lights and lots of overhead drone shots.

The song starts with a very, very brief trumpet intro - which I think they could get rid of and start straight in with the first verse. The end of the pre chorus ends with another trumpet flourish which provides a high point so the chorus can grow again. The main part of the chorus is great, especially with the choir repeating the lines afterwards. However the middle section of the chorus feels a it too subdued and needs beefing up or totally dropping out in the backing track to make it a feature rather than an odd bit. The brass bits between the verses and choruses are really uplifting and provide a great earworm! After another verse and chorus round we have a short bridge which is actually just an abridged chorus in James' lower tone with little music in the background which is then followed by a final burst of the trumpet earworm to finish.

James, and younger brother John, have well celebrated music careers as singers, producers and songwriters. James co-wrote Rudimental and Ella Eyre's UK number 1 "Waiting All Night" and won a Brit Award for co-writing "Waiting All Night". He has also written tracks for Calvin Harris and Toni Braxton and provided vocals for tracks by Armin van Buuren and DJ Matoma .After the cancellation of Eurovision 2020, he released his debut EP which included "My Last Breath".

This is a really good contrast to his 2020 song and you can see that he has learn from his experience and tried something a little different this time round. It certainly stands out as a modern contemporary song rather than the more retro bangers we already have in place. The song also has a happy dance feel to it which is also great on balance. The song itself is not that complicated so I would hope James could belt this out. I would also hope he has some sort of dancing brass section as I think this would give it another visual quality to it. If anything, I would say my main concern about this song is if it is actually going to get votes. This is the type of song that is not going to be right at the top of people's rankings but low enough down that they just don't quite vote for it and I fear that it' lack of a 'call to arms' might let it down. Whatever the result this has a good chance of being a radio hit in the summer.

ARTIST - James Newman
SONG - Embers
WRITING CREDITS - Conor Blake, Samuel Brennan, Tom Hollings, James Newman, Danny Shah

19/03/12 UNITED KINGDOM

A few weeks ago the BBC announced that they had internally selected Englebert Humperdink to represent the UK in Baku. On March 19^th his song was released via the BBC Eurovision website and he will be singing the song “Love will set you free”

The song is quite a typical Englebert song -  a romantic, slow, waltzing ballad with a big finish. It starts of very quiet and haunting. The voice and guitar work at the start really sets the atmosphere of the song. After 2 verses and choruses the song really starts to ratchet up and springs into a fifth gear when he goes for the key change at 2:20 and the big note at the end really makes the song very memorable. The song is very well constructed and will do well in the contest. It does finish a bit short though and he could string the final note out or make the backing for that part even bigger to get it to the full 3 minutes.

Englebert is very experienced and I think most people are confident that he will be able pull of a good performance on in a vocal way. Obviously the video does not show off or showcase this but I think he will do a good job. Cannot wait to see a live performance though! It really does have an old fashioned chanson feel to it and I almost feel like the song could have sounded even better in French. I terms of visual performance I think they could go two ways. They could have him on his own with a very central focussed individual performer or have musicians/dancers involved n the periphery. Either way I think Englbert will not be doing a costume change or bursting into a dance routine!

This is a very good, classy choice and I feel that it should do well – especially with the juries as well as the schlager community. This is a very tasteful choice and I think many countries in Europe will be seeing this as a very serious contender.

SONG – Love will set you free

ARTIST – Englebert Humperdink

COMPOSERS - Martin Terefe, Sacha Skarbek

LANGUAGE – English