You’re representing your nation in Eurovision. You’ve obtained an amazing pop music full with choreography you’ve spent weeks perfecting. And also you’ve obtained greater than 100 million folks watching as you are taking to the stage. It should really feel exhilarating, a once-in-a-lifetime alternative, proper?
“It was probably the most nerve-racking, trouser-cacking two minutes and 58 seconds of my total life,” says Katrina Leskanich, whose band Katrina and the Waves gained Eurovision for the UK in 1997 with Love Shine a Mild. “Regardless of what number of gigs you’ve completed earlier than, it simply brings out the nerves. There’s a lot stress. You’ve obtained the nation, your label, your loved ones, the folks watching you on TV.”
“It was completely terrifying and it’s important to attempt to flip that into adrenaline,” says Cheryl Baker, who additionally gained for the UK along with her band Bucks Fizz again in 1981 with Making Your Thoughts Up. “Your instant thought is: ‘I can’t bear in mind the phrases, I can’t bear in mind the routine.’” Then muscle reminiscence kicks in. “And on the finish you suppose: ‘Blimey, that went fast.’”
Regardless of Liverpool internet hosting Eurovision final 12 months – Ukraine was unable to host and Sam Ryder was the 2022 runner-up – it has been 27 years for the reason that UK final gained Eurovision. And though we stay joint third within the all-time winners listing (matching Luxembourg, the Netherlands and France with 5 triumphs however behind Eire and Sweden who each have seven), it by some means feels tougher than ever for the UK to win. And but there is a system to doing properly.
First: make it an occasion. “It needs to be bells and whistles or buxom milkmaids, or babushkas hitting kettle drums,” says Leskanich. “You must have a gimmick, or have a kind of songs that simply strikes each chord in each particular person’s coronary heart. In order that they really feel the emotion they usually get goosebumps. It’s by hook or by crook.”
Final 12 months’s Eurovision mirrored these two approaches. Finnish group Käärijä’s Cha Cha Cha was the runner-up, with a music that ended up sounding like a sea shanty, the singer carrying a inexperienced bolero jacket and using a human centipede like a horse. The winner, Loreen from Sweden with the music Tattoo, featured a robust melody, memorable staging (she was slotted in what seemed like a large panini press that she pulled aside) and spectacular vocals. Käärijä dominated the general public vote, however Loreen gained as she was standard with each the general public and jury.
Käärijä, or Jere Mikael Pöyhönen by his actual title, wrote his music in half an hour, after going to a bar along with his producer. He says that an essential facet of profitable is being real. “Eurovision just isn’t solely the music, it’s not solely the present, it’s the particular person, it’s important to be your self,” he says. “After all, the music needs to be good. You want a particular music. If in case you have a standard music you may’t win.”
The largest danger? Mixing in. “You’ve obtained to have, dare I say, ‘the skirt second’,” says Baker, whose profitable music memorably featured a skirt rip. “You’ve obtained to have one thing that makes it stand out above all of the others. And also you’ve obtained to have one thing that makes the juries and all of the folks at dwelling need to see it once more.”
However the lead-up to the massive evening is vital, too. “It’s not simply concerning the efficiency, it’s concerning the promotion, the way you promote all the bundle,” says Eurovision professional Rob Lilley-Jones. “Subsequently you’re seeing international locations selecting artists who’re a bit kooky, a bit totally different, and have already got large social followings.”
Käärijä threw himself into the Eurovision pre-parties, the place performances are placed on for followers. Within the weeks main as much as the competition, his trademark bolero puffer jacket was throughout social media. He even introduced a truck with a sauna on board to Liverpool so journalists may interview him inside. “Your Eurovision household needs to see you, who you’re,” he says. “They don’t need to see or hear solely your music.”
Sam Ryder had many of those qualities. His document, Area Man, featured spectacular vocals, a Crystal Dome-style staging and sudden electrical guitar-playing. He was additionally picked to carry out twenty second within the operating order, when viewership is usually excessive. And his enthusiasm was evident all through the competition, says Leskanich. “All of the planets had been aligned with Sam Ryder,” she says. “He was an amazing singer. He had an amazing music. He offered himself enthusiastically and different international locations beloved him.”
So what are the hopes for Olly Alexander, the UK’s entry? He’s a longtime artist, with a string of hits over the past decade within the British charts. “I believe the music is superb,” says Käärijä.
He’s definitely a robust vocalist, with expertise performing stay at music festivals akin to Glastonbury. “He stays true to his type,” says Gustaph, who got here seventh for Belgium with Due to You in final 12 months’s contest. “This looks as if a music that might simply be a single of his with out Eurovision.”
The staging can also be distinctive, described by Olly Alexander’s own team as “a post-apocalyptic dystopian boxing health club locker room, aboard a spaceship hurtling in direction of Earth by means of a black gap in 1985”. It includes a bathe, and homoerotic dance strikes that may make the Each day Mail flush with anger. Oh, and digicam tips will make Olly look as if he’s flying from the ceiling. “I believe it’s a house run,” says Gustaph. “I’m telling you.”
Leskanich is impressed too. “It’s very, very catchy. And I believe it’s a very nice industrial music. However the great thing about Eurovision is you by no means know what’s going to occur on the evening. Is he going to have the ability to stand out in opposition to what’s now a particularly aggressive area?”
Whereas praising Olly’s voice, Baker is anxious concerning the lack of key change within the music. “Once I first heard it, I assumed: ‘Yeah, I like this.’ After which it didn’t go wherever, and that’s what I’m fearful about.”
Olly’s participation, and Eurovision itself, has additionally been overshadowed by controversy. Israel’s Eden Golan has been allowed to take part, regardless of the continuing battle in Gaza. Some followers have mentioned that it has been hypocritical for Israel to be allowed to compete when Russia was blocked after invading Ukraine, though Martin Österdahl, the European Broadcasting Union’s (EBU) government supervisor overseeing the competition, mentioned in an interview that the conditions had been “utterly totally different”.
Greater than 450 queer artists, beneath the group Queers for Palestine, additionally wrote an open letter to Alexander asking him to withdraw. He responded that whereas he helps a right away ceasefire in Gaza and respects any viewer’s determination to boycott, “it’s my present perception that eradicating myself from the competition wouldn’t deliver us any nearer to our shared purpose”.
It additionally goes to the guts of what Eurovision tries to place itself as: a pleasant music competitors between nations. “It’s a bit paradoxical, as a result of because the EBU at all times say: ‘Oh, we all know we’re not political,’” says Eurovision professional James Rowe. “However even when they maintain the established order, which they’re this 12 months, that’s thought-about political.”
As for Olly’s opponents, it’s a surprisingly open area this 12 months. “We actually don’t know who’s going to win,” says Rowe. “Final 12 months all of us knew that Sweden and Finland had been going to be the highest two. The 12 months earlier than I believe all of us knew it was a foregone conclusion that Ukraine would win. However this 12 months, it is genuinely so open.”
Notable acts for 2024 embody Croatia’s Child Lasagna with Rim Tim Tagi Dim, a catchy document combining rap, rock and techno (plus a smoke machine and pyrotechnics on overdrive) and Switzerland’s Nemo with The Code, which mixes rap and opera (I do know, however belief me it really works.) There’s additionally Eire’s Bambie Thug, whose electrifying witchcraft-themed efficiency Doomsday Blue supplied Eire’s first qualification to the ultimate since 2018.
What recommendation would Katrina give to Olly? “Nicely, at any time when I get actually, actually nervous I believe: ‘We’re all going to be useless … sometime,’” she says. “I do know it’s not a really vivid factor to say to anyone, however for those who’re conscious that there’s an finish date on you and your life, you are likely to take it not so significantly and attempt to have extra enjoyable.”
After profitable Eurovision 1997 in Dublin, she celebrated by ingesting black velvets (champagne and Guinness blended collectively) till 3am. Then she wakened two hours later to do breakfast TV.
“I might advocate having a pleasant stiff drink earlier than you go on, and several other as soon as your efficiency is finished,” she says.
Eurovision Music Contest remaining is on BBC One on 11 Could at 8pm.
