Next year it will be 30 years since the UK last won Eurovision. In that time, the nation has tried boybands, girlbands, established acts, new acts, old-school ballads, EDM, hip-hop (anyone remember Love City Groove?), all without success.
Now the UK is turning to Sam Battle, AKA Look Mum No Computer, who's featured on MusicRadar multiples times down the years. You'll know him as a Kent-based ‘experimental’ electronic musician and "an inventor of unique musical machines,” so certainly not your typical Eurovision entrant.
In years gone by there might have been a televised Song For Europe contest to decide the UK’s entry, but nowadays it's all decided internally at the BBC, with the help of some ‘industry experts’.
Kalpna Patel-Knight, Head of Entertainment at the BBC, says of Battle: "His bold vision, unique sound and electric performance style make him a truly unforgettable artist.
"Look Mum No Computer embodies everything the UK wants to celebrate on the Eurovision stage – creativity, ambition, and a distinctly British wit. I am sure he will make us all proud on the international stage in May."
We don’t yet know the song, but the Radio 2 DJ Scott Mills has heard it and described it thus: "From just one listen, I want you to imagine a bit of Basshunter's Now You're Gone and then put a bit of Parklife [by] Blur in there, and maybe you would add in a bit of West End Girls [by] Pet Shop Boys, maybe the synths of The Human League. Sprinkle a bit of Verka Serduchka in there. Maybe just a tiny bit of Sex Pistols.”
Sounds exhausting, eh? Anyway, the song will be premiered on Mills’s Radio 2 breakfast show sometime in the coming weeks.
In the meantime, if you're looking for some sonic clues, here's an old Look Mum No Computer single, Modern Gas.
It’s reminiscent of the artists that used to be denoted as ‘wonky pop’ a decade or so back - people like Frankmusik and Dan Black, who approached pop music from a leftfield indie angle.
He’s certainly an inventive chap, too. Those “unique musical machines” are for real – in 2018 he constructed an organ out of discarded Furby toys and he has been included in the Guinness Book Of Records for building the world’s largest drone synth.
The contest takes place in Vienna on 16 May, and Battle will be competing in a slightly depleted field this year. Five countries – Spain, the Netherlands, Iceland, Slovenia and seven times winners Ireland – have withdrawn from Eurovision in protest at the continued participation of Israel in the wake of the genocide in Gaza.
In a statement, Battle said that he found it “completely bonkers” that he had been selected to be the UK’s entrant. “I have always been a massive Eurovision fan, and I love the magical joy it brings to millions of people every year, so getting to join that legacy and fly the flag for the UK is an absolute honour that I am taking very seriously.”
He continued: “I’ve been working a long-time creating, writing, and producing my own visions from scratch, and documenting my process. I will be bringing every ounce of my creativity to my performances, and I can’t wait for everyone to hear and see what we’ve created. I hope Eurovision is ready to get synthesized!”
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