With Eurovision getting ever closer, it’s been announced that Mae Muller will represent the United Kingdom at this year’s iconic song contest.
The UK confirmed today that the 25-year-old will be UK’s first female Eurovision entrant in five years and will perform her track entitled ‘I Wrote A Song’ at the competition in May.
The typically Europop-sounding bop has a lot to live up to, after last year’s entry ‘Space Man’ by Sam Ryder was just pipped to the winning post by Ukraine.
The grand final of the competition will be held in just over two months, on 13 May in the northern UK city of Liverpool. Ironically, Muller was born in 1997 which was the last time the country won Eurovision when Katrina and Waves blew Europe away with their hit ‘Love Shine A Light’.
The UK is one of the last competing countries to reveal its song for 2023’s contest.
Unlike the majority of European nations, the public are not given a chance to decide on the entry and instead the British Broadcasting Corporation worked with a management company to select Muller as its entrant.
She’s previously supported Little Mix on tour and worked with artists like Aitch and Sigala, and says the opportunity to compete on such a large stage is “a dream”.
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Born in London, she was first involved in music at the age of 9 when she appeared in Mika’s music video for ‘Grace Kelly’. She usually writes her own songs but shot to fame with 2021’s ‘Better Days’, a collaboration with Swedish producers Neiked and she now has over six million unique monthly streams on Spotify alone. She’s big on social media too — with over 129,000 followers on Instagram and over half a million on TikTok.
The deadline for the 37 competing countries to confirm their song and act choice is 13 March and, while most have announced their decisions, Portugal and, interestingly, Sweden are yet to release any details. The Scandinavian nation is favourite to win the competition despite little indication of who will be singing and what song they will perform.
Last year’s winners Ukraine are second favourites to triumph, with their song ‘Heart of Steel’ by Tvorchi. Finland round off the top three bookies’ choices with their track ‘Cha Cha Cha’ by Käärijä.
There are typically two ways that a country chooses its Eurovision entry.
Most common is an internal selection, with a TV show asking for public votes to choose the winner but, like the UK, other nations select their winning act behind the scenes.
2023 is a particularly special and exciting year for Eurovision. While the country who wins the previous year’s pageant normally has the honour of hosting the next event, the UK are throwing the spectacular event on behalf of Ukraine, after organisers ruled it too dangerous for the war-torn country to hold the event following Russia’s invasion.
It’s bound to be a vintage year for the contest, which started nearly 70 years ago in 1956, with just seven entrants. Its popularity has grown hugely over the years and, when tickets for the nine live shows — including the grand final — went on sale on Tuesday (7 March), they sold out within 36 minutes.
Luckily, the two semi-finals and the final itself will be televised across the world so we can all join in with the musical extravaganza.
