“The latest odds have the United Kingdom’s Olly Alexander at 10/1 to win the Eurovision Song Contest 2024.”
There’s a string of words none of us expected to see together. Being a UK Eurovision fan over the past decade or so has been like dating in your twenties—a rollercoaster of emotions that nearly always ends in disappointment and crying into a Pot Noodle on Saturday night. But we still believe in true love, and now the possibility of a win in the not-too-distant future.
Sooner Or Later
Today’s cautious optimism began in 2020 when a rugged-looking fella with a gravelly voice was internally selected to represent the United Kingdom. Although James Newman had no previous track record as an artist to speak of (he was better known as a behind-the-scenes songwriter), some of us had high hopes. The BBC said they were pursuing a different angle.
The broadcaster’s partnership with BMG suggested the Corporation was starting to take the competition seriously again—bringing in the big guns who could put some money behind their artist and help steer us, if not to a win, then at least to a respectable top ten finish for the first time since 2009. Well. We all know how that ended.
Without James, however, it’s unlikely we’d be where we are now.
Desire
The story goes that after the poor result in Rotterdam, the BBC’s Head of Delegation, Lee Smithurst and his Spanish counterpart, Ana María Bordás, sat at the bar together and made a promise; “Next year will be better,” they told each other, as they clinked glasses.
One shiny spaceman and a bottomless pair of chaps later, and both kept up their end of the bargain. A partnership with TaP Music yielded the UK’s best result in over two decades, while Spain finished in third place with an iconic performance from Chanel (also known as the ‘bum bum dance’ in our house).
Back in the UK, it was like someone had lit the touch paper. the Eurovision Song Contest was back in the public consciousness in the best way. People—not just us fans, but everyone—were talking about it, and not just to say, “it’s all political”. We are not, generally speaking, an optimistic nation, but Sam Ryder’s can-do attitude and relentless positivity seemed to be spreading.
Shine
Hosting the Song Contest in 2023 on behalf of Ukraine didn’t just rehabilitate Brand Eurovision in the eyes of the British public – it was a cultural phenomenon. The UK’s passion for the Contest—long dormant in the media but ever-present in the real world—started to shine through.
Reports from Liverpool Combined Authority suggest the Contest boosted the local economy by £54.8 million. The message was clear: Eurovision isn’t just good for a country’s musical reputation; it’s also big business.
No doubt buoyed by the success of a flawlessly executed show, Smithurst and the BBC team came into the new season on a high. “Artists want to talk to us,” he told journalists at the end of last year.
Picking an artist for 2024, however, wasn’t going to be easy. For too long, representing the UK at Eurovision was viewed as a poisoned chalice. Sam Ryder’s success had gone a considerable way to removing that stigma – but Mae Muller’s subsequent failure in the contest could have undone some of that good work… although her song did make the top 10 in the UK, which was noted by many in the business.
King
The selection of Olly Alexander was a coup for the BBC (two Number One UK albums, ten UK Top Forty singles, 6.5 billion streams globally, oh – and a heap of best actor nominations for his role in It’s A Sin, thank you very much) – but it’s also brilliant because he loves the Eurovision Song Contest.
He’s been watching it since he was a child, according to his mum, and he live-tweets the show (just like us!) every year. A proper star who is a proper fan. In choosing Olly, the message is clear, and nobody is tiptoeing around it anymore: we want this.
“Our ambition is to win and for the single to go to Number One, and for it to be another watershed moment for Eurovision for the UK,” the BBC Music’s Commissioning Executive, Will Wilkin told the Eurotrip Podcast in January.
Whether he wins the Song Contest or not, the song is highly likely to be a commercial success both in the UK and internationally. The UK finally ‘gets’ it. It wasn’t ever that “everyone hates us” (a common refrain when we came back with yet another bad result). It was that we weren’t playing every single card possible in a bid to win. Now we are, and UK fans finally have some skin in the game.
Win or lose, we’re proud of our entry. We can hold our heads up and say, “we brought our best”.
The Eurovision Song Contest in the UK has finally grown up. We’re no longer tottering about in uncomfortable shoes after the wrong guys every year. There will be no more Saturday night Pot Noodles for us. We’re mature, we know what we want and we’re going after it.