I find myself in extraordinary position of writing this entry for the host country which also happens to be home country the United Kingdom. Of course, it wasn’t a win last year, but the remarkable second place Sam Ryder achieved meant that it fell to the UK to be asked to host on Ukraine’s behalf and the BBC and so many other organisations and individuals have risen to that challenge. In terms of the contest then, it means that Mae Muller has very big shoes to fill, both in following jury-winning Sam, and as the host entry. So, she wrote a song…

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The BBC stuck to the successful partnership with music management company Tap that brought us Sam Ryder with “Space Man”. The speculation on social media, as ever, rose to fever pitch (and predictably got out of hand) before it was revealed to be Mae Muller and “I Wrote a Song”. Mae is not new to the music industry by any means, having had a successful single in 2021 with “Better Days“. She also appeared on Mika’s music video for Grace Kelly back in 2007 when she was 10. She’s a co-writer of “I Wrote a Song” (quite a relief to hear really given the title) along with two experienced writers and producers. It’s an uptempo and very contemporary dance-pop track, all about empowerment and overcoming negative emotions.

Of course, I am going to be a little biased, but this is genuinely a really fun and enjoyable song that really represents modern British pop music – so many comments have been made that this feels like something that you would hear in the charts and the radio, and has a real UK feel. That Britishness is very on show in the spoken word bridge when you hear Mae’s London accent so clearly – some people (UK fans usually) not like that part but I love it and I think non-UK people seem to like it a lot – and like the fact it clearly shows that this is a UK pop song. The song is fun, super catchy, modern, representative with a young, fun and sassy singer.

As usual with UK representatives, Mae has been an amazing representative. She’s a social media star – her posts and interactions are great. She’s a lovely person (so genuinely warm and friendly at LEP) and she’s shown herself to be an ally of trans people – and, shock horror, has shown herself to have (non-toxic) political views in the past. The feral right wing media in the UK tried to whip up a storm against her but it proved a damp squib and didn’t faze her a bit. She seems to be having a ball interacting with the other artists and even got to meet the King and Queen at th

Predicting how the UK will do is a risky business… Last year proved, decisively I hope, that “they all hate us” is just not true. What I will say is that this is probably not quite as jury friendly as “Space Man” but it’s had a great reaction from fans, finishing in the top 10 of the OGAE fan vote and in the Eurovision scoreboard app. That said, she did well in Eurojury with the jury side there, so perhaps there are more potential votes there than I would have thought. She is closing the show and being a home crowd that will raise the roof – and of course, we have yet to see the staging. It’s got some of the same team as last year, and the music video was great, so am keeping hopes up there.

All in all though, this is a song that the UK can be proud of – it’s had a very positive fan reaction, it’s even had good reviews from non-Eurovision music critics and it was the first UK Eurovision entry in a decade to debut inside the UK Top 40 on first release. None of that guarantees a high ranking result, but I think Mae and all the team have put the UK in a good position to keep that Eurovision momentum going.

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United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest