Up-and-coming pop star Mae Muller will represent the U.K. in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. Despite Ukraine being crowned last year’s winners, the 2023 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest will be held in Liverpool, U.K. The U.K. entry from last year—“Space Man” by Sam Ryder—shot to second place, a feat few could have predicted, given it was the U.K.’s best result in over 20 years by far. (Who could forget the infamous “nul points” tally of 2021?) As such, Mae Muller has big shoes to fill.
Muller seems up to the task, however. With a solid amount of experience under her belt, including the 2021 hit “Better Days”—which sold over a million copies and went platinum in the U.S.—she’s also got plenty of performance experience to fall back on. She’s supported ex-One Direction member Liam Payne on tour, as well as girl group Little Mix, and recently sold out a solo show at the Kentish Town Forum in North London. She’s even performed in front of millions of people on The Voice in the U.S.
Hopefully, that means stage presence won’t be an issue for Muller at the Eurovision Song Contest. Eurovision, above all, is about performance. You could arrive at the show with the greatest song ever written, and most of the audience still wouldn’t bat an eye if you weren’t wearing the most extravagant gown or if you didn’t have a cardio-heavy dance routine, a costume change, flames shooting out of instruments, or animal masks on.
Mae Muller was selected for Eurovision internally by Tap Management, the same group that chose Sam Ryder for last year’s entry. They’ve worked with pop superstars Dua Lipa and Ellie Goulding in the past, and given Ryder’s success last year, they’re likely hoping their streak will continue.
Muller’s track for Eurovision is aptly titled “I Wrote A Song,” a breakup anthem dissing her cheating ex and listing all the things she wants to do to him to get revenge as a means of therapy. If the beat sounds familiar, that’s because it certainly has an air of previous Eurovision entries, which may give Muller a leg up on the competition, as dance club numbers usually do quite well with audiences and the judges. At least it’s not a power ballad.
As long as she’s got the right outfit on, there’s a chance Mae Muller can take the U.K. to the left side of the leaderboard again. But, as it’s Eurovision, we can’t forget the other reasons people vote the way they do, too—geopolitical favoritism, petty squabbles, set design, and general flamboyance. Mae Muller, as every other past U.K. entry did, will have a lot to contend with.
(via BBC, featured image: Joe Maher/Getty Images For Bauer Media )
