Around two weeks since synth-mad singer-songwriter Look Mum No Computer was revealed as our entry for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), the song he’ll be competing with has been released to the public. While there has been an expectation that the track would defy convention, it’s proven to be even more unusual than first promised.
Artist Sam Battle, whose musical vehicle Look Mum No Computer was selected by the BBC’s panel of judges, is an innovator and developer of curious objects, chief among them unique analogue synthesisers. He uses them to create his own brand of electronic pop, forgoing modern computerised effects which make up a vast majority of current chart music instrumentation. His single ‘Eins, Zwei, Drei’ made its debut on Scott Mills’ BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show last Friday, marking a real shift from the instantly-accessible theme of past Eurovision entries.
The song is a pulsating, energetic synth-pop banger, with vocals and lyrics in the style of 90s Britpop icons Blur. While the music has a eurobeat feel to it and the anthemic chorus refrain is in German, the vibe of the track is quintessentially British. The accompanying music video sells the story of escaping the 9-5 working existence and indulges in niche British cultural icons such as the humble “roly-poly” dessert, while showcasing Sam’s custom “Kosmo” synthesiser unit. Ending with him riding a modified Mini with a payload of speakers and synths into the sky, this is a very novel piece, even for the ESC’s threshold for weirdness. The full package is a far cry from 2025’s glamorous-but-safe entry ‘What The Hell Just Happened?’ performed by Remember Monday.
Battle explains the story behind the song in interviews with the BBC, with the origins being quite humorous. When talking to BBC Radio Kent, he explains that he’d initially approached the UK’s Eurovision committee to aid with writing an entry for another artist, but was shocked to find they wanted to write one in collaboration for him to perform – “somehow my manager managed to get in front of them and they said ‘oh you could try and write a song I suppose,’ so I tried to write a song and it was very conventional. But then I went to a writing session, and because I’m a songwriter for people, I was expecting I was going to write for people. And I was like ‘who are we writing for today? Which one of us are we writing for today?’ and they were like ‘we’re writing for you!’”
In another interview with BBC’s Mark Savage, he tells that the song’s name comes from a serendipitous incident during the writing session. “It’s ‘one, two, three’ in German. It’s completely wacky, the situation that happened. When I was coming up with the actual ‘Eins, Zwei, Drei,’ I was actually moving a sofa to get my synth set up and I was shouting ‘eins, zwei, drei’ and that’s when they were like ‘that’s the name of the song!’” With the ESC’s Grand Final taking place in Vienna, the German language chorus may be a hit with the local Austrian crowd. According to the BBC, the song has more German words than Germany’s own entry, ‘Fire’ performed by Sarah Engels.
The song was co-written by an all-star team of composers behind past Eurovision winners – Lasse Midtsian Nymann (NYLAN) who wrote on 2024 Swiss winner ‘The Code’ by Nemo; Julie ‘Kill J’ Aagaard, a multi-platinum singer-songwriter; and Thomas Stengaard, who contributed to 2013’s Danish champion ‘Only Teardrops’ by Emmelie De Forest. The live choreography for the performance is corralled by Fredrik ‘Benke’ Rydman, the visionary behind the spectacular staging of ‘The Code’, who has also dabbled in the bizarre with Käärijä’s hugely-memorable ‘Cha Cha Cha’ for Finland in 2023.
View this post on Instagram
Look Mum No Computer will bring his voice, his synthesisers, and no doubt his Mini to the Wiener Stadthalle for the Eurovision Song Contest Grand Final on the 16th of May. Currently, speculation is very positive with this brave new approach from the UK, but we’ll have to wait and see how the European fans embrace it. You can follow Sam’s journey through his Youtube channel, his Instagram account, or his personal website, with the BBC also covering his course to May.
