The song, titled “Eurovusion (Open Up)” can be heard below:

New Zealand’s Eurovision bid is being backed by a Kiwi brewery, Yeastie Boys. The brewery owners have started a petition to let New Zealand join the Eurovision contest, alongside their Australian neighbours who are already included.

Nearly 50k views on our song to launch Aotearoa New Zealand’s bid for an invitation to @Eurovision. https://t.co/gL3JDv9Tox

Surely it’s time @bbceurovision gave it some airtime. If this was in the competition it would be a finalist, for sure.

— Yeastie Boys (@yeastieboys) May 8, 2023

Stu McKinlay, founder of Yeastie Boys, said, “We’ve become big Eurovision fans since arriving here in the UK but we really miss having our own country to cringe at while simultaneously supporting unwaveringly.”

Discussing Australia being included but not his native New Zealand, McKinlay continued, “I was the youngest of five kids and whenever my older siblings went to gigs, I was too young to join them. Australia being in Eurovision, when New Zealand hasn’t been invited, gives me the same vibes and I don’t like it.”

He added, “New Zealanders grow up with a sense of social justice being very important and Australia being invited to Eurovision without New Zealand is like inviting someone to your wedding but not giving them a plus one! Everyone loves New Zealand and finds us cute and non-threatening and that makes us a sure thing for doing well in the public vote. I mean who really likes Australia?”

On the petition page, McKinlay writes, “New Zealand is a country with a rich musical heritage that could bring a lot to the Eurovision party. Just ask Lorde, Crowded House or Dane Rumble.We have taken it upon ourselves to highlight this injustice and right this wrong by inviting fellow New Zealand pals Two Hearts to launch the first ever official unofficial Eurovision entry.”

Ultimately, New Zealand asks, “Why the hell are Australia in it? Can New Zealand come and play too?”

The UK is set to host the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest next week, honouring Ukraine who won last year. The 2023 finals will take place on 9th May and 11th May, with the grand finals on 13th May.

The event will be hosted in Liverpool, with Liverpool-based band Frankie Goes to Hollywood reuniting to open this year’s contest.

Eurovision co-host Alisha Dixon has called this year’s event “so much more than a competition” as the nations gather to honour Ukraine. Dixon said the event is “very important. We feel that sense of responsibility to do it with joy, love.”

Mae Muller is the official UK entrant for 2023, releasing “I Wrote a Song” in hopes of scoring as highly as last year’s UK contestant, Sam Ryder. Listen to Muller’s song here:

The singer announced her headline shows on the 28^th April across her social media platforms. Muller signed off her caption, “i can’t wait to tell you more and i can’t wait to see u all, a slay of truly enormous proportion!!!”.

Tickets for the dates will be on sale at 10 am on Friday 5^th May. For more information see here.

The singer will also be performing at an array of festivals across the UK this summer including Birmingham Pride, Truck Festival, Brighton & Hove Pride, and Big Feastival.

Muller will be performing “I Wrote a Song” at the finals of the Eurovision Song Contest on the 13^th May. The song, which she co-wrote with Karen Poole and Lewis Thompson, is the first UK Eurovision entry to debut inside the Top 40 on the Singles Chart in its first week since 2011. It peaked at number 30 on the UK Singles and number 3 on the UK Singles Downloads. The song debuted on the 9^th March this year coinciding with the announcement that Muller would be representing the UK in the contest. Watch the video for the song below:

“Not to toot my own horn, but I think it’s a great pop song,” Muller told Music Week. “You can dance to it and it’s also a heartbreak anthem, but it’s more than that: it’s about lifting yourself back up, empowering yourself, believing in your self worth and working through negative emotions to come out the other side. And I think that aligns with Eurovision.”

The 25-year-old singer from London, whose full name is Holly Mae Muller, has been rising in notoriety over the last few years. Her debut album Chapter 1 was released in 2019, the same year she supported Little Mix on their LM5: The Tour. Her collaboration with the Swedish music collective Neiked and American rapper Polo G, “Better Days” in 2021 charted in the top 40 in both the UK and the US. Her last record was her third EP, No One Else, Not Even You, in 2020.

This year the UK will host the 67^th Eurovision Song Contest in the Liverpool Arena on behalf of last year’s winners Ukraine. The Semi-Finals will be split between the 9^th and 11^th May to accommodate the volume of countries all jostling for the title. The winner will be announced on the 13^th May after the Grand Final. To see the official list of entries click here.

For a complete list of Mae Muller’s UK and Ireland dates see below:

26/05/23 – M&S Bank Arena – Liverpool
27/05 – Birmingham Pride – Birmingham
21/07 – Truck Festival – Steventon
22/07 – Tramlines – Sheffield
05/08 – Brighton & Hove Pride – Brighton
25/08 – Victorious Festival – Portsmouth
27/08 – The Big Feastival – Kingham
01/09 – Sundown Festival – Norwich
20/11 – SWG3 – Glasgow
21/11 – O2 Ritz – Manchester
23/11 – Roundhouse – London
24/11 – O2 Institute – Birmingham
25/11 – Beckett Student’s Union – Leeds

The singer and television personality has told the BBC that this year’s event is “so much more than a competition“, adding that “It’s very important. We feel that sense of responsibility, to do it with joy, love“.

Dixon will host this year’s Eurovision Song Contest alongside actress Hannah Waddingham, perhaps best known for her role in the comedy series Ted Lasso, and Julia Sanina, front woman of Ukrainian alternative rock band The Hardkiss, with the trio set to be joined by television presenter Graham Norton for the final.

Sanina has also stressed the competition’s importance, telling the BBC, “Even last year, when people were watching Eurovision from bomb shelters, lots of them were still voting and wanted to win“.

Waddingham added, “We have to always balance the joy and the love with what Julia just said. People voting from the bomb shelters hits me more than anything and there’s the reason I wanted to get involved“.

The competition was originally supposed to be hosted by Ukraine, given that the country, represented by rap group Kalush, won the event last year with the song “Stefania“, receiving the most amount of votes the competition has seen in its history. Organisers decided, however, that it was too dangerous to host this year’s event in the war-torn country following the Russian invasion, and Liverpool has stepped in to play host.

Watch Kalush in the 2022 Winner’s Performance below:

This motto for this year’s contest, ‘United by Music’, encompasses fully what responsibility the event has for the country, and indeed for the people, of Ukraine. Staunchly anti-war and a vehicle of peaceful protest, the contest is set to be a proud example of what the world of music can do in the face of injustice and indiscriminate violence, standing tall for the values of peace and prosperity and upright and strong with Ukraine in the face of hostile adversity.

Watch the video for Mae Muller’s “I Wrote a Song“, the official UK entry to the Eurovision Song Contest 2023, below:

The competition is set to commence on May 9th with the first of the semi-finals, with the other being on May 11th. The final will then be held on May 13th. Full coverage of the event will be provided by the BBC. See here for a full breakdown of all the songs that will be performed.

The UK came second in 2022 to Ukraine, who won with Kalush Orchestra’s performance of their song ”Stefania.”The BBC has been working with management company, Tap Management, in order to complete the selection process. The same company was used last year, as Sam Ryder was chosen to secure the 2022 UK entrant spot.

The 25-year-old North Londoner was born in 1997, which was the year the UK last won the international song contest. 1997 UK Eurovision winners were Katrina and the Waves with a performance of their song ”Love Shine a Light.”  Muller was previously the support act for Little Mix on their 2019 tour and has collaborated with British rapper Aitch and DJ Sigala. The singer is the first female act in five years to represent the UK.

Following the announcement of the UK 2023 entrant, BBC Eurovision posted a sneak-peak at the UK’s 2023 Eurovision song and said ”Our UK artist for #Eurovision2023 is the incredible @maemuller_! Here she is with the official video for her #Eurovision track, ”I Wrote A Song.”

Our UK artist for #Eurovision2023 is the incredible @maemuller_!

Whilst speaking about her involvement in this years contest, Mae Muller described the feeling as ”a dream” and said “To compete in such a massive music competition is simply brilliant.”

The singer is recognisable for a stint in the lime light as a nine-year-old girl. Mae Muller appeared in the music video for Mika’s song ‘‘Grace Kelly” in 2007. During a BBC interview, she discussed how she still knows the words to the song and still owns the green dress which she wore during the music video as a child.

Tickets went on sale 7 March with nine events, including preview shows and televised shows, being accessible to fans. However, the tickets for the contest sold out within 90 minutes, with resale prices being sold for thousands over the original price of the tickets. The contest begins Monday 8 May, with semi-finals set to take place Tuesday 9 May and Thursday 11 May. The grand final will take place Saturday 13 May, at the ACC Liverpool arena and will be available to watch live on BBC One from 8pm.