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.

Described as a “dance-driven alt-pop song“ by NME, MIKA said that with the track he wished to “write a song that could make you cry and dance at the same time. It’s a song to make the world, in all its harshness, feel better. Something that will always be there to comfort you. I wrote this for you, as you listen in your room, or in a club: it doesn’t matter it’s just about you.”

If you like the track then be sure to tune in for his performance on tonight’s Eurovision Song Contest, which starts on BBC One at 8pm. MIKA will be presenting alongside the Italian singer Laura Pausini and Alessandro Cattelan. Among their other special guests will include last year’s winners Måneskin, who will be performing their latest single “Supermodel“.

Some of the contestants include the UK’s very own Sam Ryder, who gained fame on TikTok posting videos of himself singing songs such as Britney Spears’ “Hit Me Baby One More Time“. Apparently many say he has a good chance of even bagging first prize, but not as much as the Kalush Orchestra from Ukraine, whose song is called “Stefania”.

Of course, recent political events on the world stage can’t have been ignored, with Kalush Orchestra’s Oleh Psiuk having his say on what it means to represent his country during a time of crisis. “To represent Ukraine in the international arena is always a responsibility, but to represent it during the war is just the highest responsibility possible.”

As for MIKA, he hasn’t released a new studio album since 2019’s My Name is Michael Holbrook, and he only had one single to his name last year, so this latest offering should be exciting news for fans of the “Grace Kelly“ star. He’s also got some tour dates lined up around Europe, visiting the likes of Switzerland, France and Italy between June and September. If you fancy looking into some of these, you can find tickets here. As for those of you who don’t fancy switching countries to see him, he’ll be performing in London’s Roundhouse venue this July 3^rd.

According to the association’s, today’s event will be ‘an exceptional and intimate Christmas concert that will be broadcasted LIVE on our Facebook page and also MIKA’s Facebook page. Accompanied on the piano and by a few choristers from 100 Voices of Gospel, MIKA will sing some of the most famous Christmas songs.’ Mika moved to France to work on their version of The Voice in 2014 and while there has taken up the cause of Margo very strongly, appearing in a fundraising video and now performing this charity concert.

While fans of Mika may be disappointed that there won’t be any ‘Grace Kelly,’ or ‘We Are Golden,’ the event is sure to put people in the festive spirit as they get to see one of their favourite pop stars performing some festive numbers. With most people in the UK now experiencing severely, and surprisingly, reduced Christmas celebrations, and tensions between the UK and France a little stronger now due to an unexpected border closure, this event will hopefully help to cool some heads on both sides of the channel.

While Mika’s career began explosively, with his debut album ‘Life In Cartoon Motion,’ reaching number 1 on the official charts, a little over a decade has now passed and he has not seen an album return to the top spot since then. This is, however, perhaps no bad thing, while 2009’s follow up ‘The Boy Who Knew Too Much,’ was another big hit, reaching number 4 on the charts, a slight hiatus before a third album let to his next release only reaching number 24.

Despite slipping on the charts, Mika has continued to release albums throughout the twenty-teens with his most recent release ‘My Name Is Micheal Holbrook,’ for the most part showing a much more mature side to Mika with a definite effort to show fans the real man behind the persona and the outcome is a much more sensitive record with more piano and vocal based ballads than catchy pop hooks. However, in tunes like ‘Ice Cream,’ the cheeky character we remember from 2007 hits like ‘Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)’ is still alive and well and the track oozes with funk.

Mika began his Revelation tour in support of ‘My Name Is Micheal Holbrook,’ in London fortunately just before the pandemic began. Fans who witnessed the first show at Shepherd’s Bush Empire were able to see what has been described as ‘as lovely as the first gig of the tour possibly can be,’ with a ‘cozy atmosphere,’ and a ‘vibe particularly loving with many familiar people from all over the world in the audience.’ Fans now eagerly await the next album.

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A post shared by MIKA (@mikainstagram) on Aug 24, 2020 at 3:35am PDT

The singer, who last year released his fifth studio album, My Name Is Michael Holbrook, billed the upcoming show as ‘a very special performance’, adding that there will be ‘some surprises’ for viewers. As well as organising the benefit concert, Mika has also set up a GoFundMe page, where anyone can make donations to aid the city’s recovery; the page has already collected over £18,300 since being created on August 20.

Mika is of Lebanese descent and was born in Beirut, where, on August 4, 178 people were killed and over 6,000 were injured in an explosion caused by 3,000 tonnes of illegally stored ammonium nitrate in the city’s port. The artist wrote: ‘Beirut has been through so much and the resilience and strength the Lebanese people is undeniable. It is the place of my birth, a part of me and will always be in my heart’. 

 

 

 

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#Beirut A post shared by MIKA (@mikainstagram) on Aug 9, 2020 at 4:01am PDT

The artist’s announcement of the I Love Beirut show follows a series of online activity related to the tragic incident in Lebanon. In another moving letter to its citizens, Mika expressed his grief and deepest sympathies, as well as criticising the country’s leadership. He remarked: ‘I cannot but think of these two explosions as a symbol of a system which is shattering’. 

The singer said that it was this leadership which steered Lebanon into ‘a series of misfortunes’, which he argues led to the recent disaster. He called out Hassan Diab, the country’s Prime Minister, after he said that those responsible for the explosion would be ‘held accountable’. To this, Mika responded: ‘Those responsible for whom? For what? Those responsible for 30 years of agony which have turned the land of cedars into the land of ashes’. The Port of Beirut, the epicentre of the blast, is indeed owned and overseen by the Lebanese government.

 

 

 

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If you would like to find out more information on the charities I have personally chosen to support, head to the linktree in my bio   A post shared by MIKA (@mikainstagram) on Aug 9, 2020 at 3:51am PDT

Fans from across the globe have left messages of support under Mika’s recent social media posts. One commented: ‘These words – your words – resonate with me, echoing in my ears. I’m terribly moved by the way you wrote all this. This is when you remind us that your pen is equalled only by your candour. This is the artist I love’.

The Lebanese Red Cross, one of the charities receiving support from Mika’s September show, has been working on the front lines in Beirut amid the recent catastrophe, its volunteers providing free life-saving disaster relief. Save the Children, a British charity also receiving revenue from the performance, has set up an emergency fund to aid Beirut’s children, thousands of whom are now homeless.

Tickets to Mika’s I Love Beirut benefit concert can be purchased for £10 each, all of which will be donated to the above charities.