This marks the first time that a group will represent the UK at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest. The song “Back To Life”, written by Sky Adams, Jakke Erixson, and Jack Hawitt, who have previously written for renowned artists such as Jason Derulo, Lauren Spencer Smith, Kylie Minogue, and Ava Max.

Hayla, a 12-year-old resident of Liverpool, possesses a captivating family background in relation to the Eurovision Song Contest. Notably, her grandfather had the privilege of serving as a backing dancer for the United Kingdom’s entry in 1987.

Meanwhile, Maisie, a 13-year-old hailing from Essex, finds immense joy in the realms of singing, dancing, and acting on stage. Furthermore, she shares a special bond with her grandad through their shared interest in clay pigeon shooting. Additionally, Maisie finds solace in the art of relaxation and has developed a fascination for collecting crystals.

Similarly, Yazmin, a 12-year-old residing in Newcastle, possesses a remarkable affinity for performing in front of audiences, particularly in the domains of Latin and Ballroom dancing. When not captivating crowds with her graceful moves, Yazmin finds solace in the company of her cherished chihuahua, Tinkerbell. Moreover, she channels her creativity through the art of storytelling and indulges in the pleasure of shopping.

The UK representatives were informed of their selection by BBC Radio 1’s Dean McCullough, surprising the trio of singers. They were invited to a dance studio in central London, under the pretence of attending an additional audition. It was during this gathering that Dean revealed the news of their selection to travel to France in November.

Patricia Hidalgo Reina, Director of BBC Children’s and Education, said, “The Junior Eurovision Song Contest was a real spectacle and success for us last year and we’re very happy that we have a new calendar moment for fans of Eurovision and a brand new girl group for audiences to get behind. We have a great song and high hopes for our brilliant trio, STAND UNIQU3, and we want families everywhere to cheer on Hayla, Maisie and Yazmin and watch them represent the UK in the competition across BBC Two, CBBC and iPlayer.”

The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2023 will take place in Nice, France and will be aired on CBBC in the United Kingdom.

The national juries and global online voting will determine the winner. Voting will commence on Friday 24 November, allowing everyone to vote for three countries. In contrast to the main Eurovision Song Contest, individuals will have the opportunity to vote for their own country. Stay updated by visiting junioreurovision.tv.

Beginning Monday, October 2nd, BBC Radio 1 hosts Rickie, Melvin and Charlie will air a new Live Lounge every Monday to Thursday throughout the month. Each performance will take place at 12pm. The Radio 1 trio announced the details of the new live lounge month, along with the line-up on air during their morning show on September 5.

Rickie, Melvin and Charlie are the new hosts of Radio 1’s iconic Live Lounge (Monday – Thursday, 10.30am – 1pm)!

Big up @RickieHW @Melvinodoom & @charliehedges. We know you’ll smash it! pic.twitter.com/0xze7rtyHW

— BBC Radio 1, 1Xtra & Asian Network Press Office (@BBCRadio1PR) April 20, 2021

  Yungblud shared a post on Twitter. He said “just wait you see what we got planned”

just wait till you see what we got planned@bbcradio1 #liveloungemonth pic.twitter.com/NlAjB3cNuv

— YUNGBLUD is a lowlife (@yungblud) September 5, 2023

Radio 1’s Live Lounge will be graced with the presence of some of the world’s most popular artists, performing both their own musical pieces as well as unexpected covers. We will have the pleasure of Olivia Dean’s performance, whose album Messy has been nominated for a Mercury Prize Award 2023.

Listeners of Radio 1 and BBC Sounds can tune in live to all performances from Live Lounge Month. They will also be able to view the performances on-demand on Radio 1’s BBC iPlayer and YouTube channels.

Olivia Rodrigo, whose new album GUTS  launches September 8, visited London and popped into the Radio 1 studio with host Melvin Odoom to make a very hot announcement. Melvin spoke to Olivia and said, “We are so excited to have you here today, because the real reason you’re in the studio right now is because you have a massive announcement, right?”

Olivia made here live lounge performance official and told the Radio 1 listeners in retort to Melvin “I’m so excited to announce, “I’m going to be kicking off Radio 1’s live lounge month 2023 and it’s going to be October. I’m very excited, I’m filming it in LA, and it’s going to be a ball.”

BBC Radio 1, invites listeners to test their expertise, in what they say is their “Ultimate Live Lounge Quiz.” Preparing listeners for an extravaganza of bejewelled performances for this coming October.

Below you can see the full line-up list for the Live Lounge Month 2023.

Artist Performance Date’s

Olivia Rodrigo –  Mon 2nd October
Troye Sivan  – Tues 3rd October
Jorja Smith  – Weds 4th October
Madison Beer  – Thurs 5th October
Declan McKenna –  Mon 9th October
Leigh-Anne –  Tues 10th October
Royal Blood –  Weds 11th October
Dominic Fike – Thurs 12th October
Holly Humberstone – Tues 17th October
YUNGBLUD – Weds 18th October
Becky Hill – Thurs 19th October
Usher – Mon 23rd October
Jax Jones – Weds 25th October
Doja Cat – Thurs 26th October

Amidst the wheeze of idiosyncratic synth leads, gooey bass parps and skittish yet hyper-danceable polyrhythmic drum programming, AFX manages to conjure one of his most delicate melodies to date, at times it even sounds as if RDJ’s synthesised and re-pitched his own voice, embedding himself within the tracks groove as though he were an audible apparition haunting ear drums from beyond the rave. The singles cover artwork (as well as the EP) was created in tandem with frequent AFX collaborator Weirdcore. The digital sleeve depicts what appears to be a mosaic of Menger Sponges festooned with Aphex Twin’s legendary logo.

The release of “Blackbox Life Recorder 21f” came after a slew of opaque online occurrences that were ostensibly orchestrated by the Cornish musician. Earlier this year what began as message board murmurings and group chat rumours of a headline appearance at Field Day Festival 2023 were confirmed when a new website entitled 190823.co.uk popped up online.

Curious Aphex acolytes who clicked the web link were rewarded with a wash of undulating pixels dribbling down their screens before morphing into a digital poster adorning the illustrious Irish ‘IDM’ composers iconic ideogram (7\) confirming him as one of Field Day Festival’s co-headliners alongside fellow British beat-mangler Bonobo. Warp Records divulged further, posting a nine date UK/EU Summer tour poster across their socials.

After a five year musical hiatus spent pursuing a plethora of other projects, including programming a sound design app, teaming up with tech companies to create experimental micro-tonal software synth plugins and even releasing his very own AFX NFT (complete with secret audio info encrypted within) the proceeds of which went towards “planting trees and donating to permaculture projects“, RDJ has been busy boy indeed.

The Blackbox Life Recorder 21f/In a Room7 F760 EP consists of four tracks and will be released on July 28th through Warp Records.

There tracks are listed as follows:

1. “Blackbox Life Recorder 21f”

2. “zin2 test5″

3. “In a room7 F760″

4. “Blackbox Life Recorder 21f [Parallax Mix]”

You can pre-order your copy here:

https://aphextwin.warp.net/release/399837-aphex-twin-blackbox-life-recorder-21f-in-a-room7-f760EP Pre-order info

With the EU tour leg well underway, Aphex Twin will return at the tail end of the summer for his first live performances on UK soil since 2019.

You can acquire tickets via this link: https://ra.co/dj/aphextwin/tour-dates

Heres the UK 2023 summer tour dates:

19/08/2023 – Field Day Festival – London

02/09/2023 – Forwards Festival – Bristol

Currently perched upon a pile of desiccated dance tracks and bloodless bops in the number two spot, new blood ‘Vampire‘ looks set to sink its fangs into the BBC Radio One Official Chart top spot, biting at the heels of Dave/Central Cee’s brag-rap banger ‘Sprinter‘. Having sat atop the chart for five weeks in a row, Cench’s senile beat is ripe for ex-sanguination.

Having torn up the charts like a bat out of hell Rodrigo’s previous victims rest in pieces. Littered amongst a scattered trail of bejewelled teeth and fake nails lies the shrivelled remains of J Hus and Drakes ‘Who Told You’ as well the cold corpse of her childhood hero Taylor Swift’s  ‘Cruel Summer’.

Olivia’s piano driven self pity-ditty paints a portrait of an individual plagued by a parasitic personal relationship, lyrically the bemoaning ballad appears to have been penned about yet another boy who played her false and left her feeling lied to and leeched on, and surprise surprise she’s a little bit pissed off about it. So pissed off in fact that she exhales an ‘eff’ word during the chorus, branding the belligerent boy as a “Bloodsucker, fame fucker”. Fair enough Olivia.

The metaphorical allusions to vampirism are reflected not only in the songs lyrics but also in the singles cover artwork, a pseudo gothic side profile still soaked in a monochromatic filter perforated colourfully by a protrusive shade of purple plasters plugging Rodrigo’s presumably punctured jugular, in a nod to an old horror movie poster from the 1968 British Hammer Horror classic ‘Dracula Has Risen From The Grave‘.

The track serves as the singer’s flagship single taken from her upcoming sophomore album ‘Guts‘, slated for release on September 8th 2023. Produced and recorded by frequent collaborator Dan Nigro at the legendary Electric Lady Studios in New York (a recording studio commissioned by the one and only Jimi Hendrix way back in 1968 that has since been used by a plethora of musicians including the likes of David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, Stevie Wonder, and more recently Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift to name but a few) Rodrigo describes the song as being about “feeling hurt and confused”.

Released June 30th via Geffen/Interscope Records, ‘Vampire‘ has amassed over 36 million streams on Spotify as well as drawing an international audience of 26 million through radio airplay. An accompanying music video directed by Petra Collins was also released simultaneously online during a live Youtube premiere. The video racked up 13 million views with 24 hours of being uploaded to the platform. So will Olivia Rodrigo clip Central Cee’s wings and claim her spot at the top of the UK chart or will Cench and Dave sprint to safety for another week at No.1?