You’re representing your nation in Eurovision. You’ve acquired an excellent pop tune full with choreography you’ve spent weeks perfecting. And also you’ve acquired greater than 100 million folks watching as you’re taking to the stage. It should really feel exhilarating, a once-in-a-lifetime alternative, proper?

“It was probably the most nerve-racking, trouser-cacking two minutes and 58 seconds of my complete life,” says Katrina Leskanich, whose band Katrina and the Waves gained Eurovision for the UK in 1997 with Love Shine a Gentle. “Irrespective of what number of gigs you’ve accomplished earlier than, it simply brings out the nerves. There’s a lot stress. You’ve acquired the nation, your label, your loved ones, the folks watching you on TV.”

“It was completely terrifying and you must attempt to flip that into adrenaline,” says Cheryl Baker, who additionally gained for the UK along with her band Bucks Fizz again in 1981 with Making Your Thoughts Up. “Your instant thought is: ‘I can’t keep in mind the phrases, I can’t keep in mind the routine.’” Then muscle reminiscence kicks in. “And on the finish you assume: ‘Blimey, that went fast.’”

Regardless of Liverpool internet hosting Eurovision final 12 months – Ukraine was unable to host and Sam Ryder was the 2022 runner-up – it has been 27 years because the UK final gained Eurovision. And though we stay joint third within the all-time winners checklist (matching Luxembourg, the Netherlands and France with 5 triumphs however behind Eire and Sweden who each have seven), it in some way feels tougher than ever for the UK to win. And but there is a system to doing effectively.

First: make it an occasion. “It must be bells and whistles or buxom milkmaids, or babushkas hitting kettle drums,” says Leskanich. “You need to have a gimmick, or have a kind of songs that simply strikes each chord in each particular person’s coronary heart. In order that they really feel the emotion and so they get goosebumps. It’s somehow.”

Final 12 months’s Eurovision mirrored these two approaches. Finnish group Käärijä’s Cha Cha Cha was the runner-up, with a tune that ended up sounding like a sea shanty, the singer sporting a inexperienced bolero jacket and using a human centipede like a horse. The winner, Loreen from Sweden with the tune Tattoo, featured a strong melody, memorable staging (she was slotted in what regarded like an enormous panini press that she pulled aside) and spectacular vocals. Käärijä dominated the general public vote, however Loreen gained as she was common with each the general public and jury.

Käärijä, or Jere Mikael Pöyhönen by his actual title, wrote his tune in half an hour, after going to a bar along with his producer. He says that an essential side of successful is being real. “Eurovision isn’t solely the tune, it’s not solely the present, it’s the particular person, you must be your self,” he says. “After all, the tune must be good. You want a particular tune. You probably have a traditional tune you possibly can’t win.”

The largest threat? Mixing in. “You’ve acquired to have, dare I say, ‘the skirt second’,” says Baker, whose successful tune memorably featured a skirt rip. “You’ve acquired to have one thing that makes it stand out above all of the others. And also you’ve acquired to have one thing that makes the juries and all of the folks at dwelling wish to see it once more.”

However the lead-up to the massive evening is vital, too. “It’s not simply concerning the efficiency, it’s concerning the promotion, the way you promote all the package deal,” says Eurovision professional Rob Lilley-Jones. “Due to this fact you might be seeing international locations selecting artists who’re a bit kooky, a bit completely different, and have already got large social followings.”

Käärijä threw himself into the Eurovision pre-parties, the place performances are placed on for followers. Within the weeks main as much as the competition, his trademark bolero puffer jacket was throughout social media. He even introduced a truck with a sauna on board to Liverpool so journalists might interview him inside. “Your Eurovision household desires to see you, who you might be,” he says. “They don’t wish to see or hear solely your tune.”

Sam Ryder had many of those qualities. His file, House Man, featured spectacular vocals, a Crystal Dome-style staging and surprising electrical guitar-playing. He was additionally picked to carry out twenty second within the working order, when viewership is often excessive. And his enthusiasm was evident all through the competition, says Leskanich. “All of the planets have been aligned with Sam Ryder,” she says. “He was an excellent singer. He had an excellent tune. He offered himself enthusiastically and different international locations liked him.”

So what are the hopes for Olly Alexander, the UK’s entry? He’s a longtime artist, with a string of hits during the last decade within the British charts. “I feel the tune is superb,” says Käärijä.

He’s actually a powerful vocalist, with expertise performing reside at music festivals akin to Glastonbury. “He stays true to his fashion,” says Gustaph, who got here seventh for Belgium with Due to You in final 12 months’s contest. “This looks as if a tune that would simply be a single of his with out Eurovision.”

The staging can also be distinctive, described by Olly Alexander’s own team as “a post-apocalyptic dystopian boxing health club locker room, aboard a spaceship hurtling in the direction of Earth by means of a black gap in 1985”. It contains a bathe, and homoerotic dance strikes that can make the Every day Mail flush with anger. Oh, and digital camera methods will make Olly look as if he’s flying from the ceiling. “I feel it’s a house run,” says Gustaph. “I’m telling you.”

Leskanich is impressed too. “It’s very, very catchy. And I feel it’s a extremely nice business tune. However the fantastic thing about Eurovision is you by no means know what’s going to occur on the evening. Is he going to have the ability to stand out in opposition to what’s now a particularly aggressive subject?”

Whereas praising Olly’s voice, Baker is anxious concerning the lack of key change within the tune. “Once I first heard it, I believed: ‘Yeah, I like this.’ After which it didn’t go wherever, and that’s what I’m fearful about.”

Olly’s participation, and Eurovision itself, has additionally been overshadowed by controversy. Israel’s Eden Golan has been allowed to take part, regardless of the continuing battle in Gaza. Some followers have mentioned that it has been hypocritical for Israel to be allowed to compete when Russia was blocked after invading Ukraine, though Martin Österdahl, the European Broadcasting Union’s (EBU) government supervisor overseeing the competition, mentioned in an interview that the conditions have been “fully completely different”.

Greater than 450 queer artists, underneath the group Queers for Palestine, additionally wrote an open letter to Alexander asking him to withdraw. He responded that whereas he helps an instantaneous ceasefire in Gaza and respects any viewer’s determination to boycott, “it’s my present perception that eradicating myself from the competition wouldn’t deliver us any nearer to our shared purpose”.

It additionally goes to the center of what Eurovision tries to place itself as: a pleasant music competitors between nations. “It’s a bit paradoxical, as a result of because the EBU all the time say: ‘Oh, we all know we’re not political,’” says Eurovision professional James Rowe. “However even when they hold the established order, which they’re this 12 months, that’s thought-about political.”

As for Olly’s opponents, it’s a surprisingly open subject this 12 months. “We actually don’t know who’s going to win,” says Rowe. “Final 12 months all of us knew that Sweden and Finland have been going to be the highest two. The 12 months earlier than I feel all of us knew it was a foregone conclusion that Ukraine would win. However this 12 months, it is genuinely so open.”

Notable acts for 2024 embody Croatia’s Child Lasagna with Rim Tim Tagi Dim, a catchy file combining rap, rock and techno (plus a smoke machine and pyrotechnics on overdrive) and Switzerland’s Nemo with The Code, which mixes rap and opera (I do know, however belief me it really works.) There’s additionally Eire’s Bambie Thug, whose electrifying witchcraft-themed efficiency Doomsday Blue offered Eire’s first qualification to the ultimate since 2018.

What recommendation would Katrina give to Olly? “Properly, at any time when I get actually, actually nervous I feel: ‘We’re all going to be useless … sometime,’” she says. “I do know it’s not a really shiny factor to say to anyone, however when you’re conscious that there’s an finish date on you and your life, you are inclined to take it not so significantly and attempt to have extra enjoyable.”

After successful Eurovision 1997 in Dublin, she celebrated by ingesting black velvets (champagne and Guinness combined collectively) till 3am. Then she awakened two hours later to do breakfast TV.

“I might suggest having a pleasant stiff drink earlier than you go on, and several other as soon as your efficiency is completed,” she says.

Eurovision Tune Contest remaining is on BBC One on 11 Could at 8pm.