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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Mia O'Hare

Hannah Waddingham takes major swipe at music bosses after Eurovision performance

Eurovision host Hannah Waddingham took a swipe at the music industry whilst presenting the second semi-final.

The actress and singer, 48, made a dig at music bosses as she celebrated the work that goes into producing tracks.

Her remark came after Austria's performance at Thursday night's show in Liverpool.

Teya & Salena took to the stage to sing their entry Who The Hell Is Edgar? which is said to be a hit back at music streaming sites.

Following their performance, Hannah remarked: "By the way, please let's never forget that a song starts with a writer and a dream and look what they create for us all."

She added: "Let's hear it for the songwriters," which was met with cheers from the audience.

Eurovision host Hannah made a dig at music bosses (BBC)

It is believed Teya & Salena's hit is about the lack of royalties acts get from sites such as Spotify.

Their song references Edgar Allan Poe and one verse features: "Zero, dot, zero, zero, three

"Give me two years, and your dinner will be free, Gas station champagne is on me, Edgar cannot pay rent for me."

TV critic Scott Bryan said: "Austria’s song is about the lack of royalties musicians receive from the likes of Spotify, with 0.003 referencing how much some artists get per stream.

"Just boss moves. Absolutely no notes."

One viewer said: "I was wondering about the significance of the number."

"Baffling stuff," replied another.

Someone else added: "It's also about how women get treated badly in the industry and ghostwriting, a lot of topics tackled at once but I think it does them very well!"

Teya & Salena hit back at the music industry in their entry (Peter Kneffel/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images)

"I am OBSESSED," gushed a fourth.

Thursday night saw countries including Romania, Estonia, Belgium, Cyprus, Iceland, Greece, Poland, Slovenia, Georgia, San Marino, Austria, Albania, Lithuania and Australia hoping to win a spot in the final.

The show was opened by Reiley, hoping to win for Denmark with his song Breaking My Heart, before Armenia's Brunette performed Future Lover.

The contest is taking place in Liverpool despite Ukraine winning the contest last year.

However, due to the Russian invasion, it wasn't possible, as Eurovision organisers quickly ruled out staging it in the war-torn country.

The BBC agreed to host the competition in the UK in 2023 – and Liverpool was picked as the host city to hold the star-studded event.

Beating a shortlist of other UK cities, including Manchester, Glasgow and Sheffield, the song contest will take place in Liverpool's M&S Bank Arena, located in the historic Royal Albert Dock.

Hoping to win the crown for the UK is Mae Muller with her hit I Wrote A Song, following on from Sam Ryder's success at the 2022 competition.

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