Mae Muller has been selected to represent the UK at the Eurovision Song Contest in May.
The 25-year-old singer from Kentish Town, north London, who has previously supported Little Mix on tour, will perform at the event in Liverpool with an original track.
Ms Muller was chosen by BBC bosses and global management company TaP Music, which has counted Lana Del Rey and Ellie Goulding among its clients.
BBC Eurovision posted a video of an excited Ms Muller announcing the news on Thursday morning, followed by a teaser of her forthcoming single I Wrote A Song.
Our UK artist for #Eurovision2023 is the incredible @maemuller_! 🎉
— BBC Eurovision (@bbceurovision) March 9, 2023
Here she is with the official video for her #Eurovision track, 'I Wrote A Song' 🥳 pic.twitter.com/ypzFj7edJt
TaP was behind selecting Sam Ryder as the UK entrant for the 2022 event, where he changed the country’s fortunes and came second behind Ukraine.
The north London-raised vocalist will be the first female entrant for the UK since SuRie competed in 2018 with Storm, coming 24th.
Ms Muller was 19 when she wrote her first song, Close, which was produced by a family friend and “paid” for with wine in lieu of money.
Muller attended the £27,000-a-year Fine Arts college in Hampstead, according to reports.
She later got a job in clothes shop American Apparel and worked in a pub in Kentish Town so that she could focus on her music during the day.
Ms Muller’s early musical influences included Prince and Sade – while Gwen Stefani, Florence Welch and Lily Allen have impacted her in more recent years.
She reportedly became first interested in music when her mother played the Dixie Chicks album Home.
Ms Muller has previously said she started her career by posting videos of her singing on Instagram and SoundCloud.
Her releases have so far explored “dysfunctional relationships and inconvenient emotions with wit and verve”, according to her record label Capitol.
In recent years, she has worked with chart-topping acts including girl group Little Mix, rapper Aitch and music producer and DJ Sigala.
Her 2021 single Better Days, featuring Neiked and Polo G, peaked at number 32 in the UK charts.
Ms Muller has 126,000 followers on Instagram and more than 6.1 million monthly listeners on Spotify.
In 2019, she supported Little Mix on their LM5 tour – their last to feature former member Jesy Nelson.
The BBC officially announced Ms Muller as the UK’s entrant during its Radio 2 Breakfast Show on Thursday morning, confirming rumours that had been swirling for days.
Eurovision is set to take place in Liverpool after the UK was chosen to host the competition on behalf of war-torn Ukraine.
Tickets for the grand final, which will take place at the 11,000-capacity Liverpool Arena later this year, went on sale on Tuesday and sold out in just over half an hour.
While some fans celebrated after they were able to secure tickets, others commiserated after experiencing technical difficulties when trying to purchase tickets through the Ticketmaster website.
Eurovision is set to air on the BBC and will be hosted by singer and Britain’s Got Talent judge Alesha Dixon, Ted Lasso actress Hannah Waddingham and Ukrainian singer Julia Sanina, as well as returning favourite, comedian and talk show host Graham Norton.
The semi-final evening preview kicks off at 8pm on May 8, with the grand final live show, hosted by Graham Norton, bringing the contest to an end starting at 8pm on May 13.
