Social media sensation Sam Ryder has been confirmed as the UK’s Eurovision entrant and he says he is not going to let the spectre of last year’s disastrous “nil points” score get to him.
The 31-year-old star, who rose to fame on TikTok, has 12 million followers on the video platform and big-name support including Sia and Alicia Keys.
But he has his work cut out. In the past two decades the UK has come last five times, including James Newman last year.
The UK has not managed a top 10 finish since 2009, when Jade Ewen’s It’s My Time finished in fifth place.
Sam, of Essex, said: “I don’t want to let the stigma or fear of coming at a certain place in a table stop me from doing something and being a part of something I enjoy so much.”
DJ Scott Mills, one of the hosts of the show for the BBC, promised a huge spectacle with “staging like you’ve never seen from the UK”, for the song Space Man, in Turin in Italy on May 14.
This year many fans are predicting a win for Ukrainian entry Kalush Orchestra - if the band’s members can make it out of the war zone to compete.
The trio have taken up arms to fight Putin’s army in their home nation while Russia has been banned from this year’s competition, behind held in Turin, Italy on May 14.
