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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Entertainment
Lisa McLoughlin

UK favourite to win Eurovision for first time in 27 years with Olly Alexander

The UK is favourite to win Eurovision for the first time in 27 years after Olly Alexander was announced as the nation’s entry for 2024’s contest during Saturday's Strictly Come Dancing final.

Following the news, odds of the UK winning suddenly shortening to become the favourites for the first time since Katrina & The Waves won with Love Shine a Light in 1997.

Prior to 1997’s win, the UK first won in 1967 with Sandie Shaw’s Puppet On A String. Then again in 1969 when Lulu pipped France, the Netherlands and Spain to be named winner of Eurovision following a four-way tie.

A third win came in 1976 with Brotherhood of Man's Save Your Kisses for Me and Bucks Fizz's Makin’ Your Mind Up in 1981.

So, if the public and jury votes go the way of the predictions, it means the UK would reign victorious at Eurovision for the sixth time when the next installment arrives in Malmö, Sweden.

A KingCasinoBonus.uk told Metro: “The UK has leapt to become the favourite to win Eurovision 2024 after announcing that Olly Alexander [as their representative].

“Bettors raced to back the UK to win the song contest following the news and the odds of the UK winning were slashed to 6/1. Sweden, Israel and Ukraine are the joint 7/1 second-favourites, followed by 8/1 shots Italy and Norway at 10/1.

“The popular Olly Alexander may think It’s A Sin if he doesn’t do better than Mae Muller’s disappointing 25th finish last year – the UK will be quietly confident that their years without a victory in the song contest are over.”

The favourable odds come after fans believe they have worked out the title of Alexander’s Eurovision song.

Following the announcement of his spot in the contest, the 33-year-old took to Twitter to share a video to celebrate the news while stood against the backdrop of a scene which included Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, a red telephone box and a bus.

In the video, the BAFTA nominated star said: “Hello Europe and Australia! This is Olly Alexander calling, I can't believe I'm about to say this but I am the UK entry for Eurovision.

“I can't believe it, I'm so so excited! This is a dream come true, I can't wait and I'll see you all in Sweden next year.”

While many congratulated the singer, more eagle-eyed fans got to work on guessing what all of the clues in the video meant and concluded that it could be the name of the track.

One fan on X, formerly Twitter, gathered all of the “easter eggs” and shared their theory about the post secretly including the title of the song.

They wrote: “The Olly Alexander video features the number 4, 26, 26 and 25. The correlating letters are D Z Z Y.

“The big hand of the clock is a 1. The [dizzy] emoji is on the phone box. The UK's entry is called Dizzy.”

While many applauded the fan’s efforts, another elaborated on the theory, which they said made more sense.

They wrote: “Also there's 9 [dizzy] emojis. 9 + I which makes more sense than the big hand theory. I think you're onto something here!”

While another added: “Clock is 5 past 4. Could that be the release date? 5 days past (4) April - 5th April? It's a Friday, which is typically when new music is released.”

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