Olly Alexander has reflected on his 2024 Eurovision experience saying he thinks homophobia may have played a part in his poor showing.
Alexander’s song Dizzy scored well with the judges, but audiences didn’t respond to it. In a new interview with Attitude magazine the singer says homophobia might have been a factor.
The singer observed that online homophobia is increasing.
“Anything I do is met with this instant negative reaction because someone is seeing a gay person and they feel threatened and offended.”
“Maybe it is a pendulum swing, and we have to just endure this backlash,” he continued. “It’s odd because I’m doing the same thing I’ve always done.”
Thinking back on his Eurovision appearance where he staged his song with scantily clad boxers, he wonders if homophobia was a reason he didn’t get the votes.
“In that performance, there’s nothing explicit happening,” Olly insisted. “But once I started doing it in production rehearsals, some of the responses… People couldn’t believe it. They were so outraged.”
“I expected some pearl-clutching, but I was a bit taken aback by how many pearls were clutched.” he said.
Nemo shares video for new song Cassanova
Nemo won last year’s Eurovision, so they’ll be back this year for the competition in Basel, Switzerland. They’ve got a new track called Cassanova, and have just released a video to accompany the song.
Ncuti Gatwa will be the UK’s jury spokesperson
Doctor Who actor Ncuti Gatwa will be the United Kingdom’s jury spokesperson this year. The jury spokesperson is the one they cross to for the famous words “This is Sweeden calling…” or in Gatwa’s case it’ll be the UK.
He’s following in the steps of Joanna Lumley, Catherine Tate and Nigella Dawson who’ve had the honour in recent years.
The choice of Gatwa makes sense as the episode of his Doctor Who series that airs on the same day as the Eurovision final is set at an intergalactic version of the event.
Doctor Who: The Interstellar Song Contest Is set to air just before the big event, and Graham Norton who hosts to UK broadcast is set to appear in the episode too.
The episode if written by Juno Dawson, who is transgender. Showrunner Russell T Davies has described Norton’s appearance as more than a cameo.
“There’s no song contest without the great man himself, and it was an honour to welcome Graham Norton to our studios in Cardiff. And it’s not just a cameo, he has a whole plot twist all to himself! This is the wildest episode of all, and we’re lucky to have Graham adding to the mayhem.” Davies has said.
There is a chance UK audiences might not get to see the episode on terrestrial television; it’s scheduled between the FA Cup Final and the Eurovision Song Contest. Fingers crossed there’s not too much extra time play at the match.
Want to listen to non-stop Eurovision hits?
SBS Euro Pop, a DAB+ radio and online channel, is now playing non-stop Eurovision hits, including all the songs in this year’s competition.
Here’s a fun game if you’re a total Eurovision tragic, flick it on and see if you can name the tune and the year it was in the competition. Since the competition began in 1956 there have been 1,754 entries.
We flipped in on and danced around to Diggiloo Diggiley by Herreys they were Sweden’s winning entry in 1984. It’s an ode to how great life is when you have some awesome golden boots. (They also recorded an English version).
The 69th Eurovision Song Contest will be held in Basel, Switzerland from the 13-17 May and will be broadcast on SBS and SBS On Demand.
