It's almost that time of year again – the time of year when we grab our biggest feather boas and our most outrageous sequins and celebrate some of the wildest musical acts Europe has to offer. I am talking, of course, about Eurovision.
This year marks the 70th year of the iconic song contest – and, in February, we finally learned who will be representing the UK. It's official: YouTuber and experimental singer-songwriter Look Mum No Computer is set to take on musical acts from across Europe in Vienna this May.
“I find it completely bonkers to be jumping on this wonderful and wild journey. I have always been a massive Eurovision fan, and I love the magical joy it brings to millions of people every year, so getting to join that legacy and fly the flag for the UK is an absolute honour that I am taking very seriously," he said. “I’ve been working a long time creating, writing and producing my own visions from scratch, and documenting my process. I will be bringing every ounce of my creativity to my performances, and I can’t wait for everyone to hear and see what we’ve created. I hope Eurovision is ready to get synthesised.”
Can't wait to hear what he has in store? You're in luck. Battle has just released his entry song, “Eins, Zwei, Drei”, a smorgasbord of electro-pop with lyrics that rail against the monotonous grind of nine-to-five jobs. Here's what you need to know about this year's Eurovision.
Mark those calendars for the campest event of the year.
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When is Eurovision 2026?
The Eurovision 2026 Final is set to take place on Saturday, 16 May. Semi-finals will be held on 12 and 14 May.
Which country is hosting the next Song Contest?
This year's Eurovision host is Austria, with the final taking place in its capital city, Vienna. Home of Mozart and Beethoven, it seems a fitting location for a competition of Europe's campiest musicians, am I right?
What is the UK’s Eurovision entry for 2026?
After last year saw Remember Monday representing the UK, this year, we have Sam Battle, known professionally as Look Mum No Computer. The Mancunian YouTuber found fame online for his experimental electronic, synth-heavy dance music.
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Battle first launched his career as the frontman of indie rock band ZIBRA in 2014, before launching his YouTube career in 2016. Since then, he has amassed over 85 million views, not only for his music, but also his synth inventions.
“I’m a musician and about two and a half years ago, I decided to try a different venture, and I started putting up videos with machines that I built, whilst I was in band, for tour, and I didn’t really expect anybody to really give a crap about it, because it was just weird stuff that I built in my house,” he told TNT Magazine. “And yeah, that kind of flourished in to some more interesting machines, because people liked the machines that I built and figured I’d just keep on pushing, building things, and whilst I was writing music and still being a musician. I just couldn’t help myself, but build silly machines, really.”
Over the course of his career, he has delivered a TEDx Talk, released a video game, and received a Guinness World Record for building the world’s largest drone synthesiser.
As for his music style, it's all about experimenting. “There’s a lot of random stuff going on; it’s not all like polished pop, polished electronic 40-minute songs, but there’s a lot of instrumental parts and very strange bits. And there’s a lot of bits where it’s just free rein to make up whatever,” he said.
Which song will Look Mum No Computer perform?
Good news: it's a banger. Battle's entry song for this year's contest is called “Eins, Zwei, Drei", but don't let its title fool you. The song's chorus may chant the German numbers, but this is a track that feels distinctly British, with a pulsating, punky electro beat that harks back to the height of indie sleaze.
Immediately, the lyrics pull us into familiar territory, with opening lines that address the disillusionment that comes with working a job you hate. But once you hit the chorus, things get slightly surreal. Between his German chant, Battle manages to reference everything from pepperoni to ponies, before squeezing in a mention of a classic English dessert in the second verse: “Countin' in English doesn't cut the mustard / So sick of munching roly-poly with custard."
"Basically, I go on tour in Germany a lot," Battle told the BBC. “So I thought, let's write a song about going on holiday in Germany.” It's a far cry from the polished pop entries we've seen in previous years. Even Battle himself is surprised his song got selected. "I was like, ‘This is not going to be taken seriously because the BBC love the conventional stuff, and this is not conventional,’" he said. "So they're taking a bit of a risk – but who knows?"
Maybe an unexpected turn to riotous techno is just what we need to avoid the dreaded “Nul points” this year. Either way, Battle won't take it personally: "Whether it's winning or whether it's not winning, I just figured the best thing to do is just try my hardest."
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