United Kingdom UNITED KINGDOM 2023 - Mae Muller - I Wrote a Song

[ESC United Mod Team]

 

[MopManMoss]

Its fine TAP are just trying to work out how they can get It's Chico Time to be eurovision eligible somehow

 

[ChiversLookDivine]

They did mention Eurovision during the BRITs, which was a hell of a trip.

The host asked Sam who in the room would be the perfect UK entry for 2023, and sensibly knowing that the hype train would go crazy if he picked anyone who was actually British, he decided to go for... Lizzo. Basically every rumoured name was there last night from Ellie to Rina to Leigh-Anne so it was a pretty good call.

Also the new rumoured name as of last night is Cat Burns, the carousel of UK entry rumours just keeps on turning and it would be nice for TaP to give us some clues or start dropping hints and get us hyped because everyone is slowly losing their minds.

 

[theditz83]

Exactly. C'mon Beeb / TAP - we need to start really hyping the home crowd up for a big reveal. Start to feed us some scraps, anything at all... We hungry hungry beatches

 

[ESC_Peggy]

I think it was a great swerve from Sam to say Lizzo because the rumour mill would be saying “Sam said this person. Does he know anything?” and he said he loves Lizzo anyway.

Holding onto my delusion that it’s Rina She was asked the question at her concert and she refused to answer and carried on. She’s not that established here sooooo….

 

[Leydan]

tbh he should have said Rina to feed the rumours. She trolled us all, he might as well have. XD

 

[HarryUK]

tbh he should have said Rina to feed the rumours. She trolled us all, he might as well have. XD

Plot twist: it is Rina but they’re trying a new tactic of pretending to troll us

 

[Leydan]

Plot twist: it is Rina but they’re trying a new tactic of pretending to troll us

I would decease if it was. I've come to the conclussion that I'm not buying tickets for this year because I'd have to go semi 2 and that's turning out to be a mess. If I had a chance to see the UK incinerate the competition live then I'd be there.

 

[HarryUK]

I would decease if it was. I've come to the conclussion that I'm not buying tickets for this year because I'd have to go semi 2 and that's turning out to be a mess. If I had a chance to see the UK incinerate the competition live then I'd be there.

I have gigs myself on Monday and Tuesday back in London so I’m not heading up until Wednesday! But I’m gonna try and get any tickets I can for Weds-Sat! I’m staying in Manchester so I’m hoping the trains are running a special service, or at least not on strike

 

[Leydan]

I have gigs myself on Monday and Tuesday back in London so I’m not heading up until Wednesday! But I’m gonna try and get any tickets I can for Weds-Sat! I’m staying in Manchester so I’m hoping the trains are running a special service, or at least not on strike

If I do go then we'd plan to stay in Manchester also. Not the train strikes, I think if anything ruins this years Eurovision it's going to be strikes. I hope not, but given how many fans will be staying in Manchester and relying on trains it could turn out to be a dodgy one.

 

[HarryUK]

If I do go then we'd plan to stay in Manchester also. Not the train strikes, I think if anything ruins this years Eurovision it's going to be strikes. I hope not, but given how many fans will be staying in Manchester and relying on trains it could turn out to be a dodgy one.

They’d definitely lose the public support they have now - the revenue Eurovision will bring into the north of England would basically be wiped out.

 

[ChiversLookDivine]

Exactly. C'mon Beeb / TAP - we need to start really hyping the home crowd up for a big reveal. Start to feed us some scraps, anything at all... We hungry hungry beatches

The longer TaP leaves us with no information, the more I start to believe it is Rina Sawayama. I mean you can't blame us when we we all decided the only reason she did those Eurovision TikToks was to troll us and throw fuel on the rumour just to get a few extra streams or media attention - but just now I realised I can't recall any other artist doing it. Surely after the fandom started the 50th different Eurovision rumour you would at least have had somebody make a joke about it on their socials?

And then there was that weird Radio Times article with an unnamed source saying it wasn't Rina, but literally no other website carried the story? Surely if Rina's team wanted to end the rumour they would ask a bigger website, and if it was her team ending the rumour why would she then do those TikToks?

Throw in the fact that she's been asked about Eurovision a few times recently in media appearances and giving out ambiguous answers without confirming or denying and I guess I'm totally on board the rumour now. I feel completely dumb for falling for it but there's basically nothing pointing to anyone else and just so much pointing to her. I won't even be mad if it turns out not to be her, I'm just really drawn to Rina as a performer and a creative visionary and I just think she's the perfect candidate in so many ways that Sam was too.

 

[ESC_Peggy]

I forget the source but Rina said she’s a Eurovision fan and is all about expression which fits Sam’s “must haves” so it’s not impossible, right? The press must be trying to find out and I’m surprised there’s still no leaks or hints to anyone else whatsoever. The songs aren’t right for the ones mentioned here. We can continue to dream while the BBC and Tap give us dust.

 

[harey]

I discovered Rina Sawayama not so long ago and I would be delighted to see her at Eurovision.

 

[Deleted member 12761]

Rina representing the UK would be huge. I hope she delivers something in the vein of her first album because her second album was a bit weak for me.

 

[HarryUK]

Sam Ryder has been on Capital Breakfast this morning and Lulu on Good Morning Britain

Are they finished teasing us??? Give us a crumb already!!

 

[ESC_Peggy]

Sam Ryder has been on Capital Breakfast this morning and Lulu on Good Morning Britain

Are they finished teasing us??? Give us a crumb already!!

He knows the BBC delegation and TaP Music, he's best friends with cant-keep-a-secret Scott Mills and Rylan but said on Radio 2 he doesn't know anything?? He can't be serious.

 

[tsegaye]

If it actually IS Rina Sawayama, as much as I love Hold The Girl I hope it's a new song. I don't feel like there's anything competetive enough on there.

 

[Sean]

Has there actually been anything new to suggest it's Rina then or are we just going back around the carousel?

 

[Chrisiam]

I bought two tickets for the gun show and all I got was the rumour carousel.

 

[ChiversLookDivine]

Has there actually been anything new to suggest it's Rina then or are we just going back around the carousel?

Seriously though the betting companies put up a 'who will host Eurovision 2023?' market where you can bet on Rylan, Timur, Mel, Graham etc but they never opened up a 'who will represent the UK at Eurovision?' market, they would make a killing off it with the carousel of rumours.

As for Rina, afaik there's 2 new bits of information since that Tiktok-thing and 2 potentially old bits of info that her fans have brought up in the comments sections of her TikToks about Eurovision that seem relevant.

1)

TaP released their shortlist of four news story last week (LINK), giving us the most bare scraps of information, but they did state among other things a kinda bizarre description of the artist not being British, stating:

Further to this, he adds that the artist selected may not be a Brit, potentially, as he says “what defines a Brit is fairly open – there’s a broad multi-cultural population”.

and then Rina released a TikTok the other day pre-BRITs reminding us that she's not at all British, has never held a British passport as Japan doesn't allow dual citizenship. This effectively means that she's technically not at all British even though she's lived here for most her life, so she really strongly fits the bill for what TaP are looking for (supposedly).
https://www.tiktok.com/@rinasawayamaofficial/video/7198935434225896710

2)

Rina performed a charity gig, a part of a series of gigs in the run-up to the BRITs. I've seen this mentioned in multiple tweets and reviews of the set that Eurovision was mentioned a lot in the crowd and in Q&A's:

Of course, she’s heckled non-stop about rumours of a Eurovision performance, which she coyly bats away all night. Either she’s unable to deny her entry, or she’s loving this opportunity to lean into the chaos. No matter whether she’s in Liverpool or not, her meteoric rise to the top shows no sign of stopping.

https://gigwise.com/reviews/3428741/-i-m-a-rock-chick---rina-sawayama-live-for-brits-week

3)

One of her fans on the Euphoria TikTok mentioned an interview from a couple of months ago when the Hold The Girl album dropped, the interviewer compared her music to Eurovision, and she not only confirmed it as an inspiration but also that she was a big fan of Eurovision.

https://www.smh.com.au/culture/musi...ems-could-save-your-soul-20220721-p5b3j9.html

4)

Again, a comment on her YouTube from a fan in one those Eurovision Tiktoks, they brought up something along the lines of "is this why Hold The Girl was delayed to September?", suggesting that the album might have been delayed to become Eurovision eligible. I can't actually find a source for this claim other than just her fans are rabid.

It does suggest something interesting, as I kinda just assumed that Rina would write a new song for Eurovision - because if she did enter with a song off the album then it means we can look at the album credits for people who worked on it who are TaP-adjacent. Only one is, Dan Grech, who conveniently worked on all three TaP 2022 shortlisted acts (that we know of) of: Sam Ryder - Space Man (infact he worked on the whole #1 album too), Years & Years - Night Call (album) and HYYTS - Twice in a Lifetime (single). I find it a bit of a coincidence that he worked with all three of these acts around the time that TaP would have shortlisted them so as a TaP producer/mixer he is one to watch.

As it stands, Dan Grech worked on exactly one song off Hold The Girl, that song being the much rumoured Frankenstein. That he worked on just one song, on an album that was potentially delayed to September?

https://www.discogs.com/release/24545687-Rina-Sawayama-Hold-The-Girl

I think the whole TikTok rumour focusing purely on the gap in her tour dates and stuff kinda missed the point entirely, because there's actually a lot pointing to Rina, and it's annoying that everyone has sort of shut down the rumour based off flimsy evidence just because that TikTok and her Euphoria dance got all the attention.

I dunno, I think if just one thing pointed to her we could chalk it up to coincidence, there's now quite a few things here, and the way I see it there's no smoke without fire, especially when you consider the two BBC appearances she made in October and December of 2022 too. She's a fan of Eurovision, she's a hugely creative person, and in my mind that makes her the natural step from Sam Ryder.