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UK Eurovision singer not worried about Brexit backlash

By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 11 May 2017

Even getting one point in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest would be a victory for the UK, says our entry’s singer Lucie Jones. Although you probably shouldn’t take that for the lack of confidence I just presented it as.

Asked what her ideal outcome would be by the Telegraph, Jones said: “I just don’t want to come last, really. If we get no points I’ll be disappointed, but anything else is going to be a win. All I’ve got to do is not go on and fall flat on my face, and hit a bum note”.

I don’t know, plenty of people who hit bum notes got through the first semi-final on Tuesday. But if Jones is being cheery about the whole thing, we’ll have to go elsewhere for a bit of doubt. Look no further than Cheryl Baker, of 1981 winners Bucks Fizz (now of the Brexit-cheering Formerly Of Bucks Fizz).

“She’s got a lovely voice and the song is a nice song but I don’t know if it’s strong enough to win”, said Baker of Jones and her song on ‘Good Morning Britain’ earlier this week.

That’s a bit of a damp reception to give the song, given that the UK does seem to have put in some effort into its Eurovision entry for once. But Baker added of Britain’s chances in the Contest: “People don’t like us either”.

Oh yes, the good old political vote. One that may come into stronger play than ever this year as the rest of Europe sticks the boot in over Brexit. This assuming that, outside political circles, the general public of the European Broadcast Union and Australia actually care whether we leave the EU or not. We’ll see, I suppose.

“It gets mentioned every year, doesn’t it? The political vote”, Jones went on in her Telegraph interview. “And this year maybe they’ve got more to talk about. But honestly, being here, the only people who want to talk to me about Brexit and Russia, and these unfortunate events, is the press. Nobody here at the arena, the other entries, the delegation… it’s not something we’re talking about”.

“People have their ideas about things, but it’s Eurovision”, she added. “It’s public vote and it’s jury and we have no idea how it’s going to go. It could go any way. There’s always favourites and the favourite doesn’t usually win. Anything could happen, really anything could happen, and that’s the beauty of it”.

The second Eurovision semi-final takes place tonight, which will decide if the final on Saturday features yodelling or not. Fingers crossed! The UK is already through to the final, of course, being one of the five countries to get an automatic place for putting up all the money.