The wait is almost over for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest and performers from across the globe are getting ready to battle it out to be crowned winners of one of the world’s most famous singing competitions.
With the UK last winning the competition back in 1997, though Sam Ryder came close in 2022, all hopes of taking home the crown are on this year’s entry Olly Alexander, who recently divided fans when he made his Eurovision debut earlier this week with a performance of his song Dizzy.
Following the performance, the 33 year old revealed that he’d experienced a “wardrobe malfunction” which meant that he had to improvise during his performance on Tuesday, 7 May.
(Image: REX/Shutterstock)
With the grand final fast approaching on Saturday, 11 May, let’s take a closer look at everything you need to know about the UK’s entry this year and where you may recognise Olly from…
Prior to becoming a solo artist, pop fans may know Olly as a member of the groups Years And Years, which had hits including Desire, King and Shine. During their time as a band, Years And Years were nominated for six Brits and released two albums.
However, after over 10 years together, in 2021 the band revealed that going forward Years And Years would be Olly’s solo project, though Olly began going by his own name in 2023.
(Image: Antti Aimo-Koivisto/REX/Shutterstock)
Since then, Olly has been working on his own music and in December 2023 he was announced for Eurovision. As part of his prep for the competition, Olly has been doing plenty of promo and ended up receiving the world record for most objects caught whilst spinning on a chair in one minute while on Blue Peter.
Away from his music career, the Eyes Shut singer has carved out a name for himself in the world of acting and secured a leading role in Russell T Davies’ 2021 series It’s A Sin. Prior to that, he starred in a West End production of Peter and Alice alongside Ben Whishaw and Judi Dench in 2013.
Speaking to The Guardian in 2018, Olly discussed the realities of fame and how when he was younger he believed that famous people were “happy all the time” as he opened up about his own mental health.
(Image: REX/Shutterstock)
He said: “We’d basically won the lottery. I felt like I’d won the lottery. And at the same time I still felt like the same person I’d always been. And all the things that I associated with my depression, and my anxiety, those periods of feeling really low, they were still there. And I was so annoyed at myself.”
Back in 2015, the Eurovision star was in a relationship with Clean Bandit musician Neil Milan Amin-Smith though the pair called time on their relationship at the end of the year.
“We’ve had less and less time to spend together and the time we did have together were such short periods it put so much pressure on our relationship,” Olly told Attitude in 2017, before adding that they “both decided it wasn’t working”.
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