Eurovision host Angela Scanlon revealed that the United Kingdom's contender, Look Mum No Computer, has a song containing more German lyrics than the German entrant. Speaking on the BBC during Thursday night's semi-final, the 42-year-old Strictly star, who took on presenting duties alongside Rylan Clark, 37, introduced the synth-pop act, whose track Eins, Zwei, Drei features an abundance of German words.
Angela remarked: 'FYI there are more German words in this than the German entry,' before Rylan referenced the 1967 entrant, saying: 'Well it's different to Sandie Shaw!' While the presenters enjoyed the song, a number of viewers were enraged by the inclusion, branding the track 'woke and leftist'.
Viewer Backlash
An angry user wrote on social media: 'K sends a YouTuber mad scientist to Eurovision yelling ‘Eins Zwei Drei’ in German like it's payback for Brexit. We've gone full ‘counting in German doesn't cut the mustard’. Nul points so quick we'll be home before the interval.' The repeated phrase 'Eins, zwei, drei', meaning 'one, two, three', features heavily throughout the song and has sparked backlash online.
Angela and Rylan repeatedly praised Look Mum No Computer, real name Sam Battle, for being 'so lovely' after announcing the fact about the German lyrics. Viewers swarmed X, with comments such as: 'K sends a YouTuber mad scientist to Eurovision yelling ‘Eins Zwei Drei’ in German like it's payback for Brexit. Handmade synths exploding, office chaos props, furry dancers... and lyrics mocking English counting... We've gone full ‘counting in German doesn't cut the mustard’. Nul points so quick we'll be home before the interval... Europe is speechless. Britain is screaming. #Eurovision... United Kingdom. Straight into it. Why does counting in German make you feel better? I like the sound of the song but the lyrics are ???????? Nooo crowd interaction. It was fun!!... And the UK learnt NOTHING from his success. Year after? Same old s***e! And so on and so forth. Now this year’s entry has a German language chorus and is like a Thomas Dolby from Temu... Of course the #UK song for #Eurovision is in German because the #woke #leftist love b***dy Europe. WE VOTED FOR #BREXIT. twotierkier #liebour #reformuk'.
Artist's Perspective
Look Mum No Computer spoke about his song in a recent interview, saying: 'There’s a different style to the music... We’ve always had a run of very good pop songs but sometimes they haven’t translated well to points, though they’re still very good songs... We’ve gone for a different tactic with this one. It’s different because it’s just a little bit more tongue in cheek. Around a year ago my manager and I contacted the BBC... We were like, ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if we tried to go for Eurovision?’ but we didn’t think it was possible. They said to give it a go, just try and write something. Skip forward to January, I found out. I was flabbergasted.'
The 70th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, being held in Vienna after Austria won last year's show, will feature 35 countries. While tensions are high due to the controversy surrounding Israel's participation, the UK could finally see a win with their act, who claims they have 'gone for a different tactic'. Eurovision presenter Graham Norton even gushed: 'I think LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER is a really great choice for the UK. If he connects with the crowd, there will be no stopping him.'
Background on the Artist
Sam is a solo artist, songwriter, and YouTuber. Born in Lincolnshire, the 31-year-old first burst onto the music scene in 2014 as the frontman of indie rock band ZIBRA. The group performed at Glastonbury in 2015 for BBC Introducing. He then launched his YouTube career in 2016 and has since amassed over 91 million views and over 1.4 million subscribers across his social media pages. Sam became well known for building his own synthesisers, circuit-bent instruments, and performing quirky, experimental tracks. '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 cr*p about it, because it was just weird stuff that I built in my house,' he told TNT Magazine.
