UNITED KINGDOM – Sophie Ellis-Bextor has confessed that she previously turned down the opportunity to be a Eurovision Song Contest judge.
This year, the United Kingdom will be represented in Turin, Italy, by 32-year-old TikTok sensation Sam Ryder and his uplifting pop song “Space Man.”
According to Ellis-Bextor, she had a “discussion” about becoming a competition judge after the popularity of her smash song “Murder On The Dancefloor,” which was the most played single in Europe in 2002.
โI had a very small baby that I was still feeding, and they wouldnโt let me bring it along […] Iโm pretty sure the baby would have been impartial but, you know what, I think part of what I like about Eurovision is that it has very much got its rulesโฆ itโs kooky. We werenโt going to be allowed to speak while we were watching it either, and I thought, โI canโt watch Eurovision in silenceโ.โ
This year, Ellis-Bextor, 43, will host a special Eurovision Kitchen Disco warm-up party on Radio 2.
She went on to say that Eurovision has been a part of her family’s life since she was “small” and watched it with her parents as a youngster.
โMy parents always watched Eurovision and I remember watching it during the eighties when I was in single digits and being pretty fascinated by what I saw,โ she said.
She went on to say that the “political overtones” of Eurovision, as well as Britain’s famed lack of success, were “part of the fun.”
โWe should probably brace ourselves for another โnul pointsโ score,โ she said. โThere have always been political undertones (to the voting), which again, is part of the fun. We quite enjoy that, I think. Itโs part of the reason Britain treats it in an almost ironic way, and I donโt think it will ever lose that, but some of the songs that are good can have a life outside of Eurovision and be treated as legitimate hits.โ
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