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Bill Bailey confirms that he’s working on a song for Eurovision

By Andy Malt | Published on Monday 7 June 2021

Comedian Bill Bailey has confirmed that he is now writing a song to put forward as the UK’s entry for next year’s Eurovision Song Contest.

After James Newman came last in the 2021 contest last month – scoring zero points with his song ‘Embers’ – Bailey tweeted that he would “be happy to throw my hat in the ring”.

Asked by the Radio Times if that was a serious comment, he said: “Yes. Do you know what? I was writing [a Eurovision song] today. This very day. Because I just thought, why not? Come on, we’ve not been doing well lately. It couldn’t have gone worse [this year]. We need to inject a bit of fun, I think”.

This isn’t Bailey’s first attempt at entering Eurovision. He previously put forward what he describes as “a kind of spoof eco anthem in the style of ‘Dad’s Army'” in 2007. He recently told ITV’s ‘Good Morning Britain’ that it was rejected by the BBC for being “too silly”. For comparison, that was the year we sent Scooch. So it must have been pretty silly.

However, he said: “We need to celebrate the eccentricity and quirkiness of Britishness … We’re not taking it seriously enough and sort of taking it too seriously. We should focus on the visuals of it and make it into a huge celebration of Britishness. Maybe some guitar, cow bells and there’s not enough car horns in it”.

So, that’s something to look forward to. Or not. I mean, I think part of the problem is that Britain is known for being a greater maker of pop music, but that isn’t represented in our Eurovision entries. Sending something utterly daft is an option, but when Germany did that this year it only just managed not to join the UK at the bottom of the pile.

Basically, what I’m saying is, car horns might not be the answer.