The UK’s Eurovision Song Contest entry sparked a fierce backlash from viewers, with some branding it the country’s “worst ever”.
Look Mum No Computer, also known as Sam Battle, represented the UK in Vienna, Austria, with his song “Eins, Zwei, Drei” – a zany electronic-pop song that makes heavy use of synths, while dancing energetically with people dressed as computers on Saturday night.
At one point, Battle attempted to get the crowd to sing with him, chanting: “When I say eins, you say zwei.”
The YouTube star wore a pink boiler suit as performers in fluffy headwear danced in a mock workshop, while he played a synthesizer, and ended up in a cardboard box.
But the 37-year-old has received some damning criticism on social media following his “bonkers” performance.
“I’m so sorry we entered this guys honestly we all feel sick,” one person wrote on X in response to the song.
Another joked that they are “not sure Europe will even let us rejoin after this”, while others went as far as saying it “is the worst” they had heard and that the UK will “definitely” end up in last place.
The song choice was also called “shameful” by a critic on X who wrote: “England, which has created enormous amounts of great music, comes with a kind of German march music. Shameful.”
Another person joked that the song is a “small crime against humanity”, others said the performance was “diabolical” and only worth “zero points”.
But Battle knows that the odds are, quite literally, stacked against him when he competes in this year’s final.
The bookies have him down at 80/1 to win, but the musician and YouTuber has said he’s “happy to be an underdog” in the annual song contest.
He told the Independent before his final performance: “There’s all different ways of looking at it, but it’s not bothering me, because nobody’s actually seen the full [performance]. There’s a lot more going on than meets the eye – I’m hoping it’s going to surprise people.”
Battle has the unenviable task of trying to bring the UK its first win since 1997, when Katrina and the Waves triumphed with their song “Love Shine a Light”.
Since then, the nation has rarely come close to winning – often coming in last or close to last place – with the exception of Sam Ryder in 2022, who came in second with his song “Space Man”.
The UK is one of the Big Four countries, whose broadcasters make the biggest financial contribution to Eurovision. That means the UK qualifies for the final automatically and Battle didn’t need to impress to make it to the final.
