The UK’s Eurovision entry for the 2025 competition has been unveiled as pop trio Remember Monday, who will perform their original song “What the Hell Just Happened?”.
Originally called Houston, Remember Monday formed while members Holly-Anne Hull, Lauren Byrne and Charlotte Steele were at sixth-form college in Farnham, Surrey, where they would perform cover songs.
Specialising in three-part harmonies, they first set out as a country-pop group, citing influences including the Dixie Chicks, Taylor Swift, Dolly Parton, Linda Rondstadt and Alison Krauss.
However, “What the Hell Just Happened?”, which chronicles the aftermath of a messy night out, leans more into the pop sphere, with Eighties pop and rock influences and bombastic production redolent of 2024’s breakout star Chappell Roan.
It was written by the group with songwriting duo Billen Ted (Tom Hollings and Sam Brennan), Thomas Stengaard and Julie “Kill J” Aagaard.
Billen Ted have previously worked with acts including Little Mix, Anne Marie and MNEK, while Stengaard is known for writing Denmark’s 2023 Eurovision winner “Only Teardrops”.
The group said: “‘What The Hell Just Happened’ is exactly how we’re feeling right now! It’s all very surreal; our friendship goes so far back, and we definitely never imagined that we’d be doing anything like this.”
They continued: “When you’re a kid and people ask you what you want to be when you grow up, an absolute classic is ‘I wanna be a pop star’, so the fact that we’re getting the chance to live that dream as three best friends is just wild. We’re going to be the first girlband to represent the UK since 1999, which feels like such a crazy honour.
“We’re going to bring loads of fun, energy and hopefully do something that you won’t have seen before on the Eurovision stage….We honestly can’t wait to experience this with all of the other incredible artists from around the world, and hopefully make everyone back at home feel proud! This is really the music World Cup and we’ll do our best to bring it home!”
Remember Monday rose to public attention in 2019, when they competed on The Voice UK, performing Seal’s “Kiss From a Rose” in the blind auditions, prompting all four judges – Jennifer Hudson, Tom Jones, Will.i.am and Olly Murs to turn their chairs. They were ultimately voted off the show after the quarter-finals.
That same year, they won Best Group at the British Country Music Awards and saw their debut single, “Drive”, hit No 1 on the iTunes Country Chart.
Since then, they have toured regularly around the UK and built a large fanbase on social media, including on TikTok, where they have over half a million followers.
In 2023, they chose to quit their jobs in order to focus on the band full-time, marking the moment one year later with a statement to their fans.
“It’s officially been a whole year since we all quit our jobs to do the band full-time,” they said. “We can’t thank you all enough for supporting us on the crazy journey we’ve been on so far! We’ve always said we would give ourselves a year and see how it goes.”
They continued: “We made a bucket list that we wanted to complete by today and we thought we’d share with you where we’re at with it! (We have since added some crazy stuff for 2025).
“It’s safe to say we are literally having the best time of our lives and can’t imagine doing anything other than the band!”
Last year, they shared a cover of themselves singing Eurovision 2023 runner-up Sam Ryder’s entry “Space Man”, tagging him with the caption: “Hey get us on Eurovision!”
They also impressed Brian May with their cover of Queen’s hit song, “Fat Bottomed Girls”, with the legendary guitarist sharing it with his Instagram followers.
Ahead of Eurovision, the BBC appears to have been laying the groundwork as Scott Mills, who recently took over the Radio 2 Breakfast Show, played their song “Famous” in November. The presenter said he “really liked” the band, comparing their harmonising to Nineties duo Wilson Phillips.
The band will be hoping to impress at the Eurovision final, for which the UK automatically qualifies as one of the “Big Five” countries – alongside France, Germany, Italy and Spain – in Basel, Switzerland on Saturday 17 May.
Last year saw a disappointing result for singer Olly Alexander and his song, “Dizzy”, which landed in the UK in 18th place out of 25 countries, receiving the dreaded nul points in the public vote and just 46 points from the jury.
Alexander had been hoping to replicate the success of Ryder, who became a huge favourite at the 2022 contest with his original song “Space Man”, finishing in second place – the country’s best result since 1998 – after Ukraine champions Kalush Orchestra and their song “Stefania”.
However, Alexander’s result was only a marginal improvement on the UK’s 2023 performance, which saw singer Mae Muller crash out in second-to-last place with just 24 points.
Fans are already expressing their excitement about Remember Monday’s prospects, after the news that they were representing the UK appeared to leak earlier this week.
The grand final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 takes place in Basel, Switzerland, on Saturday 17 May. The semi-finals take place on 13 and 15 May.
