Sophie Ellis-Bextor on if she’d ever do Eurovision and her “psychedelic, proggy” new album

nme.com:

Sophie Ellis-Bextor has spoken to NME about the chances of her representing the UK at Eurovision, and what to expect from her “psychedelic, proggy” new album ‘Hana’.The British pop icon was speaking to NME backstage after her performance at Liverpool’s Eurovision Village on ‘EuroEve’, the night before the Song Contest’s Grand Final in the city (Friday May 12).Stepping off stage, she told NME: “I really enjoyed myself, the crowd were gorgeous.

I was up in Liverpool yesterday so I already had a sense of the atmosphere here and I was really looking forward to tonight.“I’ve loved Eurovision since I can remember.

I love everything that it’s about – I love the warmth of it. You get the impression that there’s a lot of support for one another among the artists, and the whole production of the actual show has been amazing.”And has she ever been tempted or asked to represent the UK at Eurovision herself?“Not really,” Ellis-Bextor replied. “I think doing it is an amazing opportunity, and that [2023 UK entry] Mae Muller will smash it, but it was never the right thing at the right time – and I’m a big believer in serendipity like that.”Muller is currently heading towards a UK Top 10 with ‘I Wrote A Song’, despite finishing second to last in the competition, and the final was the most-watched in the Song Contest’s history according to the BBC.

Off the back of the success of recent winner’s Måneskin and last year’s UK entry Sam Ryder, Ellis-Bextor said that the increased popularity and credibility of Eurovision should come as no surprise.“Eurovision has been running since the mid ‘50s so there have been a lot of shifts since then,” she said.