The UK's Eurovision song is out - and people don't know what to think

It may still be a couple of months until this year’s Eurovision Song Contest gets underway in Malmö, Sweden, but UK fans now have an idea of what to expect from our entry as Olly Alexander has released his track “Dizzy”.

The It’s A Sin star, previously the frontman of pop group Years and Years, announced he was taking part in the contest back in December, during the live final of last year’s series of Strictly Come Dancing.

Alexander said the song was written last summer, starting off with the title word because “it just popped into my head and I liked it”.

“I was thinking about fun things that could make you dizzy and I remember saying ‘dizzy from your kisses’ so the song is about feeling such an intense swell of emotion for someone they totally turn your world upside down and inside out.

"Danny and I believe music should transport you somewhere magical and we wanted to describe this magical place in the song; a place of beautiful gardens, eternal flowers and time turning endlessly in an ecstatic loop.

“We took the feeling of dizziness and put that into the production, so there’s a lot of undulating arpeggios, lilting harmonies and counter rhythms in the backing vocals.

“We were inspired by a lot of music we love from the 80’s like Erasure, Adamski and of course Pet Shop Boys.”

Alexander co-wrote the song with electronic producer Danny L Harle, who remixed his Years and Years track “Shine” and is one of the co-writers behind Dua Lipa’s recent hit single, “Houdini”.

Promising stuff.

As for the music video, the singer is seen wandering around a bedroom that is spinning on a turntable – makes sense.

Olly Alexander - Dizzy (Official Video)www.youtube.com

However, the track has been met with a mixed reaction from followers of Eurovision:

Despite being a “non-political event”, this year’s contest has already been met with controversy over Israel’s participation, amid the ongoing war in Gaza which the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory says has claimed the lives of more than 30,000 Palestinians in just five months.

In January, judges at the International Court of Justice said Israel must ensure its forces do not commit genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

Israel’s song by Eden Golan is reportedly titled “October Rain”, with leaked lyrics reported to reference the 7 October attack by Hamas which killed 1,200 people and saw around 250 people taken hostage, according to Israeli authorities.

The country has threatened to withdraw from the contest amid scrutiny over the alleged reference.

Meanwhile Alexander was revealed to have signed an open letter prior to being announced as the UK Eurovision entry which said “we are watching a genocide take place in real time” and claimed Israel was operating an “apartheid regime”.

Some Eurovision fans are boycotting this year’s contest in protest at Israel’s involvement, criticising the European Broadcasting Union for allowing the country to take part amid the conflict despite previously banning Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.

This year’s Eurovision Song Contest gets underway from 7 May with the first semi-final, but the UK doesn’t have to pass that stage as one of the ‘Big Five’ countries, so goes straight to the Grand Final broadcast on 11 May.

Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.