Meet the UK's Eurovision entrant: 'The BBC is taking a risk on me'

Experimental musician Look Mum No Computer, who will represent the UK at the Eurovision Song Contest, says he's surprised the BBC chose his "completely wacky" song as this year's entry.

Titled Eins, Zwei, Drei, it's an overstuffed sandwich of a song - full of chanted hooks and crunchy keyboards that deliberately avoids the polished pop of previous entries.

The chorus is partially sung in German, while the verses reference traditional English desserts like "roly poly with custard".

"I was like, 'This is not going to be taken seriously because the BBC love the conventional stuff, and this is not conventional'," says the musician. "So they're taking a bit of a risk - but who knows?"

The UK has had a bumpy ride at Eurovision since Sam Ryder took second place four long years ago.

Both Olly Alexander (2024) and Remember Monday (2025) scored zero in the public vote, only avoiding last place because they won points from the contest's juries of professional songwriters.

Look Mum No Computer, real name Sam Battle, is taking a philosophical approach to the UK's track record.

"Whether it's winning or whether it's not winning, I just figured the best thing to do is just try my hardest," he says.

"There's a lot of stuff going on with the voting, a lot of favouritism and stuff, and maybe the UK isn't everybody's favourite when it comes to the Eurovision.

"So I'm just going to be myself and hope they see that I'm an all right guy. Because if they don't like you, then there's no hope, really."

The key question for any Eurovision entrant is, how do you stand out in a competition where everyone wants to stand out?

Eins, Zwei, Drei learns from past mistakes.

Discarding any preconceptions about Eurovision, it is delightfully, mesmerisingly bonkers.

Imagine Blur covering Falco's Rock Me Amadeus, adding a lyric about jam roly polys and a gigantic call-and-response section, and you'll be part of the way to understanding its unique charm.

The song opens with Battle fighting against the drudgery of his nine-to-five job. "The office cubicle has trapped me again," he says as he daydreams of a holiday on the continent.

"If only there was a language I could count in that would make me feel better," he says before launching into the German-inspired chorus.

"Basically, I go on tour in Germany a lot," the singer explains. "I spend a lot of time going around there in a little van, me and my mate, and they're very friendly, very nice.

"So I thought, let's write a song about going on holiday in Germany."

Musically, you can hear two of Battle's biggest influences - Elvis Costello and The Human League - in the song's DNA.

His sprechgesang vocals also recall Ian Dury, while there are little keyboard motifs that nod to the Steve Miller Band's Abracadabra, and a melodic flourish that resembles the "swagger of a champion" line from Britney Spears' Womanizer.

Interestingly, there is more German language in the UK entry than the Germany's own song, Fire, which is sung entirely in English.

A self-professed Eurovision fan, Battle played in two major label recording acts, including indie band Zibra, before launching his solo career in 2016.

But he's possibly better known for a YouTube channel where he builds and plays unusual synthesisers, including organs made from toys such as Furbies and Game Boys, as well as a "synthesiser bicycle" and a combination of a keyboard and a flame thrower.

He also holds the Guinness World Record for the world's largest "drone synth", capable of producing 1,000 separate tones.

"It's like 1,000 buzzing bees making a symphonic noise... Or the sound of my neighbours getting angry," he laughs.

The synth, which takes up the entire wall of a room, lives in a museum that Battle owns and operates in Kent, alongside other experimental and outmoded musical instruments including a 100-year-old church organ the musician has restored by hand.

"I've always been into building things," says Battle, whose grandfather helped to construct the Withernsea Lighthouse Museum in Yorkshire, and whose dad was a DIY car enthusiast.

"So when I discovered the magic of synthesisers, I just had this urge to build them. I don't know why. It just felt more honest making a sound from something I've built and designed."

The obsession informs his stage name - as Battle records using his own inventions, rather than computer-assisted recording software.

Eins, Zwei, Drei was written on one of those synths. Affectionately known as Kosmo, it's a towering black box that resembles a cross between a telephone exchange and the flight deck of an airliner.

The song was written after the musician emailed the BBC's Eurovision team "out of the blue" last September.

Initially expecting to write for another artist, he was surprised to be asked to consider performing at the contest in his own right.

The idea for Eins, Zwei, Drei came as he was setting up his equipment.

"I was actually moving a sofa to make room for my synth and, as we prepared to lift it I said, 'Eins, Zwei, Drei'.

"Everyone was like, 'That's the name of the song!'

"And lo and behold, 12 hours later we had the rough version of this thing."

By Christmas, Battle was on a shortlist of five artists who'd been asked to play a showcase for the BBC's Eurovision team, including head of delegation Andrew Cartmell and Sam Ryder's manager David May.

In January, he was chosen as the UK's representative. He was publicly announced last month, and the song was unveiled on Friday.

"It's pretty mad, but yeah, I'm excited," he says of taking part in the contest. "[I'm] working hard to do the best that I can do."

Battle will take his song to Vienna in May, after a bruising Eurovision build-up that saw five countries pull out of the contest due to Israel's participation.

The musician says he hopes his song, with its message of embracing other European countries, will sound a note of positivity.

"The idea of Eurovision is a feeling of togetherness," he says. "And that's what I wanted to portray."