Rylan Clark has revealed he keeps being mistaken for a Eurovision entrant while hosting the BBC’s coverage of this year’s semi-finals in Turin.
The presenter has confessed there have been a number of occasions this week where he has been wished “good luck” by other people believing he was competing.
Appearing on The One Show on Thursday evening, Rylan’s co-host Scott Mills told Alex Jones and Ronan Keating: “So I don’t know if you saw Rylan’s outfit on Tuesday and again this evening, you can see why some people in Turin may think that he is one of the contestants.”
Rylan, whose Eurovision outfits were made by Great British Sewing Bee contestant Raph Dilhan, admitted he had been embracing the mix-up, joking: “We’ve got to the point now that I just put on an Eastern European accent and I think they think I’m Romania.”
Scott said it had actually happened moments before they came on air with Alex and Ronan via a link live from Turin in Italy, where the contest is being held.
“So it just happened again as we walked in, someone said ‘Good luck tonight,’ and he was like, ‘thanks’,” Scott said.
Rylan then added in an accent: “Thanks so much, so happy to be here.”
Romania is being represented by WRS with Llámame during this year’s competition – and it has to be said the singer’s fashion isn’t exactly dissimilar to Rylan’s:
Rylan has been involved in Eurovision since 2018, when he took over as one of the BBC’s commentators during the semi-final stages of the competition.
Speaking ahead of this year’s contest, the TV presenter told The Sun it’s become something of a “tradition” for him to take the UK’s representative out on the town in whatever country Eurovision is being held in – though this hasn’t always gone down so well with organisers.
“It is tradition that I always take the British act out, normally on the Wednesday or the Thursday,” he explained. “And then the head of delegation always has a go at me because I take them out.”
This year’s entrant is Sam Ryder, who is competing with his self-penned song Space Man, which is among the top of the bookies’ favourites to win.
The UK last won Eurovision 25 years ago with Katrina And The Waves’ Love Shine A Light.
This year’s Eurovision final will air live on Saturday at 8pm on BBC One.