Country pop group Remember Monday have finally been unveiled as the UK’s representatives at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.
The singing trio (who describe themselves as “pop girlies with a lil bit of yeehaw”) first rose to prominence on the eighth series of The Voice UK back in 2019, where they were mentored by Jennifer Hudson.
In the years since, the band – made up of singers Lauren Byrne, Holly-Anne Hull and Charlotte Steele – has continued working together, and has also kept in touch with their celebrity mentor, even appearing on her US talk show in January 2024.
Remember Monday was first reported to be representing the UK at Eurovision by The Sun more than a month ago, with several apparent slip-ups in the past few weeks appearing to confirm the group’s involvement in the competition.
On Friday morning, it was, at long last, confirmed on Scott Mills’ Radio 2 breakfast show that the band will be competing in Basel with their original song What The Hell Just Happened.
Take a listen to the track for yourself below:
In a group statement, they enthused: “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.
“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 for 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…”
They added: “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!”
It’s fair to say the UK has had a complicated time of it at Eurovision in the past few years.
Following a string of middling results, Sam Ryder appeared to have reversed our fortunes in 2022 when his song Space Man finished in second place behind the Ukrainian entry Kalush Orchestra.
The following year, we hosted the competition on behalf of Ukraine, but our act Mae Muller finished second to last with her entry I Wrote A Song.
Last year, we were represented by Olly Alexander in Malmö, and while his song Dizzy didn’t fare too badly on the scoreboard, he failed to secure a single point from Eurovision voters, with his only marks coming from the juries.
The Eurovision Song Contest will take place in Basel, Switzerland this May, following Nemo’s historic victory in 2024.
Last year’s competition was blighted with controversy, mostly relating to the continued presence of Israel in the contest despite the ongoing conflict in Gaza, and the impromptu disqualification of the Netherlands days before the final.