Singer-songwriter Mae Muller has been announced as the UK’s entrant for Eurovision 2023, picking up the baton from Sam Ryder who stormed to second place in 2022. 

She was born in Kentish Town in London in 1997 – the same year the UK last won the competition – signed with her manager while she was working in a pub and shot a DIY music video from her dad’s bathroom.

Sky News takes a look at the backstory of the UK’s 2023 Eurovision entrant.

Her music to date

Muller’s showbiz career dates back to when she was 9 and starred in Mika’s Grace Kelly video.

She wrote her first proper song aged 19. She was on a train from Cornwall to London and the wi-fi wasn’t working – so she opened the Notes app on her phone and started writing about the boy she was seeing.

It became a track called Close, she told The Line of Best Fit – and it’s still available on her Soundcloud.

She was discovered through a video of her singing on Instagram and signed with her manager in 2017.

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Muller released an Ep After Hours in 2018, followed by her debut album Chapter 1 in 2019 and EP No One Else, Not Even You in 2020.

Better Days, a collaboration with Swedish producers Neiked, was her breakout hit, reaching 32 in the UK singles chart.

She credits Prince and Sade as her early musical influences, and says Gwen Stefani, Florence Welch and Lily Allen have all inspired her in more recent years.

Touring with Little Mix

In 2019, Muller supported Little Mix on their LM5 tour, an experience she described to Sky News as “surreal” and “amazing”.

She explained: “It was such a confidence boost for me… I was actually quite surprised at how quickly I got into it. The first show I was like, I can’t do this, I’m so scared, but by the third show I was just walking out there like, bring it on.

“It kind of made me believe even more that this is what I’m supposed to do. And it was so amazing to be on a tour of that scale and the girls were so welcoming and nice. I think it made me more eager to achieve that on my own… it was an irreplaceable experience.”

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She feared lockdown could harm her career

After the highs of a nationwide tour came the lows of lockdown, when Muller found herself swapping packed arenas for her dad’s house in Cornwall.

She told Sky News she was “trying to count my blessings”: “I’ve learned new skills I wouldn’t have before. I’m taking the positives away from it.”

She released the single I Don’t Want Your Money during lockdown, using a painted wall as a green screen for the music video and filming parts of it in the bathroom.

Her Eurovision track

Muller will be singing I Wrote A Song – a catchy dance track about a cheating ex-boyfriend.

She explained the inspiration for the song on TikTok: “I was really annoyed at this guy. I wanted to do something crazy, maybe burn his house down, I don’t know.

“But instead I took the high road and I wrote a song. And that’s called growth, ladies and gentlemen.”

“I was going to cuss you out,” she sings.

“Wanted to trash your Benz, tell all your friends how cruel you were to me.

“Instead I wrote a song, about how you did me wrong.”

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