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It seems the BBC has finally looked at the last few years of polite chart pop, sighed heavily, and said: right then, let’s try something a bit different.
The United Kingdom will be represented at Eurovision 2026 in Vienna by Look Mum No Computer. Sam Battle – as he’s known to his actual Mum – is an electronic musician, inventor and YouTuber. He first surfaced in 2014 fronting indie band Zibra, who managed a Glastonbury Festival slot via BBC Introducing in 2015. After that, he vanished down a rabbit hole of oscillators, soldering irons and unusual musical instruments, only to emerge reborn as Look Mum No Computer.
Since then, he’s built an audience of around 1.4 million across platforms by doing things like constructing working organs out of Furbies, turning Game Boys into synths, and riding around on synthesiser bicycles.
Battle himself describes the BBC job offer as “completely bonkers”, although (like most every other UK act in recent years) he claims to be a lifelong Eurovision fan.
BBC entertainment boss Kalpna Patel-Knight talked up Sam’s “bold vision, unique sound and electric performance style”, adding that he represents “creativity, ambition and a distinctly British wit”.
The song itself remains under wraps, but Scott Mills has heard it, and has tried to describe it using the traditional Eurovision method of comparing it to a bunch of other stuff: imagine Now You’re Gone, add a splash of Parklife, stir in West End Girls, sprinkle on some The Human League, chuck in a bit of Verka Serduchka, and then, for reasons known only to Mills, add “a tiny bit” of the Sex Pistols.
The track will get its first play on his Radio 2 breakfast show in the coming weeks, after which fandom will decide whether it’s a stroke of genius or ‘destined for the far left side of the board’.
Since Sam Ryder’s glorious second place in 2022, it’s been a familiar slide back into then low-scoring swamp for the UK. Mae Muller flirted with the bottom in Liverpool, Olly Alexander ended up 18th in 2024, and Remember Monday slumped to 19th last year.
For once though, the UK is not playing safe, not chasing last year’s sound, and not pretending that “radio-friendly” is the same thing as “memorable”.
