Mae Muller: ‘Eurovision 2023 Is The Year Of The Pop Girlies!
When May Mueller was seven years old, she wrote a song. No, not the song that will eventually represent the UK at Eurovision 2023, but a Machine-esque ballad about Florence and her childhood sweetheart. "I found the diary I used to keep and it's hilarious," he tells me from his hotel room in Liverpool, where he will soon be on stage in front of millions of people. "I was thinking of playing Florence and writing my 'boyfriend' who turns into a wolf in the middle of the night." Although still a child, Müller understood the importance of creative freedom. “Who had a boyfriend at seven? Of course not me."
Outside of that werewolf obsession of his youth, Muller was no ordinary teenager expressing his fears in his songwriting. In fact, the North Londoner said he was "a bit of a late gamer" who only started thinking about music at the age of 19, posting demos on Soundcloud over a pint of beer in a pub. It took another six years to write 'I Wrote a Song', the dance-pop smash hit that is expected to lead the UK to Eurovision victory on Saturday night. Listen to it, with its Dua Lipa-esque melody and tenacious chorus, and you'll never cry over a cheating ex again. Or at least for a while.
It's Eurovision week and the 25-year-old is incredibly cheerful despite her busy schedule. Talking to him is like chatting with an old friend; Her patchwork knit top shines like her soul. She gestures wildly, her crystal-encrusted stiletto nails slicing through the air like blades. When he wrote "I wrote a song", Müller did not know that it was on the agenda of the Eurovision contest. A few days later, the matter was addressed and everything was adjusted, if necessary, perfectly. "I said, 'That's the weirdest thing, guys, because I feel like I wrote the song for Eurovision three days ago,'" he recalled.
Raised in Kentish Town, Muller was raised in music by his father and James Brown. Their first performance was at the techno duo Lemon Jelly's family concert ("They dressed up like a fool; it was pretty trivial!"). As she got older, Mueller was drawn to influential artists such as Florence and the Machine, Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse. Supporting Little Mix on tour in 2019, she saw firsthand the power of female pop stars and, along the way, gained a passionate following among young women.
Eurovision changed everything. Muller is not only known to girls; Even middle-aged men wish him good luck on the street. Silky-haired TikTok star Sam Ryder led the UK out of a nightmare 2021 in second place last year, with the country backing victorious Ukraine due to its ongoing war with Russia. For the first time in decades, Britain is allowing itself to be optimistic about Eurovision. As optimistic as we Brits can be.
Not so with the Eurovision singers of Müller's youth. He loved low-scoring British sci-fi, and today we're sharing a completely misguided childhood love of the catchy 2007 parody Skutch Airline, which is funnier because people are taking it more seriously," he says. "I'm so glad the tide is turning and I think it's mainly because of Sam that it has been".
Müller was the first woman to represent Great Britain in five years, a milestone in the race for female supremacy. Loreen Sweden's 2012 champion, who wrote one of the biggest Eurovision songs of all time with 'Euphoria', is back as the bookies' favorite to win, while Vesna (Czech Republic) and Alessandra (Norway) battle it out for the right to be a woman. . . Muller is certainly enthusiastic. "Oh my God, it's the year of the pop girls!" she smiled "I think as women in the music industry you compete with each other and sometimes there's a sense of competition that really shouldn't exist."
While the Eurovision Song Contest is certainly exciting, being held on home soil for the first time since 1998, the certainty of what should have been Ukraine is up in the air. Ignore the impossible. The Eurovision Song Contest seems like an apolitical event and "of course you have to respect how it works and why you're entering," says Müller. "But I think it's impossible not to talk about it. We are supporting Ukraine because they cannot go there because there is a war; I think it's safe to talk about it.'
As a young woman, Mueller said free speech is "something we can never take for granted." In March, tweets criticizing the Conservative government's Covid policies appeared on the front page and attracted criticism from the right. As we speak, headlines are being taken out of context with claims that Mueller "hates Britain", which he vehemently denies. "I love this country and I couldn't imagine it if I didn't love it. I love where I'm from... I love how big and diverse it is, but it's nowhere near perfect,” he says. "When you love something, you want it to be even better." At the time of publication, people in the UK "were not getting the best possible treatment, and that goes to my heart."
The last two months of Muller's life (indeed his entire career) have been a whirlwind leading up to a grand final on Saturday. What will it be like when the dust settles on Sunday? Mueller seems a bit confused. Of course, he didn't think of that. “I think I'll be sleeping in my own bed on Sunday night, so I don't know what I'm going to do. Sleep...? Staring at the wall for hours, wet everything? A member of his team whispers something off screen. "Oh no, of course I'm signing a CD," says Muller happily. "The wicked have no rest!
