Olly Alexander has said Eurovision fans should expect “drama” from his entry into the 2024 song contest.
The Years and Years lead singer, 33, was announced as the representative for the UK during the Strictly Come Dancing final on Saturday.
Speaking on BBC Radio 2 on Monday, he said since the news was announced the UK’s more recent entrants, Sam Ryder and Mae Muller, had reached out with the “lovely” messages of support.
He told host Rylan Clark: “It’s an overwhelming feeling because obviously I’ve known about this for a little while, let’s say, and keeping it a secret was hard and I kind of forgot that people would know and have a reaction…
“Everyone’s been super supportive, I’m just so so excited, it’s a bit like a dream. I can’t believe it’s really happening.”
Alexander has not yet revealed what his song will be for next year’s competition in Malmo, Sweden, but promised it would bring “drama”.
He added: “I’m already so proud of the song and just the fact that I’m going to be taking part, the fact that I’m going to get to perform it and you’d best believe I’m going to be pulling out all the stops for this performance.”
Earlier this year pop singer Muller scored 24 points, placing her second last, for her performance of her track I Wrote A Song at Liverpool’s M&S Bank Arena.
In 2022, Ryder came second in the competition behind Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra, giving the UK its best Eurovision Song Contest result in more than 20 years.
Discussing the previous representatives, Alexander said: “I’ve had some lovely messages from Sam and Mae actually…
“I need to have a proper conversation with both of them, we’re part of the (Eurovision) family now.”
this was very difficult to keep quiet omg !! so excited to announce that I’m the uk's @Eurovision entry for 2024 💕 !!! i’ve wanted to do this for a long long time and it feels like the right moment to start releasing music under my own name 🥺 pic.twitter.com/zvfcjfPeNk
— olly alexander (@alexander_olly) December 16, 2023
The singer said he has already started his preparation for the competition as he knows whatever he does for the show will require “some extreme physical fitness”.
He added: “I had a treadmill on tour onstage because I like to punish myself I guess, so I sung a couple of songs on the treadmill.
“I’ve started doing that. I’ve started hula hooping and singing the song.”
Over the past decade pop superstar Alexander has scored five top 10 UK singles and two number one albums with his band Years and Years.
He has also starred in a number of TV programmes including the last ever series of teen drama Skins and Channel 4’s It’s A Sin, which saw him receive a Bafta nomination in his role as Ritchie Tozer.
All three live Eurovision 2024 programmes – both semi-finals and the grand final – will be broadcast on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on May 7, 9 and 11 in 2024.