Amy Winehouse discovered her at the age of 18, and she has subsequently collaborated with global superstars including Sia and Tyga.

And now Neon Hitch — yes that’s her real name — will turn her attention to helping San Marino select its Eurovision 2018 singer as the third and final judge on the 1 in 360 panel.

Miss Hitch was born in Kingston upon Thames, but grew up in a caravan in the countryside after her house burnt down. She spent her younger years touring Europe as a circus entertainer – referring to herself as a “Gypsy Star.”

https://youtu.be/_P6HAs3N7sE

She’s essentially a British Ke$ha (with whom she wrote the international smash, “Blah Blah Blah”) – although she often brings her Romani roots into her punchy pop music. In the fall of 2015 we included her on our wishlist of dream acts to sing for the United Kingdom, with our Edd writing: “If this isn’t Eurovision winning material then I seriously don’t know what is.”

You may recognise her as a featuring artist on tracks like “Ass Back Home” (Gym Class Heroes) and “Gold” (Bruno Mars), and for her own track “F*ck U Betta”. The latter two hit #1 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs charts.

She’s not afraid to mine her own life for material, as she told Billboard in 2012.

“I wrote [“Fuck U Betta”] with my friend Lauren Christy after I had broken up with a boyfriend, who had told me that he started dating a model,” she said. “I was like, ‘Yeah, she’s prettier than I’ll ever be, but can she do it like me? Then we gave it to [my producer] Benny, and Benny was freaking out over it.”

Neon joins Eurovision 2016 singer Zoë and dancer and choreographer Mike Bugg on the judging panel.

Are you excited about Neon’s role in the show? Do you think that she’ll be able to guide Europe to making the best decision for San Marino? Let us know in the comments box below!

Read more San Marino Eurovision news

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Alex
Alex
6 years ago

I love Ass Back Home. Dunno if she will be a good judge but at the very least she knows how to write a catchy song, so she should be able to recognize a good melody.

Joe
Joe
6 years ago

Seems cool…but I have to say, being even partially responsible for “Blah Blah Blah” makes me a little nervous…

Marcus (Day One)
Marcus (Day One)
6 years ago

Aside from Zoe all of the judges seem to be so random in their selection.

Mizna
Mizna
6 years ago

Hopefully this will open a door for Neon to actually go to Eurovision some day. Neon is soooo underrated. She got the short end of the stick with her deal with Warner, when they essentially stopped her music career (when it was at its highest potential) by not letting her release her debut album. Slay queen!!

H5rre
H5rre
6 years ago

Maybe this will guide Neon into trying out for Eurovision now that she’s part of the whole thing by choosing an artist for San Marino 🙂 I mean come on UK, she wrote for Kesha and lived with Amy Winehouse! Why can’t we just internally select her instead of doing another selection? She could be our best entrant yet

Mark
Mark
6 years ago

Why didn’t they just send her?

D
D
6 years ago

lol this is random she’s like an actual singer outside of the eurovision community, i really didn’t think i’d ever see someone like this involved in a national selection, especially san marino’s nonetheless. i used to listen to her music in like 2012 when i was young

Sasha
Sasha
6 years ago

I met her send she is legit crazy