She’s the critically acclaimed British singer-songwriter whose brother works with the likes of Adele and Florence Welch. And it turns out that Mary Epworth is a hardcore Eurovision fan. Better still, she really wants to enter the contest. Could she be the United Kingdom’s answer to Jamala or Salvador Sobral?
Mary raised the topic during an appearance on BBC Radio 6 Music yesterday, telling host Lauren Laverne that she would love to do Eurovision, but as a songwriter rather than a singer.
In my mind, I always am aiming for Kraftwerk meets Eurovision. I’d love to enter, but really I’d like to write it. Because loads of the times when I say, “Oh, I’d love to enter”, people are like “Yes! Sing my song I’ve written”. And I’m like “Nope! [laughs] I wanna be the writer”.
The alternative artist goes further, describing the annual song festival as her own World Cup.
But I love it. Eurovision is sort of like my, like whatever the sports people say once a year… what’s that thing called? The World Cup! [laughs]. I dunno, I love it. I just really love it.
And even though she’s not a fast-food music act — as Salvador Sobral might say — she still embraces the fun and ridiculousness.
I mean, it’s funny because it’s obviously like, I’m not really in that pop world. But people who really do it are generally, you know, people who are full-time kind of pop, the sort of manufacturing side of pop of like you know pot housing and all that but I just love it. I think it’s brilliant. A really fun thing and it’s sort of ridiculous that you get into so many people’s houses in one go.
A quick perusal of Mary’s Twitter feed confirms that her feelings towards the contest are genuine. Her timeline reveals that for 2017 she was a big fan of the Czech entry, but less fond of Iceland’s “Paper”. Spain stirred strong emotions, but her douze points were destined for Portugal’s Salvador Sobral.
I love the Czech Republic with all my heart and therefore cannot comment on this song. Nice shiny jumpsuit though. #Eurovision
— Marv Epworth ??? (@maryepworth) May 9, 2017
Urgh, single metaphor songs are my Achilles heel. Soz Iceland. #eurovision
— Marv Epworth ??? (@maryepworth) May 9, 2017
The 30 sec clip I saw of Spain made me want to do a murdering.
Am bracing myself #Eurovision— Marv Epworth ??? (@maryepworth) May 13, 2017
Tried to call the #eurovision line from my mobile to vote for #portugal and truecaller identified it thus. pic.twitter.com/y0wt4UoNCE
— Marv Epworth ??? (@maryepworth) May 13, 2017
Who is Mary Epworth?
Mary Epworth released her debut single “The Saddle Song” in 2008, and quickly established herself as a critical darling. Q magazine labelled her first album “psych pop splendour”, while NME described her work as “magical synthpop”.
She comes from a musical family. Her brother Paul Epworth is one of the most in-demand producers in modern music. He has worked with some of the world’s biggest names, including Florence + the Machine, Lorde, Lana Del Rey, and Adele.
The UK at Eurovision 2017
The Brits will be back again in Lisbon. It might be 20 long years since their last victory, but the United Kingdom’s Eurovision spirit keeps going. The BBC opened their song selection process for Eurovision 2018 in September, confirming a third edition of Eurovision: You Decide.
Songwriters have until October 27 to submit their entries. As with previous years, the BBC are accepting songs from both the public and music professionals.
What do you think of Mary Epworth’s comments? Would you like to see her flying the Union Jack in Portugal? Let us know in the comments below.
Sadly she was expressing her views on a station which is the home of Eurovision enemies like Steve Lamaq, Ann-Marie Hobbs and Laverne herself. They’d only ever play a Eurovision song in the context of a “guilty pleasure”. The former fronted a wildy inaccurate radio documentary the other year called “The Real Eurovision” claiming that the important acts across Europe had nothing to do with the contest.
The tone set by these people and their playlisters is why so few figures like Epworth in Britain take the contest seriously.
Laverne’s band Kenickie contributed a cover of “Save Your Kisses for Me” to A Song for Eurotrash back in the late 90’s. The cover’s nice, no idea how condescending the actual show was…
Best she submit a song to the Beeb then….
When I’m reading this, the “big thing” about Mary is her BROTHER who has been working with Adele and such. So if her brother is the successful one, why on earth do you guys write like she is the UK’s only hope of success in eurovision?
Blah blah blah, brother blah blah, success, blah blah, published one good song in 2008, blah blah….
well maybe her and her brother can collaborate and she can either write a song for him, or they can perform together. at this stage the UK cant keep sending x factor rejects, and if this Mary is a good performer and singer, maybe she might be good for Lisbon, if you think about it who else from the UK, will want to perform in Lisbon who doesn’t have a long going career to this date
YES! MARY FOR EUROVISION!
you know what I really don’t know much about this Mary Epworth, however its time for the UK, to really dig deep and go for the unexpected because from the last two years, the winners kind of have stood out and been unexpected winners, so maybe the UK can go down this route, come on lets give Lisbon a really great stand out act.
Some rock or indie would be great!
If the last two years showed us anything, it’s that wonderful things can come from unexpected sources. It’s nice to see professionals who embrace the silly AND the sublime aspects of Eurovision.