He’s a well-known silver screen personality. But did you know that the British actor Ben Barnes once tried to represent the UK at Eurovision?
In 2004, he was briefly a singer in the pop boy band Hyrise. They were in the running to represent the United Kingdom at the song contest in Istanbul with the song “Leading Me On”. However, the four-piece group lost out to James Fox’s “Hold Onto Our Love”, placing second in the national final. The band soon disbanded and that was it.
And now, speaking to The Radio Times, Barnes has revealed that he didn’t particularly enjoy his moment in the Eurovision bubble.
Ben Barnes and Eurovision 2004
His statement is a testimony to the fact that not everyone goes through the competition and falls in love with it: “That experience with the song-contest-that-shall-not-be-named did burn me a little bit”.
“It showed what happens if you try to do something that isn’t authentically you”.
Continuing his rant: “We sang the song three times and the next day I called up and said, I’m embarrassed, I can’t do this anymore”.
Ben Barnes the actor
While we may not agree with all of what he said, we couldn’t agree more about the need for authenticity. And it appears that Ben has found this in the world of acting.
Back in 2004, very few could have predicted that there was a future Hollywood heart-throb amongst the British national finalists. But Barnes went on to carve out a successful career in the industry. He is perhaps well known for playing the role of Caspian in the film adaptation of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.
He has also made a mark on the world of television, replacing Eion Bailey as Logan Delos in HBO’s science fiction thriller Westworld.
Ben Barnes on a music return
But has he made peace with music?
“(The Eurovision experience) made me wary of putting music out there,” he said. “But I am warming up to it again”.
And sure enough, Ben recently shared some videos on Instagram showing him singing. Is he ready to attack the charts once more? Only time will tell.
What do you think of Ben’s comments? Would you like to see him return to music? Let us know in the comments.
Follow all of our United Kingdom Eurovision 2020 news.
don’t remember this but his song was much much better than what the British public chose to represent the UK. Seems like the UK public tend to always make bad choices in national votes #stopbrexit
He’s emblematic of the UK’s approach to the contest, which hopefully will improve a bit in 2020.
Never heard of him
I don’t think it so much burned him against Eurovision as it did manufactured pop music and the boy band machine.
Prince Kaspian was part of a Eurovision National Final? Wow 😀 I’m learning sth new every day xD
Ben who?
Billy Russo a.k.a. Jigsaw in Netflix’s The Punisher series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx5Kbez6uX0
Okay, so I love him (in multiple ways) and also happen to love Leading Me On and wish it had won in 2004 instead of HOTOL (boyband freak talking). But did finishing 2nd in an NF years ago really “burn” you, Ben? Did it realllllyyyyyy?
Watching clips of those UK selections of those years felt like watching a budget Top of the Pops if it were turned into a competition show with unnecessary commentary and snark, nevermind that many of the actual songs in contention weren’t current British music at its finest in the 2000’s.
Wasn’t he on Marvel’s Punisher on Netflix? I enjoyed his performance there.
He didn’t even go to the contest. He went to a national final and didn’t get selected. It’s not like he experienced the weeks of promotion, rehearsals and the live shows. He hasn’t experienced the (what I imagine quite stressful) voting sequence. With that in mind IMO he doesn’t know what he talking about. If it was not for this article I would never of known about his Eurovision attempt.
basically what most brits think of the contest, nothing new here and let’s move on.
skskskjsks not him abandoning music completely bc he flopped at a eurovision selection nobody rihmembers. back in the 00s artists generally had much less artistic freedom and were more of label puppets than they are today, i believe most artists who enter eurovision selections now are genuinely interested in the contest…. salvador sobral’s gon disagree but yuh u get my point
Omg so because he took part with a song that was pure mainstream pop and lacked all of the authenticity to win, he goes on to bash the contest as a whole?!? There are 100s of songs full of authenticity in the contest and a song with authenticity win every year pretty much. Hold On To Your Love was a way better song than his band so the right song won that year in the UK… It is silly to bash ESC as a whole because of UKs repeating failures!!!
When did he bash the contest? He didn’t like the experience because it wasn’t him. He didn’t like his silly dancing or the song or the fact that their band name was purposely misspelled. He fully makes fun of himself, and yes, people constantly bring it up to him, even though it was his least favorite musical thing he ever did. That’s why he says he’s “burned by it”. He never says word one about the contest as a whole.