UK Eurovision entry Look Mum No Computer faced backlash for his “embarrassing” performance in the contest’s second semi-final.
The musician, whose real name is Sam Battle, performed his song Eins, Zwei, Drei, while dancing energetically with people dressed as computers during Thursday’s second semi-final at the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna, Austria.
At one point, Battle attempted to get the crowd to sing with him, chanting: “When I say eins, you say drei.”
He has already qualified for Saturday’s grand final as part of the big four, along with Italy, Germany and France, who contribute the most financially to Eurovision, as well as Austria as this year’s host nation.
The YouTube star wore a pink boiler suit during his song, as performers in fluffy headwear danced in a mock workshop while he played a synthesiser and later ended up in a cardboard box.
He later told Eurovision presenter Victoria Swarovski he chose a song title in German, despite it being Eurovision’s weakest-performing language, as “people liked counting to three”, before telling the crowd “I hope you liked that”.
Viewers were less than impressed with the act, with one writing on X: “Just when you think it's absolutely impossible to get any worse the UK entry has done it yet again! Absolute Trash. Nil points!”
Another added: “Why does the UK do so badly at Eurovision. LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER is another car crash of a performance. We've not had a good entry since Sam Ryder.”
A third posted: “That was embarrassing for the UK. I will be surprised if we get any points this year.”
However, others thought Battle might do better than last year's entry Remember Monday, who placed 19th out of 26.
“I thought the UK Eurovision staging was brilliant. It’s not a radio friendly song, but it sticks in your head because it’s so catchy. It’s bonkers, but I like the fact we’ve tried something wacky + different because the last few ‘radio friendly’ songs didn’t land us points,” one wrote.
Five countries were booted out of the competition following a public vote.
Azerbaijan, Luxembourg, Armenia, Switzerland and Latvia failed to make the vote.
Speaking to the Press Association before the competition, Battle revealed he made many of the stage props himself.
Battle began his YouTube career in 2013 and has amassed more than 85 million views and 1.4 million subscribers and followers across his social accounts.
He is best known for his homemade musical instruments, which include an organ made from Furby toys and a triple oscillator synthesiser made out of Nintendo Game Boy consoles.
The musician told PA earlier this week that it would be “absolutely amazing” to win but said he was mainly doing it for the experience.
Also performing in the semi-final was Cyprus’s Antigoni, full name Antigoni Buxton, who was born in London and competed in the eighth series of reality TV show Love Island in 2022.
She sang her song Jalla wearing a white outfit as hands reached up from the stage below while flames shot out from behind her.
Australian pop star Delta Goodrem sang her song Eclipse, which she is representing her home country with, accompanied by a harpist, before eventually playing a gold sparkly piano herself.
As the former Neighbours star’s performance climaxed, she was elevated into the air from the top of the piano.
Host nation Austria also took part, with their singer Cosmo wearing a blue star on his face as he performed in front of dancers wearing silver animal heads.
Some of the more eccentric acts of the night included Romania’s Alexandra Capitanescu, who sang her pop metal song Choke Me wearing an all-black outfit, attached to her dancers via luminous chains, and Switzerland’s Veronica Fusaro, who pretended to solo on her electric guitar and was attached to red wires while performing Alice.
It comes after Israel’s Eurovision entry Noam Bettan was booed by the crowd during his performance in Tuesday’s semi-final.
The 28-year-old made it through to Saturday’s final after receiving a mixed reception from the crowd before his performance began, with some members of the audience shouting, and later booing during the quiet moments of his song Michelle.
A number of protests reportedly took place in the Austrian capital this week over Israel’s inclusion in the contest amid its actions in Gaza, with Ireland, Iceland, the Netherlands, Spain and Slovenia all boycotting the event.
Earlier this week, human rights group Amnesty International criticised the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) for its failure to suspend Israel from the song contest, as it did with Russia following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, calling it an act of “cowardice” and a “blatant double standard”.
Israel’s 2025 entrant Yuval Raphael received the largest number of votes from the public last May, ultimately finishing runner-up to Austrian winner JJ after the jury votes were taken into account.
Two protesters unsuccessfully attempted to storm the stage and throw paint during her performance last year.
Portugal, Georgia, Montenegro, Estonia and San Marino were the countries eliminated from the contest following a public vote in the first semi-final.
Veteran British pop star Boy George was eliminated, having joined San Marino’s entrant Senhit to perform the song Superstar, which he co-wrote.
The competing countries in the grand final will be Albania, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Moldova, Norway, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Sweden, Ukraine and the UK.
