It was an unexpected turn of events for SuRie and the United Kingdom, which saw the surprise stage invasion during the country’s performance at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest. But how does SuRie feel about the whole situation in Lisbon? SuRie spoke more about her performance on ITV’s This Morning earlier today.

Saturday was the night of the Grand Final of the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest, the night fans and viewers had been eagerly anticipating. It was also the night that the United Kingdom took to the stage to perform their entry live for the very first time, having automatically qualified to the final as a member of the Big 5. However, what followed was unexpected…

During the United Kingdom’s performance onstage, the show was interrupted by a stage invader who snatched the microphone out of SuRie’s hand, screaming into the microphone in order to get his political message across about the British media, as well as promoting his newest book (because what says “please buy my book” more than an aggressive stage invasion).

SuRie carries on at Eurovision 2018 following stage invasion

SuRie reacts to stage invasion

Days after the Grand Final of the competition, SuRie was invited onto ITV’s This Morning where she spoke about the whole experience with hosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby.

Willoughby opened the interview by offering sympathies to SuRie for what happened to the singer onstage, who was then asked at what moment did the British representative know that the stage invader was onstage. SuRie replied “When he was right there”.

Reminding the singer of recent terrorist attacks across Europe at music venues, SuRie continued with her initial reaction:

There wasn’t any time to feel fear, there wasn’t. He was suddenly there, security were on him as quick as he was on me, he got the mic, for a few seconds that was out of my hands but the song was still going, the backing vocalists were still singing, the crowd was still chanting. So I just turned up stage for a moment but I was still clapping and actually cheering with the crowd, I just didn’t have the mic. I turned back and I saw the mic on the floor and I went “well that’s mine, I’ll just finish the song”.

Asked whether the stage invader hurt the singer during the microphone grab onstage, SuRie said:

Well there’s a couple of bruises […] where I was holding the mic. But I’m okay.

He also hurt the singer’s shoulder as he went to grab the mic.

Well, I’ve always said anything can happen at Eurovision … 🤷‍♀️

— SuRie (@surieofficial) 12 May 2018

SuRie’s reaction following Saturday’s performance

Schofield spoke of the internal fire SuRie must’ve felt when the situation occurred onstage, to which SuRie replied:

You can see that in my eyes for the last part of the song. You can see that determination to finish that song. As you say, the lyrics took on a new meaning, “hold your head up”, “don’t give up”, and the crowd, the surge from them, that’s my lasting memory of this.

Why not perform for a second time?

The This Morning hosts went on to ask SuRie why she declined the offer to perform again onstage:

We had that conversation, but I was really proud of that performance and, as you said, you work up to that moment, you know, you don’t get to do the 100 metre sprint at the Olympics again because your shoe is untied or something, you had that one shot and that was my moment and we didn’t need to repeat that. We had those conversations backstage, I saw the reaction and the faces of my team, who were very proud of the recovery and the power of that, and we didn’t need to go again.

SuRie shut down the typical comments from Schofield, who suggested that the United Kingdom should’ve received more votes as a sign of sympathy for what the singer had to go through on the night:

I don’t want the sympathy votes, you know. The point of the Eurovision Song Contest is, it began a few years after World War II, when everyone’s reeling from grief and sadness and fear, and they bring nations together to sing their way out of it. That’s the point of the Eurovision Song Contest.

When asked why does the United Kingdom bother with Eurovision as a whole, SuRie responded:

Because of what I just said. It’s such an amazing thing to be apart of, it really is, and my leaderboard for the night is the Twitter feed, the Instagram feed that I’ve had with the love and support from so many people, and especially the UK crowd, who have rallied around me and said “we’ve got your back, we’re proud of you, we support you”.

Watch the full interview with SuRie on This Morning below:

The EBU has revealed that an internal investigation is currently underway with regards to the security errors which arose on the night of the Eurovision 2018 Grand Final.