One country yet to confirm their decision for the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö is the United Kingdom.
The British Broadcasting Corporation BBC has remained tight-lipped, and even if the BBC Eurovision website has been revamped for 2013 the act has not been revealed.
The fan community has been thrown into a fantastic frenzy of speculation, and today two newspaper columnists seem to be throwing more fuel to the fire.
Firstly, columnist Eprhraim Hardcastle writes in the tabloid Daily Mail that a former child star Bonnie Langford has been chosen to sing for the UK in Malmö in May.
http://youtu.be/LFjSwp8OoRI
But at the same time columnist Neil Sean writes in the free newspaper Metro that Alesha Dixon, the former Mis-Teeq band member and Strictly come dancing judge on the BBC is being sounded out for Eurovision.
Incidentally both papers are also published by Associated Newspapers. Metro is the paper that in December last year started the rumour about Girls Aloud being lined up for Eurovision, while The Daily Mail called in May for the BBC to quit Eurovision altogether.
http://youtu.be/xGnSuTWXC9A
It does not take very much to set the rumour mill in freefall – on 25 February a not very well known UK blogger posted the following and it has been since seemingly accepted as fact by many:
We have some VERY IMPORTANT Eurovision news
We know who the UK’s entry to Eurovision this year is.
No seriously, we do.
…
We will confirm this: as rumoured it is a female solo artist. But it’s not who you think it is. In fact, we’d wager that (although you will know the artist) you’d never guess in a million years. But once you get over the shock, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
We haven’t heard the song, but we’ve spoken to someone who has. Two words: power ballad.
So based on just this single source there has been a flurry of female artist names thrown into the rumour mill: Bonnie Tyler, who is releasing new material and has a new website and Facebook and Twitter profiles. She had her biggest hits in the 70s and 80s, but has been touring Europe actively in the past few years.
80’s pop star Kim Wilde was tweeting the lyrics of the 1975 winner Ding-a-dong the other day, which was enough for the twitterati to declare her as the UK entry.
The earlier rumours about Girls Aloud singer Kimberley Walsh have also resurfaced, after another unconfirmed rumour about her name having been accidentally posted on the BBC Eurovision Twitter page and then rapidly removed. A jokey fake screenshot circulated later yesterday added the first ever Eurovision Song Contest winner Lys Assia to the rumour.
Even the legendary singer Shirley Bassey was added to the list of rumoured names after a humorous tweet from the writer of the official Eurovision Song Contest history, John Kennedy O’Connor.
As, according to Twitter reports, Bonnie Langford’s agent has now also denied any knowledge of the alleged Eurovision participation, we are nowhere closer to knowing what the BBC is going to announce in due course. From Graham Norton’s previous announcement on Radio 2 it would seem it is a solo act.
Graham Norton, the BBC commentator for the Eurovision Song Contest final did say that an announcement was due on 18 March.
For the latest rumours visit the Facebook group set up for the UK fans of the contest.
Let the speculation continue, and stay tuned for esctoday.com for news about the United Kingdom participation.
