‘I love we sent good singers’ – UK fans on hopes for 2025 Eurovision final

Remember Monday fans are holding out hope for the UK to do well at the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest in Basel, Switzerland.

The trio, made up of friends Lauren Byrne, Holly-Anne Hull and Charlotte Steele who met at school in Hampshire and went on to be West End stars, are the first all-female British group act since Precious in 1999.

On Saturday evening, they will face touted favourites including the Netherlands’ Claude Kiambe, and Israeli act Yuval Raphael, as well as Sweden’s Kaj, Finland’s black leather-wearing Erika Vikman, and Austrian opera singer JJ (Johannes Pietsch).

Remember Monday’s staging sees them dressed in Regency outfits, and harmonising their song What The Hell Just Happened?, a genre-shifting track which lends to their powerful voices.

Outside the St Jakobshalle arena on Saturday afternoon, British fans were keeping their fingers crossed for the three singers, who have received backing from the royal family.

Eurovision fans, friends Ben Grounsell, 38, from Chelmsford, and Devon-based Gary Turner, 50, and Glen Symington, 52, from Bovey Tracey, met more than a decade ago and have been going to the contest in various European countries almost since then.

Mr Symington called Remember Monday “fantastic singers”, and said “they put the work in as well”.

Mr Turner, who was dressed in an union flag suit alongside his two friends, was cautiously hopeful for the “middle”, or “left-hand” side of the rankings board, which would place the UK act far from the bottom.

“There’s some really good songs in there,” he also said, as he explained they will be watching in the football stadium, where fans can watch on screens outside the arena.

Ben Bevan, 19, from Grays in Essex, praised the trio, telling the PA news agency that their “harmony is just everything”, and saying that he will be showing off the UK in the arena, while dressed in a full union flag ensemble.

The teenager, who is in Basel with a friend, added: “It’s like an earworm getting stuck in your head, you can’t get it out, and I think at first I was a bit sceptical, but it’s really growing on me now so yeah, it’s definitely one of my faves.”

“I love that we have, finally, someone that can sing,” said Sam Bate, 32, from London.

“I feel like we’ve had some issues, we haven’t had the whole package, but I feel we’ve got the whole package this year.

“Love the staging, love … the colourful dresses, they’re like the Powerpuff Girls, and I just think they’ve got the full package this year.”

He added that he “would love” to say they would win, and wants to keep with the “positive” vibes for the UK.

The UK has had five wins at Eurovision, but in recent years has struggled to place high with the exception being Sam Ryder with Space Man in 2022, who came second.

Last year, Olly Alexander placed 18th at Malmo, and Mae Muller was second to last the previous year in Liverpool.

The UK last won in 1997 with Katrina and The Waves, after success with Brotherhood Of Man (1976), Bucks Fizz (1981), and twice with solo acts: Sandie Shaw (1967) and Lulu (joint winner in 1969).