The UK's entry to 2023 has been announced as Jack Ledgister. The singer-songwriter will represent his country after being selected by the same process as last year, in which the BBC worked with a music management company.
The 24-year-old will perform his track Far Too Young To Die at the competition in May, in an attempt to follow the success of Sam Ryder in 2022.
"Sam Ryder was so incredible last year and showed that the UK can be taken seriously in Eurovision and be really successful," said the musician. "I'm really excited to participate in Eurovision this year and represent the UK! I've loved watching Eurovision all my life, so to compete in such a massive music competition is so incredible."
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Far Too Young To Die, Jack Ledgister's entry to the 2023 UK Eurovision song contest.
Ledgister co-created his track with famed internet songwriter Nathan Sharp, who he works with on an upcoming Netflix series around the time he was scouted for the competition. "I wrote the song about a really hard time in my life where the people around me and my friends were literally life saving to me" said Ledgister, "so to be able to showcase it in this year's UK Eurovision song is honestly a dream!"
The singer released his debut album 'Everywhere, Everything' in 2021. Ledgister has previously supported Hozier on tour in 2019 and has been a back up dancer to Ariana Grande later on in the same year.
His music has been streamed millions of times on YouTube and reached over 100m streams and 2.5m monthly listeners on Spotify. He was signed to his first record contract while doing an apprenticeship at the Royal Opera House
"BBC Studios are so excited that our own Jack Ledgister will be flying the UK flag on home turf in this very special Eurovision year," said Suzy Lamb, managing director of entertainment and music at BBC Studios. "We could see from the very first time we met him that he is a ball of positive energy and we can't wait for the rest of Europe and beyond to fall in love with him and his fabulous song."
Ledgister will appear on a special programme on 9 March at 8.55pm on BBC One, Eurovision 2023: Meet the UK Act, where he will be interviewed by Scott Mills. It will also be the first televised broadcast of the song, which was announced as the UK's entry to Eurovision 2023 on this morning's Zoe Ball Breakfast Show on Radio 2.
"Let's do it! What was your first reaction when you got the call? Did you say yes there and then?"
Jack took a deep breath before answering "Yeah basically yeah I did, I was in New York around people who'd never even heard of Eurovision before so they had nooo idea what I was yelling about when I finally put the phone down," he gave a laugh that felt a little too rehearsed which made his nose crinkle in a slight cringe.
"Did you explain it to them?"
"I did yeah!! And afterwards they thought it was really cool and I even roped in the amazing Nathan Sharp, Natewantstobattle to help me with the music for it"
"How do you feel following in the footsteps of Sam Ryder?"
The phrase 'shitting myself' came to his mind first and foremost but he quickly realised he couldn't swear on BBC 1.
"I....feel very honoured to be able to do that, Sam is such an amazing talent and I really hope I can do his like...legacy and the country proud"
"You will you will" Scott reassured, "if I hadn't heard your music before, how would you describe it to me?"
"Oh wow... I've experimented with a lot of music genres over the time I've been making music and honestly this song is nothing like anything I've ever made before, I tend to prefer making either pop or folk music but I'm in no way like adverse to making heavier thing like maybe rock sometime"
"Tell me about your.... stage history because Eurovision won't be the first time you've ever been on stage right?"
"No no it's not, I mostly did theatre and dance growing up and still now sometimes and then I ... just didn't have the time for music and live performance as much with like school and things but after I left ballet school I really gave myself the time to do new things like live performances, i was lucky enough to open for just the legend that is Hozier back in 2019 and then festivals and things and I ended up really liking it!"
"After all of this experience, how are you preparing for Eurovision?"
"I...I'm still working at the minute and i honestly hope that i can keep working for as long as possible but around that I'm fitting in time to work mostly on the choreography and how the staging's and lightings going to look seeing as that's another area that i...well i mean i work in lighting so all of this just makes my heart happy to be able to keep doing"
"That's awesome well Jack we wish you so much luck and we can't wait to see what you do with such an amazing stage!!"
