BBC announces UK’s ‘experimental’ 2026 Eurovision Song Contest act

The BBC has confirmed the “experimental” musical act who will represent the UK at the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest.

Indie-electronic musician and YouTube influencer Sam Battle, known by his stage name LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER, will compete for the UK at the 70th Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna this May.

BBC Radio 2 DJ Scott Mills announced the news on The Scott Mills Breakfast Show this morning (17 February). The song with which the artist will compete has yet to be announced, but it is set to premiere on Mills’ radio show “in the coming weeks”.

The 35-year-old artist is an “experimental singer-songwriter, live electronics performer and composer, and inventor of unique musical machines” based in Kent. He has amassed more than 700,000 followers on YouTube plus 85million YouTube views, and has 30,000 monthly listeners on Spotify.

In a statement, the musician said that it was “an absolute honour” to be heading to Eurovision on behalf of the UK this year.

“I find it completely bonkers to be jumping on this wonderful and wild journey. I have always been a massive Eurovision fan, and I love the magical joy it brings to millions of people every year, so getting to join that legacy and fly the flag for the UK is an absolute honour that I am taking very seriously,” he said.

“I’ve been working a long-time creating, writing, and producing my own visions from scratch, and documenting my process. I will be bringing every ounce of my creativity to my performances, and I can’t wait for everyone to hear and see what we’ve created. I hope Eurovision is ready to get synthesized!”

Battle began his musical journey back in 2014, fronting indie rock band ZIBRA, which achieved modest success in Britain. The band played at Glastonbury in 2015 for BBC Introducing, and racked up millions of streams of their singles including “Goodbye Mondays” and “Great White Shark”.

He released his first EP as LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER, entitled Look Mum No Mixtape back in 2017. Several of his songs have amassed more than one million streams on Spotify, including “Waiting for the World to End” and “Human Procrastination”.

In addition to his electronica musical output, Battle is known for building and playing weird and wonderful musical instruments. Most notably, in 2018, he made an organ out of old Furby toys.

Battle has given TED Talks on how he created his bizarre musical instruments, and entered into the Guinness World Records for building the world’s largest drone synthesizer.

Eurovision 2026 is set to begin with the semi-finals on 12 and 14 May, with the grand final taking place on 16 May. While this year marks the contest’s 70th anniversary, the celebrations will likely be undermined by increasing backlash over the European Broadcasting Union’s (EBU) decision to allow Israel to continue taking part in the contest.

Five countries – Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands, Iceland and Slovenia – have withdrawn from this year’s competition due to Israel continuing to take part. In a statement, Ireland’s broadcaster RTÉ said it would be “unconscionable” for the country to take part, “given the appalling loss of lives in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis there, which continues to put the lives of so many civilians at risk”.

Last year’s UK Eurovision entrant Remember Monday managed to finish in 19th place with their country pop belter, “What The Hell Just Happened?”

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