Olly Alexander had to grin through the pain during the closing moments of Saturday's Eurovision final after receiving ZERO points from the European voting public. The United Kingdom was the only country not to receive a single point from the results of the public vote in an embarrassing turn of events for the 33-year-old.
via: The Guardian
The British singer performed his song ‘Dizzy’ alongside a group of backing dancers – his first release under his own name.
The sexually-charged performance saw Alexander get up close and personal with his dancers in a topsy turvy set-up as he sang the song that was described as “perfectly fine” by the Guardian ahead of the competition.
The Brit was supported in the UK by narrator Graham Norton, who described the performance as “terrific” but admitted that he did not know how well it would do because “it is so different to everything else in the contest tonight.”
Taking to Twitter (X) ahead of the performance, Hannah Waddingham was one of the big names who supported the It’s A Sin star and former Years and Years singer.
She posted an animation of herself making a heart and wrote: “COME ON OLLY ALEXANDER!!! LET’S DO THIS!!!!!!” alongside multiple Union Jacks.
He was also cheered on by the official Twitter account of the Labour party, which wished him good luck ahead of the performance.
General reactions to the live rendition of ‘Dizzy’ were mixed.
Some social media users criticised the sexual nature of the performance, which involved a lot of hip thrusting.
Others took umbrage with the set of the performance, with one user comparing it to the set of the bathroom in the Saw horror film franchise.
The singer’s vocals also came under fire.
“The UK Eurovision entry, Olly Alexander, sounds just like me in the shower - when someone opens the tap downstairs and the water gets terribly cold,” remarked one viewer.
But not everyone was so critical and the staging of the performance received particular praise.
“Great performance from Olly Alexander,” wrote one viewer. “Fantastic staging too! Don’t think we have a shot of winning but shouldn’t do as bad as last year at least.”
A second added: “Great job Olly. The dancers and the staging - quite fantastic.”
“Great staging,” agreed a third viewer. “Alright vocals and song for ar Olly. Hope we have this budget next year and hoping we can just get a left hand side of scoreboard finish pls!” [sic]
Even though the UK didn't receive a single vote from the public, Dizzy did manage to bag 46 points from the participating countries' juries, however.
This meant Alexander finished 18th out of 25 in the final leaderboard, usurping the likes of Finland, Estonia, Georgia, Spain, Slovenia, Austria and Norway.
In the end, it was Switzerland who were crowned this year's Eurovision winners after seeing off Croatia in a tense head-to-head.
Fans were quick to react to the brutal snub by Europe's voting audience on social media as soon as it was announced on-screen.
"What does the UK have to do to get points? Can't believe that Olly got nothing from the public vote #Eurovision," one fan complained.
A second fumed: "Can’t argue with that top two and that result. A shame that Olly got no televote points though, seemed harsh. #Eurovision."
And a third hit out: "Sorry but @alexander_olly did not deserve nil points tonight!! amazing guy! amazing song! #eurovision."
The support kept coming: "Also Olly! You got us points! Like be bloody proud of yourself #Eurovision #UnitedKingdom #eurovision24 #ollyalexander." (sic)
Elsewhere, Israel was one of the big winners when it came to the public vote as Eden Golan earned an impressive 323 votes just from voters at home.
The score wasn't enough to put Israel in touching distance of the trophy but did rocket them up the leaderboard as boos rang out around the arena amid ongoing protests at the country's involvement in the competition.
I like Olly, but I have to agree that the song is missing a certain je ne sais quoi
in order for it to stand out from the many synth-pop songs I've heard so far this year.
While he is quite the charismatic performer, he needs an aggressive, unapologetically queer song in the vein of Rush, or Dead or Alive's "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record), which I feel DIzzy borrows heavily from (as well as the Pet Shop Boys).
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