Eurovision act Remember Monday: ‘The nearer we get, the hungrier we turn into’

Since Remember Monday have been introduced as the United Kingdom’s Eurovision act in March, they have got slightly slept in their very own beds.

“It’s definitely in the single digits,” says singer Holly-Anne Hull, looking to calculate what number of nights she has spent at house. “We don’t have time for that.”

Instead, they have got been on a whirlwind excursion of Europe, assembly enthusiasts, filming unending TikToks and appearing their tune, What The Hell Just Happened, to somebody who’ll concentrate.

If they are drained, it does not display. The country-pop trio – Lauren Byrne, Holly-Anne Hull and Charlotte Steele – are chatty, excited and fascinated with a laugh, and for excellent reason why.

They shaped in class over a decade in the past, and determinedly stayed in combination all through lengthy sessions the place, of their phrases, “no-one was listening”.

Even after a a hit activate The Voice in 2019, Charlotte had to go back to her task as a deputy head instructor, whilst Lauren and Holly-Anne gave the impression in West End presentations like Phantom of the Opera and Six: The Musical.

Eurovision provides likelihood to modify that. They head to Basel, Switzerland this week, hoping to erase the reminiscences of Olly Alexander and Mae Muller, who each completed on the backside finish of the desk.

It is helping that Remember Monday’s tune is an authorized banger – stuffed with glittery glam-pop prospers and scorching harmonies that (crucially) they are able to pull off are living.

Just sooner than they spark off for Euroland, we sat down with the trio to speak about quitting their jobs, overcoming phobias, and the feared “nul points”.

It’s 8 weeks because you have been introduced as the United Kingdom’s Eurovision access…

Charlotte: No, it cannot be. It appears like six years!

How many air miles have you ever racked up in that point?

Lauren: Honestly, I think dangerous about our carbon footprint.

Charlotte: The factor is, I’m a anxious flyer. I all the time put a watch masks on, put my headphones in and steer clear of taking a look out the window. Then we needed to catch a propellor airplane from Reykjavik in Iceland, and because it was once starting off, the entire thing was once shaking backward and forward.

Lauren: It was once truly treacherous… however then, the following Easyjet flight we needed to catch, Charlotte was once like, ‘What a breeze’.

Charlotte: I used to be smiling, speaking. It’s like I used to be cured!

When I first heard What The Hell Just Happened, I assumed it appeared like one thing from Six: The Musical… Then I came upon you’ll in fact been in it.

Lauren: That was once me! I used to be Jane Seymour. She’s the person who died, as an alternative of being beheaded.

Was it all the time the plan to position a musical theatre vibe within the tune?

Lauren: We wrote a temporary for the tune and there have been such a lot of references: Bohemian Rhapsody, Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter.

But we additionally stated ‘let’s now not be afraid to put in writing the pop model of Defying Gravity’. We sought after it to have all that epicness and drama and the West End tips you do not get in pop tune.

You wrote 15 songs in overall. What have been the rejects like?

Holly-Anne: There are a couple of we will for sure stay [for our album] however there was once additionally one known as Achilles Heel that went directly within the bin.

Charlotte and Lauren [singing]: How do you’re feeling, Achilles? How is your heel, Achilles?

Holly-Anne [cringing]: We’d been writing for 3 weeks and I believe we began to move delusional!

That rings a bell in my memory of one thing Ed Sheeran says about songwriting: A faucet has to run brown sooner than it runs transparent.

Charlotte: It’s so true, and funnily sufficient, What The Hell Just Happened was once the ultimate tune we wrote, an afternoon sooner than the cut-off date. We’d were given to the purpose the place we have been like ‘let’s simply move 100% on each thought and notice the place it lands’.

Holly-Anne: We idea we had the Eurovision Song, I’d say, 4 or 5 occasions. Then this one got here up and we have been like ‘OK, it is overwhelmed they all’.

What are you able to inform me about your efficiency?

Holly-Anne: We come from theatre background, so it is for sure going to be theatrical. We need to give {that a} girl-band, live performance feeling, like you are entering into the arena of Remember Monday.

There’s a line within the tune about ripping your get dressed. Is {that a} sneaky Bucks Fizz reference?

Lauren: Oh my God! Let’s say sure. We did not write it particularly with that during thoughts… but when the shoe suits!

Charlotte: There’s a variety of little Easter eggs within the lyrics about our friendship. We’ve had numerous nights out that led to a tattoo parlour or shedding a shoe someway.

Do you take note the primary time you met?

Holly-Anne: It’s inconceivable to inform as a result of we have been in the similar 6th shape however for the primary 12 months we have been in numerous categories.

Lauren: I take note Charlotte entering my magnificence and making a song that tune from Parade.

Charlotte [singing]: “You do not know this maaan.”

Holly-Anne: Then, in the second one 12 months, all of us joined the similar appearing arts magnificence, and we have been like ‘oh, let’s sing in combination’.

When you graduated you all had full-time jobs – so how did you stay the band in combination?

Charlotte: We all the time had Mondays off… therefore the band identify.

Holly-Anne: It was once so necessary to us to stay the band alive that we simply by no means let it die.

Charlotte: At one level, Holly went on excursion for a 12 months and we flew out to Singapore so we may well be in combination.

Lauren: Then, perhaps 18 months in the past, we give up our jobs to do that full-time.

Charlotte: We idea, if we do not throw the entirety in now, we will all the time feel sorry about it.

Were your resignation letters like, ‘I’m off to be a famous person!’?

Lauren: Well, Holly and I have been within the theatre, so we simply did not renew our contracts, while Charlotte was once in fact a deputy head instructor.

Charlotte: The head was once one in all my closest buddies and numerous the children had already observed us at gigs – so everybody knew it was once gonna occur. It was once only a subject of time.

Are you ready for the way overwhelming Eurovision week is?

Lauren: Yeah, however we are rather excellent at immersing ourselves in what we are doing.

Charlotte: Even if there wasn’t a bubble round us, the 3 folks make a bubble. Eurovision is all we speak about, despite the fact that we are not in combination.

Lauren: And then I’m positive from the 18th of May onwards, we will have an excellent quantity of downtime.

Holly-Anne: The comedown goes to be tough.

What are your hopes for the end result?

Holly-Anne: We do have a desire. And I believe the nearer we get to it, the extra hungry we’re for a excellent consequence. A placement within the unmarried digits could be great.

You have a variety of pageant performances booked for the summer season – so existence would possibly not grind to a halt afterwards.

Lauren: That’s so true. And in fact, each enjoy that we are having within the lead-up to May 17, that is Eurovision as neatly.

Charlotte: All the puts we have been to and the folks we have met – it actually appears like a women’ vacation.

Holly-Anne: Even if we get 0 issues, we will nonetheless be making a song in combination, despite the fact that it is in my front room.

What’s the only reminiscence you can remove from this?

Lauren: I can all the time, all the time take note the sensation of studying we would constitute the United Kingdom. We’ve been round for a very long time, and we have had numerous ‘noes’ as a band, so once we auditioned, we assumed this may be some other one. ‘Thank you such a lot, however we are entering into some other path’.

So to in any case get a sure in any case those years, and to begin residing what appears like a dream come true along with your two highest buddies? I can by no means put out of your mind that telephone name.