Eurovision singer SuRie gives first interview after stage invasion and assault

SuRie, the United Kingdom’s entry to this year’s Eurovision has appeared on This Morning for her first interview, after a stage invasion hampered her live performance.

Her big moment, broadcast to millions of viewers all over the world, was scuppered when a protester barged his way onto the stage, only to snatch her mic and scream a political opinion about the UK media ‘being Nazis’.

Despite the disruption, SuRie, 29, carried on like a true professional and finished her performance on a high.

Today, Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield interview her about the incident.

‘That was your moment and for somebody to steal that from you,’ Holly began. Asked when she knew what was happening – when the stage was stormed by the protester – SuRie said she had no idea until it was taking place.

The first she knew was ‘when he was right there’ and pointed to her face.

‘There wasn’t any time to feel fear, he was suddenly there. The security were on him as quick as he was on me; he got the mic and, for a few seconds that it was out of my hands, the song was still going and the backing singers were still singing and the crowd were still chanting,’ she recalled.

‘I turned back and see the mic on the floor and I went “well that’s mine, so I’ll just finish the song”,’ she revealed.

‘Did he hurt you?’ Phillip asked, which was when the star explained her minor injuries.

‘Well, there’s a couple of bruises,’ she began and revealed that her hands and shoulder had both been bruised by the scuffle.

After being shoved and the mic wrestled from her, she brushed off the incident by insisting, But I’m ok, I’m ok’.

SuRie agreed there was an ‘internal fire’ in her eyes after the incident: ‘You can see that in my eyes for the last part of the song – you can see that determination to finish that song. The lyrics took on a new meaning: ‘Hold your head up, Don’t give up’.’

When asked about declining to perform her song again, the singer gave an honest answer: ‘We had that conversation and I was really proud of that performances.

‘And as you said, you work up to that moment; you don’t get to do the 100 metre sprint a the Olympics again because your shoe lace is untied or something. You had that one shot and that was my moment and we didn’t need to repeat it.’

Reiterating her decision to not perform again, even after given the option to, SuRie sad: ‘We had those conversations backstage. I saw the reaction and the faces of my with my team who were very proud of the recovery and the power of that, and we didn’t need to go again.’

‘I don’t want sympathy votes’ she answered, when Phillip brought up finishing 24th out of a possible 26, expecting people to perhaps vote for the UK after what happened.

Describing the origins of Eurovision and reminding Phillip what it’s all about, she shared what her intentions for competing were and that it wasn’t about winning. ‘It began a few years after World War II, when everyone’s reeling from grief and sadness and fear, and they bring nations together to sing their way out of it,’ she said.

Despite failing to ignite the leaderboard at any point, SuRie said she was following a very different one of her own: ‘My leaderboard for h night was the Twitter feed and the Instsgram feed that I’ve had with the love and support from so many people.’

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