Yahoo News Eurovision's Olly Alexander breaks his silence after song contest defeat as his dad says he's 'surprised'
Olly Alexander has broken his silence following his night representing the UK at the Eurovision Song Contest 2024. And while, at the time of writing, he hadn't spoken about his experience or subsequent defeat, he has shown his class by showing support to the winning act.
It was a big night for the 33-year-old as he took to the stage at Malmo Arena in Sweden as the representative for the UK in the 68th edition of the Contest with his track, Dizzy.
Olly later finished in 18th place with 46 points after he was awarded a brutal zero in the public vote. He and his team reacted jovially as the United Kingdom was the only country to not score from the audience tally, after all of this year's 25 performances on Saturday night (May 11).
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However, he had 46 points from the other country’s judges which landed him above seven other nations. But it was Switzerland’s Nemo who finished in first place with 591 points, while Croatia’s Baby Lasagna was given 547 points and Ukraine’s Alyona Alyona & Jerry Heil with the emotional and religious song Teresa & Maria landed on 453 points.
And as the dust settled on another year of the world's biggest music event, Olly, who was born in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, congratulated his Eurovision co-star as he finally returned to social media on Sunday afternoon (May 12).
He shared a photo of Nemo and typed alongside it on his Instagram Story: "Nemo!!!! You did it!! I’m so so proud of you it's been such an honour to be on this journey with you. You broke the code!!!"
It comes after his father said he was surprised audiences "did not connect" with his son's song at the Eurovision. David Thornton said performing at the final was still a "fantastic learning experience" for his son. He told the BBC from his Eurovision party in Sheffield: "It's one more step to wherever he's going."
"I enjoyed every minute of it," Mr Thornton added. "To me it's a real surprise the public didn't sort of connect with that song, though the juries gave it a really good score."
