Eurovision star to release debut album as music bosses spend thousands on rising pop star
EUROVISION was for years a death knell for music careers — but perhaps not any more.
I’ve learned Mae Muller’s record label is pumping hundreds of thousands into a campaign to transform her into a superstar after she was picked as our entry this year.
She has already completed work on her debut album for Capitol Records, which will be released following the contest in Liverpool in May.
And a nationwide tour is also being pencilled in to capitalise on her popularity off the back of the competition.
On Friday she scored her highest-charting single to date when her contest entry I Wrote A Song went straight in at No30 — and it looks set to rise and rise.
Mae’s odds for the competition are improving by the day and she is now seventh favourite.
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A music insider said: “Mae’s been in limbo for a few years now, recording a lot of music and not really making too much progress.
“But now she has been chosen for Eurovision and people are loving her single, it’s all go go go.
“There is a whole campaign being built around the contest to make her a star with a long and prosperous career.
“The album is all finished and will be out before the end of the year. Capitol which also looks after Liam Payne, Sam Smith and Aitch, have made her a priority and are throwing everything in but the kitchen sink to making her a success.”
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While recent UK entries such as James Newman, Michael Rice and Surie disappeared into obscurity before the final “nul points” had even been announced, last year Sam Ryder changed the game.
He has gone on to score a No1 album, tour the country and perform at the Queen’s Jubilee concert.
He told me in December: “The UK has such a diverse plethora of talent and all I can hope is that what happened this year has inspired or encouraged more people from those diverse genres and backgrounds of music to maybe think, ‘Eurovision isn’t a career killer, maybe I’m going to stand in and do something’.”
Mae and her team will be thinking the same thing.
Bizbit
CHRIS MARTIN has revealed the secret to his lean body is . . . Bruce Springsteen.
The Coldplay frontman says he was inspired after meeting The Boss who told him he eats only one large meal a day and he now does the same.
Chris explained on the Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend podcast: “I don’t have dinner any more.
"I stop eating at 4pm and I learnt that from having dinner with Bruce Springsteen.
"Bruce is in my top pantheon of heroes and I love him and I love Patti, his wife.
“I was lucky enough to go over there for lunch the day after we played Philadelphia last year and I was on a really strict diet anyway but I was like, ‘Bruce looks even more in shape than me’.
“And Patti said he’s only eating one meal a day.
"So I was like, ‘Well, there we go, that’s my next challenge’.”
ANNE-MARIE HAS A RING ON IT
FROM Ciao Adios to Psycho, Anne-Marie has written about plenty of bad boyfriends, although perhaps she has finally found The One.
Here she is at the weekend wearing a diamond band on her ring finger, while out in Notting Hill, West London.
Anne-Marie has been dating rapper Slowthai, since last year and this month went public with their romance by posting a TikTok of them kissing.
He also sang about her on 25% Club, from his latest album Ugly.
But if he has proposed, it won’t have been his first time.
He got engaged to Russian singer and model Katya Kischuk in 2020 after they met online and the following summer she gave birth to their son.
They split up last year.
Taking it more slowly might be the best idea this time around.
SAM ON ‘STRUGGLE’
SAM CLAFLIN says he really “struggled” when he divorced actress Laura Haddock in 2019 after six years’ marriage.
The Me Before You actor, who has a son and a daughter with Guardians Of The Galaxy star Laura, said: “It’s a horrendous thing to go through.
"Obviously having kids makes it even more.
"During Covid I really f**king struggled with the kids and, mentally, where my life was.
“Working through that, I’ve started getting to a point where I’m not afraid of saying no any more.”
He has now found love with model Cassie Amato.
And he knows his audience, he told digital mag GQ Hype: “Guys recognise me because their girlfriends have forced them to watch something I’m in.”
ED TELLS SUM OF HIS STORY
ED SHEERAN will open up about his wife Cherry’s health scare and the death of his friend Jamal Edwards in a tell-all docuseries for Disney+.
Ed, whose new song Eyes Closed will be out on Friday, has announced four-part The Sum Of It All will premiere on May 3.
In a trailer released on Instagram, he is seen sobbing after saying: “Cherry’s health, it was really bad . . . and suddenly my best friend Jamal died.”
Cherry was diagnosed with a tumour while pregnant with their second daughter last year.
She was only able to get the treatment she needed after baby Jupiter was born and is recovering well, according to a friend.
Talking about the series, Ed said: “Initially it was a documentary on the formation of an album.
“But, as my life took a few twists and turns, the subject matter of the album changed, and so did the documentary. . .
“I wanted to provide context to the album as it touches on very personal things, that we all experience.”
Bizbit
U2 are on course to score their 11th No1 album as Songs Of Surrender is leading the race to the top of the charts.
The record, which features reinterpretations of their biggest songs, is outselling the rest of the top five combined.
it has knocked Miley Cyrus’s Endless Summer Vacation down to No2 in the midweek chart update.
It is also ahead of A Fistful Of Peaches, from Brighton indie band Black Honey, as well as Pink's Trustfall and The Weeknd’s The Highlights.
HALLE: MY MERMAID MESSAGE
HALLE BAILEY, who plays underwater princess Ariel in Disney’s live action remake of The Little Mermaid, says it will be more empowering for women than the original.
In the 1989 animation she yearns to become a human to be with Prince Eric, but US singer and actress Halle wanted the new version, out on May 26, to be different.
She said: “I’m really excited because we’ve changed that perspective of just her wanting to leave the ocean for a boy.
"It’s way bigger than that. It’s about herself, her purpose, her freedom, her life and what she wants.
“As women we are amazing, we are independent, we are modern. And I’m glad that Disney is updating some of those themes.”
Halle spent a year shooting in London and it was a taxing schedule with long days and hours on end spent in a harness.
She said: “I pushed myself as far as I’ve ever pushed myself in life.
"I learned so much. I auditioned when I was 18, got the role when I was 19, and I turn 23 this year.
"I feel like (Ariel’s) helped me grow up.”
Bizbit
TAYLOR SWIFT made a fan’s dreams come true after giving her tickets to her Eras Tour – five years after the girl missed the singer’s Reputation Tour while in ill.
Isabella McCune spent nine months in an Arizona hospital in 2018 after an accident which left her with chronic burns.
Taylor visited her there and said she couldn’t wait for her to be in the audience, which happened at the weekend.
Isabella, now 13, said: “Not only did I go, but I got the tickets from Taylor. Her music helped me a lot in hospital.”
A UK leg to the tour is yet to be announced.
BELLA’S A PRIME MOVER
SHE models haute couture but Bella Hadid chose a slightly more affordable outfit for a night out in Las Vegas.
The supermodel wore a £160 frock from designer Amy Shehab, whose fans include TV and radio host Maya Jama.
Bella was guest of honour at Stanton Social Prime, a new restaurant at Caesars Palace – and her non-boozy beverage brand Kin Euphorics sponsored its opening bash.
Of her drinks label, launched in 2021, Bella said: “It’s for people who don’t want to drink but still want to have something that makes them feel good without regret.”
That sounds right up my street, Bella.
JASON WILL RUN DERULOVER ACTS
JASON DERULO is hoping to become the next Simon Cowell, after launching new TV singing contest Project Icon.
The Swalla singer plans to turn the show into the next X Factor and send it around the world.
Jason said: “There were all these shows that depicted the industry in the wrong light.
"But being a star is so much more than the voice.
“The stars have to align to be successful and to be sustainable.
"We wanted to test contestants on a lot of things, not just their voice.”
The show, which starts this Sunday on BBC Three and BBC iPlayer, will see Jason as one of three judges, alongside his long-term manager Frank Harris and two-time Brit Award winner Becky Hill.
He added: “It is never easy crushing someone else’s dream, especially when you don’t see eye-to-eye with the other judges.
“I did want to be clear on my opinion. Though I wanted to nurture artists I also wanted to know when it was not right.
"Lying to someone is not going to help them.
“I wanted to give them the truth, and the help to move them to the next level.”
Keen to give the winner the best chance possible to become a star, Jason has now teamed up with Radio 1.
Not only is the show fronted by Drivetime host Jordan North, but the winner will win a spot at Radio 1’s Big Weekend festival in Dundee in May.
Jordan said: “I rolled my eyes at first and thought, ‘Not another talent show . . . ’ but when I read it, it’s a crash course in the industry and honestly it is really good.
"It’s like a peek behind the curtain.
“At Radio 1 our bread and butter is getting behind talent that isn’t signed. This lines up perfectly.
“One of the tasks is about social media and I wish I had been told at the start of my career not to obsess over comments and read them all, as now it’s water off a duck’s back.
"I tried to explain that to the constants. I used to obsess over what people said about me and that’s really not good for you.”
Jonas Brothers, The 1975 and Mimi Webb are among the acts for Radio 1’s Big Weekend at Camperdown Park, from May 26 to 28.
They have been announced as playing on the Saturday, May 27, alongside Arrdee, Joel Corry, Thirty Seconds To Mars and Tom Grennan.
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The festival will also mark Jess Glynne’s return to the stage after a hiatus from music.
Tickets for the Saturday and Sunday go on sale this Friday, March 24 from 8.30am, and tickets for the Friday are released on Friday, March 31 from 6.30pm.