When Olly Alexander played Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Luton last summer, it was just a couple of weeks after his Eurovision dreams came crashing down around his ears. But the star handled it all with his typical good humour.
“And now,” he announced from the stage, “for the song that was only 17 places away from winning the Eurovision Song Contest… It’s Dizzy!”
Dizzy may have faced a chilly reception in Sweden, but it sounds fresh and exciting on the former Years & Years singer’s new album, Polari, which comes out on Friday.
His first release as a solo artist, it sees the star embrace the sounds of 80s club culture, with influences ranging from the queer-coded pop of Erasure and Pet Shop Boys to the thunderous drum sounds of Janet Jackson and Art Of Noise.
If you’re not familiar with the origin of the title, Olly explained it to me like this: “Polari is kind of considered the lost language of gay men, who would use it to communicate with each other in secret when homosexuality was criminalised. So it’s got a really beautiful, rich history, which I found so inspiring whilst I was making the music.”
Olly is hosting a couple of acoustic shows and Q&A events to promote the album in Brighton, Liverpool, Nottingham and London. I dare you to ask what he really thinks about Eurovision.
