Unless you have been hiding from social media for the past day, you will be fully aware the United Kingdom is sending Olly Alexander of Years & Years fame to Eurovision 2024. The announcement – made on a BBC flagship show Strictly Come Dancing – sent UK socials into a mad frenzy. Especially once they clocked Olly has released a short clip on @bbceurovision on Insta and Twitter possibly containing some Easter Eggs to dive into.
In the clip Olly very excitedly says he is the UK entry, and describes it as “a dream come true”. The chart-topping star of British music says he will see everyone in Sweden and can’t wait. The clip seems fairly innocuous at first – but then you look at the background.
His image is overlayed on a background which just seems like a picture of London landmark ‘Big Ben’. However, when you look closer, there are tweaks to the image. Various stickers, bus advertisements, and other potential clues have been dotted over the place. If there’s anything that truly gets a British Eurofan unhinged, it’s the chance to theorise and analyse every detail of what the UK entry could be. They did after all work out the UK entry before the BBC could announce it for several years running now.
I put out there the hunt for these Easter Eggs (or hints and clues), and many of you came back with some great ideas.
So naturally here we are…let’s dig into the clues and yes, let’s doooo thiiiiiis!
Let’s go Easter egg hunting.
Is the song called Night Call?
Is it being released 4th January? (Hands on the clock are 1 and 4)
We have 26 on the bus (songs in the final), and there’s a 25 on the sign, could they mean anything?
This was his background on the video he did. pic.twitter.com/96djYsAc4S
— Percy // ???? (@JeMappellePercy) December 16, 2023
All the Easter Eggs in the post
The numbers 1 and 4
There are clues pointing towards the numbers one and four. They aren’t immediately obvious, but the fact it’s incouded more than once sends the message that this is indeed a clue.
We can see the time on Big Ben is shown as 1:20. The hands are on 1 and 4. On it’s own this could be easily dismissed admittedly. However, if you look at the red phone box, on the sign that normally says ‘Phone Box’, it says NIGHT C4LL. Olly released an album called ‘Night Call’ under his Years & Years moniker in 2022 (that went straight to number 1 in the UK charts, no less). However, that four makes a pesky re-appearance in this banner.
Now, what could this mean? It’s hard to piece together from the numbers one and four but an obvious shout could be a date. The 4th of January (of course the 1st month) is a Thursday. Therefore, it is unlikely to be the song release, as the UK charts are concluded on a Friday. This is not great for his chart position to release it with only one day of data to go off. But if the charts aren’t the primary concern, could this be when we see the song? Will something else special happen that day?
This is only 2 weeks and a half away, so we’ll find out more about this theory soon! What do you think 1 and 4 could mean? Let us know in the comments.
‘La’
A sticker on the phone booth (this will be a recurring theme here…) says ‘La’. One of the things Olly is best known for, is his performance as RIchie Tozer in Channel 4 AIDS-pandemic drama ‘It’s A Sin’. Olly was nominated for a Critic’s Choice Award and a BAFTA Award (the British Emmy Awards, basically) for his portrayal of the young queer character living through late 80s Britain. A truly terrifying time for LGBTQ+ people across the country.
In the show, a large group of friends live together in a house and greet each other by saying “La!” to each other. This became an iconic sentiment to the British queer comunity after the show was released. There was merchandise made with it on, raising over £20,000 (approx €23,300) for the Terrance Higgins Trust – an HIV/AIDS awareness charity in the UK.
The sticker on the phone booth has the greeting writen on it. It’s also in the same font as was on the merch sold. Whilst this might not be a pointer to the song, it’s certainly an Easter Egg fans were glad to see again!
Olly hugging himself
Twitter/X user @corr1e noticed something key hiding away. In the image, on the pathway Olly is seen to be hugging another one of him. This isn’t immediately obvious, and it’s one to zoom in for! However, could this mean the song is about self-love, or self-acceptance? He is literally embracing himself in the image, looking extremely happy.
There aren’t many other ways to take this without knowing more from the BBC yet, but it could potentially be a nod to staging, having a similar looking actor involved. It could be literally anything at this stage! It wouldn’t be the first time the Beeb gave a nod to staging.
In 2022, after Sam Ryder was announced, the spaceship-like contraption he had on stage in Turin was shown in his performace on daily light-news show The One Show, months before the contest. Every single Eurofan missed it, as it was just a small image on a screen in the background of Sam’s rendition of ‘Space Man’.
Emojis
There are plenty of emojis plastered over the phone box. A sad looking one, a dazed one, I think there’s also some happy ones but the image is blurry at this point so it’s hard to tell. Could it point to the song being about mixed emotions? Is there a reference to the content, or is it jsut showing Olly’s state of mind with anxiety. Could it be sadness going into happiness or vice versa?
We’d love to hear your theories on this one in the comments. The emojis are prominent in the image but there are so many theories possible here!
Twenty-six
The number 26 is shown twice in the image. The bus in the picture is the number 26 bus, and there is a 26 sticker on the phone box again. See, I told you the phone box would be a recurring theme…!
The obvious conclusion here is it is just a nod to the 26 songs in the final. As a non-Big 5 country is hosting, this is guaranteed.
Could it mean something else? A release date? Maybe ‘la’ is said 26 times in the song? OK, maybe that one is a bit far-fetched but we’re jsut guessing at the moment!
And also 25…
In a conversation I had with Ewan Spence of ESC Insight last night, we decided to throw out our silliest and most out-there theories from the image. Ewan pointed out that there is a speed limit sign right next to the number 26 bus. This sign has 25 on it – not a real speed limit in the UK. The fact this is exactly to the left of the 26 could show a sequence – 25 to 26.
Next year is 2024, shortened to ’24. 25 and 26 follow that in this picture. Year after year after year…Years & Years – Olly’s artist name until now. Like I said, this was our far-fetched theories! But could it be a nod to his previous work?
Twenty-five is likely to mean something as it isn’t a real sign, and has been purposely placed in the image. You know the drill by now, let’s hear your guesses in the comments!
Another outrageous thought Ewan had was the 25 pointing towards a duet, as icon of our times Adele released an album called ’25’. But I cannot state enough, he was laughing whilst saying this one!
Frost
I’m not dwelling on this one too much as it’s hard to tell exactly what it is, but there’s a blue-ish frost-looking hue over the top of the clock on Big Ben. It isn’t there in the original image. Could there be a reference to freezing time, or coldness in any way?
Am I reaching too much at this stage? Probably. Either way, if you think it’s something else, drop a line below.
