Olly Alexander is reflecting on his stint at Eurovision last year.
The It’s A Sin actor was selected to represent the UK at the annual song contest in Malmö last year, where he performed his original song Dizzy.
While Olly received a respectable score of 46 from the international juroies, viewers were seemingly less impressed, with the former Years & Years frontman falling to secure a single point from voters.
In a new interview with the LGBTQ+ magazine Attitude, Olly shared his feelings on the increase in homophobia he’s seen in the last few years, which he mused might’ve played a part in people reacted in the way they did to his performance.
He said: “I have definitely noticed that I get a lot more [homophobic abuse online] than I did five years ago.
“Anything I do is met with this instant negative reaction because someone is seeing a gay person and they feel threatened and offended.”
“Maybe it is a pendulum swing, and we have to just endure this backlash,” he continued. “It’s odd because I’m doing the same thing I’ve always done.”
Olly went on to say that this rise in homophobic attitudes may have affected people’s attitudes towards his Eurovision performance, which was set in a boxing gym and saw the singer performing surrounded by scantily-clad male dancers.
“In that performance, there’s nothing explicit happening,” Olly insisted. “But once I started doing it in production rehearsals, some of the responses... People couldn’t believe it. They were so outraged.”
He added: “I expected some pearl-clutching, but I was a bit taken aback by how many pearls were clutched.”
Last year’s Eurovision was overshadowed by controversy over Israel’s continued presence in the competition, with Olly initially facing criticism from some sections of the media due to his own past comments on the Middle East conflict, in which he’d expressed solidarity with Palestinians.
After facing pressure from some critics to withdraw from the contest due to the conflict, Olly broke down in tears during one interview while addressing the backlash he’d faced for remaining part of the competition.
During a recent interview, when asked for tips for this year’s Eurovision act, Olly urged them simply to “get a good therapist”.
Speaking on This Morning earlier this week, Olly spoke more about his experiences, remarking: “I can’t lie, there were some ups and downs.”
He recalled: “It’s a competition, so people judge you really, really harshly and I get that, but the voting’s quite brutal.
“When they announced on the night ‘zero points from the public’, we were like, ‘oh god, of course’. But you’ve just got to take those things and grow from it.”
He concluded by saying that he “really loved the performance” and “loved doing” Eurovision more generally.
This year’s act representing the UK is yet to be announced, although it’s been widely reported to be the British country pop trio Remember Monday.