Look Mum No Computer, the electronic musician also known as Sam Battle, will step onto the Eurovision stage in Vienna on Saturday with a song he says took about 12 hours to write. Battle, who grew up in Yaxley near Peterborough, will perform the electro-pop anthem Eins, Zwei, Drei in the 70th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest against 24 other countries.
The appearance takes Battle from the niche corners of online music culture to one of Europe’s biggest live television events. He started gigging in Cambridgeshire in the 2000s, playing across the county as a solo act and with the bands Yellow Snow and Zibra, long before he became known for building unusual electronic instruments that fused organ pipes with dozens of Furby toys and old handheld Game Boy consoles. The journey has been fast, but the build-up has been personal too: just weeks before Eurovision, Battle and his partner became parents to their son Max.
His sister, Jodie Bartle, said she was absolutely bursting with pride at the thought of him taking to the stage. She said Battle had always seemed destined for something massive and that she was happy he was finally getting the chance for the world to see how unbelievably talented he is as an individual. For Battle, the mission is simpler. He said he is just going to try his hardest for the UK, for himself and for his mates and family.
The family has had little time to dwell on the scale of the contest, but the meaning of it is hard to miss. Bartle said her brother now has a five-week-old baby who will one day be able to say his dad did Eurovision, which she called absolutely epic. She said all she wants is for him to enjoy it, adding that they are proud of him no matter what and that he should be proud of himself as well.
That confidence comes with a measure of pressure, because Eurovision is not only a showcase but a vote-driven competition, and Saturday’s final will decide whether Battle’s quick-written song lands with viewers and juries across the continent. Bartle said she believes the song is good enough to get points and hoped the world would agree. However the scoreboard falls, Battle’s move from local Cambridgeshire gigs to Vienna marks a rare leap for an artist who built a following by turning electronic oddities into performance art.
