Eurovision's Joe and Jake interview: "Euro trash? Our song is anything but that"

Once upon a time the UK ruled Eurovision, but last few years (six, but who's counting?) have seen our standing in the competition take a dramatic tumble.

Hoping to turn that all around  are Joe and Jake, former The Voice UK finalists who have joined forces on You're Not Alone; an anthemic, Coldplay-lite chant-along that is easily our strongest entry in a while.

Ahead of this Saturday's final (May 14), we caught up with the duo to find out how preparations are going, who's their biggest competition and how they really rate their chances of winning...

For a UK Eurovision entry, the response to You’re Not Alone has been very positive. Is this our best entry in years? 

Jake: Well obviously we like to think so!

Joe: I tend to look into comments online more than Jake, despite everyone telling me not to. It can be a dangerous thing to do, but they really have been overwhelming positive in saying that we’ve got a good entry this year.

Jake: I learnt from The Voice not to look. When people are telling you to jump off a bridge… I’d just rather not know that.

You’ve been promoting around Europe for the last couple of months. How's the response been from other countries towards the song? 

Jake: We’ve been to Tel Aviv and Amsterdam to promote, and there seemed to be a lot of love for us out there. We’ve seen a lot of Union Jack flags in the crowds and cheers whenever the title of our song is mentioned. The support has been great to see, but at the same time, we’re under no illusion we’re a safe bet to win.

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So is this idea the rest of Europe hates us all in our heads?

Joe: It’s one of those things, isn’t it? We’re just grateful for the response it’s had.

Jake: I think we’re quite advantaged now because rather than having to worry about what people might think, we just get up on stage as two young lads having fun. That’s what we focus on, rather than the stigma that’s attached to any of it. Hopefully that comes across.

Most of Europe takes Eurovision a lot more seriously than the UK. What have you learnt during the promo trail?

Joe: The big thing we’ve learnt is just how dedicated the Eurovision community are and how seriously it’s taken in other countries.

Jake: When we were at the launch in London recently, one of the acts started crying on stage at the end of their performance. I thought something had gone wrong, but they were just so overwhelmed to be representing their country. It’s a huge contest – over 200 million tune in to watch it – so it’s not something to be taken lightly, and it’s great to see people treating it as it should be treated.

Joe and Jake win Eurovision: You Decide 

Someone who has voiced concern for You're Not Alone is Piers Morgan, who called it “Euro-trashy”...

Jake: We genuinely don’t believe it is Euro-trashy though – is it? I think it's anything but that.

Joe: That’s his opinion and he’s completely entitled to hold it. Personally, we love the song and would love to see it do well even outside of the competition. Obviously first and foremost it’s for Eurovision, but we’re happy with it and love performing it live.

MORE: The UK's highest charting Eurovision entries revealed

At this very moment, how confident are you that you can win this?

Jake: In terms of all that, as long as we can go out there and do our best, we’ll be happy.

That’s not the fighting talk we were hoping for, Jake.

Jake: It’s true though! We just want to make everyone who put us in this position proud. As long as we perform to the best of our ability, we’ll be happy with that.

Who's the most underrated UK Eurovision entry ever?

Joe: I quite liked Sonia. We did an interview with her the other day and she was amazing. You were a big fan of Jemini, weren’t you Jake?

Jake: Umm…. Let’s not talk about that. You’d be hard-pressed to say Katrina’s isn’t up there with the best, right? It was the last winning song for us, so how can you hate it?!

So we take it that you think Jemini are the worst ever?

Jake: It has to be, doesn’t it? The result wasn’t very good for them, but I mean, they weren’t even in the right key. It was so bad, it was unfortunate.

There's been talk of Australia hosting a Pan-Asia version of Eurovision. We let them into Eurovision, so they should let us into their competition, right? 

Joe: That’s an amazing idea. It just shows how popular and entertaining the whole thing is, isn’t it?

Jake: Maybe they should just so one show for the whole world. They could call it Globevision. In fact, I'm copyrighting that!

If you weren't performing at Eurovision this year and were going to your mates' to watch it instead, which country would you go as and what food would you bring?

Jake: I would definitely go as Germany and bring Bratwurst. No question.

Joe: I’d go as Italy and bring a Pizza.

That is a complete cop-out, Joe. We're disappointed.

Joe: I love pizza though! Obviously not at the moment though, because we’re being health machines. Look, I’m not adventurous okay?

QUIZ: Test your Eurovision knowledge!

You've signed a record deal with Sony; have you been working on more music yet?

Jake: We certainly know what we’d like to aim towards, but right now, the focus is on Stockholm. After that, obviously we’d love to work on an album together.

Joe: That’s the dream. Obviously after Eurovision, we’ll still be carrying on as Joe and Jake, we’re signed as Sony together and we’ve been discussing lots of things music-wise.

Jake: The sound of the You’re Not Alone would be a good starting point for us. It’s fun, dance-y and easy going. We both love dance music, so maybe we’ll head down that route. We'll see!

Joe and Jake's You're Not Alone is out now. They will perform at this year's Eurovision Song Contest final on Saturday, May 14, which airs live from 8pm on BBC One and broadcast on BBC Radio 2. Click here for more info.

Can you remember every UK Eurovision entry ever? Click through all of them below: