For Mae Muller, Eurovision is much more than just a live music event. It’s the live music event: the biggest—and one of the most meaningful—an artist can be asked to perform at. And that’s what made it so easy for her to say yes when she got the call to rep the UK at Eurovision in 2023. “It was a shock. I wasn’t expecting it,” the North London singer-songwriter tells Apple Music. “You feel all these emotions: excitement but also fear. Because it’s the biggest thing you can ever do—180 million people watch it!” Calming her nerves is the confidence gained from her six-year career before Eurovision came knocking, time during which she honed her brand of zero-punches-pulled, often-R&B-inflected pop. Long ago earmarking her as one of the UK’s most exciting rising talents, Muller’s music features the kind of straight-up lyricism you’d expect from an artist who names Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen and The Chicks as inspiration. Her voice is as at home on the anthemic “I Just Came to Dance” as it is on the breezy “Better Days” or the uplifting dance pop of 2023’s “Feels This Good”, with Sigala, Caity Baser and Stefflon Don, or “When You’re Out” with Billen Ted. “I’ve been doing this for six years—I’m not new to performing,” says Muller, who supported Little Mix on their 2019 LM5 stadium tour. “But Eurovision is a different thing and it’s on a whole different level. It’s going to be very, very intense.” Anyone with even a passing interest in Eurovision will also know that Muller has big shoes to fill. In 2022, Sam Ryder’s spine-tingling performance of “SPACE MAN” landed the UK in second place—its best result at the contest since 1998—and hosting duties in 2023 (in Liverpool, on behalf of 2022’s winning nation Ukraine). “I want to do the UK proud, but I think if I just go there and try my best and have a good time, I will be doing that,” she says. Plus, she’s ultra-confident in the song she’s taking to Liverpool. “I Wrote a Song” is a stomping empowerment anthem about shaking off your heartbreak by writing a hit about it (and then going out with your friends and dancing to it). “I had written it literally a couple of days before I heard about Eurovision,” says Muller. “It was written in the stars, like some fairytale thing. It is mad to think that I was just walking home from the gym and started humming the melody [of ‘I Wrote a Song’]. Then fast-forwarding to what it’s going to be, it’s really crazy. My life just went from zero to 100.” The specifics of her performance are, of course, under wraps until 9 May 2023, but she’s adamant it’s going to be major. “For Eurovision you’ve got to come correct!” she says. “I’m hoping that everyone watching will feel powerful. I want everyone to get up off their sofa and be like, ‘Woo!’” But she also wants the reason the UK is hosting this contest in 2023 to remain forefront. “It’s really exciting for us, but it’s important not to forget it is on behalf on Ukraine,” she adds. “I just want to make sure that Ukraine feel really celebrated and supported that night as well.” Here, listen to “I Wrote a Song”, then revisit the other tracks that have made Muller ready for the performance of a lifetime.