This year's UK entry for the Eurovision Song Contest has denied that they were the second choice of representative. Look Mum No Computer, real name Sam Battle, is due to take to the stage in Vienna, Austria, in May to perform his song Eins, Zwei, Drei in the hopes of winning the annual competition, which is celebrating its 70th year this year. However, in January this year, it was reported that the BBC was scrambling to replace the planned act after discovering a string of historic comments they had made online during “routine checks". They were believed to be a solo artist, and a source claimed bosses had told them that they could no longer participate.

Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk at this year's London Eurovision Party ahead of his debut performance of his song, the electronic artist, who hails from Kent and is a YouTuber, completely denied this was the case. "That was a complete rumour and it has been debunked," he said.

"We don't know where that actually came from. There were a lot of people in the running, and we think one of them may have just been talking a bit loudly about it.

"But none of that was ever confirmed. I've been in the running since October and found out just at the end of January, so I've been in limbo preparing a long time, and I'm excited to do it," he smiled.

The star has received some backlash for his track, which blends Britpop with retro 1980s sounds, proving controversial because a large portion of the chorus is in German.

Fans had their first listen on Friday, March 6 - but the German phrases caught many listeners off guard. As well as repeating German numbers one to three throughout the song, it also appears to take a jibe at British culture. "Counting in English doesn't cut the mustard," one part said. "So sick of munching roly-poly with custard. I'm so bored with it, bored with it.”

When asked about this, he said, "It didn't surprise me. I quite like challenging people, and I feel it is a bit of a challenge for some folk, and that's the part of it. You want to have a reaction from it.

"It feels like the UK is taking a bit of a risk this year. In fact, when I wrote the song, I thought this is never gonna get chosen for those reasons, but they figured they would try something different."

Sam spoke ahead of his performance of the track on Sunday, April 19th, at the annual London Eurovision Party.

Admitting the magnitude of the night had only just struck him, he said: "This is the first time performing it live. I hadn't really thought about it till people were telling me that it is, but it's kind of making me a little bit nervous [now], really," he laughed.