Exclusive:Eurovision 2025: 'Every winner needs a rip-off skirt moment' - Bucks Fizz's Cheryl Baker's key advice for UK act Remember Monday

The Eurovision Song Contest is back, with 26 countries set to perform during the grand final on Saturday, May 17. One of those acts will be country-pop girl-group Remember Monday, who will represent the United Kingdom with their song What The Hell Just Happened?

Now, a former UK Eurovision champion has lended her advice to Remember Monday members Holly-Anne Hull, Charlotte Steele and Lauren Byrne on how to cinch the win at the beloved contest, as well as revealing her top picks for this year.

In an exclusive chat with NationalWorld on behalf on Heart Bingo, Cheryl Baker, who won the contest in 1981 with Bucks Fizz, revealed her love for Remember Monday and their multi-genre song. She said: “The girls are beautiful and the first time I saw them and heard their harmonies, their voices blended so perfectly and for me it’s all about harmonies.

“I loved the song - and when it first started I thought ‘oh we’re going for a ballad’ and then of course it builds and then comes down again. It’s a really interesting song.”

The Making Your Mind Up singer added: “Whether I think it’s got a chance of winning, I would say yes it has. But… I’ve never chosen a winning song correctly in the history of Eurovision. I mean I didn’t think we [Bucks Fizz] were going to win! So don’t take any notice of me. But I do think the girls are great, they’ve been promoting all over Europe - I think they are going to do well, and they stand as good a chance as anybody!”

Audiences have since been given a glimpse at Remember Monday’s Eurovision performance, with the girls taking to the stage for a preview performance in Thursday night’s second semi-final. One moment piqued UK Eurovision fans interest, when the girls appeared to pay homage to Bucks Fizz’s famous skirt-rip moment when they discarded a drape of cloth from their outfits during the performance.

“The thing that helped us to win, definitely, was the rip-off skirt,” Cheryl said. “Every winning song needs a rip-off skirt moment, it needs a moment that makes you want to watch it again. Generally, the winning song has something extraordinary about it - it needs to be a good song, a good performance, but it needs to have that something extra that makes it better than the others.

“It’s smoke and mirrors. [Eurovision] has developed into something much, much bigger than it ever was before and so the song and the performance has to reflect that.”

Sweden is the current bookies favourite to win this year’s contest, with comedy music act KAJ’s song Bara Bada Basu. Cheryl is a fan of the frontrunners, saying: “I must say, I don't know whether it’s because of the power of suggestion but I do think the Swedish song is fantastic, I really do.

“I know Austria is a close second, and if they go for something weird [on screen] and these soaring vocals they may stand a chance. Like I say, I’ve never chosen a winning song but possibly I think Sweden has the strongest chance.”

Cheryl, who will be celebrating this year’s contest with a party at home alongside friends and family, says she can’t wait for “the biggest musical extravaganza of the whole year” on Saturday. She said: “A fan said to me once ‘You don’t realise Cheryl, this is our Christmas’. That’s how important it is to the superfans.

“The build up is so exciting. I love that on the radio they are talking about it, on the TV they are talking about it all the time. Eurovision had its dark years where it was passé but it’s come around again and people are excited about it again!”