World-renowned DJ and record producer Fatboy Slim could appear as a guest performer at next month’s Eurovision Song Contest. 

The 59-year-old is known worldwide for his string of hits in the late 1990s and early 2000s, including Right Here, Right Now and Gangster Trippin. 

More recently he has collaborated with confirmed Eurovision interval act performer Rita Ora on the track Praising You, a reworking of Fatboy Slim’s 1999 UK number one single, Praise You. 

The new track – penned alongside I Wrote A Song writer Karen Poole – was released on Wednesday, and will be performed by Ora during the first Semi Final of next month’s contest. 

Speaking exclusively to The Euro Trip about the performance, Lee Smithurst, Head of Show of this year’s contest, said: “It’s united with another British artist. 

“The song is a mashup with a major British artist” 

Smithurst didn’t say with certainty whether Fatboy Slim would appear alongside Ora on stage in Liverpool. 

If Fatboy Slim does perform with Ora, it would work with the intentions of Lead Creative Director Dan Shipton’s ambition to show off that Eurovision is bigger than ever. 

Speaking exclusively to The Euro trip, he said: “This show is about setting out our stall and saying this is Eurovision today and what it is now. 

“We wanted to have a big UK artist that is going to make a moment. 

“That performance [by Rita Ora] is going to be very special because we are in an amazing setting with an artist that has an amazing back catalogue, and also a song that will be premiered on the night that’s absolutely amazing, and represents the idea of United By Music. It’s incredible.” 

Ora herself has been involved in the organisation of her interval act performance. 

“Rita and her team have been very instrumental in making sure that there’s a Ukrainian element within her performance,” Smithurst said. 

“It’s not just a performance where Rita’s coming on and doing promo for a new single. We very much didn’t want that and that’s why it’s a medley of songs. 

“You’ll see from the creative [elements] that it’s a very special piece to her because Rita’s a refugee herself. 

“Her family came over to the UK in the 90s. She understands the position of a lot of Ukrainian people who have been made refugees because of the war.” 

Also performing in the interval of the first Semi Final are Ukraine’s 2010 representative, Alyosha, and Liverpudlian singer-songwriter Rebecca Ferguson. The pair will sing a reworked version of Duran Duran’s hit single Ordinary World.

Featured image – Alamy