James Newman has been turning to the Eurovision group chat for support amidst the current coronavirus crisis.
The ‘My Last Breath’ hitmaker would have been in dress rehearsals for the Song Contest today (14.05.20) but it was postponed due to the ongoing health crisis and James and the fellow competitors have been discussing their feelings to help them get through the tough time.
He said: "It’s been cool actually ‘cos like, at first I felt quite on my own but then I realised there’s like 40 other people that are like, ‘Hey, I feel the same!’ It’s been nice as I’ve had lots of Zoom meetings and stuff with loads of other acts and we’ve been talking about how it feels to kind of be in this weird little club of Eurovision acts that will never get to stand on that stage. But it’s kind of nice, it’s like a little support group in a way."
And the 34-year-old singer would love to represent the UK next year.
He added: "Nothing’s been said yet. I told them that I really want to … and if the universe allows me to do it. Obviously, it’s up to the BBC and whatever they want to do. I’m ready if they want me to and if not then c’est la vie … It would be fun to carry on and come back with a different song as well next year. The world will be like a different place won’t it, so it’d be fun to like just really go, ‘Oomph!’"
And James think he battled with coronavirus for a month and admits it was a really worrying time for him as he suffers with asthma.
Speaking to Fubar radio, he shared: "I reckon I had it for a month. I lost my sense of taste and smell. I think that was at the start of April. I couldn’t breathe, I had a really tight chest. I’ve got asthma as well so I was really worried … I rang my doctor and I told him all the symptoms and he was like, ‘Sounds like you’ve got it.’ Luckily I’ve been isolating anyway because I didn’t want to get it with asthma. But what was crazy is even though I was being so careful and not going to the shops and getting people to bring me food, I still got it!"