The UK’s Eurovision Song Contest entry SuRie has said she received some helpful advice from former winner Conchita Wurst before taking to the stage for this year’s final.

Singer-songwriter SuRie, whose real name is Susanna Marie Cork, will perform Storm at the music event in Lisbon, Portugal, on May 12 and will hope to bring UK to victory for the first time in more than 20 years.

The 29-year-old said that she recently spoke to the Austrian drag queen, who won with the song Rise Like a Phoenix in 2014, in the run-up to her own stint at Eurovision.

“I was fortunate to have a fantastic conversation with Conchita recently and she helpfully stated how important it is to almost purely focus on the song and vocal performance,” SuRie said.

“There are many other fun and exciting elements to Eurovision – the staging, styling, media – but these come secondary to the music within a song contest.

“She’s completely right and I’ll try to remember that!”

SuRie, who has appeared twice at Eurovision before as a backing singer for Belgium’s contestants in 2015 and in 2017, said that she is “really enjoying the ride” this time around.

“It’s a huge honour and I’m very proud to be performing for the United Kingdom,” she added.

“My previous experiences working with Belgium were incredible but it feels very exciting to finally have a Union Jack in my hand!”

SuRie said that Storm – penned by Nicole Blair, Gil Lewis and Sean Hargreaves – will have been given an update since she won the chance to represent the UK at the BBC’s You Decide televised event in February.

“We’ve been working hard to refine some of the production elements on Storm – including adding a gorgeous real string section and real acoustic piano,” she said.

However, SuRie said she is not yet able to give any hints about the staging of her performance for the final.

She said: “We are still discussing ideas and details at the moment but we’re putting so much effort into the whole performance I really hope everyone enjoys it.”

– The Eurovision Song Contest final will air on May 12 on BBC One at 8pm.