BBC staff were left with egg on their faces last night after an embarrassing blunder during a live Eurovision Song Contest broadcast.
In an entertainment segment that aired on BBC North West Tonight, journalist Katie Walderman reported on the first preview show of Eurovision, which took place in Liverpool yesterday.
After speaking to Eurovision fans who watched the show live at Liverpool’s M&S Bank Arena, Katie revealed she’d managed to “catch up with” musical act Käärijä, who is representing Finland.
The competing song is called, Cha Cha Cha, and the individual interviewed began by dancing and singing some of the lines.
He was asked: “How do you think Liverpool has done out there?”
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He replied enthusiastically with: “Incredible. In comparison with the countries that I've been [to] this is better organised, everything is walking distance and it's so friendly. Everything is just so easy around here, it's incredible."
The strap at the lower third bottom of the screen even named him as “Käärijä - Finland entrant”. When it appeared he was actually simply a superfan.
Twitter was first to spot the mistake with TV critic Scott Bryan writing: "OH MY GOD BBC North West Tonight interviewed a Käärijä fan thinking it was HIM. ABSOLUTELY SENSATIONAL.”
Another user chimed in with: “BBC North West, hate to break it to you but this is not Käärijä.”
The interview followed a brief VT compilation of the acts performing, including the real life Käärijä who performed in a fluorescent lime green crop top.
The fan who BBC North West Tonight mistook for the music act was wearing a near-identical outfit.
The semi finals continue on Thursday night with the main event taking place on Saturday live from Liverpool.
The city is hosting the event on behalf of Ukraine who won last year and the UK entry is Mae Miller with I Wrote A Song. Hot favourites among fans are Finland, Croatia and Sweden.
The Eurovision Song Contest airs at 8pm on Saturday 13 May on BBC One
