Steps aren’t interested in representing the UK at the ‘Eurovision Song Contest’ – because they are worried a flop score could tarnish their pop legacy.
The five members – Lisa Scott-Lee, Faye Tozer, Claire Richards, Lee Latchford-Evans and Ian ‘H’ Watkins – have reformed to celebrate their 20th anniversary with a tour and new album ‘Tears On The Dancefloor’ this year and their reunion has led to speculation they could sing for Britain at the annual competition in 2018.
But Claire says they don’t want to get involved with ‘Eurovision’ because the voting has been so heavily stacked against British acts in recent years and they don’t want to end up finishing bottom of the table.
In an interview on ‘Lorraine’, she said: "I love the idea of it but I just think that Britain’s track record is not great and I don’t know if I want to add that to our legacy."
Lisa added: "It’s a gamble, that we are not willing to take."
However, ‘H’ would be keen if Steps flew the flag for Britain on the ‘Eurovision’ stage.
He said: "I love ‘Eurovision’, I love cheese, bring on the cheese!"
Before they reunited to mark their special anniversary, the ‘5,6,7,8’ hitmakers were approached to get back together for ‘Eurovision’ on several occasions but always spurned the offers.
Lisa told BANG Showbiz: "We had been asked to reunite for things like ‘Eurovision’ and we just didn’t feel that was right for us. We also wanted to mark the 20th anniversary so it was all set up to happen around this year, 2017."
Speaking about whether or not they are back for good as a group, she added: "We would love to. I think we need to see what the reaction is from our fans. We really wanted to come back and have new music this time. It has been a long time since we’ve released a studio album and all of the fans haven’t stopped asking on social media, this is what they wanted. So we wanted to say thank you for 20 years of support."
Steps’ new single ‘Scared of the Dark’ is out now and their album ‘Tears on the Dancefloor’ is out on April 21.
Their tour kicks off on November 12 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and the band took the opportunity when being interviewed by Fearne Cotton on ‘Lorraine’ to announce extra arena dates for which tickets are on sale now.
‘H’ took to his Twitter page after the interview to post a selfie of the band with Fearne and wrote: "EXTRA ARENAS ADDED !!!! WHOOP !!! Thanks for a fab morning @Fearnecotton !! @ITVLorraine #20YearsOfSteps #Steps20 (sic)"
Steps don’t want to do Eurovision
