Scarborough musician's songs are Eurovision final contenders

Former Scarborough College pupil Ashley Hicklin wrote ‘You’, sung by Jaz Ellington, and ‘Astronaut’, sung by Liam Tamne, which will feature on tonight’s UK’s Eurovision ‘You Decide’ TV show.

The show airs tonight at 7.30pm on BBC Two.

The 32-year-old said: “It’s super exciting. About 200million people tune in to Eurovision, so it’s a big deal as a songwriter – it’s the biggest TV show in the world right now.​

“It’s the first time I’ve been involved with the UK’s entry for Eurovision and it would be great to wave the flag for the UK.”

Growing up in Scarboruogh, Ashley said he first got into music in his early teens.

“There was a really good scene in Scarborough for music – the DIY Collective had just started, which was kind of like a mini youth-club/hub for all creative people to get together and do stuff. It was basically a load of young people putting on gigs (Soundwave) and workshops.

“I joined my first bands ‘Pony Club’ and ‘Stepney’ and we played a lot of shows. I’m still really good friends with all those guys.”

Ashely has gone on to have number one hits around the world.Now part of a duo called Bright Sparks, he worked with one of his heroes, DJ Tiesto, to co-write the song ‘On My Way’.

In 2010, Ashley was part of a team that wrote the hit Me and My Guitar which was voted 6th in Eurovision and topped the charts in Belgium.

He said: “I actually got involved with Eurovision by accident. Belgium had selected a folky sing-songwriter called Tom Dice to represent them, but they didn’t have the right song for him.

“I happened to be in Belgium in the right studio and I was a folky singer-songwriter too.

“So myself and a good friend sat down with Tom, and we wrote a track together called ‘Me & My Guitar’. I think it only took us an hour to write it and the TV station loved it.”