Laura will be working alongside vocal coach and former Fame Academy judge Carrie Grant, music producer Steve Allen, DJ Candice McKenzie and writer/composer Gus Gowland. This is the first time the judges have been announced ahead of the event in an attempt to create more transparency in the voting process.

The jury will judge performances from one semi-final and the contest final on vocal capacity, performance, composition and overall impression. These votes will count towards 50% of the overall vote tally, taken into account jointly with public telephone votes.

This is not the first time a classically trained singer has associated themselves with the famous song contest: in 2013, Romanian countertenor Cezar took audiences by storm with his  ‘electro-pop opera’, It’s My Life, finishing in 13th place. To date, this is the only finalist song in the competition’s history to be performed in falsetto.