Kim Cesarion: “We’ve been having talks the years before, but it felt right this time.” | Exclusive Interview
As you had read in one of our past articles, the final list of Melodifestivalen participants was published on the 1st of December, at a press conference hosted by SVT at their headquarters in Stockholm.
Andreas Papayiannakis and EurovisionFun was at SVT/TV-huset, in Oxenstiernsgatan 34, Stockholm, accredited to cover the artist reveal event that the Swedish national broadcaster had been preparing for media over the last few months.
There we had the chance to meet several of the participants, among which was Kim Cesarion, who will participate on the 3rd Heat, on Saturday 17 February 2024, at Vida Arena, in Växjö, Sweden.
Kim has already done his international breakthrough with the song “Undressed“, but why did he decide to participate at Melodifestivalen and why now? He responded:
“I would say why not? It is something that is very huge in Sweden and obviously all over Europe. We’ve been having talks the years before but it didn’t feel right for me at the time. But I follow my guts with a lot of things in my life and it felt right this time. So that is why now!”
Cesarion was one of the writers of his song titled “Take my breath away“. But what was the thinkling behind the song?
“Will you be back here? Then we will talk about it more *laughs*! I’m keeping the song and the performance a little bit closed so we will have more to talk about. It’s a song that I hope will connect with the fans of Eurovision and also with my supporters that I had since before. It’s kind of a blend of Melodifestivalen but also something that is Kim Cesarion, like the music I’ve been putting out over the last 10 years.”
We asked him what are his aspirations for his participation in 2024 and Kim admitted:
“Hopefully to be able to represent Sweden at Eurovision, that would be very amazing of course.”
An unexpected moment came, when Danny Saucedo suddenly crashed our interview, said he is his favourite and then they gave each other a heartwarming hug. Kim thinks that there isn’t any of his fellow contestants that he should keep an eye on and adds:
“Melodifestivalen is more about love, like a family, it is about having a good time, enjoying ourselves and make sure whoever is watching is enjoying too. I wouldn’t say I have someone particularly that I think I should keep an eye on but I will enjoy watching other performances and see what other songs I would have to compete against of course.”
Kim Cesarion is also Greek from his mum’s side. He explains then what his connection to Greece is, besides his love for Greek lamb, Greek and Cretan food:
“I’m Greek from my mother’s side, my mum is half Swedish half Greek and my father is from Guadeloupe. But on the Greek side we are from Creta and then a lot of people moved to Athens now. I was actually there last year I celebrated Christmas there. I was also the summer of the very same year. So I haven’t been there for a year now, but I am looking forward to the next time I am going back. Cause I need my Greek lamb. I need my Greek food. I need my Cretan food. So yeah I need to be back!”
Does Kim travel to Crete only or he has been to more places in Greece?
“I travel to both Crete and Athens, so hopefully my cousin will take me to more islands when I am there. He is in music too, in Athens, Greek artist, rap music, he has friends who have studios in the islands, so I hope I can make music in Greece too! I genuinely hope to meet the fans that I have in Greece already and hopefully I will be able to make many more new fans from Greece. And they will teach me some Greek too, because I don’t speak the language. So hopefully we will have that connection!”
Who is Kim Cesarion?
Kim Hugo Leonel Niko Cesarion is a 33-year-old Swedish singer-songwriter of Guadeloupean and Greek origin. Cesarion was born in Stockholm to a Guadeloupean father and a GreekCretan/Swedish mother. Cesarion is a classically trained musician. He studied at Lilla Akademien, a highly acclaimed music school in Stockholm, and plays several instruments including the violin, piano, double bass, and viola, as well as drums. He is signed with RCA, Sony Music and Columbia. It’s been a while since he last made music and he plans on coming back to the Swedish music industry by taking part in the contest. He made his big breakthrough in 2013 with the song “Undressed” which became a worldwide hit, with over 88 million streams on Spotify and success in the Nordic countries as well as Australia, New Zealand and the United States and we remember him with his duet with Molly Hammar “Show Me“.
You can watch our exclusive interview with Kim Cesarion in the video below:
Melodifestivalen 2024 is scheduled to take place between February 3rd to March 9th, and next year’s 30 competing songs were selected by SVT among 2624 songs.
The schedule for the six shows of the Melodifestivalen 2024 tour
- Heat 1: Saturday 3 February 2024, Malmö Arena, Malmö
- Heat 2: Saturday 10 February 2024, Scandinavium, Göteborg
- Heat 3: Saturday 17 February 2024, Vida Arena, Växjö
- Heat 4: Saturday 24 February 2024, Stiga Sports Arena, Eskiltuna
- Heat 5: Saturday 2 March 2024, Löfbergs Arena, Karlstad
- Final: Saturday 9 March 2024, Friends Arena, Stockholm – Solna
The winner of Melodifestivalen 2023 and hence the Swedish representative at Eurovision 2023 was Loreen with her song “Tattoo“. Loreen went on to become the first female artist in history to win the Eurovision Song Contest twice.
Photo: Daniel Stridh
Stay tuned at Eurovisionfun, for all the latest developments regarding Melodifestivalen 2024 and the Swedish entry for Eurovision 2024!
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