LIAMOO: “I am my strongest version of myself. I’m going to try to challenge the top.” | Exclusive Interview
Andreas Papayiannakis and EurovisionFun is accredited by SVT to follow the Melodifestivalen tour for a third year in-a-row. In Göteborg we got the chance to meet a few people involved in this year’s Melodifestivalen. Among those was LIAMOO who had us over at Clarion Hotel Post, the appointed artist hotel in Göteborg on an extensive interview.
Liam or also known by his stage-name, LIAMOO, is one of the favourites of this heat but also of the entire Melfest tour this year. He had his first rehearsal yesterday at noon and he said it felt really good.
“It’s a lot of work to do, but it’s not big stuff to do. It’s more of the bits and pieces, the details that we got to work on. You know, this camera here and there and put this light on me on that part. And maybe I have some stuff and some personal stuff to work with, like the pitch and blah, blah, blah. But yeah, it feels nice. It’s really like explosive, the feeling. It’s really hot on stage.”
The arena indeed gets extremely hot, as LIAMOO’s performance is full of pyro! If I could describe it with a phrase, that would be “Yeah, yeah, fire!”. LIAMOO as an artist uses dragon a lot in his performances, two years ago on the backdrop LED screen he had a dragon, this year his song is called “Dragon“. But what does the dragon mean for him?
“The Dragon is inner strength. And I have Asian blood and the Dragon is Asian. So it started with me being very nervous during my previous performances. “Last Breath”, “Hold You”, “Bluffin”. Not so much “Bluffin”. I was pretty much secure on that. But I was very nervous. I started to cough all the time just to clear my throat. She’s one of the jury members in Idol, also a song coach, very spiritual. She said to me, you know what? It reminds me of a baby dragon who just like starts to get their fire going. And I was like, hey, I like that. I like that very much because the dragon is cool.”
LIAMOO has been to Melodifestivalen five times. Four as an artist and five in total. Now this is the time he feels he is more himself.
“For the first songs, someone else thought that I would do them good in Mello.Dragon, though, it didn’t happen on purpose. It just happened. The song just happened. But I knew that I wanted to write about the dragon because it has been with me since Bluffin. As soon as I finished the song, I was like, this needs to be in Mello. It feels so true and honest to myself. There’s not a song out that’s more LIAMOO to me than Dragon because it got the mysterious darkness and then the power.”
What is his expectation of this year’s participation though? He feels like he is the strongest version of himself this year. Not only on stage, but as a person. He feels very secure with himself. He adds:
“I feel like I found myself and I feel like before 2018 and 2019 and 2022, I was in the middle of my journey finding myself. Now I feel like I know who I am and I know what I want to do now. So I feel like I’m my strongest. I am my strongest version of myself and I feel like I’m going to try to challenge the top.”
He doesn’t have a clear favourite this year though. He explains a bit:
“Last year, I really loved air. And that was to me, that was a clear favorite. I love Tattoo also. Two hit songs. Very good songs. But now I don’t know. I haven’t heard all of them, so I don’t know yet. But and I try to not focus on everybody else. I’m just trying to focus on my number, my pitch, my clothes.”
Finally, a message to all LIAMOO’s fans in Sweden but internationally as well from the artist himself:
“What’s really important to me is that the dragon is not only for me but it’s also for you. It’s a message from me to you that you need to find your inner strength. You need to. See who you really are. Don’t be too hard on yourself. I am a professional on being too hard on myself. You just got to enjoy the moment and appreciate yourself a lot more. Appreciate the moment. Enjoy the moment.”
You can watch our exclusive interview with LIAMOO at the video down below:
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