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Noa Kirel: “Tattoo is an excellent song but it’ll be difficult for Loreen to achieve a second victory”!

Noa Kirel, Israel’s representative in Eurovision 2023, gave an interview to the country’s largest magazine, Israel Hayom. Noa reveals what she has set the bar for in the contest, reffers to her competitors and of course Loreen, but also gives us more information about her stage appearance.

My first answer about Eurovision was negative

Israel’s public television apparently had a hard time convincing Noa Kirel to say yes to representing the country in this year’s competition.

The proposal was made very early on, but she was initially negative, since she had never taken part in any competition until now. The ones who convinced her to finally accept this challenge were her father, but also her manager, who were very positive. Before giving her final positive answer, Noa Kirel spoke with her psychologist, who advised her about the impact her participation in Eurovision will have on her life in the coming months.

Unicorn was about to get leaked

Not that it would be strange, since so many of this year’s entries were leaked online before their official release, but as Noa and the Unicorn recounts, it was literally saved at the last minute.

One of the employees of the recording studio, in which she recorded Unicorn, had intercepted the song from the studio. But they discovered him and forced him to delete it from his mobile phone.

The Unicorn’s Choice

Among four songs, Unicorn was chosen by her and her team. Israeli public television gave her complete freedom in choosing the song.

Worked with two teams of creators. One was Jordi, Ron Biton and Itai Shimoni, while the second was Doron Medlie, Mai Sphadia and Yinon Yahel, with whom she finally ended up.

Noa Kirel has revealed that she will not be singing Unicorn live anywhere in public, until her rehearsals in Liverpool.

With changes in Eurovision

What is particularly important is that the version of the song with which she will compete in Liverpool will be slightly different from the one in the official video clip.

She mentions that the song now has a duration of 02:51, while in its final form in the competition it will be 02:55, since there will be some changes in the instrumentation. No extra chorus will be added, but there will be a short break in the middle of the song.

The rest of Noa’s team

Although she has received many proposals from foreign clothing designers, she will trust Israeli creators. In fact, she mentions that she will avoid very shiny clothes, since she doesn’t like them.

She will have five male and female dancers with her, while her director will be Avichai Hacham, a well-known Israeli choreographer and director. You can see a sample of his work below:

The laugh in the last part of the song was something that arose spontaneously in the recording, but she and her collaborators decided to keep it.

I’ll be satisfied with one place in the Top 5

Noa follows the bets, as she wants to know what is happening, while she will feel satisfied if she gets a place in the top 5 of the final standings.

Her “jaw dropped” when she saw Loreen’s performance in the Melodifestivalen final, but she believes it will be very difficult for her to achieve a second victory in the competition.

Her favorite song from this year’s competition is the UK entry, while Finland’s Cha Cha has also caught her eye!

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for all the updates!

Source: escforum

France: From Zero to Hero. The interview of the Head of the French delegation

A very interesting interview was recently given by Alexandra Redde-Amiel, head of the French Eurovision delegation, to the French podcast “12points-le podcast qui décrypte l’Eurovision”.  During this interview Alexandra showcased how France managed to escape from last places and mobilise the local and international interest on its participations.

France-Head-delegation-interview

Let’s start from the beginning.

The time France used to be the queen of Eurovision finished in 1977 with the victory of the “L’oiseau et l’enfant” by Marie Myriam. Since then Eurovision suffers from a growing depreciation by the French people, and its participations, though sometimes promising, rarely can they compete on dynamism, originality and freshness those of other, more competitive countries.

Alexandra Redde-Amiel is nominated Director of Entertainment and Games of France Televisions and at the same time Head of the French delegation of Eurovision in 2018. With a long experience on the production of the French Star Academy and as an enthusiast for big shows like the SuperBowl and the Victoria Secret Shows, she starts her mission with only one goal: reverse the depreciation atmosphere and bring Eurovision back to France after more than 40 years!

The turning is immediate. French participations get bigger communicative promotion, stagings are prepared by experts, internationally appealing elements are added and in 2021 France is back on the podium with Barbara Pravi and “Voilà”.

The success recipe, according to Alexandra, is multi-layered. Everything starts from the determination of those taking the decision to provide good participations to the contest so that they will eventually win.

“I am very lucky that my supervisors have never set limits on me about Eurovision”

she says, pointing out the fact that French Tv not only passionately supports the country’s participations, but even more, it encourages them to overpass the limits. At the same time, the post of head of the french delegation is held by a woman believing in the country’s abilities to win, has a strong experience, music and television knowledge and believes that everything is possible, you just need the means to succeed.

Then Alexandra underlines the importance of the song’s and its performance’s quality. The French participation should first of all be loved by the French people and contain elements representing today’s tendencies.

“If we include everyone, subsequently the participation will be supported and with international appeal”

she notes. Following this opinion, France dares to try different ideas these last years. About this year’s choice of La Zarra she says:

“Combines the big French song, a Eurovision style, an artist with character and complete artistic view”

France-Participations

 

Finally, decisive for the contest’s revitalization will be a victory. As French have gradually depreciated the contest due to the country’s bad results, so they will show their support to Eurovision once France steps up again to the highest rank.

It’s obvious that the French tv is following a complete and not at all random strategy in order to bring back Eurovision on the limelight. All efforts are concentrated to the country’s next victory, and when that happens, the spontaneous interest will grown in France and will take to a higher level the next participations.

“The more France is loved by Europe, the more French will feel proud and motivated”

It’s worth mentioning that this strategy is not limited in the song selection. It includes a full communication plan in order to promote the song, the artist’s preparation for his staging, cooperation with various artists and artisans, and mostly a well prepared and explained with all the details stage direction in order to avoid any problems during the rehearsals. Nevertheless, the artist keeps the liberty of his artistic expression and is the one to take most of the decisions.

Everything Alexandra Redde-Amiel mentioned on her interview may look evident, but they actually compact all those success factors that could lead a country to the victory. France does not just wish to win but is indeed determined to win, and they will do it one day. Not because a random song will be loved, but because the responsible people have the knowledge and the will to give Europe a song that will deserve the victory.

 

You can listen to the complete interview in french here.

Watch La Zarra’s interview to EurovisionFun:

Stay tuned to EurovisionFun for more news about France’s participation in Eurovision 2023!

La Zarra: “The staging will be simple but shocking” | Exclusive Interview |

This year’s representative of France in Eurovision 2023, La Zarra was a few days ago on the Eurovisionfun channel on Youtube, in an exclusive interview with Paschalis and Apostolis!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWfbEFH9NvQ

On her experience with the competition so far, she said that the hardest part was choosing the song, but now the good and fun things begin.

France this year is represented by La Zarra with the song “Évidemment”, which is entirely in French. She revealed to us about the message of the song:

“The meaning of the song is about finding yourself through difficulties and regaining control of your life! For me, when we created the song, I had to love myself and take risks! So love yourself, leave bad people behind and keep the promises you made to yourself!”

About the song selection, La Zarra stated the following:

“When I was offered the contest, I didn’t have a song. I had a lot but for my next album and I wanted something special that spoke to the difficulties I was facing at the time! So, with my partners we wrote “Évidemment”, for Eurovision!

She herself revealed to us that she has already started preparations for the stage performance in Liverpool:

“We have many ideas, but for me it is important that the look remains simple but at the same time shocks the audience!”

Also, La Zarra did not hesitate to reveal to us that she will be alone on stage as in the official video clip of the country! He then mentioned that he has listened to almost all the songs of this year’s Eurovision and the one he probably listens to the most is “Stay” by Lithuania, although all the songs of this year’s contest are amazing!

Watch La Zarra’s full interview below:

Enjoy our reaction video about France in Eurovision 2023:

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Stay tuned to EurovisionFun for all the news regarding  Eurovision 2023!

Andrew Lambrou: “The staging in Liverpool is gonna be epic!” | Exclusive Interview |

This year’s representative of Cyprus, Andrew Lambrou, spoke exclusively to Apostolis Matamis and Eurovisionfun about his participation in Eurovision 2023 with the song “Break A Broken Heart“.

For the premiere day of his participation, he stated that he was quite excited as the preparation time was long and he was very happy that many people were there to watch the premiere of the song. Regarding the participation of “Break A Broken Heart”, Andrew said:

“The song refers to the pain of the past and the empowerment through it! Relationships can be difficult and affect us mentally, but in the end, you can become stronger through it.”

“It’s an epic song! Of course, I had many other options and it was a difficult process! But then ‘Break A Broken Heart’ came along and it stood out straight away!”

About his stage appearance on the Liverpool stage, he revealed to us:

“We are in discussions and trying to put things in order. I think that the stage appearance will particularly flatter the song. If I could describe it in one word, my appearance will be epic!”

Andrew then revealed to us as his favourite Eurovision entries Eleni Foureira (2018), Elena Paparizou (2005), Lordi (2006) and Moldova 2010.

Also, he  referred to the reaction video of his participation by the Eurovisionfun team, which he and his family watched and loved!

Watch the full interview below:

We wish Andrew Lambrou and his whole team the best of luck and many thanks for this interview!

Don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel to be the first to enjoy interviews, reaction videos and Live streams for our favorite contest!

 

Stay tuned to EurovisionFun for all the news regarding Eurovision 2023!

 

Maria Sur: “Sarah Dawn Finer helped me to break into the Swedish music industry and then Warner signed me!” | Exclusive interview!

The 18-year-old Ukrainian artist Maria Sur is making her Melodifestivalen 2023 debut this year and was the winner of the second heat and a big favorite to win the whole thing in the final on March 11!

Eurovisionfun is in Stockholm and Maria Sur welcomed us at the headquarters of Warner Music Sweden and spoke exclusively to Andreas Papagiannakis, a few days before the grand final! Among other things, she commented on her appearance this year, her breakthough in “Hela Sverige Skramlar“, how challenging her song “Never Give Up” was for her, about the composers of her participation this year and more.

Maria became widely known to the Swedish public through the charity gala “Hela Sverige Skramlar” and comments:

We managed to raise about 8 million euros in aid for Ukraine, a huge amount. I will never forget that night!

Her way into the Swedish music industry was not that easy as she tried to get in touch with many big artists to discuss “Hela Sverige Skramlar” which she wanted to be a part of:

Only Sarah Dawn Finer responded. She helped me contact the organizers, I managed to take part in it and then Warner approached me! We had a very long meeting and discussed everything and then after a while they got me signed!

She came to Sweden with her mother about a year ago after the war break-out in Ukraine with Russia, as her aunt has been living there for about eleven years. Her father has been forced to stay back in Ukraine:

We contact him every day, as much as possible. It is very difficult at this time due to electricity cut-offs and the phone lines are not so good.

She studies at a music school in Sweden and also does distance learning music classes at a Ukrainian university:

It is difficult to combine my studies at the same time as trying to establish a career in Sweden, but so far it is going well.

She is delighted to have the opportunity to work with Laurell Barker and Anderz Wrethov and explains how the song was written:

Anderz initially sent me the song which had always been called “Never Give Up” but there were no lyrics yet. Then I talked with Laurell, she listened to my story, wrote the lyrics and then this song came out. The song is autobiographical and basically describes my story. It’s definitely not a song I would normally sing, I usually sing more uptempo songs. It’s a challenging song for me, very difficult vocally. I have to convince the audience and present my story at the same time!

She explains to us that we will not see significant changes in her stage presence. Maybe the clothes or the hair, but nothing drastic to the whole performance. She still hasn’t realized what has happened since her appearance at Melodifestivalen and says:

I am very slow to process things. I started to understand what was going on after my appearance in Linköping. I think it will take me another week. I definitely feel that Melodifestivalen is a good opportunity for me to present myself to the people in Sweden but also outside of Sweden and to become known as an artist! My song has a very strong message to “never give up”! In less than a year of being here I have never given up and so many good things have happened in my life already!

Before Friday of the second heat week she was, as she mentions, very stressed and the adrenaline was so much because she had very high expectations, but after Saturday she started to enjoy it.

Everyone was telling me to chill and enjoy it and the next conversation was “are you going to win”? The interaction with the crowd was very beautiful, I felt such a blessing and the people made me feel very calm.

Out of this year’s Melodifestivalen songs, she likes Marcus & Martinus‘s “Air” and of course Loreen‘s “Tattoo“, Smash Into Pieces‘ “Six Feet Under” and Ida-Lova‘s “Låt hela stan se på“.

Watch the full interview with Maria Sur below:

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Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for all Eurovision related news!

Loreen: “Euphoria was the moonlight and Tattoo is the sunrise” | Exclusive Interview |

Eurovision 2012 winner Loreen spoke exclusively to Eurovisionfun and Andreas Papagiannakis from Malmö, Sweden about her participation in Melodifestivalen 2023 with the song “Tattoo”!

She declares that she is particularly happy and excited about her return to Melodifestivalen and when asked about re-collaborating with the creators of the winning Euphoria, Loreen said:

“It’s wonderful! They know how to write a song and specifically a song for a dynamic voice. It was also very simple and easy as they sent me the song and it took me 45 minutes to record it to get to feel it!”

Then she revealed to us that they wrote the song exclusively for her! About her return to Melodifestivalen, 6 years after her last appearance with “Statements”, she said the following:

“All humans are constantly evolving! Every creation of mine was a reflection of my then self! In Euphoria I was in a very spiritual period, while in Statements I wanted a strong political tone and I wanted to fight for what I had to! Now I feel like we need to bring some light into our lives!”

“The song is dramatic and obviously has a big climax!”

About her stage presence, Loreen revealed to us:

“Spirituality will definitely be there! Euphoria was the sunset and the moon, while Tattoo is the sunrise!”

“I want the viewer to be able to interpret my appearance as he wants! You will see another side of me”

You can enjoy Loreen’s entire interview below:

@eurovisionfn H @Loreen διαβάζει Eurovisionfun.com , η νικήτρια της Eurovision 2012 επέστρεψε και θα προσπαθήσει να εκπροσωπήσει τη Σουηδία στη Eurovision 2023 ❤️ #eurovisionsongcontest #eurovision #melodifestivalen2023 #melodifestivalen #loreeneuphoria #loreen #fyp #fy ♬ Euphoria – Loreen

Many thanks to Loreen for the exclusive interview and we wish her the best of luck!

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Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for all developments regarding Melodifestivalen and Eurovision 2023!

 

Portion Boys: “Expect a high energy performance with surprises!”

The Portion Boys are participating in this year’s national final of Finland, UMK 2023 with the track “Samaa taivasta taksanas” and a few days ago they spoke exclusively to Eurovisionfun, specifically to Apostolis Matamis and Apostolοs Bogiannos, about their participation and their plans for the national final.

After getting to know all five band members, we chatted about their decision to take part in this year’s Finnish national final!

“Last year we wrote the song and immediately knew that it would fit UMK, and we felt that this was the right time! Now Finland is ready for us, we are ready for her and hopefully all of Europe!”

Regarding the song with which they participate in this year’s national final, they told us:

“Life is not that serious and you can enjoy it the way you want! We want to make the audience feel happy through our song.

“Our message is that we are all different but equal! In our own unique way, we use humor as a tool to convey the very important message of our song.”

Regarding the references to other countries in the song’s lyrics, the band revealed that it was a way to include more people as they also liked the word “Acropolis” very much and wanted it in the song. Also, many countries and regions did not manage to get into the song but on the other hand they have received messages that their song also has an educational function for many young children.

“Among the countries there is also Hungary, which does not participate in Eurovision either! So we’re not using the countries to necessarily win votes, but of course we’d like the public’s votes!”

For their stage appearance, the Portion Boys revealed to us:

Expect a lot of energy from us and a lot of surprises!

They stated that their favorite Finnish participation is Lordi (Finland 2006) and Blind Channel (Finland 2021), while as their favorite participation of the competition they mentioned Loreen from Sweden, Dana International from Israel and the Moldovan participation from 2010 with the viral sax-guy!

Enjoy the full interview of Portion Boys below:

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Would you like to see Robin representing Finland in Eurovision 2023? Tell us in the comments!

Luke Black: Eurovision is very conceptual and elaborate | Exclusive Interview

Luke Black from Serbia gave an exclusive interview to EurovisionFun and Paschalis, talking about his song “Samo mi se spava“. Luke Black is taking part with this song in this year’s Pesma za evroviziju, hoping to represent Serbia in Eurovision 2023.

Who is Luke Black?

I’m a musician from Serbia that has been making music for quite a while. I don’t write much, but when I write I decide to make it a project and then I release it. I was born in a small town in Serbia and spent my early years in Belgrade. I live in London and that’s where the learning process for me started. I do electronic pop music that flirts with different styles and genres from project to project.

When I started, I used to listen to british pop and rock and music like David Bowie and then the Beatles. My inspiration was John Lennon. When I was a teenager I discovered Lady Gaga and I guess my music taste has changed since then. I still haven’t found anyone else with such an impact to my creativity as Lady Gaga.

Some things about the song

Samo mi se spava means I just wanna sleep. It’s about sleeping. I spent the last years very alieanted from the world, especially throughout the pandemic. I immersed myself into my bed, video games and anime and that’s how the song was created. It is basically about the feeling of isolation that people are feeling throughout the world. It is an embrace of the innocence. I think sleep is one of the most innocent places where one can go and feel safe outside of the world.

The song was made in 2020, in April. It was a nice collaboration I had. I worked at first with an old friend from Lebanon who lives in the US and he sent me the piano introduction of the song. With what was going on in the world melodies kept on coming. We actually finished the song in fifteen minutes on zoom. It was one of those moments of inspiration that rarely happen. Later on I worked more with a friend from Canada and colleagues from London and we elevated the track.

Last year Konstrakta sent her song and I felt it was the right time to do that. I tweeted joking about it and people felt excited said I should go, so I couldn’t say no.

Does Luke like other songs from Pesma za evroviziju?

I have listened to some of them and I was quite surprised with the amount of bangers. I was outside the musical culture of Serbia, but I’m happy that there are so many artists that do pop music in a great way. There’s a guy called Filip whose song I really like and a guy called Gipsii. Everybody is great in their way and there’s balance.

Konstrakta is a genious. Her lyrics have always been mature and thoughtful, like poetry. Before that I enjoyed Eurovision as a european contest, but I didn’t enjoy the serbian selection. I felt there wasn’t a place for me. Konstrakta definitely changed the game. I’m glad that people in my country appreciate more modern and conceptual sounds. Eurovision is very conceptual and elaborate.

What are his favorite Eurovision entries?

Maneskin is something I enjoyed. I wanted to feel more rock vibes in Eurovision and I think lots of teenagers were attracted to the singer and started to listen more to rock music.

His message to the readers and viewers

Lots of love from Serbia! I really hope you enjoy Samo mi se spava and I hope to see you in Eurovision in Liverpool this year!

We would like to thank Luke Black for his interview and wish him best of luck!

Robin Packalen: “My performance will be dangerous and not like the music video” | Exclusive Interview

Robin Packalen is participating in this year’s national final of Finland, UMK 2023 with the track “Girls Like You” and a few days ago he spoke exclusively to Eurovisionfun and specifically to Apostolis and Alvaro, about his participation and his plans for the national final.

Although only 24 years old, Robin has been in the music industry since the age of 13 and is now considered one of the biggest names on the Finnish pop scene! On how he made the decision to take part in UMK 2023, he said:

“I am happy that this year I am taking part in the national final! Almost every year I had an offer to participate but there was always something else in my career and I couldn’t! At this moment I think the time has come and of course I have the right song”

Regarding the participation of “Girls Like You”, he told us the following:

“The song was not written exclusively for the competition! Last year I was in Los Angeles for the creation of the next international album and as soon as I heard the song I said that it is the best I have created! I didn’t want this song to be just another single and that’s how the idea of UMK came about!”

“If I were asked to describe myself with one song it would be ‘Girls Like You’, both in terms of sound and lyrics!”

Regarding his choice to participate with a song in English , he said that he wanted to try something different as he believes that he has offered for many years what he had to give to his country and now it’s time to try his luck to a bigger audience, that of Europe!

This year’s Finnish national final will take place in the city of Turku, which is also the birthplace of the young singer and of course he couldn’t help but express his joy to compete in his “home” and maybe have a small lead, as he said jokingly.

About his stage appearance Robin revealed to us:

“My appearance in the national final will be “dangerous” and will have nothing to do with the aesthetics of the video clip! On the stage there will be props and a lot of acrobatics, which I have been doing since I was a child!”

His favorite Finnish entry states that they are Blind Channel (Finland 2021), with whom they collaborated recently and have the same producers, while as his favorite entry of the competition he preferred a recent favorite of his, “Slo Mo” from Channel.

At the end he sang a part of his participation:

Watch the full interview of Robin:

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Would you like to see Robin representing Finland in Eurovision 2023? Tell us in the comments!

Savo Perović:”Υou can expect explosive energy from me on stage” | Exclusive Interview |

The national final of Serbia for Eurovision 2023, Pesma za Evroviziju 2023 is coming again this year! One of the contestants that definitely stood out is Savo Perović with the song “Presidente“! After announcing his participation in this year’s national final, Savo Perović speaks exclusively to Eurovisionfun and Matamis Apostolis!

 

Can you tell our readers a little bit about yourself?

“My name is Savo Perovic and I am 32 years old.  I was born in Prishtina, Kosovo, grew up in Montenegro and have been living in Belgrade, Serbia for the past 12 years. I have been singing professionally since 2016 and have more than 6 singles. I’m 172 tall with 65 kg, a baby of a man or as they call me brat.”

What made you decide to participate in the national final of Serbia this year?

“Well, first of all, it was my wish since I was a child, and then the whole concept of that competition in our country has been changed, especially with the victory of KONSTRAKTA last year, and therefore I got the desire to show myself on that stage!”

Tell us a bit more your entry “Presidente”! Was the song written especially for Eurovision?

“Well, this song was specially made for this competition, which I even think can be heard!”

What should we expect from you on the stage of the national final?

“You can expect anything from me, I’m very unpredictable! But what you can certainly expect is a good and explosive energy!

Do you have a favorite song among the other entries from Pesma za Evroviziju ’23?

“There are a lot of songs this year that are good, and I wouldn’t single out any of them because there are at least 5/6 songs that are really interesting to me.”

Do you follow Eurovision and do you have a favorite song from the contest?

“Of course I follow Eurovison and I can even say that I am a fan of it. I can say that my favorite song is “Euphoria” by Loreen, as well as Sakis Rouvas with “Shake it””

In the end, I want to thank you for your time and please, if you have a message for your fans and our readers here on Eurovisionfun!

“I’d like to say to all my fans out there, thanks for the support! Stay with me during the contest and enjoy my song PRESIDENTE as much as I do!”

Βelow you can enjoy “PRESIDENTE” from Savo Perovic:

Οf course we also talked with him and here’s a message from Savo to all of you:

We would like to thanks Savo for this interview and wish him best of luck!

Stay tuned to EurovisionFun for all developments regarding Serbia’s participation in Eurovision 2023!