While the primary occasion remains to be a couple of weeks away, the Eurovision circus landed in London – bringing with it the loud costumes, odd props and vibrant characters.
But they don’t seem to be within the UK to compete – as an alternative it was a part of an unofficial (however broadly endorsed), whistle-stop tour of the continent the place the acts get an opportunity to check out their songs in entrance of actual audiences stuffed with Eurovision followers in an effort to get their campaigns beneath approach.
The London Eurovision Party was headlined by, in fact, the UK act Mae Muller, with performances by artists from this yr, in addition to years passed by.
And it will likely be all eyes on Loreen in Liverpool in May – she received the competition for Sweden in 2012 with Euphoria, which is without doubt one of the hottest Eurovision tracks in historical past.
She’s again with new music Tattoo, and whereas bookies have her at odds-on favorite to win, she advised Sky News the one stress she feels is a inventive one.
“I so badly want to create something that matters,” she stated, including: “It’s more pressure to create something as a performance.
“I by no means thought that this was going to be my path. What occurred was the music got here to me… I immediately felt after I obtained that, that I knew that there’s something that is going to occur to me with this music, after which every week or two later, they pop the query [to do Eurovision again] I’m like, ‘no, no, wait, wait, you may’t be severe’.”
If Loreen does do the enterprise and take residence the trophy, and nothing is for sure in Eurovision, she would grow to be the primary lady to win the competition greater than as soon as (Johnny Logan for Ireland holds the official file for probably the most particular person wins as a performer and author, in case you puzzled).
Hot on the heels of Loreen is Finnish act Käärijä, together with his Euro-hyper pop tune Cha Cha Cha.
Spotted a mile off on the celebration, he’s famed for his neon inexperienced sleeves-only puffer jacket and distinctive haircut.
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Describing the monitor he hopes to win with, he advised Sky News: “It’s very much power and energy and fire, and it’s the freedom for me in the story.
“Eurovision, it is a… humorous factor, and it makes individuals glad when they’re watching. And what occurs is many artists doing humorous issues and creating nice songs.”
The Scandi-star added he was looking forward to maybe fitting in a game at Anfield too when he gets to Liverpool, adding Mo Salah is his favourite player.
But as well as the front-runners, Eurovision is built on its memorable songs and this year Austria provides the goods.
Teya and Salena will carry out their (and that is actual) ode to the American author Edgar Allan Poe.
The pair defined to Sky News that the concept to carry out a music concerning the ghost of Poe got here in a fairly unconventional approach, with Teya saying they merely improvised the opening traces to the monitor at a writing session – however the music wasn’t even their first pitch for the competition.
“We just wanted to make people laugh at the listening session because we had like an hour left, and we just were like, ‘Oh, let’s just do another song just for funsies’ – and it turned out to not be just funsies.
“And Edgar Allan Poe, he is the epitome of the struggling artist, which we all know so much about, and we simply put our experiences into the music and that is the way it occurred.”
Australia’s act, Voyager, had been additionally absorbing on the ambiance in London, having beforehand performed the Madrid and Amsterdam Eurovision events.
The veteran prog-metal group stated their music is “synth-sational” and “Duran Duran but heavy” – and it comes full with screamed choruses and a guitar solo.
And their message to those that query why the nation is a part of the present?
“Australia is a nation built up of immigrants really, and we’ve got a lot of European people living in Australia.
“It form of simply is smart to have Australia be part of the Eurovision Song Contest.”
The present is being hosted in Liverpool, however in fact Ukraine received the final contest – however with the continued struggle there the organisers deemed it unsafe to stage it on Ukrainian soil, so the BBC stepped in to host as a substitute after the UK’s Sam Ryder got here second in final yr’s occasion.
The week (sure, a complete week) kicks off on 9 May with the primary semi-final, and the second two days later, adopted by the grand last on 13 May, and will probably be hosted by Hannah Waddingham, Alesha Dixon, Julia Sanina and Graham Norton.
Source: information.sky.com”