EXCLUSIVE: Emmelie de Forest tells wiwibloggs about her “Acoustic Session” EP and second album

Emmelie de Forest didn’t just win Eurovision 2013—she also won a lot of your hearts. That’s why so many of you were thrilled to watch her latest music video for “Drunk Tonight”, in which Emmelie lounges in a bikini poolside. Seeing her body may be new, but listening to her beautiful voice and identifiable folk sound is not—they’ve been there from the start!

Ahead of her Spotify chat this afternoon at 16:00 GMT / 17:00 CET, Emmelie took the time to chat exclusively with wiwibloggs about her new “Acoustic Session” EP, her upcoming single and album plans, and her love of Los Angeles. Read on to learn a little bit more about our favourite Danish Eurovision winner…

Emmelie, congratulations on “Drunk Tonight”. Your song is fresh and the video is super sexy. Were you nervous showing some skin?

Thank you! I wanted a really beautiful music video. I wanted it to be elegant and sexy at the same time — but not vulgar or anything. It’s sexy but sophisticated. I think that we succeeded in that.

It takes courage to do that. Did you have to work out a lot beforehand? 

I don’t work out much. I have a very realistic view of my body and if the female body. I kind of like it curved like Beyoncé and Shakira. I love food, but of course it’s important to work out and be healthy at the same time. A month before shooting the video I started doing hot yoga, and I do it every second day. You can do it every day, but it’s still tough: It’s still tough 90 minutes in more than 40 degrees. I tried not to eat bread or pasta for two weeks before.

A lot of our readers were impressed with your new sound. 

It’s a new direction in a way. It’s different from “Only Teardrops” and “Rainmaker”, and those two songs were different from each other too. I like so many different styles of music. I think I will always be inspired by folk music from all kinds of places in the world. I tried to add some folksiness to “Drunk Tonight”. I added some violas. It’s bigger than a violin and has a darker sound. I really love that instrument. Jesse plays it in my acoustic live band on tour. And we played viola on the track. It added something organic. It is important for me that my music reflect who I am. I love different instruments and sounds. On “Only Teardrops” it was the flute, and on “Rainmaker” it was the choir. It had a Native American feeling.

We’re dying to know when we can expect more music from you.

I think my next single will come out in November. I am going out to Los Angeles in October, and I hope to shoot the next music video out there. You can expect my second album in February.

What do you love about working in Los Angeles?

Everything. They have such good food, and the people are very relaxed and the weather is so nice. You can’t help but get inspired when you spend some time there. I’ve been working with some really great people. I was there in January and I worked with MoZella, who I wrote “Drunk Tonight” with. She wrote Miley Cyrus’s “Wrecking Ball”. It’s so great to work with a talent like that.

 Tim Schou, who sang for Denmark at Eurovision 2011, lives in L.A. Do y’all ever get to hook up?

I met him the other day! On Wednesday I was at a radio festival and there were 10,000 people there. He had just performed earlier and it was really fun to meet him. He had just colored his hair blue so he got a new hairstyle. My boyfriend Jakob Glaesner is a songwriter. He knows Tim and he wrote “New Tomorrow” for A Friend in London. Jakob and I also wrote “Rainmaker” together. The music industry in Denmark is a small business and Denmark is a small country so everybody knows everybody.

One of the highlights of Eurovision this year was when each of this year’s acts joined you on stage for “Rainmaker”. Did you enjoy that?

It was so great having everyone singing along. I was really impressed, and it was so amazing being so many people on stage. When you are participating at Eurovision you are only six people on stage, but now I had like 25 or 30 dancers with me and drummers and all the contestants so it was huge. Really fun.

Do you still feel the love from your Eurovision fans even though Eurovision is over?

I really do. There are a lot of Eurovision fans following me and writing sweet messages to me on Instagram and Facebook and Twitter. I need to get better at Twitter. It’s not so popular in Denmark. But it’s such a good tool to keep in touch with fans. I used Facebook and Instagram a lot.

You sure do. In fact, we just read this exciting news on your Instagram account that your “Acoustic Session” EP is out today and released exclusively on Spotify!

Yes!  Today I am going to do a Spotify chat because my acoustic EP just got released today with “Drunk Tonight” and a “Smells Like Teen Spirit” cover. I can’t wait to chat with my friends for one hour on Spotify. I am lucky to have such great fans.

Can we expect videos of the songs soon?

Yes! We shot it while we did the video, so the videos will come out in the next couple of months.

Have you listened to Emmelie’s acoustic versions yet? What do you think? Be sure to follow Emmelie  on Instagram and Facebook and Twitter and let her know.