In her Eurovision 2017 song she says she’ll “Dance Alone”. But ever since the reveal of her number Eurovision fans have been bopping right along with Macedonia’s Jana Burceska.
Last Sunday the rising star performed at the London Eurovision Party 2017 inside the stunning Café de Paris, and beforehand she caught up with wiwiblogger William in Leicester Square, where she turned the pavement into a catwalk all her own.
Jana Burceska interview at London Eurovision Party
Before she revealed her song, expectations were low as not many people knew much about her — except that she had entered a few competitions with dated, big-band music.
But the nuclear and overwhelmingly positive reaction to her song has left her smiling big.
“I’m really glad I changed everybody’s minds!” she says. “I like trying new things. The big band songs were done for a concrete occasion — that was for a festival.”
Where has she been hiding, you ask? Jana explains that she has always done music as a hobby, and now she’s turning it into a career. In case you have any doubt about her skills, check out her improvised rendition of Beyoncé’s “Halo” in the interview. She kills it!
“When I first heard the song I was like, ‘oh my god, this is the best song I’ve ever done.’ But I never thought that 1.4 million other people would love it.”
Her emotional music video, which features an old woman reminiscing over her past through VR technology, elevates the song into a story.
“Different people have different impressions, but my impression is this old lady missed a lot of opportunities in life because of recklessness and being wild and now she regrets it. Go for the chances you have while you’re young.
Jana Burceska behind the scenes
Will the stage performance in Kyiv look anything like the music video?
“People want to know too much”, she says. Looks like we’ll have to wait until May to find out…
Jana also shares some intimate details of her personal life. She’s got a bichon frise called Anastasia or Baby, as you prefer, and she also loves tomatoes. That may explain her taut skin and natural glow.
How much do you like this Macedonian sensation? Are you dancing alone to her song? How do you think Jana will do in Kyiv? Tell us in the comments section below. And don’t forget to show us your best dance moves using the wiwibloggs app!
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MACEDONIA IS A BIG AREA OF NORTHEN GREECE AND IS ONLY RELATED TO ANCIENT MACEDONIAN CIVILAZATION. YOU SHOULD USE PREXIF FYR WHEN YOU REFERING AT FYROM TO INDICATE THE SLAVIC ORIGIN OF THIS COUNTRY AND DONT CONFUSING WITH YOUR VIDEOS. IN THAT WAY YOU OFFEND ALL GREEK PEOPLE UPLOADING MISLEADING VIDEOS
I don’t understand why people are saying she is singing to a playback track. If you can tell from her Israel Calling performance, she sounds almost exactly like the studio version. Her voice is definitely very polished. To be honest, I am a wee bit disappointed they change the intro and outro of the song. I would have preferred they cut short the intro and keep the outro as the outro makes the song interesting and made the meaning of the song stands out more. But truth be told, this song and Blanche’s City Lights do not have the vocal… Read more »
@Coryn im greek and i love it tho????
@ Purple Mask, FYROM and Russia are naughty, Greece and Ukraine don’t want what they don’t have already.
It looks like except for Greeks everyone else loves Yana 🙂 Personally, the more I watch of her the more i like her. WIWIBLOGS should make a pool on who is the most lovable performer this year, I am sure Yana will win. BTW some Greeks are so in a mood to criticize Yana, yet we haven’t seen their singer Demi at London nor at Israel party, maybe because German people decided not to pay for her trip.
Ironic. A comment thread on one post is begging Wiwibloggs to show “selective sensitivity” to Ukraine, while on the other hand a comment (from sb) on this thread would prefer the blog NOT to show “selective sensitivity” to Macedonia/FYR or whatever. Make up your minds! To be sensitive or not, that is the question. About the song: It’s clear that Jana knows how good it is, but she didn’t take herself entirely seriously in London. That was probably partly because of the audience, so it was a bit of a mis-read. I’m sure she will be ready to work more… Read more »
This song is rather boring and dated
Stop using this freaking name Macedonia. The FYR Macedonia is something both countries have agreed to. Don’t show selective sensitivity.
FYR Macedonia is on my 2nd place right now, but Jana must improve her live! I don’t know why she used playback in London. In Israel it wasn’t that bad, but she has a different higher pitch than the studio version and that’s something I don’t like. Hope they fixed it in May because I really love this song!
People are so overly critical. Yes, the song has a lot of production and will require solid background vocals to be elevated on stage, but Jana really doesn’t have a bad voice at all. In my opinion, she’s delivering quite well with little production at these concert events. I truly believe this will come alive on the big stage when everything comes together. For now, just enjoy the kick ass song.
serving nina krajlic overproduced fan favorite that will barely scrape by in the final realness
Can’t get out of my head that playback in London, such a shame.. There are many more who deserves to qualify than this overproduced song, sorry.. But I guess it will do well tho.
Good point, soso! I agree 100%…. Let them dream about her qualification, we all know the poor rate of FYROM’s qualification over the years…
@ Polegend Godgarina
You don’t need great vocals to win esc, is true, but you must be careful if the studio version is overproduced, and then you don’t sing like the audience expects, that is disaster. Like Margaret from Poland last year, or like Mirela from Spain.
You don’t have great vocals, fine, but don’t show us a video where you lie to us using an overproduced song.
people say she can’t sing, but that’s so untrue. She only has a different voice, which is quite interesting, and she sang live on the interviews. Yes her London performance was not the best one, maybe cause she was nervous and got a few drinks to relax – after all music is a hobby for her and not a career – but Israel performance was awesome. I was afraid she might fail to deliver an otherwise top 5 song, but i am certain she will pull out great performance at the ESC stage. I also like that she is sweet,… Read more »
Everyone will be dancing alone when the ESC comes
Saint Jana Burceska of Skopje will prove y’all wrong. You don’t need big vocals to do well in this contest, she has a smash and that’s enough.
The song and the music video are perfect, the problems is her live performance…
It’s a pity, having the best Macedonian entry ever
Only her voice is different, but she tune out a bit live. It is not very difficult to improve.
Unfortunately there’s a big difference between the studio version and the live version. A difference so big that it will cost her the qualification. She made playback in London, and in Israel she partly sang live… In the 1st minute at least she was using lip sinking… Her live version of that nice song is HORRIBLE! Too bad, Macedonia. Maybe next year!
Including me… I admit I was scratching my head at the choice when she was announced but was blown away by the studio version. Definitely the most un-Macedonian entry ever.
Better improve on the live performance after the fizzer in London though if she is to qualify. I fear for the staging too as Macedonia loves to shoot itself in the foot with bad staging and fugly dancers.
Good luck Burche, one of my 5 faves this year!