Every weekday, between now and the contest in May, the team from wiwibloggs will round up the latest titbits from the world of Eurovision 2021. We trawl through Instagram, Twitter and elsewhere so that y’all don’t have to. In today’s Daily Digest Natalia Gordienko releases “Sugar” in Russian, Hurricane’s backing singers are revealed and Daði Freyr shares a “10 Years” dance tutorial. But first…
Eurovision news: 9 April
Blas Cantó performs a piano-version of “Voy a Quedarme”
Live from Barcelona and surrounded by an audience, Blas Cantó filled the room with tenderness and delivered a raw version of his Eurovision song. This performance was part of a mini-concert he did in promotion for imagin – which was rescheduled following the COVID-19 restrictions. As he speaks at the end of his performance, singing in front of an audience gives him strength. “It’s tough for me to sing this song, […] but if there’s somebody that helps me much on the stage, are you all”. The full concert can be seen here. (Jordi)
Blind Channel answer questions from fans
Ahead of Rotterdam, Finnish band Blind Channel sat down to answer some questions from fans. Among the topics covered are the origin of the band’s name, the importance of clean socks, their favourite European countries and which member has “aesthetically pleasing” nostrils. (Robyn)
Manizha is the cover star of Sobaka magazine
Manizha has appeared on the cover of the Russian lifestyle magazine Sobaka — not once, but twice! She appears in two different cover designs, while inside the magazine she speaks extensively about her Eurovision journey and creative process. Manizha reveals that she only submitted an unfinished demo of “Russian Woman” to the Russian broadcaster just three days before the national final was due to take place — but the broadcaster liked what they heard! (Robyn)
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Destiny gets a deal with Sony Music Sweden
She’s one of the hot favourites for Eurovision 2021 and now Destiny has a record deal. Sony Music Sweden has signed a worldwide deal for Destiny’s Eurovision song “Je me casse”. In a statement, Destiny enthused, “This is a dream come true and this is a testament that I am on the right track and that hard work pays off.” A Sony Music spokesperson shared their ambition, saying Sony Music was “looking forward to making Destiny a worldwide household name.” (Robyn)
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Natalia Gordienko premieres Russian version of “Sugar”
Moldova’s Natalia Gordienko has premiered the Russian version of her Eurovision 2021 entry “Sugar”. The Russian title of the translated song was changed to “Tuz bubi”, meaning “Diamond Ace”. Its title refers to the playing card, which often coincides with ideas about love, relationships and new starts. (Renske)
Lesley Roy shares a throwback to her music video shoot
Irish singer Lesley Roy posted a little throwback video from the music video for “Maps”. It sees Lesley running alongside a dirt trail in the Wicklow Mountains, just south of Dublin. Lesley captions the clip: “Run into the weekend like you literally don’t know how to stop!! 😂🥴🇮🇪”. (Renske)
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Jendrik says “Moin”
A lot of Eurovision stars are currently very busy preparing for Eurovision 2021 with little time to post on social media. But Jendrik took the opportunity to say to tell his fans “Moin” on Instagram, greeting his fanbase in his native Northern Low Saxon language. The picture was however a bit more extravagant than that: Jendrik showed his golden shoes and his shiny ukelele. (Renske)
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Daði Freyr shares “10 Years” dance tutorial
Are you tired of giant monsters breaking your house and destroying your town? Well, Iceland’s Daði Freyr is here to help. The “10 Years” hitmaker shared the dance tutorial for his Eurovision 2021 entry, so you too can get up and boogie with Gagnamgnið in Rotterdam. From “the flowy hands” to “the sass”, Daði shows us how to perfect these classic dancefloor moves with ease. (Oliver A)
Hurricane’s backing singers revealed
Serbia’s Hurricane confirmed in a recent wiwibloggs interview that they’ll be alone on stage with no dancers. However, they will have three offstage backing singers. And the trio’s identities have now been revealed. All of them have Eurovision pedigree, but fans are most likely to recognise Mladen Lukic first. He was the lead singer with Sanja Ilić & Balkanika at Eurovision 2018. He also provided backing vocals for Nevena Božović in 2019. Olga Popović was on stage with Željko Joksimović in 2012. Jelena Pajic supported Knez in 2015 and Tijana Bogićević in 2017.
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Additional contributions from Robyn, Renske, Oliver and Jordi
Will you try the “10 Years” dance? What do you think of Russian “Sugar”? Let us know in the comments.
Earlier this week, Twan Van De Nieuwenhuijzen, the head of the contest, said that one of the countries, will bring something that has never been seen in Eurovision before. Dutch journalist Katja Zwart, confirmed that he was referring to Greece’s performance. He said that if the Greek team can pull this off, it’s gonna be super impressive.
Why is Destiny always styled so old?
Is the OGAE club vote not happening this year ?
Is the wiwijury gonna rate all the songs ? 🙂 I wish
Glad Serbia is playing the game fairly. I’m already expecting some countries to layer so many vocals it won’t sound live(Norway) or relying on the backing track a little too much( Croatia). God forbid playback is allowed like at JESC.
I am hoping the juries will appreciate this!
They are using one of the backing singers than Tijana Bogicevic had, though. And the backing singers were part of ruining it for Tijana – they sang too loud and too low, which threw the song off.
Yeah that one girl was the one who did the instant chorus shout after the ad lib. It was actually better than Tijana, but it’s just a matter to mixing probably. Kiev had a lot of issues with it.
I think there’s nothing wrong with taking advantage of the rule change. It doesn’t mean you don’t have to sing live yourself but if you’re given an opportunity to enhance your performance in clever and creative ways, why not? Just like making use of LEDs and pyro isn’t unfair and we’ve seen such performances rank highly and even win the competition when used smartly
It’s really strange that Natalia Gordienko russian title is written with letter “?” and not with letter “?”. “Tus bubi” is not spelled in Russia that way. It’s “Tus buby” , so it have to be with “?”. Did Russian lyricist forgot how to speak his own language?
Oh, I didn’t know that Russian keyboard letters aren’t recognised by the website, sorry. But i still wonder why there’s a mistake.
Sugar should be in Russian. Sounds so much better. Even Natalia sounds way more confident and comfortable.
Rafael Nadal for me
I started playing Tennis cause of him. Even though he doesn’t even know I exist , he made a huge difference in my life. Funny when you think of it 🙂
Has anyone told Natalia and Kirkorov that they’re representing Moldova? I’ve seen her doing things in Russia a ton but it feels like she’s forgotten about Moldova.
To be fair, many Moldovans are bilingual in both Romanian and Russian, given its former Soviet status and all. 🙂
Russian is as important in Moldova as Romanian (they call it Moldovan in Moldova).
Moldova has a lot of people whose first language is Russian, and a very, very large number who speak and understand Russian as a second language. A lot of the music scene is crossover into Russian where they can have larger fanbases (Zdob si Zdub, for example, whose albums were maybe 60-40 Moldovan-Russian). This is not as if she’d sung in Swedish to cynically garner votes – this is totally normal. If she wants to make it is an artist, garnering a fanbase in Russia is almost certainly her best bet for career mobility.
By the way, I don’t know her background but Gordienko sounds more Russian or Ukranian than Moldovan/Romanian.
Gordienko is Ukrainian surname.
Wikipedia says that she is of Ukrainian descent.
Love the shade , lol
Sugar sounds really good in Russian. Natalia’s Russian accent is so seductive. I mean, as far as I know, the lyrics might be silly, but it’s not like the entry has it’s strength in the lyrical department anyway. It would’ve been cool to have another Russian song in the contest, but I like it in English too.
You are right, it sounds amazing.
The lyrics are much better in Russian. At least they have sense and there are good rhymes. I think the original song was in Russian, then it was translated into English.
It seems you’re right. English lyrics were provided by Sharon Vaughn…
And Sweden’s 12 points will go tooooooo…………
Congrats to Destiny though. Best vocalist in the competition this year, and I’m saying that as someone who isn’t the biggest fan of “Je Me Casse”, but let’s appreciate the talent that Destiny is.
Very true . The song doesn’t play to her strengths but she is a really good performer .
Exactly.
She was my winner last year though, still listen to “All Of My Love” when I need a lift lol
She definitely has a claim to best vocalist though I’m pretty sure arguments could be made on behalf of Ana Soklic, too. 😉
Voooooooooooooooooooo da miiiiiiiiiiiiii
That moment last year was really cool
Or Serbia’s Sanja Vucic
Exactly, Sanja Vucic from Hurricane is amazingly talented too, you can find on YouTube her singing opera too, she is so versatile!