He smashed voting records at Melodifestivalen, and now, Sweden’s representative Tusse has taken command of the stage at Rotterdam’s Ahoy arena in his rehearsals for Eurovision 2021. Our own William Lee Adams caught up with the “Voices” singer for an interview. Listen to what he had to say below!
Interview: Tusse at Eurovision 2021
Sporting a fashionable yellow blazer with a matching manicure, Tusse has showcased massive amounts of natural charisma from the get-go. The Swedish singer was clearly satisfied with the outcome of his styling, “That’s just for today, I’m going to surprise you every single rehearsal, you’re not going to know what hit you”.
“I’m overjoyed, I feel good”, the singer said when sharing his impressions of his first rehearsal. He goes on, “We tried to make it bigger and better with the clothing, outfit and the visuals, and seeing it all come together on the big stage, that was satisfying.”
Overall, Tusse’s performance of “Voices” has kept the same energy as was seen at Melodifestivalen but accommodated to Rotterdam’s big stage, with projections and a crowd of voices joining in the climax, along with the dancers multiplying. One notable difference is that Tusse has changed his red suit to a more outré, statement-worthy fit, with bedazzled black sleeves to match.
“We worked hard on the outfit, we had a lot of discussions and going back and forth on it”, Tusse quips. “Me and my stylist wanted to make it more ‘human’. You want to make it seem there’s a person under that million-dollar suit. And of course there’s more jewellery, that’s me!”
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The star also highlighted the brilliance of his team, praising how they made his vision for “Voices” come true: “The team I worked with on the visuals, the head of delegation Lotta Furebäck, Sacha Jean-Baptiste and Christer Björkman, the legend himself, all have done such a great job. I trusted their process, and in the end I felt proud of how it all ended up!”
He expressed a lot of gratitude to his new fans all around the world, but especially one of his biggest supporters all the way from the Democratic Republic of Congo: “My biological father’s been messaging me a lot from back in Congo, saying he hopes to be able to vote for me, and saying he’s the proudest father.”
To close, Tusse had an inspiring message to say to his fans: “I’d like for you to understand the message of the song. We are all different individuals with different interests, but we have so much more in common than what separates us”. He adds, “Whenever I feel lonely, someone else feels lonely, but we’re not alone, because we are connected with our feelings and with hope.”
Did you enjoy Tusse’s interview? Will he be able to climb up the Eurovision scoreboard? Let us know in the comment section below!
Sweden has the greatest song! Unbelievable strong and powerful! Twelve points for sure!!!!
Go Tusse!!! Fantastic song and powerfull lyrics!
It was bad. And I think we should using televotes power make mediocre Swedish pop like that marginal at the contest. The more we vote for that, the lesser places left for uniqueness. Producers understand that mediocre boredom is praised by juries, so they don’t even try to write something else. And it’s not about Tusse only. It’s about a half of contestants every year.
Come on guys, Tusse and the team are well aware the lights were to bright. They are fixing it ,rehersals are there to test what works and dont
“We have so much more in common than what separates us” – was it supposed to be some anti-racist statememt…?
Because having only black people on stage doesn’t push “lets not separate ourself” really well, tbh
Come on give Tusse a break , he’s doing his best . It’s a song contest after all. High expectations every year for Sweden , there are years they will win, years they will do well , years which are mediocre and the odd year which they will bomb, just like any other country . Their record this last 20 years has been amazing and good on them for keeping the contest alive ! People are expecting too much .
I have to say I genuinely enjoyed the bad results of Sweden these few past years on televote. Surprisingly, jury still support them, but this year might change. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against Sweden. In fact, most of the music I've listened throughout my life is from there. But lately nothing really good comes from Melodifestivalen, and Tusse's song is no exception. They can try to fix the lighting, or maybe choosing better backgrounds. But I'm sure those changes are not going to make a big impact. If he gets through the final, fans should prepare themselves for… Read more »
And you seem dumb as fuc* expecting a top 10 from this…
Good luck with your blind faith. 😉
Everytime I see you in the comment section, you’re always mocking and hating. Do you even like ESC?
People hate that Sweden often gets high jury remarks. Which I agree should be criticised, but it is also painfully obvious that a lot of people hate this song more because it is coming from Sweden. This would probably have more buzz if it were coming from an underdog country. Also, don’t lie to yourself. You can dislike this all you might. But to criticize this with words like ”basic, generic, mainstream” while praising the songs from Cyprus or Romania… please haha. That’s just a lil’ dumb. They’re just as mainstream basic radio generic pop songs as ”Voices”. But oh,… Read more »
But don’t you know that a swedish song can only be really really good when it’s bought by another country and accompanied by swedish staging also? /S
Seems lile that’s the case
Sweden might managed to pass the pre recorded backing vocals but this cant hide how generic the song is. I really hope other broadcasters will react to this “one year” thing which they will try to make it permanent
How many of you have seen the whole performance? I think people are so cruel and act like bullies at school. Are there grown people here? Because I can’t see it. Behaving like this against a 19 year old.. and that Sweden somehow should be punished for what we have sent over the last 30 years! Reading between the lines that is exactly the real meaning of what that person said. And it was the most stupid comment I have ever read below an article on this site. You can sit and praise other basic pop-songs with shallow lyrics from… Read more »
He has different outfit. That’s it
When I first heard Sweden was gonna make changes to their performance I was genuinely excited we could get something both different and elevated compared to Melfest. Sad to say, the latter didn’t happen. The new sleeves look weird, the change of the water backdrop to the monochromatic one was a bad choice, the lights become blinding at times and Tusse is a lot weaker vocally (although he could be saving his voice).
Imo, we could witness a first non-top 10 result by Sweden in a long time.
No more Swedish propaganda, please! We know, they’re counting on his story to gain some votes by pity, just like Montaigne is trying to do… Wink wink, a small tear in her eye and bam, votes. Come on, people! Vote for the great live singers, and by that I mean Slovenia and Albania, both of them are strong vocalists and deserve to be in the Final, same applies to Malta, but we all know Destiny’s a favorite already. No more pity votes vor weak vocalists like the ones from Sweden, Australia, and even from Romania, although I’m still waiting for… Read more »
The power of a story made both Conchita and Jamala win Eurovision, so don’t underestimate that.
This is a song contest, not a singer competition, so I don’t see the point on giving points based only on the singing skills of the performer.
I’m sorry for Albania or Slovenia, they are incredibly talented, but their songs don’t stand out at all and I don’t even see them qualifying.
Next year they will buy a Swedish produced song and an international team doing the staging according to Swedish standards and all the fans will be thrilled. They will say brilliant and bash Sweden. You all have double strandades. I hope Italy or France will win. Especiallly Italy with San Remo it is my favorite.
It’s not Idol/X Factor/The Voice. Meaning: it’s a SONG contest, not a SINGING contest. Slovenia and Albania – but especially Slovenia – has a real slow downer of a song.
…amd awful songs from Russia, Ujraine Azerbaidjan and Italy
Even messier than the first rehearsal, such a shame they have hundreds of guaranteed point only because juries don’t want to upset Sweden, even if the song itself doesn’t deserve it (it’s okayish, but there’s at least ten better songs compared to this formulaic, generic and even dated entry). Hope the televote sinks this enough, though
Qualifying for the finals? Sweden usually qualifies both with and without jury points. All ya televoters should stop voting Sweden if you want a real change ^.^
I would have prefered they worked hard with real VOICES – backsingers-
A shame that this is guaranteed to get hundreds of points from the jury because people are too scared to upset Bjorkman and the Swedish delegation who run Eurovision
The Ukraine-Slovenia-Russia victory in the late 2000s was considered biased. That’s why they wanted juries in the first place to balance it.
Sweden usually score well with juries AND televotes.
If you are unhappy with the juries, then be more vocal about that. And please stop voting for Sweden if you don’t want them to score high xD
He was joking about his nail polish when he said that.
Lovely young guy, but he is lucky he is representing Sweden and not another country cause his scores will be higher that the song deserves….
He was funny in Looklab, but some of his remarks came off as arrogant and really someone outside of delegation should made him aware that getting rid off sleeves and wearing loads of jewellery instead of fabric is not making him look more human.
Don’t know what he would have to do stop the upcoming praise from jurors if only because of the country he represents. The song is okish, but his styling choices are not for me. He dances like a gangsta while being dressed like a materialistic diva.
It’s not a gangsta dance but some typical moves from hos native country.
Still, it’s a weird combination.