Europe, are you ready to rave?! Austria’s Eurovision 2024 singer Kaleen certainly is, as seen in her 90s-inspired EDM anthem “We Will Rave”.
The song conjures the rave scene from three decades ago, serving Gatecrasher or Creamfields Festival vibes. It’s an extremely well-crafted tribute to an era when dance music thrived.
Amid the ecstasy of the beat, the “We Will Rave” lyrics carry an important message about healing when your heart hurts. As Kaleen explained:
“‘We Will Rave‘ is about needing a place of refuge when your heart is broken, and finding it in music. The rave is where the outsiders and wounded souls go to heal and dissolve their problems through music. It’s the sea of rhythm that washes the pain away and gives us salvation.”
Scroll down to read the “We Will Rave” lyrics
Austria at Eurovision 2024: Kaleen with “We Will Rave”
Austrian broadcaster ORF confirmed that Kaleen would sing at Eurovision back on January 16th. Fans wondered aloud whether we would be treated to another Chanel- or Eleni-styled dance number, given Kaleen’s reputation as an incredible dancer and four-time world champion. Videos of her incredible stage work cropped up all over social media, leaving fans gagged.
She’s also a bit of a Eurovision insider, having worked behind-the-scenes at Eurovision since 2018. Among other things, she was a stand-in for Eurovision 2018 rehearsals (when directors and producers get the show in order) and a creative director for Spain and Bulgaria in Junior Eurovision. She was also overall stage director and creative director at Junior Eurovision 2022.
In 2023, she was a creative lead for four acts at Eurovision. These were Georgia’s Iru, Armenia’s Brunette, Germany’s Lord of the Lost; and of course, “Who The Hell is Edgar?” — Austria’s fan-favourite entry by Teya & Salena.
As a seasoned choreographer and multi-talented dancer, she’s got the experience in front of and behind the camera to burn the stage in Malmö.
What do the “We Will Rave” lyrics mean?
From the beginning of the first verse, we hear how Kaleen’s former lover has left her cold. She says she has “ice running in my veins” — a sure sign she’s heartbroken. This isn’t the first time she’s been jilted by them either. She says “you just did it again”, making clear they’ve messed her around before.
“Wanna dance it off alone, I won’t let it show, they will never know”
So where does she go, go, go? She goes “where the broken hearted go” — the rave! She will go and leave her troubles at home, and will head somewhere where no one knows her problems. Kaleen wants to be somewhere she doesn’t have to think about anything but the music and dancing through the pain.
“When the darkness hits and we can’t be saved”
Kaleen is savouring the moment when the lights go down and everything is about the music. She is feeling nothing but the energy and endorphins from the thumping music and our girl is thriving. In raves, the music is blaringly loud, and allows you to full let go, and completely immerse yourself in the moment. You can’t be saved from the edge once you’re fully engaged with the atmosphere.
In the second verse, we get the line “I see only silhouettes, I just wanna forget”, which brings you into the moment further. It’s so dark and loud, it isn’t just Kaleen being anonymous. She can’t see anyone else, this is just for her, it is her fragment of joy in an otherwise bad time. She doesn’t want anyone’s attention, and doesn’t care what others think of her, she’s just there for pure escapism.
“We Will Rave” lyrics — Kaleen (Austria Eurovision 2024)
Songwriters (music and lyrics): Anderz Wrethov, Jimmy “Joker” Thörnfeldt, Julie Aagaard, Thomas
Stengaard
Verse 1
Ice running through my veins
You just did it again
Go cause I can’t be your friend
I’m cold but this is not the end
Bridge
So I go go go
Where the broken hearted go
No one knows a thing about my haunted soul
I go oh oh
Wanna dance it off alone
I won’t let it show
They will never know
Chorus
When the darkness hits and we can’t be saved
We rum de dum dum da – We Will Rave
When our hearts are burning we feel no pain
We rum de dum dum da – We Will Rave
Verse 2
I see only silhouettes
I just wanna forget
About everything we said
And the demons in my head
Bridge
So I go go go
Where the broken hearted go
No one knows a thing about my haunted soul
I go oh oh
Wanna dance it off alone
I won’t let it show
They will never know
Chorus
When the darkness hits and we can’t be saved
We rum de dum dum da – We Will Rave
When our hearts are burning we feel no pain
We rum de dum dum da – We Will Rave
I quite like the song, probably because it reminds me of back in my clubbing days. However, I really don’t know how this is going to sound live.
There is so much autotune … which is totally fine for a dancefloor banger, but not really something that works when attempted live.
And part of the music in this reminds me so much of another song (from the 90s), but I can’t figure out which one.
Topless men. Anyone keeping count of the number of entries with that idea this year?
Calling her song dated is like calling Dua Lipa’s latest songs dated. It’s 90s-inspired, of course it is going to have that vibe. Double standards – it is fashionable and cool when megastars do it, but when Eurovision contestants do it it is outdated and cheap.
Moreover, it is composed by one of the most prominent songwriters and producers in the Nordic region. Seeing some fans ridicule certain songs and their lyrics is a bit rich since those fans usually are not proficient in English at all.
And by the way, judging by the leaked rehearsal from January she is a fantastic dancer and she is able to pull through decent vocals while dancing like crazy.
It’s very boring seeing people that jump on the bandwagon and worship bookmaker favorites. I mean why take seriously the opinions of people who think amateurishly produced Croatian song and Kaarija wannabe should win lol
It is a complete rip off from Girl Gone Wild, unoriginal, heavily autotuned overpriduced outdated song that will hardly sound good live. Props to her for her looks and dancing and that’s it. Oh btw she is a partner of a media mogul in Austria, so that’s the reason why they internally selected her. And she also has no career as almost 30-year-old. Good luck and all the best to her, but hyping this song as something great is even worse than the early Spanish hype train for that atrocious song and performance.
If this was a fan-favourite, would see it as a fan flop? Don’t see every even will buy it? It’s so predictable and old fashioned 90’s heard many times.
you are oldfashioned
Wait..did I just watch a music video or the opening of a new Abercrombie & Fitch store..?
I didn’t rave after watching that. It needs the same explosiveness that (i.e.) Europapa has, and it was not giving that at all. It’s also quite shallow with all the half naked models……
Now if ever there was a song where you’d expect the video to feature some actual dancing, it’s this one. What the hell Austria. Or are we to interpret the lyrics as “we will rave, but not yet. For the moment we’ll just be standing around looking pretty”.
Gotta say, the music video is pretty bad. Instead of focusing on her and dance routines, it is basically a male model ad
Israel:
https://eurovisionfun.com/en/2024/03/israel-ebu-takes-into-account-new-threats-against-kan/
….drama!! What a sh** show!!
No democracy, no public broadcaster independence…NO EUROVISION!! Out…
You again?
I see your screeming anti-israel comments everywhere. Are you obsessed?
This article is about Austria.
In my country they are also talking for years about closing the public broadcaster who airs Eurovision. Do you want to ban my country too? Or are you only obsessed with Israel?
Calm down.
Not as much you guys are with Iceland and Basha… but oh well…
AND yet you have reply to all my comments of the three different articules…does that mean: are you obsessed with ME? XD
Let’s put this way, all countries without freedom of speach, jornalism without censorship is the mandatory number 1 in a democracy…
Sooo if you live in a country that wants to get eliminate freedom of speach, and the media be controlled by politics YES, i do want to ban your country too!!! YES your country does not follow the minimum to be part of this big party!!
William always loves hot and sexualised entries (Chanel, Eleni Fourera). That’s why he always thinks that it’s a contender to win. LOL.
Well, both of them came pretty close to winning, now didn’t they?
Euro Sexvision Contest
Eleni was runner up and Chanel was third place. That’s very close to winning
I noticed the same. Lol
How many six pack close up shots do they want?
Joke aside, if she can sing as well as she can dance this could work. At least for the 90’s nostalgia people who will vote for it
It feels a lot like run to the hills by Klara Hammarstrom.
I can see this opening the semifinal and i have some feelings that it will struggle to qualify. It’s not a winner, for sure… to repetitive and aggressive. I prefer Netherlands, more than this!
I agree likely NQ
This is again a song where the fans go crazy but it will not go anywhere… People really thinking this could win? Are you joking?
It may possibly win
Never! For winning needs to be something new, can’t expect to do with dated 90’s.
I don’t agree. This is definitely a potential winner
Win the right to perform in the final perhaps, but will be hard.
It’s a good dance song, radio-friendly. Let’s wait and see how this translates live on stage. Chances are that such songs flop.
It’s not something you get excited about.
IMO, it gets nowhere close to win, not even top-10 or 15. It is a success if this song qualifies.
Good luck Österreich!
For everyone saying this sounds like the 90s – I assume you weren’t actually around in the 90s???
I was def. around in the 90s and this sound like the 90s! 100 percent!
Yep. Me too and it is very 90’s influenced.
Are you thinking the 80s? Rave started in warehouses around the late 1980s. The instrumentation in this track, particularly the dance break towards the end, definitely reminds me of early rave.
I was 14 or 15 when music like this ruled the dancefloors and the charts around Europe! So many memorable eurodance acts, like La Bouche, Ice MC, Cappella, Culture Beat, J.K, Snap!, E-Type, Scooter, BKS, Eurogroove, Jinny, Egma & more…. It was an amazing time to have lived through. At the time (1994-1995) the songs in Eurovision were so stuffy and dated. There was nothing like Eurodance in the ESC until Gina G came along with her slice of upbeat Europop “Ooh Aah Just A Little Bit”. The following year Icelandic Paul Oskar blew the lid right off the contest… Read more »
It all feel so soulless and fabricated.
I think she never seen a real rave up close…
As more and more songs are revealed, I realize how old they sound, very 90’s, there is no exciting or touching song.. everything is boring.
I quite like the lyrics of this one surprisingly. They are very relatable!
Baby Lasagna, who?
Very good
The WINNER!!!
I might be in the minority that believes this is the most overrated entry of the year. Sure, it is catchy, it is embracing the 90s but there are many things that annoy me and make the song go quite too repetitive, too quickly. Like, there’a no need to overuse the “we ram de dum dum” part in the bridge since it doesn’t really add anything. Also, the song is DROWNING IN AUTOTUNE, so much that I am quite sure it will fail catastrophically live without an insane amount of help from any backing vocals. Also, “we will rave” repeats… Read more »
Also, how do you promise us you will rave when you in fact, barely even scratch the surface? :’)
Think You’re not in minority! Dated and predictable 90’s sound just pop out so clearly, that it start annoying. Makes me wonder, which one is worse: do it with joke (No rules) or seriously like this?
Even though i enjoy this song i don’t see it getting enough televotes to reach the top 10. Additionally, i learned my lesson throughout the past seasons in the matter that Austrian chances are usually hurt by live vocals/stage visuals.
Bring her dancers with her to Malmo and she’ll get more televotes than Kalush
Such a great track
Straight to my number 1
Mine as well.
Reminds me of 90’s escort services before there was onlyfans. Clips like these show the fine line between sensual and uhm this styling. I hope the stage show is more rave and somewhat rich.
Sexualised? Where? All I saw was a few men with their tops off and a woman in a bodysuit posing, sometimes on her own, sometimes with a male model.
If you think this is sexualised, you mustve had a full on stroke when you saw Chanel’s routine or Ronela doing her thing! Lol.
She looks amazing, and the production is great, that’s basically it.
This is rip off from Madonna – Girl Gone Wild almost completely. And even if it isn’t, this eurodance sound is sooooo dateeeeeeeed.
Considering how this can flop live (like two years ago), I wouldn’t be surprise if it is NQ.
Even if it doesn’t zero winning potential.
I respect your opinion, but It’s virtually NOTHING like ‘Girl Gone Wild’? The only similarity is that sonically it shares an upbeat electronic sound. That can be said about many other songs too. Madonna’s song sounds very of its time….. the early 2010’s. Kaleen’s song is very rooted in the 90’s with a completely different sound. If anything, ‘We Will Rave’ is very close to ‘Rhythm Is A Dancer by Snap!’ (You can hear it in the background where she sings “so i go go go where the broken hearted go”. It’s also close melodically to ‘Think About The Way’… Read more »
If Austria wins this year and get to host it, they need to bring the head of the Habsburg family (the Austrian royal family) and his wife to unveil the Eurovision 2025, just like the BBC brought the British royals to do that
No. Austria is a democracy, there are no royals. It is even forbidden by law to carry a title of nobility anymore. Since 1919.
Is the UK not a democracy too?
Who elected Charles?
You guys might wanna read up on the differences between democracy and republic i think
The UK parliament has to approve the act of succession before a new monarch is declared. The UK is a parliamentary democracy. The monarch is a titular head of state who is forbidden by law to declare support for any political party or movement. Whether or not you’d prefer a republic and the country is democracy albeit flawed at times.
I dunno why but i like it… my guilty pleasure of the year!! Better than Cyprus btw…
I quite like the song, although the attempts to find some profound meaning in what is clearly just a fun dance track are incredibly funny. However, this kind of entries often fails at ESC because it’s very electronic. I’m all down, I’m an electronica nerd, but your ordinary viewer definitely isn’t.
I never heard so much autotune on a song. There are so many effects on her voice to make it listenable that the live performance could be… a surprise.
Good Luck from NL
Oh my, I just saw the music video.
No songwriters in Austria? Lack of interest for the ESC? Two Danish songwriters + two Swedish songwriters, none of them living in Austria. A song in English whose videoclip doesn’t correspond to what the singer claims to be the subject of the song…
But that’s true for many countries/somgs throughout the last decade..
Eurovision is not what it claimed to be.
The song is good but the music video is a bit irratating: Why is one of the guys hitting tires? It looks so false and without any meaning or real motivation.
Thanks godness the script of the music video isn’t taking part on the competition. Hopefully it will be another director / choegrofer for the stage than for the music video.
In the 1990s, certain kinds of videos showed shirtless guys taking an axe to all sorts of things in warehouses. (I don’t think you need much imagination to figure out what was going on there.)
Celine Dion’s shirtless hero was an ice sculptor.
“Baby, this is serious.” (Storms off to sculpt some ice. He’s obviously not into her.)
Think Twice was not only performed by a Eurovision winner, but also composed by a Eurovision winner.
Nobody can say that this conversation is off topic.
(I hope the ice sculptor man lived happily ever after)
That is a thing people do in gyms these days, Ben. Though I think they might have found a lad with a bigger hammer.
I read her dancers are participants of the ”Germany’s next Topmodel” contest by Heidi Klum of this years season.
Do you have to conventionally good looking to be dancer?
Be
I don’t think that all of her models are conventionally good looking. I think there are less and less on that Show.
Sweet sadness, escapism, sedate joy. Sounds like the key of G minor to me. Listens… yep, it is! It’s all perfectly produced, and I think that’s the point.
This is a great effort from Austria. First of all, with its use of electronica, it is authentic to the rave movement of the 90s (at least as authentic as it would ever get in a Eurovision context – Maria Sur, you need a music history lesson before using the word “rave” in a song). Second, the lyrics are very relatable and meaningful. For me, they perfectly capture how music can positively influence mental health, which I think will connect with very many people. And lastly, it is incredibly catchy and impactful as a listening experience. Of course, we can’t… Read more »
Ahaha, careful there: Maria probably reads this blog (and so do her fans).
Totally agree that the lyrics perfectly capture mental health in music, very directly and efficiently.
As for the live performance: It’ll be shirtless, oiled up male dancers. Isn’t it obvious? 😀
Jaa, agreed. Those dancers will playback for sure!!
lets go, lets Goooo.
Show those muscles!!
We will rave!!
I don’t dislike Maria’s effort, it’s probably in my top 3. I just really wish she wouldn’t promise some sort of rave which never materialises.
real deep
I really like the song and i can see it doing very well, but i also feel its a bit pretentious. Especially her writing “Hi ravers” on her socials. I dont know, just doesnt feel genuine. Nevertheless the song is fun. I will enjoy it for sure. And from what i understood she has prepared an amazing staging.
I attended tons of rave parties back in those days.
We raved but didnt appreciate or liked all artists and acts coming around.
Also we needed a moment getting more drinks or going to the bathroom.
I see there are alot of negative comments but I personally think we might have our winner here!
Song is amazing!!!
I have a problem with Austrias entry this year. It’s a great dance track about raving performed by a girl that looks as if she is posing for a perfume ad in all the earlier footage I watched. It feels off and unauthentic to me. That being said, it’s still a really nice track that currently sits in my lower top10
The video is annoyingly out of place, I agree with you
Well, i like the track. Its fun, but for a club. I need to see it live, something tells me this will be hard to perform on big stage with live vocals. It reminds me of Gay Pride and i love that. I hope she will swing from the chandelier or something bcs this song needs it to bring that energy on stage. And i know if she will move a lot the vocals will be dreadful. Idk, hope for the best and that she can bring it. Otherwise it can be train wreck and fail to Q.
When I heard the leak it sounded like the worst thing ever to me. After listening to the proper release I thought it was actually quite good for the dated genre it’s in. The part „when the darkness hits“ is epic! But then there’s lots of filler time (ramdidam) which I don’t like. Also the obvious dance break part I don’t like. Since she’s a professional the dancing will probably be impressive. The voice, well, I’ll wait till I hear it live.
I hate when people refer to a song that’s purposefully inspired by a specific era as ‘dated’. There’s nothing dated about this. It’s a perfectly modern dance track that takes elements of sound that were popular in the 90’s. That doesn’t make it dated, just inspired.
Maybe you’re right, it just sounds dated to me.
A 90’s throwback, this seems destined to open semi final 2
The song’s not that deep, but that’s alright bc not all songs have to be “deep” to be good. I love this song and I wish the best of luck to Kaleen!
The song is catchy but dated, although I guess they intended to appeal to the millennials who grew up with this kind of music.
I don’t dislike it but I am not excited either. It’s in my Top – 15 or 20.
I am also not confident (at all) that this song will translate well live on stage. Very dance electronic songs more often than not flop because of two factors (ok three):
Good luck, Austria!
Halo was much better that this and that flopped live
Yes, Halo was a much better song and it flopped. Too pity!
Sorry to correct you but it’s not ‘dated’. It’s annoying when a song is inspired by a particularly era and simple folk call it ‘dated’ rather than seeing that its purposefully created with inspiration the 1990’s.
Dated means it doesn’t fit in to the current music market/musical trends, which isn’t true. New music inspired by the 90’s can be seen right across the world charts. It’s very current. Even Ariana Grande is currently embracing it.
Fair point, I would say. Dated is not the word.
Teya and Salena were let down by bad staging. Hopefully Kaleen will do a better job for her own song, but I’m not filled with much confidence when they wasted such a good chance last year.
Agree
I agree. I almost started to dislike the entire act when I saw the terrible staging. Basically black and red nothingness.
Coke Zero was all I could think of. Zero dot zero dot…
The issue with heavily electro/dance music is that it cannot be performed well on stage. Austria has proven several times that they cannot support their catchy electro-dance tunes and usually flop. The song is catchy but dated, and while it could easily be listened to in a club, it is not winning material.
I have the same feeling. Vocals? Not sure (not because of Kaleen but because those dance songs need ahem, not live vocals). Staging? Who knows. Risk of being messy and all over the place. Let’s wait and see.
The song is good but it needs more than that.
WOW This is so addictive, Kaleen has stage charisma and she can dance and sing. Finally Austria is waking up after years of sending mediocre artists. Kaleen is giving Chanel and Foureira vibes in terms of potential on stage. The song is a banger that we will be dancing to in the arena and the clubs. The music is very very loved by the 90s generation that will be voting for it. I don’t know how it is going to do in the final (most likely give Austria a decade result) but at least we will be seeing Austria in… Read more »
oh the music video was verrry sexy and 00s. i love how they did not want to reveal much about the stage performance like Eleni Foureira didn’t.
A jeans commercial from the early 2000’s. Austria – where have you left your sense of humor and irony?