She’s the busy choreographer and stage director behind some of the most eye-catching Eurovision performances of recent years.
And on Friday BNT finally confirmed that Swedish performance guru Sacha Jean-Baptiste will direct Bulgaria’s Eurovision 2017 stage show.
Already known to be working with Armenia’s Artsvik and Georgia’s Tamara Gachechiladze, Sacha will create major competition for herself by working with Kristian Kostov, who remains the bookies’ second-favourite to win the grand final.
Kristian Kostov: “Beautiful Mess” live in London
Sacha, you’ll recall, is the genius behind Georgia’s last two Eurovision stage shows. She brought Nina Sublatti’s tears to life, turning her dark and Gothic stage show into something memorable and high-impact. She also helped push Georgia’s Nika Kocharov & the Young Georgian Lolitaz through to the final — and against the odds — with a psychedelic stage show. They even earned 12 points from the United Kingdom in the grand final. Among other acts, she also worked with Armenia’s Iveta Mukuchyan and Cyprus’ Minus One.
But her experience isn’t limited to Eurovision. The SJB has also helped create the visual identity for countless artists, including Zara Larsson, Eric Saade and Alcazar. She also directed Swedish X Factor, Swedish Idol, and the music festival ‘Sommarkrysset’, which remains one of Sweden’s most popular events. And of course she has worked on Melodifestivalen and the opening and closing ceremonies of Eurovision 2013 in Malmö and Eurovision 2016 in Stockholm.
Speaking to Bulgaria’s official Eurovision page, she had nothing but praise for her young charge.
“He’s a happy, excited young artist that is very proud to be doing this and ready to work hard on the Eurovision stage,” she says.
He’s already visited Sacha’s studio in Sweden, and she says things went swimmingly: “I can tell that Kristian is very used to working with his stage presence and has a good understanding of how to create dynamic energy to match the song’s power.”
She can’t reveal too much about the staging publicly at this point, but she says that the song has a “clean and poetic vibe”. She stresses that she wants to highlight “the clean look and the artist’s eyes.”
Sacha joins Kristian’s dream team, which already includes his composers Borislav Milanov, Sebastian Armann and Joackim Bo Persson, who are also behind FYR Macedonia’s “Dance Alone” and Poli Genova’s “If Love Was a Crime” (which placed fourth last year). That was Bulgaria’s best result ever. Can Kristian surpass it this year?
What do you expect from Sacha Jean-Baptiste? How do you picture Kristian’s staging? Get creative, and tell us in the comment section below!
He cant sing. I dont understand why he was so favored. He has weak voice, at country festivals the people sing better. The level of this Eurovision was horrible. Only Salvador, Armenia, Netherlands, Moldava. Israel, represented some level.
You could definitely see your enthusiasm in the work you write. The world hopes for more passionate writers like you who aren’t afraid to say how they believe. Always go after your heart.
Up to this point I don’t like the staging she Sasha has done for Khristian…it looks too symmetrical, gray and flat, without contrast in the elements or dynamics ..looks homogenous …She needs to work a lot harder if she wants to have a winning entry this year. Break the flatness ,splash some high graphic contrast ,create dramatic element changes make this a winning entry not just scratching the surface…Sorry I am a big fan of Team BG so I am giving the most honest feedback…
Bulgaria’s staging will be great? #Sofia2018
Kristian will be joined in Kyiv by a total of three backing singers for his performance
Two other swedes will Aldo produce Estonias number.
http://www.aftonbladet.se/nojesbladet/a/AaKGz/svenska-duon-ska-satta-stopp-for-robin-bengtsson-i-eurovision
Not Aldo, it should be also!
My iPad changes the world all the time!
I LOVED the staging of Armenia 2016. It was remarkable. I am kind of torn apart by this news, though. Sacha Jean-Baptiste is obviously an amazing talent and I am happy that we will be able to see amazing stage performances by Bulgaria, Armenia and Georgia. But on the other side, I wish that Eurovision would be a platform for home-grown talent and not just a business opportunity for the developed showbiz industry… Having said that, I am sure I will enjoy Kristov’s and Artvisk’s performances. Who knows: Sofia or Yerevan 2018, anyone?
My 2 favorites 😀
Glad that you like them both.
This is why I find it hilarious when someone bashes Sweden. If your country is in Eurovision, odds are Sweden has helped your country in SOME way in the past few years whether a Swede was a songwriter, producer, backing singer, backup dancer, stage director, etc. It’s total hypocrisy.
It sounds like he will be alone on stage… if she is going to emphasize his eyes. I am sure he is going to move on stage, probably some light dancing and body movement re-enforcing the message of the song. Somehow, I think they will work well togethet. Both Armenia and Georgia are like satelites to Russia and he comes from similar if not identical culture and Sacha seems to fit in it. She herself comes with a background of diversity, so that should help too. I just can’t predict what is going to be on the LEDs… But I… Read more »
Kristian will be joined in Kyiv by a total of three backing singers for his performance
Ok, wrong guess. Three singers is good. I wonder if they will also have dancers. Kristian showed some sleek moves during his X factor performances… I hope they will build on that, although, admittedly, the song does not lend itself easily to that. I really can’t wait…. why does time move so slow?
her work is a bit of a hit and miss for me. i only like iveta’s performance. nina is good too but she was engulfed in smoke 90% of the time…
I think I read somewhere that the amount in the final was because one of the smoke machines malfunctioned, was suppose to be a lot less smoke then there was.
Same authors who wrote song for Bulgaria and Macedonia 2017 , wrote song for Serbia
Well it’s not like this song was going to have action in its performance
OFF-TOPIC: Salvador sobral just came out as bissexual,saying that love has no gender.
So?
since this is an LGBT friendly blog ,its nice to see that Salvador is part of our community ,and that he sees people for what they are no matter the gender
Stop spreading lies.
im portuguese honey and he said it in a portuguese magazine ,google it
I read it, and he didn’t say he was bisexual, he just has SOME curiosity about bisexuality. He has never been able to love a man. That doesn’t imply he’s that.
And if he were?… So what?
a snippet of rehearsels of Belgium and Armenia had appeared. Check it out on Eurovoix page!
They said its gonna have some TV magic,i really hope its gonna be touching. #Sofia2018
I really don’ t like all the stage show she set up, no offense but her apporach were always too light and too fast, to many unnecessary editing, which were uncomfortable to eyes.
Actually she directed and 2016 lithuania donny montell stage!!
it was my favourit one last year
My favourite also, the best performance <3
SOFIA 2018 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
that staging will be true perfection, #Sofia2018
Interesting that she has this random relationship with Georgia.
I hope the stage performance borrows some stuff from the music video which is absolutely STUNNING – one of the most gorgeous music videos I have ever seen.
Well, interesting. Both, Nina Sublatti’s and Iveta Mukuchyan’s stage performances were great, so there are high expectations from me.
And what? Tamara will work with her too? Curious, how they will stage KTF.
“She stresses that she wants to highlight “the clean look and the artist’s eyes.””
She knows what’s up.
Also, I love how you mention all the georgian acts she’s worked with, and then you put like, “BTW she also worked with Iveta” as kind of a footnote.
But Iveta got higher place, than Nina and Young Georgian Lolitaz 😛
So the author of this article hasn’t menshioned the best one !!!
The stages of Armenia and Georgia were great last year, but Cyprus’s disappointed me.
I loved her stagings! Nina was AMAZING!