He’s one of the hot favourites to win the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. But Mikolas Josef‘s Eurovision journey almost reached a premature climax earlier this week. 

That’s because Mikolas injured his back during his first rehearsal on Sunday and has been in hospital since. Many fans were concerned whether he would be able to perform at all.

Fortunately, Mikolas has made a recovery and will attend second rehearsals today.

In an interview with Eurovision.tv, he explained how the accident happened:

“I jumped around too much I think! We were at the rehearsal and had woken up at 3am, and I was kind of tired. Something clicked in my back and I already felt it wasn’t well. I did one more rehearsal and then couldn’t get up on my feet.

I ended up in hospital for a long time, then another one and another one. We were thinking about flying home but it ended up not being necessary.” 

The “Lie To Me” hitmaker adds that he’s “overwhelmed” by the response:

The reaction was overwhelming on my social media and also from the artists. They all got in touch and wanted to get together and visit me in hospital.”

His speedy recovery means they’ll be able to see him at Altice Arena instead.

The accident also appears to have made him more hungry for the competition:

I don’t want to say that it’s a good thing that it happened, but it made me focus even more on the singing and the delivery.” 

He also used the interview to hint at potential changes to the performance, stressing that music is “not about flips”, echoing Salvador Sobral’s victory speech one year ago. During today’s rehearsals Mikolas will just walk through the rehearsal, rather than performing as it will appear in the live shows.

YOU CAN GET MORE CZECH REPUBLIC NEWS HERE

Photo: Thomas Hanses

22 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Kat
Kat
5 years ago

Mikolas has been such an absolute delight to follow throughout all of the preview season. He’s been so friendly and warm to fans and fellow competitors. You can see how hard he’s worked from Ukrainian selections to now, so seeing him falter at the last step is heartbreaking ): I hope he’s able to pull off a show that he’s proud of and won’t have any regrets over! I can’t help but be a little bit saddened that we won’t get to see the version of Lie To Me that they originally wanted to show us (especially since I know… Read more »

M_K
M_K
5 years ago

This is true Eurovision passion. There’s a killer on your trail and yet you still worry about who’ll make it to the grand final.

Mr Gold
Mr Gold
5 years ago
Reply to  M_K

Everyone can have an enemy that he can hate. Wieslaw is my (obvious) choice in this category.

M_K
M_K
5 years ago

Oh, well, he’s pretty, so even if he just stands there for three minutes it’s still a visually entertaining entry.

CyxCy
CyxCy
5 years ago

Other than that it’s a song contest, not a jump contest .
It ‘s time that the artists, whatever the country, refocus a little more on their music, it would avoid this kind of ridiculous accident.

Eric
Eric
5 years ago

Anyone saying he faked his injury for publicity must think again….. In the betting he dropped like a rock after that announcement and overall people are not as confident with him right now.. This has not been positive for Mikolas in the short term

Yaa
Yaa
5 years ago
Reply to  Eric

He’s really injured and I think that’s why the odds are shaking but he’ll recover and odds will not change his chamces! Good luck, anyway!

Marie
Marie
5 years ago

It means he shouldn’t wear the backpack!
Sorry had to say it lol. I mean it’s different but it seems more an obstacle, I don’t know.

ieva
ieva
5 years ago

Attention whore detected !!!

Pavel
Pavel
5 years ago
Reply to  ieva

It’s not Olympics, you can use doping and painkillers here as much as you want.

Eric
Eric
5 years ago
Reply to  ieva

Yeah indeed, you Ieva!

muriel
muriel
5 years ago

I hope you will write an article about The Netherlands. Waylon explained that is a traditional dance, and not breakdance. What a misunderstanding.

Vrede
Vrede
5 years ago
Reply to  muriel

Potayto, potahto.

Even if it’d been the Chicken Dance, it would’ve been useless.

#firepancake

Meeh
Meeh
5 years ago

Its F A K E

@ljay815
5 years ago
Reply to  Meeh

Yeah, because the wider voting public are going to be aware and it’s totally going to impact the result. He’s a GENIUS. Oh wait.

ieva
ieva
5 years ago
Reply to  @ljay815

Yep. Pretty much just like the heart condition helped Sobral last year. It’s getting annoying.

Eric
Eric
5 years ago
Reply to  ieva

ieva, yeah he must have felt good having a heart condition only to win ESC… Eeeeh? What drug are you on?

Tomas Davitt
Tomas Davitt
5 years ago
Reply to  Meeh

You’re an idiot. Its clearly not fake

Gtyhygf
Gtyhygf
5 years ago
Reply to  Meeh

It’s not fake, he was walking very stifly on his rehearsal and looked so dissapointed after.. i feel so sorry for him, he has put so much work and thought into this performance

Meeh
Meeh
5 years ago

Fake.

Life is a drag
Life is a drag
5 years ago
Reply to  Meeh

Your mum is fake.

Radakiel
Radakiel
5 years ago
Reply to  Life is a drag

Somehow this response is on a low level, but the level is already so low, that I appreciate this kind of burn
You got a point