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.
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Photo: Thomas Hanses
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 »
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.
Everyone can have an enemy that he can hate. Wieslaw is my (obvious) choice in this category.
Oh, well, he’s pretty, so even if he just stands there for three minutes it’s still a visually entertaining entry.
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.
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
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!
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.
Attention whore detected !!!
It’s not Olympics, you can use doping and painkillers here as much as you want.
Yeah indeed, you Ieva!
I hope you will write an article about The Netherlands. Waylon explained that is a traditional dance, and not breakdance. What a misunderstanding.
Potayto, potahto.
Even if it’d been the Chicken Dance, it would’ve been useless.
#firepancake
Its F A K E
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.
Yep. Pretty much just like the heart condition helped Sobral last year. It’s getting annoying.
ieva, yeah he must have felt good having a heart condition only to win ESC… Eeeeh? What drug are you on?
You’re an idiot. Its clearly not fake
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
Fake.
Your mum is fake.
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