She’s the 20-year-old songstress representing Denmark at Eurovision 2019. And eight days ago Leonora Colmor Jepsen was in London for the city’s annual Eurovision Party. There she caught up with our William. They discussed her song “Love Is Forever”, staging and more.
Leonora won Dansk Melodi Grand Prix with a happy, feel-good song about love and hope. As the track is all about loving each other, the singer herself also seems like a really lovely person: “I’m trying to absorb all the love that is coming from everywhere, it’s so amazing. Sometimes I don’t know what to do with myself because people are so kind, I’m just trying to bring some of it back”.
Leonora didn’t expect to win Dansk Melodi Grand Prix, she just focused into the performance: “No, of course, I hoped and I knew that bookmakers had me ranked high but I didn’t expect anything. I had to go and perform first”.
A major part of Leonora’s DMGP performance was her giant chair. Her performance began with her singing on the ground and as the song goes on, she elevates upwards towards the seat and eventually sits on it. “You can see it in different ways, I see it like, I elevate myself above every day from problems or conflicts, like the small things that don’t really matter. And just trying to see what connects people and why we should love each other”
Leonora reveals that the chair will be also seen in Tel Aviv: “We’re having it built right now in Israel, I just went to see it. It’s almost finished, and it’s the same size, same height”.
Even though we will see a similar chair on stage in Tel Aviv, the dancers won’t be the same ones from the national selection. In addition, we will also see two backing vocalists join the group: “There was no drama. We had to add the two choir singers because of the rules that all the vocals need to be live. And then some people had different jobs and yeah, they were quite busy”.
When Leonora is asked to name the most surprising thing about her journey since winning Dansk Melodi Grand Prix, she answers: “I must say the big community. I knew that it was big and it was full of kindness but now I get to experience it myself. And that just crazy because there are people coming from everywhere travelling just to see all the singers performing their special songs”.
She also has an important message to all the wiwibloggs readers: “Thank you, first of all. Be kind to one another because there’s not a reason not to be”.
What would you like to say to Leonora? And what do you think about her song? Let us know in the comments.
the question is now, will she keep the red cap?
Its a sweet song and the staging is inspired in my view, so I wouldn’t change a thing
I’m just trying to figure out why she wants to keep the chair.
I-
It’s not THAT bad, buf it’s not a really good idea. I’ve seen a video of the chair being on stage and it looked kind of awkward with now a fully clear backwall (the one in DMGP had a sunray ornament).
Well the EBU has already the secure recorded footage in case of a problem during the live. The TV viewer will not see the difference switching to the DMGP performance.
product placement for jysk
I really like Leonora and really like the song (one of my faves this year) but I wasn’t at all convinced by the chair thing in DMGP. It’s very static and doesn’t seem to add much to the performance or the song – it means she’s just sitting there for the bulk of the performance with little happening.
I don’t like the song at all…but she seems so sweet
Well, there go her chances….
But I guess a corny song gets corny staging
Pretty much knew that the chair was going to be used when the running order was revealed. Denmark will open the second third. Just no way they can everything set up in the time allowed by only a postcard video
I wonder how she climbs and goes down there. Ladder or elevator lol.
Yes, she appears to be standing on an elevator during the second verse which brings her up to the seat of the chair. She doesn’t have to do any walking or climbing
now her haters can finally say ‘electric chair’ literally
I imagined her on a swing during sunset but the chair works great as well. Looking forward to all the rehearsals.
oh Denmark.. it seems like you’re trying so hard for stay in semi
Love the song but think the staging looked awkward – hope they can fine-tune it.
I don’t understand the chair thing at all, I just found it very silly in the MGP performance.
She’s so lovely. Even though I’m not a huge fan of the song, I appreciate the message.
I do hope they find a way to make the camera work a bit smoother than in MGP, it looked a bit awkward there.