Anxhela Peristeri recently delivered one of the most impressive Eurovision revamps of recent memory, pumping “Karma” up with bolder production and an even stronger ethnic sound. And now Albania’s ESC 2021 star is showing the scale of her ambition yet again by confirming to Wiwibloggs that she’s working with noted Swedish stage director and choreographer Sacha Jean-Baptiste.
Sacha, you’ll remember, has given us such dreamy stage shows as Nina Sublatti’s “Warrior” performance from Eurovision 2015 in Vienna, Eleni Foureira’s iconic “Fuego” stage show from Eurovision 2018 in Lisbon and Iveta Mukuchyan’s stunning “Lovewave” show from Stockholm. This genius of a thousand hair-whips is, in Anxhela’s mind, among the best in the business and we can’t wait to see what they come up with.
Anxhela Peristeri confirms Sacha Jean-Baptiste as Eurovision 2021 stage director
“I’m working with Sacha,” she told me on Skype. “I love her. I love her work. I think she’s one of the best names in Eurovision when it comes to staging.”
“I’ve seen a lot of her Eurovision stages, and I like so much. I was in Sweden for three days and I met her in person. We did some rehearsals and we are working for a great performance in Rotterdam I think.”
While keeping her plans mostly under wraps, Anxhela did tell us that she’ll be swerving away from her FiK59 performance and that she’ll be dropping the dancers.
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It was a meeting of minds, as the two women instantly shared a vision about her song and staging — which tells the story of a woman who has made bad choices and must live with the consequences.
“I like it a lot when she showed me the draft,” she says. “My idea was like the same as hers, so I liked the idea, and we started immediately working on that.”
And what about the dress? “I want to go for something sensual. To be a woman, a powerful woman, but not a warrior woman.”
Are you excited to hear that Anxhela is working with Sacha? Do you think this could be one of Albania’s best stage shows ever? Let us know in the comments box down below.
I hope Albania will withdraw from Eurovision next year!!!
Why you hope this?
Alright, jokes aside. How are they gonna save this bland song? Sasha is known for making crazy choreographies, not directing bland ballads. What can you put on stage so this song becomes interesting and not cheesy or just boring? I feel sorry for Anxhela, I know her and I can say she is a very talented person. She didn’t deserve this song. We love you!
Also: what’s up with those Azeri trolls all over the site?? 0_o
Georgia’s “Keep the Faith” was staged by Sacha in 2017 and they managed to reach the 11th place with a bland ballad… Who knows. I agree it is hard to save this but it certainly raises its chances.
Save the song? You can see that you don’t understand music then. It is one of the best entries this year. You have to open your ears more and take music lessons is a piece of advice dear.
sacha jean-baptist and her company make the performance for many countries.
So does Azerbaizan have the best song this year? It seems like yeah. They have the most interesting sound.
So 2 hours ago I was at +7 now I am in -14. Isn’t that weird?
tasteful people woke up
We know who those downvoters are, so no problem..
Azerbaizan might have the best song for the unknown Eurovizion Zong Contest but Azerbaijan has definitely not the best song for ESC 2021.
It won’t matter by tomorrow. 🙂
Where can I find Malta?
That’s not her Eurovision song. It’s the theme song of Junior Eurovision 2016.
HAHAHSHSHHS I DIED
You could see there was a problem just by the length of the song
I usually disagree with you, but I somehow agree with this. For me personally the only song that gave me winner vibes is Azerbaijan. Very unique and different sound from anything this year. There’s also only 2 other countries, among Azerbaijan, that I can imagine winning – Switzerland and San Marino. I wouldn’t exclude Lithuania either, even its not my favorite. But besides these 4 countries I can’t picture any other winning. Weak year in my opinion.
Mata Hari is the first song this year with serious WINNER ALERT! I love how she included the vibe and some part of Cleopatra in the song. F****** brilliant!!!!!
Hair whip with a song like Anxhela’s?
ok mata hari is leaked and this is freaking iconic. This year is among the strongest EVER
Really!?
its 10 times better than cleopatra, clubs will go crazy. The leaked audio is around twitter go watch it
we havent heard an oriental drop for many years, this song has winner vibes
we haven’t had an oriental drop in years bc it was last cool in the mid-00s
Ok, I’ve just heard the first minute of Mata Hari and all I can say is… wow… Efendi is coming really strong this year
Excited for the music video
I think the new stage director to fear is the French one (who staged Bilal, Valentina and Barbara’s performances). She seems to be more versatile than Sacha Jean-Baptiste who can only do dark stagings, let’s be honest.
Is it Marika Prochet, the woman who staged Bilal’s entry in 2019? I know about her being the French stage director in 2019, but haven’t read anything about her directing Barbara Pravi’s entry, though…
Nothing can save that song …..
Not a fan of Karma the song, but Albania is one of my favourite countries in Eurovision. They always seem to lack in the staging department though, so hiring someone like her shows that they are investing more money into the staging aspect of the entry, which is great news. Hopefully this isn’t a one off.
Meh…I remember what she did with Equinox…
To be fair, not much anyone could do with that one. Same reason I don’t blame Hans Pannecouke for Do It for Your Lover.
(Speaking of: gotta love how everyone was talking spicy about him when the artists’ egos tanked his 2018 stagings and then he nailed Arcade and shut everybody up)
The two songs he was involved in that year had the most miserable staging. Belgium should’ve been a guaranteed finalist, but damn it all, she had to walk into the fan circle (people: unless your song is some kinda big, rousing thing, NEVER walk into the fan circle, you’re gonna destroy your whole vibe and I can’t believe how many times it’s ruined stagings).
No one liked the song Fuego until they saw Eleni perform it with the staging in Lisbon. So I think that’s why, a great staging can improve the song.
So true
It really is a Spain-specific thing. It’s not that they haven’t gotten good staging directors, it’s that they get staging directors who don’t fit the vibe of the song at all. Pannecouke mostly does well with quiet, intimate kinds of songs (big exception being What’s the Pressure) so he mismatched with the sun-and-sandals vibe of Do It for Your Lover. Fokas Evangelinos specializes in gigantic, highly-choreographed, setpiece-filled bonanzas, and I knew the MOMENT he was announced as the staging director for La venda he was going to absolutely destroy its chances of doing well.
That is true… it has to do with RTVE just wanting to make Spanish fans shut up, and it happens year after year. It seems as if they announce someone “famous”, the fandom will stop bringing up the awful staging presented year after year. It is pretty much like “have a well-known name, now shut up” which is weird because in JESC, the stagings normally match the songs, but in the adult version they just cannot get it right.
Gosh, I hate the dramatic handmovements she made them do for no reason. Ugh
I still think about Equinox from time to time… before the contest their song was one of my favourites but then something did not work and I am not sure if it was the staging — which was a bit messy — or the fact that they did not look like a group performing, just a few soloists singing together… it was a pity ><
And Bulgaria withdrew a year later and I was hoping to Albania withdraws next year…
She is overestimated. Ok she made Fuego. But she also made Cyprus 2019, Australia 2018, Bulgaria 2018, Georgia 2015, Switzerland 2019, Armenia 2016, Armenia 2017. She loves dark in her staging. Personally i think she killed Armenia 2017, because the video clip was so colourful but the staging was so dark. I don’t know if she killed Armenia 2016 but she was a favorite before the contest, and she got the 7th place. Everyone remembers how uninspiring were the stagings of Australia and Bulgaria in 2018. Especially Bulgaria. It was one of the better songs that year, and she didn’t… Read more »
If she were to stage France in jESC this year, she’d made it an apocalypse! I think my real “beef” relationship with her started in 2018 actually when Australia and Bulgaria were my two top favorites, entries that I loved, still love, and still listen to. Seeing their chances drop so much after the rehearsals and then Fuego rising was really annoying
Imo Armenia 2016 is one of the best stagings ever
What was wrong with georgia 2015 and armenia 2016? Lovewave wasn’t a favorite for winning it all. 7th place seems on point and a different result than in the polls doesn’t directly correlate to the staging.
Ah, here it begins.
so another country joined the swedish entourage along cyprus and australia, they wont get the 12 but around 6-8 points i think
btw. why Anxhela cant say who did the revamp? Is Kontopoulos involved and wants to keep it a secret?
Omg Albania is investing in staging. I’m happy for them and I’m interested to see with what idea Sasha is going to come up, since my country didn’t hire her for Hurricane. Old fashioned RTS is always tight-fisted and uninspired when it comes to staging.
ok i am screaming, well done Anxhela for aiming for the best. Many albanian entries failed to realise that in stage you need to tell a story, wearing a weird dress and singing an emotional ballad is not enough (hey eneda). I am hyped
Off topic but does anyone now when will Georgia release her song, we have Malta and Azerbaijan tommorow but no news about Georgia?
Tomorrow is the submission deadline so not too long now
Can someone tell me if a song can be revamped after the submission deadline?
I believe so
Georgia will officially release their song tomorrow afternoon (13:30h)
Hooray! And radio silence from BTRC…feel like a vulture circling around them…
Georgia 13:30 Albanian time
Malta 17:00 Albanian time
Azerbaijan hasn’t confirmed the time
Yes Anxhela has beautiful hair
Say hi to the BUDGET
SJB became hit or miss at this point. Her stagings either too or flop. Which is kinda not her fault, she has to do multiple entries every year and not all of them are going to be a success. Let’s see who’s going to be a victim this year.
Except it is her fault lol. She’s the one who decides to do all these entries, so it’s fully on her. And then it’s her responsibility to enchant these songs, not killing their chances. In interviews, she’s fully aware of how important Eurovision can be for these artists, yet she completely flops and then has the audacity to pretend and say that she always does “equal” work on all her entries. She would do herself a favor if she limited herself to one entry each year, then she wouldn’t rub salt into the wounds of the countries/delegations/artists she’s left in… Read more »
Could it be a question of budget? I mean if the country or record label doesn’t want to pay up for several dancers, special effects etc then maybe all you can afford is a led screen and some lights.
And of course the artist themselves then need to be able to sell the staging well too.
God no, here we go again. Every time a new staging idea from Sacha is born, the gods toss the coin in the air and the fandom holds its breath to see how it will land. If I know her right, she’ll be doing multiple entries and playing Russian roulette with all of them. Who avoids the bullet?
Well, so far she’s only doing Albania and Switzerland. Marvin Dietmann is doing Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic and Spain…
How many is she doing? Albania, Switzerland…anything else? I see Marvin Dietmann’s name show up more nowadays (Cyprus, Czech Republic, Spain, I think Austria too?)
Marvin is also stage director for Bulgaria 2021.
As someone that works in a creative field with clients I can tell you:
In these extreme “hit and miss” cases the clients involvement is a key factor for the failure.
A lot of times people will hire you but don’t actually care for your ideas and just want it done their way. The amount of times I have been pressured to use Comic Sans… far too much.
Sasha will have Albania, Switzerland I guess, and finally Sweden. Maybe Georgia as well.
Cyprus and Bulgaria moved to Marvin
yes it’s confirmed that she will do Georgia as well (not Sacha herself but another girl from her group)
International Women’s Day was only last week, maybe don’t call her a girl…
don’t get it?
lol hahaha. I watched an interview with Sacha and she said she chooses herself with whom she wants to collaborate – I kinda doubt Anxhela was one of her choices.. they probably paid her well. And I kinda see Anxhela qualifying just because of it haha.
She claims she only does entries she personally wants to do and that she can enchant. Please. There’s a pattern that she’ll be working with countries she worked with the previous year and did well with, then she’ll flop with the same country. See Bulgaria, Armenia, Cyprus…
I think Albania is underrated a bit because it is in native language. Hope the jury saves her.
Switzerland, France & Italy also sing in native languages this year, but they’re clearly not underrated. The problem must be something else.
How many people in Europe speak French and Italian and in how many countries?
Underrated? I’m from Albania myself and I get so happy when we send entries in Albanian. The English revamps have always been a catastrophe
Me too. Olta Boka was my favourite entry from Albania.
Ok I’m excited now
damn I’m excited haha even though I’m not a fan of the song.
This is a one to watch, this has to qualify!