Protect your necks, Geike Arnaert is wearing her Johnny Cash T-shirt. Luckily, our William did not get beheaded in his interview with Belgium’s Hooverphonic following their first rehearsal at Eurovision 2021 in Rotterdam. Did the knives comes out? Press play and find out!
Interview: Hooverphonic at Eurovision 2021
Hooverphonic brought class, sensibility and a strange sensuality to their first Eurovision 2021 rehearsal. The mood was much quieter than their music video, and it’s also the way our interview rolled. In fact, that’s one of the main goals of “The Wrong Place”: showcasing the contrast between evil and good, in Alex Callier’s words.
Callier wrote the 2021 entry just like he did in 2020, although the final choice of which song would be picked this year ended up being an unexpected one. The Belgian songwriter had composed many other pieces thinking about Eurovision, but this was not the case with “The Wrong Place”.
It was right after the first lockdown, when he got back to his studio, that he started thinking about it. His goal was creating a song about “everything that is impossible right now […] you cannot kiss a stranger, you cannot have a one night stand”.
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“The Wrong Place”: Good and evil in a cinematic atmosphere
Belgium is one of the classiest and most sober stage shows of the year. According to Geike, they wanted to create a cinematic atmosphere for the performance, inspired by older films. “We were tying to keep it all quite elegant”, she notes.
There’s also her captivating eyes. Wiwiblogger Padraig pointed that out in our reaction post: “She also dominates the LED, we catch glimpses of her eyes, her hands and her lips”. That was quite an intentional move, and highlighting her eyes is part of her signature look. “It’s something I do quite regularly”, Geike stated.
Hooverphonic’s performance has the signature of Hans Pannecoucke, who notably staged The Common Linnets in 2014 and Duncan Laurence in 2019. “A very classy production indeed. The whole performance has an eerie, ghostly dark atmosphere, and Geike looks stunning”, our Oliver commented when reviewing the first rehearsal.
Alex Callier noted that it’s not the first time they have worked with Hans. He recalled how people were commenting on the fact that Pannecoucke had also created Duncan Laurence’s performance, but that was not a defining factor in their choice of hiring him for Eurovision. “We were working with him when Duncan was still playing with his toys”. That’s what happens when your career lasts for over 25 years!
Did you enjoy Hooverphonic’s interview? Is your head still in place? Did you get lost in Geike’s eyes? Let us know in our comment section below!