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EUROVISION

Swiss Eurovision winner sings English song

The winner of a contest to represent Switzerland in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest has been living in England and her entry is sung in English.

Published: 2 February 2015 21:47 CET

Mélanie René, 24, was voted the best hope for the Swiss over the weekend during a televised show, beating out five other finalists with her song “Time to Shine”.

The singer-songwriter was hailed in Swiss media as a citizen of the canton of Vaud.

But the Tribune de Genéve reported on Monday that she was actually born in Geneva to parents from Mauritius and grew up in neighbouring France.

For several years she has been living in England, where she just spent four years studying music, the newspaper said.

“There must have been a problem with the communication,” René told the Tribune.

The confusion about her origins apparently arises because her manager is from the village of Commugny in the canton of Vaud, she said.

However, René did study music in the canton at a music school in the town of Nyon, the Tribune said.

She will represent Switzerland in the Eurovision 2015 semifinals set for May 19th and 21st in Vienna.

The finals will be held on May 23rd. 

You can see the winning entry in the YouTube video below:

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EUROVISION

Sweden among favourites after leaping through to Eurovision final

Cornelia Jakobs, Sweden's entry to the Eurovision Song Contest, burst into tears and jumped onto presenter Mario Acampas, after shooting through to the final on Thursday night.

Published: 13 May 2022 08:09 CEST
Sweden among favourites after leaping through to Eurovision final

Jakobs was emotional at the press conference after her victory, telling the story of her progress from an “largely unknown” indie artist to the Eurovision stage. 

“There are a lot of feelings right now in this little body, an extremely large amount of feelings that can’t really fit in, so they’re exploding,” she said, before beginning to cry. “But I’m so happy and overwhelmed by all the support I’ve got from all these fantastic countries.” 

When the time came to pick lots for which half of the final she would appear in, she leapt onto Mario Acampas, the presenter asking questions at the press conference, wrapping her legs around his waist and clasping herself tightly to his torso. 

He then walked her over to the bowl where the lots were lying. 

“I want you to choose the second half,” she said to him. “Imagine that I have a pistol here and on the count of three I’m going to shoot you if you don’t choose.”

He refused to pick for her so she took one herself and got the second half. 

Jakobs, with her song, “Hold me closer”, was the clear favourite to go into the final, and will go through alongside Finland’s The Rasmus, and his song Jezebel, Serbia’s Konstrakta with “In corpore sano”, as well as entries from Belgium, Czechia, Azerbaijan, Poland, Estonia, Australia, and Romania. 

You can see her performance on Thursday in the video below. 

In the final, she will meet the other favourites, which include Ukraine, Italy, and the United Kingdom. 

The final will be shown on Sweden’s state broadcaster SVT at 9pm on Saturday. 

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