At this 2022 Eurovision Song Contest, there were quite incredible voices and styles that appeared on the stage.
Through various national selections, every country selected one song as their representative.
A total of 41 countries competed the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest, that took place in Turin, Italy. This was the 66th contest that was held since the start in 1956.
We also saw a great comeback from Armenia and Montenegro in this year competition.
As we overview some of the artists that inspired us, we are gonna dig a little deeper into their lives, to see what makes them so incredible artists and what inspires them in life to make music..
Let’s dive in.
🇳🇱 The Netherlands: S10 – De Diepte
Stien den Hollander, better known by her stage name S10, which is pronounced Es Teen was born on November 8, 2000, in Hoorn.
S10 has been a working musician since 2016, and she is well-known for her rapping and hip hop records.
She has published four albums, the most recent of which being “Vlinders” in 2020.
The song “De diepte” in Dutch: [də ˈdiptə] means ”The depth.” It is the first time since 2010 that a song sung entirely in Dutch represented the Netherlands at Eurovision.
A week after the contest, the song topped the Dutch singles chart.
The song speaks about Den Hollander’s most personal memories. In a lot of her songs, S10 covers mental health topics. There is so much sadness and dark moments of her life that you can hear in her voice in all of her songs. She sings the beautiful and also the dark notes of life.
This song “de diepte” according to Den Hollander, “Is a tribute to the sadness and memories that you carry with you. Everyone experiences difficult times in their lives. That’s something we all have in common and I hope [people] will feel less alone when [they] listen to the song.”
Dutch entry S10 qualifies for the Eurovision final with an emotional performance. Some 2.2 million people in the Netherlands watched Dutch entry S10 qualify for Saturday’s Eurovision Song Contest final with her song De Diepte.
Duncan Lawrence, who won the contest for the Netherlands in 2019, described S10’s performance as ‘absolutely wonderful‘.
The 21-year-old artist shares her most personal stories through song, rap and spoken word.
With millions of streams to her name, collaborations with some of Netherlands’ biggest artists, and rave reviews from music critics, S10 has made quite the name for herself.
About S10
S10 signed her first record deal with label Noahs Ark at the age of 17, enabling her to record debut album Snowsniper (2019), which won the Netherlands’ most prestigious music award: an ‘Edison’.
Her second album Vlinders was released a year later, in 2020, and was followed by a sold-out tour and chart-topping singles.
🇦🇲 Armenia: Rosa Linn – Snap
In this 2022 year Eurovision Song Contest, Armenia had a great comeback with Rosa Linn, who performed “Snap,” live for the first time.
So Who Is Rosa Linn?
Roza Kostandyan, also known as Rosa Linn, was born on 28th November 2000 in Vanadzor, Armenia. Rosa began playing the piano at the age of six, and at 13, she took part in Armenia’s Junior Eurovision selection show with her song “Gitem“.
Her professional music career took off in 2020 with her collaboration with Nvak Collective, a US-based record label. A year later Rosa had also collaborated with a well-known vocalist, Kiira on her debut track “King” for which she has been awarded Armenia’s best female music producer by Flaunt, an American Magazine. In March 2022, it was announced that Rosa Linn had been internally selected by Armenian broadcaster AMPTV to represent the country at the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest in Turin, Italy.
Linn was born to an Armenian family of Armenian ethnicity. She has very supportive parents who have helped her through thick and thins. She has always mentioned that her parents’ encouragement and support hyped her strength to keep going behind her dreams. She, however, has kept her parents’ details out of public eyes and has no pictures of them on her social profiles. Thus, her parents’ details are unknown for now.
Rosa Linn On Eurovision
Rosa Linn is a passion-driven singer and composer who started chasing her passion at a very young age.
The Armenian singer was selected from the national rounds and represented her country Armenia in Eurovision Song Contest, 2022 which was held in Turin, Italy.
The singer has been in the public eyes for a few years now, however, she has caught everybody’s attention after she was selected to represent Armenia in the Eurovision, 2022.
Rosa was officially declared to represent Armenia in Eurovision, 2022 on 11 March by AMPTV after going through a process of internal selection. Her song for Eurovision was “Snap” which was released on 19th March.
Iceland: Sigga, Beta & Elin – Með Hækkandi Sól
Sigga, Beta and Elin are a band of sisters who formed in 2011. They came to prominence in 2013 with their song Ain’t Got Nobody and since then have released numerous singles.
In 2022 they where one of the 10 chosen acts for the Icelandic national selection Songvakeppnin.
They made it to the second round of the final, where they were up against fan favorites Reyjavikurdaetur, but eventually won the right to represent the island nation at Eurovision 2022.
This will be the first time since 2019, that the song will be sung completely in Icelandic, something that over the last 2 decades has become a rare occurrence.
Belgium: Jérémie Makiese – Miss You
Born in June 2000, Jérémie who is 21 years old, was born in Antwerp, Belgium with both of his parents being from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
He grew up in a family of music, and from an early age he started singing in a choir.
He is a man of many interests such as football where is a goalkeeper, geology, which he started studying and of course music.
He took part in the TV talent show The Voice Belgique being on the team of coach Beverly Jo Scott. He made it all the way to the final held in the middle of April 2021, and ultimately was crowned the winner.
Estonia: Stefan – Hope
“Hope” is a song by Estonian-Armenian singer Stefan Airapetjan.
Stefan Airapetjan (Armenian: Ստեֆան Հայրապետյան, was born 24 December 1997), known simply as Stefan, is an Estonian singer and songwriter.
He won the first edition of Maskis Laulja, the Estonian version of Masked Singer in 2020. In 2022 after winning Eesti Laul Stefan represented Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 with the song “Hope.”
Competing From 2018–2022 On The Music Competition Eesti Laul
Airapetjan entered the music competition Eisti Laul four occasions, but winning only this time. His songs were: “Laura (Walk with Me)”, “Without You”, “By My Side”, and his last song “Hope.”
The song represented Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 in Turin, Italy after winning Eesti Laul 2022, Estonia’s national final.
Eesti Laul 2022 was the fourteenth edition of the Estonian national selection Eesti Laul, which selected Estonia’s entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2022.
Airapetjan has been singing since his early childhood, with Hedi-Kai Pai – his vocal coach, and won a number of contests. In 2010, he entered Laulukarussell, a singing competition for children organised by Eesti Rahvusringhääling, and reached the final.
Hoping For A Brighter Future Is The Meaning To The Song Hope
Given the situation in Ukraine, Stefan’s song “Hope” has had double meaning – to give hope for the ones who suffer during war and those who need encouragement to believe and hope.
The acoustic performance of his song during the solidarity protest in Estonia, made the song even more personal for him.
He said in one interview: “At first, I would say that Hope is about hoping for a brighter future. But right now I would say, due to the situation in Ukraine, that Hope gets another message. It became much stronger. I would like to dedicate the song to Ukrainian people who suffer for us, and I can’t imagine how they feel, and I am so sorry for them. I want to let them know that we are with them, I hope that this will end very fast. Everyone wants peace in the world.”
North Macedonia: Andrea – Circles
Based in Macedonia, Andrea is a singer, songwriter, guitar, and piano player.
Her debut release was the feature of a premier in a prestigious UK music blog AND has been played on over 100 radio stations around the world.
As she grew up she has been constantly listening to different artists and each of them has been some kind of inspiration for her.
But at the age of 13-14, during the period when she met Hayley Williams from Paramour, she realized she has a passion for music and wanted to persue a music career. Hayley Williams was the one who gave her confidence, and helped her to believe in myself.
Her songs now are full of the genres of Pop Solo R&B…
When she was asked to describe yourself in 3 words she said: “Resourceful, ambitious and stubborn.”
As she started collaborating with Aleksandar Masevski, her music reached the audience outside of Macedonia, in Europe and America.
The Eurovision MRT song competition, was the place she saw a great opportunity for the Macedonian audience to get to know her, hear her music as she introduce herself as a musician.
The victory she expected and wanted to see is the audience to connect emotionally with the story of “Circles” and reach them.
The song reflect the situation in N.Macedonia especially the politics. The going round and round and round in circles but no progression what so ever.
As she would say: “We want it to be better, and every year we repeat the same mistake. Maybe it’s time to get out of that magic circle, and change the perspective a bit, for everyone’s sake, both in ourselves and in the eyes of those watching.”
The other meaning of the song is rather personal, as she would say: “When I created the song I was inspired by a true story, a part of my life. We have all had toxic relationships, we have circled in an unstoppable circle and it was necessary to make a change to get out of that circle, no matter how difficult and challenging it was, in the song “Circles” emotions from my experience have been translated.”
The song was surely a winner this 2022 year.
Andrea was overwhelmed by the positive support for “Circles” from the Macedonian audience and from the international scene.
She expressed the positive surprise she had with the words: “I can’t wait to sing it in Turin.”
The team she has, the people she loves and Aleksandar Masevski are people who believe and support her in every way.
Some Of The Quotes Of Andrea:
“My composer and producer… found me on Instagram… He’s amazing, he’s very well-known… He called me, he was like, ‘I think you have something special. I want to work with you.”
“I’m coming from a very small country. You hear people say, like, from bigger countries, ‘Oh my God, it’s so hard to make it in this industry.’ But, coming from where I’m coming is much, much harder, especially because we don’t speak English as our native language.”
“If I believe in myself first and I can find people that see the same vision as me and believe in me, I can accomplish anything. That’s how easy it is. You just have to put your work into it. You have to work. You have to want it. And you have to go get it. Sometimes sacrifice is necessary for certain things.”
“I want people to be inspired and follow their dreams despite where they’re coming from. Nothing can get in front of your dream if you want it hard enough.”
“We got the chance to go to the U.S. when I was five (years old)… We were living at Harlem, in Manhattan… I was introduced to different cultures, different ethnicities, from a very young age, and that’s when I learned to accept everyone, despite what their color is, who they are, where they’re coming from.”
“I witnessed gospel choirs, which inspired me to this day… Then I got introduced to R&B soul… and I have a lot of influences in my music… If you can hear the melodies, you can see that I have a lot of R&B melodies because that’s the only truth I know of myself and I want to project it through my music.”
“If you don’t have support, you can only go so far by yourself. At some point you’re probably going to start doubting yourself.”
“Naturally, I compose and write lyrics in English. I don’t do it in my own language. Some people actually don’t like me for it. But, I can’t force myself to do it otherwise.”
“I listened to gospel and R&B when I was very young. So, what I think happened was I tried to do everything they did, and somehow managed to learn something because I listened to pop, I listened to pop punk, so I absorbed a lot of things.”
“If I’m composing a song, I like to put it on the piano because I can see all my keys.”
“I write music to air out my emotions and feelings and everything that’s inside of me because that’s the only way I know how to express them.”
“Music itself is beautiful and it will always be beautiful. Everybody can connect through music.”
“Why I love fitness and working out so much is because it requires the same self-discipline as music has.”
Sweden: Cornelia Jakobs – Hold Me Closer
Cornelia Jakobs (Anna Cornelia Jakobsdotter Samuelsson), was born on 9 March 1992, in Nacka Municipality, Stockholm County. She grew up in Stockholm.
She is a Swedish singer and songwriter, best known for representing Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 with the song “Hold Me Closer.”
She was part of the band Love Generation who participated in Melodifestivalen 2011 & 2012.
She has also written music for the contest, in 2021 she wrote the song “Best of Me” for Efraim Leo, which made it to the second chance round, before being knock out by Klara Hammarstrom.
Jakobs also wrote the song “Weight of the World” which was featured on the popular HBO Nordic series Bjornstad.
In 2022, she participated and won Melodifestivalen, beating fan favourite Anders Bagge into second place.
This is her song!
Portugal: Maro – Saudade, Saudade
Mariana Secca, born in 1994 , is a 22-year-old singer-songwriter, guitarist, and pianist from Portugal was chosen to represent her country at the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest.
She went back to her roots with a concert of original tunes, singing her song in native and in English language.
Known as Maro, she originally viewed herself as a veterinarian, before giving up on that dream to pursue a musical career.
Mariana attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, USA. The largest independent music college in the world.
After she graduated, she moved to LA to continue with her music.
Sooner in 2022, she was announced as one of the 20 acts for Festival de Cancao.
She ultimately won in a landslide, beating stiff competition from artists such as Os Quoter e Meia and chart topper Aurea.
This is her beautiful song, and honestly among the favorites! See for yourself!
Lithuania: Monika Liu – Sentimentai
Monika Liu is Born in Klaipeda in 1988, she was singing from a young age and focused her studies in Klaipeda University to jazz and vocal studies before moving to Boston, USA where she attended the prestigious Berkley College.
She then moved to London working on her song writing before she ultimate moved to the Lithuania capital, Vilnius where she now resides, having taken roles on the panels of popular shows The Voice and The Masked Singer.
Her song Sentimentai, has already reached the top of the Lithuanian charts and is the most searched Eurovision-related song of 2022, in her home country (before she won the National Selection), which meant that her resounding victory at Pabandom is naujo!, was not a surprise.
In her country she is celebrated artist with a lot of experience to her name, and her song on the Eurovision proved it.
We present to you, Sentimenai !
Ukraine: Kalush Orchestra – Stefania
And the Legendary Stefania by Kalush Orchestra and our ultimate WINNER Ukraine!
Named after the hometown of founding member Oleh Psiuk, Kalush is a rap group formed in 2019.
They started releasing music and videos on Youtube, and after they officially released their second single in 2019, they got signed to well established American hip-hop label Def Jam Recordings.
For their participation in Vidbir 2022, they teamed up with instrumentalists Tymofii Muzychuk and Vitalii Duzhyk for a project that would incorporate hip-hop/rap elements with traditional instruments and sounds.
As a result Kalush Orchestra was born and released the song Stefania.
We present to you, the song Stefania!
