Canada

After the Eurovision Fame 1988 Switzerland Eurovision Song Contest.

After the Eurovision fame: Céline Dion

In 1988, Céline Dion represented Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Contest. She won with the song “Ne Partez Pas sans moi”, which marked her breakthrough in Europe Early life and Career Céline Marie Claudette Dion was born on March 30, 1968, in Charlemagne, Canada, as the youngest of 14 children. At the age of 12, she came into contact with music producer and artist manager René Angéli, who was very impressed by her talent. He chose to mortgage his house to finance her career. In 1981 she released her first album: “La Voix du bon Dieu”. This made her a star in Quebec. During the following years, Dion released several albums of French chansons. Her first Pop album, “Incognito” was released in 1987. After the Eurovision Fame After winning the Eurovision Song Contest in 1988, she worked on her first English-language album; “Unison”, which was published in 1990. In addition to her growing fame in Europe, her recordlabel ambitioned to break through in the United States. And it worked! The single “Where Does My Heart Beat Now” reached the top 5 of the US Billboard Hot 100 and the album achieved platinum status. At the end of 1993 “The Colour Of My Love”, Dion’s third English Album was presented to the world. In North America, the first single “The Power of Love” (originally recorded by Jennifer Rush) was an unparalleled success. The single spent weeks at No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100. In Europe, the single “Think Twice” achieved great success. The album gave Dion her definitive breakthrough in almost every country in the world. Still going French Despite all the success of her English works; she remained a Canadian with French roots. Therefore she decided to make a temporary foray into the basics: In 1994, Jean-Jacques Goldman wrote 12 French songs for the singer that ended up on the album “D’Eux”, which came out in early ’95, containing the hit “Pour que tu m’aimes encore”. The album went on to become the best-selling French-language album of all time, with 9 million copies sold worldwide. First Olympic appearance Her participation in the opening ceremony of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta was watched by 3.5 billion people on TV. At the end of 1997 the next English-language album “Let’s Talk About Love” was released, which was recorded in London, Los Angeles and New York.Artists such as Barbra Streisand, Luciano Pavarotti, Bee Gees, Carole King, George Martin and Diana King contributed to several songs. “Tell Him”, a duet by Dion and Streisand, was the first hit single from the record. “My Heart Will Go On”, another single and also the title song of the feature film Titanic, became an unprecedented success. It is Dion’s best-selling single ever, and reached number 1 all over the world in no time. The song also earned Dion numerous awards, such as an Academy Award and some Grammys. She sold 31 million copies of this album worldwide, and it is therefore Celine’s 2nd best-selling album of her career. Break en come-back In 1999, after years of performing, Dion felt it was time to take a break and focus more on family and friends, and she really wanted to be a mother. With a number of concerts, she temporarily ended her period of success. During that period, Dion’s husband René was diagnosed with cancer, from which he recovered.On January 25, 2001, Dion gave birth to a son, René-Charles Dion-Angélil, in Florida. In 2002 she returned to the spotlight and released several albums, both in French and English. Las Vegas and worldtour With the release of the album “A New Day Has Come” in 2002, it was announced that the singer would have her own show at Ceasars Palace in Las Vegas from 2003.On February 14, 2008, Dion embarked on a world tour, performing outside of Las Vegas for the first time since 1999. The tour stretched from Canada to Japan to South Africa.Céline came back to Caesar’s Palace in 2011 with the plan to do 70 shows a year. The premiere was on March 15, 2011. In August 2014, Dion cancelled all her planned concerts and announced that she would stop singing immediately. This was because she wanted to take care of her sick husband.René Angélil passed away on 16 January 2016. On September 18, 2019, she started her world tour “Courage World Tour, It was her first world tour in over a decade. In December 2022, Dion announced, after years of speculation about her appearance and health, that she suffers from the rare neurological disorder “stiff-person syndrome”. This affects her singing voice. She therefore cancelled the continuation of her Courage World Tour, which she had previously interrupted due to the corona pandemic. Another Olympic appearance During the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, she sang “Hymne à l’amour” (Édith Piaf) from the Eiffel Tower. This performance is seen as her spectacularly acclaimed comeback after four years of not performing as a singer.We are curious to see what more we can expect from her.

Road to Liverpool: France

We can not wait for the Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool. Therefore, we have a closer look at one of the contestants every day. Today: France. La Zarra France will be represented by La Zarra. French broadcaster France 2 announced this news on 12 January of this year. About a month later, the song “Évidemment” was presented. The song is written and composed by La Zarra herself in collaboration with Ahmed Saghir, and for the music with Yannick Rastogi and Zacharia Raymond. La Zarra is a Canadian singer. She hit the French charts in 2021 with her song “Tu t’en iras“, which was a part of her succesful debut album “Traîtrisse”. Canadian singers in Eurovision La Zarra is not the first Canadian singer participating in the Eurovision Song Contest. Previously, Sherisse Laurence (1986, Luxembourg), Annie Cotton (1993, Switzerland) and Natasha Saint-Pierre (2001, France) reached top scores in Eurovision. Also Rykka (2016, Switzerland) and Katerina Duska (2019, Greece) have Canadian roots. But let’s not forget about the winner of the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest: Céline Dion. This Canadian singer won for Switzerland with her song “Ne partez pas sans moi”. Her career outside the French speaking countries started with her performance in the Eurovision Song Contest 1989 in Lausanne. She presented her new single “Where does my heart beat now”. Internal Selection France 2 announced a national final for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. The national selection would be called Eurovision France, c’est vous qui décidez. The song would be chosen in the same way as in 2021 and 2022. However, France 2 internally selected La Zarra. With the announcement of La Zarra as the candidate, it was clear that no national final would be held. France in the Eurovision Song Contest France won the Eurovision Song Contest on 5 occasions. In 1958 (André Claveau with “Dors mon amour”). The second time was in 1960 (Jacqueline Boyer with “Tom Pillibi”). In 1962 (Isabelle Aubret won with “Un premier amour”). We saw Frida Boccara win in 1969 with “Un jour un enfant” and the lat victory was in 1977 (Marie Myriam with “L’oiseau et l’enfant). In fact, a 6th victory was close on several occasions. In 1991, France won along with Sweden. They even had the same amount of twelves, but as Sweden got more times 10, singer Amina had to deal with a 2nd place. Recently, in 2021, France was among the favourites to win with Barbara Pravi. The song “Voila” did not win but is now a Eurovision classic. Bookmakers Currently, France is number 10 at the bookmakers. A 10th place would give them a much better placing than last year, when France became 24th. The song And of course the most important thing of all is the song. Here is “Évidemment”.

Rykka

© EBU/Thomas Hanses About Quick Facts NameChristina Maria Rieder Born13 March 1986 Nationality🇨🇦 Canadian National SelectionDie Entscheidungsshow 2016 In Eurovision2016 Stockholm SongThe Last Of Our Kind (2016) Biography Rykka, originally named Christina Maria Rieder, was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. At the age of 15, they began taking guitar lessons and started performing at local community festivals. While attending Vancouver Community College for a two-year program, Christina also studied voice under Paula Kremer and frequently played music on the streets of Granville Island in Vancouver. In 2009, they relocated to Toronto to record their third independent album called “Straight Line” under the stage name “Christina Maria.” This album was produced with the assistance of Canadian producers David Baxter, Russel Broom, and Ryan Guldemond from Mother Mother. The album “Straight Line” was released in Switzerland by Little Jig Records in 2010. Rykka stayed in Switzerland and Germany, performing at various venues and even appearing on the popular German television channel “Sat.1 Frühstücksfernsehen,” which has an average viewership of 1 million people. They were also nominated for the Demotape Clinic at M4Music in Switzerland. In 2012, Rykka released their album “Kodiak,” which marked a significant shift in their musical career as they formally changed their stage name from Christina Maria to Rykka. The record was produced by Ryan Guldemond of Mother Mother, engineered by Shawn Penner, mixed by Warne Livesey, and mastered by Andy VanDette. It was released in Switzerland by Little Jig Records. Their fourth studio album, also titled “Kodiak,” was released in Canada in 2013 under Vissen Record, following its release in Switzerland the previous year. In the same year, Rykka won $100,000 in BC’s Peak Performance Project. Rykka had the opportunity to perform at BC’s well-known Squamish Valley Music Festival in 2014, opening for We Are the City, who were also winners of the Peak Performance Project. In 2016, they represented Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Contest with the song “The Last of Our Kind,” which they co-wrote with Jeff Dawson, Mike James, and Warne Livesey. Unfortunately, they placed last in the second semifinal of Eurovision 2016. The follow up of the Eurovision song was “Bad Boy”, which came out on 8 July 2016. On 4 November, their album “Beatitudes” was released. It was followed by a tour through both Canada and Switzerland. In January 2017 a video for the song “Runnin’ away” was released. In November another one, “Youth is wasted” was released. Rykka also participated in several songwriting sessions. Since 2018 Rykka formed a duo, Goldschatz, together with Timothy Jaromir. Their first single “Thick as theives” was released on 28 September of that year. Rykka performed with Goldschatz mainly in Switzerland. After the COVID19 lockdowns, Rykka released a new song on 26 March 2021: “Dreams/Death”. In November of the same year they released a follow up, “Louder”. In the same month, Goldschatz released a Christmas EP. It was also the year that they came out as bisexual and non binary, using the pronouns they and them. Rykka launched a project, where she announced being an astronaut artist going to Mars. The project was called Olympus Mons and contained videos, put online in September 2022. Entries The Last Of Our Kind Country🇨🇭 Switzerland Year2016 LanguageEnglish LyricsChristina Maria RiederMike JamesJeff DawsonWarne Livesey MusicChristina Maria RiederMike JamesJeff DawsonWarne Livesey BackingsBrandy ButlerTanja DanknerNyssina Swerissen Results Semi Points: 28Position: 18Running order: 3 Results Finals Points: –Position: –Running order: – https://youtu.be/96ENe3EYBE0

Katerine Duska

© EBU/Andres Putting About Quick Facts NameKaterine Duska Born06 November 1989 Nationality???????? Greece National SelectionInternal selection 2019 In Eurovision2019 Tel Aviv SongBetter love (2019) Biography Katerina Duska is a Greek-Canadian singer and songwriter. She was born and raised in Montreal, Canada and lives in Pagrati, Athens. She studied law, but didn’t finish the studies. In 2014, Katerina Duska released her debut single “One in a Million”, followed by “Won’t leave” in 2015. Both songs can be found on her first album entitled “Embodiment” in 2016 . In December 2018, she appeared in a concert with musician Petros Klabanis. The song “Fire away” was selected by Nescafe Canada to be used in its advertising campaign. Katerina Duska has collaborated with many international artists such as LP, Albin Lee Meldau, Tom Baxter, Yasmine Hamdan, Oddisee and Kadebostany. She has performed on major stages and festivals in Greece and Europe such as The O2 Academy London, Rockwave Festival, and the Sofarsound’s / Amnesty International’s “Give a home” international festival. She has participated in the festivals of the Cultural Center – Stavros Niarchos Foundation and in concerts at the Athens Concert Hall. In 2019, ERT asked Katerine Duska to represent Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest. She accepted the offer and went to Tel Aviv to sing the song “Better love”, which became 21st in the grand final. In 2020, Katerina released a song together with Leon of Athens, “Anemos”, followed by solo singles “Sanctuary” and “Call me nyx”, “Athenian skies” in 2021 and “Of time” in 2022. Entries Better love Country???????? Greece Year2019 LanguageEnglish LyricsKaterine DuskaDavid Sneddon MusicKaterine DuskaLeon of AthensDavid SneddonPhil Cook BackingsErasmia MarkidiEleni PozantzidouEvgenia LiakouDimitra VlachouFania Grigoriou Results Semi Points: 185Position: 5Running order: 16 Results Finals Points: 74 Position: 21Running order: 13 https://youtu.be/5pQV_-40m_U