The ESCplus team has talked to Jānis Driksna, participant of Supernova 2020, the Latvian pre-selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2020, with the song “Stay” to know a little more about his candidacy and the experience that he is currently living. You can read the full interview below.
How do you feel about your participation in Supernova 2020?
I am glad to be back this year as a solo artist. I have done several Supernovas before with My Radiant You. It’s always really funny to be part of it. It creates a lot of buzz and it’s a great way to start a new year.
Can you tell us about the message of your song? Does it talk about any experience of your own life?
I think most people have gone through break up in their relationships and loving someone, but still having to figure out whether they should stick together. The song is about telling your love that you want to be and you are ready to be that one person of his or her life.
How will the staging be at Supernova 2020? Can you reveal anything?
I still have to make it to the finals. Which is the final 8… The lineup will be revealed this upcoming Thursday. If I do though, I will be on the stage with my guitar and I will have five back vocalists singing with me spread out through the stage. We want to bring that gospel sound to the performance. The focus will be on providing a powerful performance as far as singing goes.
How did you decide to submit a song to represent Latvia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2020?
I wrote a song that I really liked and the timing seamed quite right for it as well. This is gonna be a busy year for me… I am releasing a new studio album, we’re planning a tour in the autumn and the summer is filling up with festivals, so toping that with Eurovision seemed like the right thing for me.
If you finally win Supernova 2020, are you going to promote your song in the official pre-parties that take place in different European countries before Eurovision?
Yes, I would make the best of it. I am definitely looking forward to visiting the pre-parties.
Have you heard the rest of the songs of Supernova 2020? What do you think about them?
Yes, I have. There are a lot of pretty good contestants this year. Lot’s of songs are from songwriting camps, like the called “RigaLIVE”. So I think there’s a lot of potential in Supernova 2020.
You can follow all the news of Jānis Driksna on his official Facebook profile. This is https://www.facebook.com/janisdriksna2013.
Supernova 2020 will be organized by Latvijas Televīzija, the Latvian broadcasting organization best known internationally like LTV. This contest will represent its sixth edition since it was inaugurated in 2015. Since then, it has been used as the Latvian pre-selection for the Eurovision Song Contest. A total of twenty six candidates will be the participants of the contest, but only eight of them will be qualified for the Grand Final. This will be held on Saturday, February 8, 2020, and its winner will be the artist who will represent Latvia in Rotterdam during the broadcast of the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 next May.