The ESCplus team has talked to Karelll, participant of ESCZ 2020, the Czech pre-selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2020, with the song “At least we’ve tried” to know a little more about his performance and the experience that he is currently living. You can read the full interview below.
How do you feel about your participation in ESCZ 2020?
Well, it’s a lot of pressure. So far I’ve been just trying to do my thing, write songs, release them and then put some effort into promotion. This is different though. It’s like letting people from all around the world to see into your cards. It’s exciting and terrifying at the same time.
Can you tell us about the message of your song? Does it talk about any experience of your own life?
Of course it does. I don’t think I would be able to write a song that doesn’t come from my personal experience. That doesn’t mean I was going through a break up when I wrote At Least We’ve Tried. The key for me as a songwriter is to be able to preserve positive and negative feelings caused by the things that happen to me and come back to them when I’m writing.
How did you decide to submit a song to represent Slovenia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2020?
I was thinking about entering ESC since last year. However, I did not submit my song because I didn’t even know the selection started back then. A member of the Czech ESC team contacted me and asked me If I’m interested in entering. I said: hell, yeah!
Have you imagined how the staging be at the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 if you win the Slovenian pre-selection?
Yes, I think I would go a similar direction as I did with the music video. The crucial thing for me with this song is to make people feel emotions. So I would try make it really simple but powerful.
Can you tell us about your music and your musical references?
I like to call my style “organic pop”. I’ve always loved that “raw kind of pop” where it’s based on real instruments with some modern elements added into it. I loved One Republic, Linkin Park, Fort Minor and stuff like that. Now I’m into Kodaline, Imagine Dragons, Lewis Capaldi Dean Lewis etc.
You can follow all the news of Karelll on his official Facebook profile. This is https://www.facebook.com/karelllmusic.
ESCZ 2020 will be organized by Česká Televize, the Czech broadcasting organization best known internationally as ČT. It will serve as the national pre-selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2020. A total of seven artists will have the chance to win and represent the Czech Republic in the European competition.