Interview: Ukraine's Tina Karol Chats Eurovision, War, and Motherhood
Can you believe it - Eurovision week is finally here?! From Mae Muller to Polan's unicorns, rehearsals are in full swing ahead of the first Semi Final on Tuesday night, when the competition officially begins.
On this episode, we are delighted to be speaking to Tina Karol. As Ukraine's entry in 2006 with Show Me Your Love, she knows a thing or two Eurovision, and will be representing her country during the flag parade in Saturday's grand final too.
She now keeps busy as a singer, actress and activist, but she kindly spared a few minutes to chat to us about all things Eurovision.
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Transcript
Hello! I’m Steven Perkins, and this is Douze Points - the Eurovision podcast from the Bingewatch team that celebrates everything about the greatest music contest in the world.
I’m positively giddy because Eurovision week is finally upon us, and we’ve got even more exciting content than usual coming your way this week - but first, a quick reminder that you can and should follow us on Twitter at Bingewatch underscore Pod, even though it’s a bit of a hellsite these days, because Producer Liam and I are nice people and we’re always happy to chat Eurovision, so do get in touch if you’d like.
his time next week Eurovision:Rehearsals are well underway at this point in Liverpool and we’ve been able to see some sneaky peeks of what this year’s acts have got in store for us - and as usual, the internet is rife with early judgements. It’s important not to get too hung up on what’s happening at this stage because they are still rehearsals, after all, and everyone’s still getting a feel for what works and what doesn’t in the space - but what’s a Eurovision community without feverish speculation? For me, at least, the most exciting piece of news from the rehearsals has been that the staging for the UK’s entry this year looks awesome - the team have come up with something really fun and memorable for Mae Muller and I think it’s going to work really well.
Meanwhile in Liverpool, it turns out that the accommodation situation has taken the inevitable turn with the news that there are actually still rooms available after all. As is often the way at Eurovision, the room rates skyrocketed when the host city was announced, but it appears that not all hostelries have been able to sell the rooms for the rates they wanted - so if you did fancy a trip to Liverpool for Eurovision week after all, you might still be able to grab - well, not a bargain exactly, but you can probably get a hotel room without having to take out a mortgage after all, which is nice.
And finally, Ukraine’s first Eurovision winner Ruslana will be performing in this year’s Grand Final, in a specially pre-recorded performance from Kyiv. That means all three of Ukraine’s Eurovision winners will be represented this year, as Jamala and Kalush Orchestra will both be performing in Liverpool on the night.
st who represented Ukraine in:Now, 17 years later, Tina is coming back to Eurovision to participate in this year’s flag parade in the Grand Final, alongside a host of other Ukrainian Eurovision icons - and we caught up with Tina a couple of weeks ago to find out what it’s like to be returning to the contest this year in Liverpool…
OUTRO:
Ah, that was great. Really fascinating to speak to Tina about her experiences in the contest and beyond, and can’t wait to see what she’s got in store for us.
Now, this is the point where I normally encourage you to hit that subscribe button so you don’t miss an episode, and it’s even more important this week because we have got lots of bonus content coming your way. We’ll have reaction episodes coming after both semi-finals and the final, where I will be joined by some of my wonderful colleagues from the Bingewatchverse, and a chat with the one and only Nicki French also coming later this week - so make sure you’re subscribed to catch all the latest updates!
We’ll be back with you on Wednesday to chat about everything that happened in Semi Final 1 - so until then, good night Europe, and good morning Australia…
