Alessandra Mele participated in The Voice of Norway last year, and immediately her first own song took her to Eurovision.
Liverpool
Sound is not in the best shape, says My Alessandra before the interview has even started. It’s because, in addition to repeated exercises, you’ve had to run through one interview after another. Mele is one of the most interested contestants this year.
There is still nothing wrong with the sound, Mele assures. He just saves it for the shows himself.
The 22-year-old Norwegian singer is better known in Eurovision by just her first name. Alessandra’s song Queen of the Kings will open Tuesday’s semi-final, and the song has been considered one of the possible Eurovision favorites even before Alessandra had even been chosen to represent her country.
Last In the past few weeks, Sweden has received the most attention in advance speculation of flowers and Finland Wrapperbut Alessandra also ranks well in the overall competition.
The reason for the popularity is clear: Alessandra’s song became a hit on Tiktok very quickly after its release. It surprised even the singer herself, Alessandra tells HS on Monday at the Eurovision arena.
“It was absolutely amazing for me. For a long time I was one of those young people who didn’t use any social media service. I read books and studied, I only had a few friends. When I started using Tiktok, I didn’t expect this kind of result for my song at all.”
Tiktok is also increasingly a part of Eurovision. Last year, Armenia was represented in Eurovision Pink line with a song Snap. It didn’t enjoy much popularity in the contest itself, but after Eurovision it became a Tiktok phenomenon. Now the song has been listened to more than 620 million times on Spotify.
Alessandra too Queen of Kings has been commendably successful on Spotify: it has 41 million listeners below Eurovision, only ten million less than Loreen’s Tattoolla.
His song The reason for Tiktok’s popularity has not occurred to Alessandra.
“I have never thought about why it happened. It just happened! Maybe it’s due to the song’s energy… The same thing with Käärijä.”
Alessandra pronounces Käärijä’s name, stretching the letters a: Caaaaarry. Right after, he says that he likes both Käärijä’s song and Käärijä himself a lot – even to the extent that he calls the Finnish artist his friend.
“He’s so funny, and so kind! He is a completely different person on stage compared to what he is when he comes off the stage. There are two completely different sides to him. Caaaaarry. Our whole team is his fans.”
Alessandra represented at the Eurovision opening ceremony on Sunday.
with Alessandra has a lot in common with another Finnish artist who aspired to Eurovision this year.
In Finland, one of the UMK finalists was Keirawho participated the previous year The Voice of Finlandiincame third and released his first song at UMK.
The beginning of Alessandra’s story is exactly the same. He competed in 2022 The Voice of Norwayssa, and although there was no victory, he next headed to Norway’s Melodi Grand Prix, which acts as a Eurovision qualifier. It went better there than Keira and thanks to that Alessandra is now in Liverpool.
About her song, Alessandra says that it was made at a song camp. They wrote the song with Alessandra Henning Olerud, Stanley Ferdinandez and Linda Dale.
“The song is a story about a strong woman who is not perfect but is still proud of herself. It’s meant to tell you that it’s okay to be proud of yourself even on days when you want to go to the gym but end up eating candy on the couch instead.”
His song when talking about the story, Alessandra gets excited to talk about self-respect and maintaining mental health. He hopes to be able to use music to help especially young people to accept themselves and be kind to themselves.
“I myself have had moments when I haven’t loved myself much. I’ve been training, getting better, changing my ways of thinking. I hope to be able to help other people in the same way.”
“I’m not saying that I alone can change people’s ways of thinking, but I can try.”
One way to do this is social media, says Alessandra. In his opinion, there are too many “stupid things” on the Internet. He would like more love there, less hate.
The news has clearly bitten the young artist’s fans. Alessandra says that she has received many messages from listeners who have been touched by the song’s message. One message in particular has stuck in my mind.
“A young girl with cancer sent me a message and thanked me for the song. Thanked that this powerful song had given him strength in the midst of a terrible situation. It was very moving, because I myself think that music can give so much in different situations.”