It won't be long before Austria's song competition sensation, Kalin, takes to Sweden: On Sunday, the 29-year-old singer will reach the second semi-final of the music competition on May 9 with her disco number “We Will Rave.” It has its first major use. Before that, the Upper Austrian bid farewell to fans, friends and press on Monday evening with a mini-concert as “Adjö”, the powerful Swedish farewell, at the Le Méridien Vienna hotel.
In addition to her ESC success on acoustic and fully produced releases, Kalin has also provided a special look at early music-influenced childhood recordings. “I took the path step by step, and it was never easy and never clear. That's why I enjoy being here even more today.”
But Kalin doesn't need to rest until she leaves for Malmö, as the singer has been at several ESC pre-concerts across Europe in the past few weeks. On Friday, the ESC nominee will be on the red carpet for the Amadeus Awards and will sing her ESC contribution live at the ORF 1 show “Diegrose Chance” that same evening.
Only then does Kalin reach the shores of Øresund. As always at ESC, the training schedule at the large Malmö Arena is traditionally tight. Kalin's first stage rehearsal will take place on May 1, followed by two more stages to finalize the performance. The traditional turquoise carpet ceremony is then scheduled to take place on May 5 at the Malmö Live event centre, where participants and Kalin will introduce themselves.
It really comes down to the sausages for the first time on May 8, when the entire show is played as a rehearsal and recorded as backup before the start of the second official semi-final on May 9, where the audience will have its say. Juries for the semi-finals have been canceled since last year. Here Kalin has to get one of 10 final tickets to be among the last 26 countries on May 11.
The chances of this happening are good, if Bashir is to be believed. In a comparison between 15 bookmakers, Kallen's probability of qualifying for the final currently stands at 82 percent, with Austria finishing eighth in the semi-finals. And when it comes to evaluating who will win in the final, Kalin is currently ranked 12th with “We Will Rave”, so he's in the top half of the group of 26 people, which wouldn't be a bad situation either. Last year, the duo of Tia and Salina, long considered secret information, finished 15th for Austria. It is very likely that Kallen's “Adjö” will not be followed by “Welcome Back” in Austria before the final.
(service – www.eurovision.tv)
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