In the competition in Malmö, she only had time to sing a small part of her song “Tattoo” before the performance was interrupted.
A climate activist took to the stage and carried out an action – in the middle of a live broadcast.
That didn’t stop Loreen from becoming the first to go directly to the final.
– We mostly laughed about it afterwards and it felt like it was quite de-dramatized when I got up there again and played the song, I got new energy, says Loreen with a smile.
She is the big favorite to lift the desirable songbird in the Melodifestivalen grand final – and also the advance favorite to take home the entire Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool in May.
But talking about favoritism is something she doesn’t really like very much.
– I am quite keenly aware that I can only do what I can. It’s out of my control, the only thing I can control is that I will do my absolute best to make it as fat as it can possibly be, that’s my goal.
How do you feel about possibly competing in the Eurovision Song Contest again?
– If you give me a responsibility, I take it very seriously. If the Swedish people want me to represent them, then it’s like, girl, it’s hard work. If they want me there, the Swedish people will know that she will work her ass off for it to be good.
“Cryingly happy”
Loreen broke records when “Tattoo” was released on streaming services after the fourth and final competition in late February.
In less than two days, the song had been played 375,599 times, a new record when it comes to contributions released on Spotify.
– I didn’t expect anything, except that what I create should be as good as possible and that’s where I control it. But when I got this response… When you don’t expect anything, you get very, very tearfully happy. Somewhere it says that people responded positively to what you created and that was my biggest hope with this.
At the same time, she believes that there can be too much of a good thing and in order not to be too influenced by the accolades and the great favourites, she has a trick.
– If I’m being completely honest, I “block” it. It sounds horrible to say, but I know what part of all this is going on that is important to me. The rest I cannot control. So I block a lot of it so it doesn’t affect my creativity.
– You are still hypersensitive and it matters what people think and think about you, even if you say you don’t have it.
Own tattoos
Before her performance in Melodifestivalen, Loreen has decorated her hands with henna tattoos. But the artist also has several real ones.
On her left forearm she has several symbols with a very personal meaning.
– There are a lot of Berber symbols, back in the days they tattooed themselves. It was their way of adorning themselves. They can mean slightly different things, some stand for nature and such. My great-grandmother, if you look at old pictures of her, she had lots of tattoos.
Below the symbols is the word “Liberty”.
– I meant “Freedom”, but it didn’t sound so good then, haha! I get a little bullied for this one.
On her left middle finger she has tattooed “white noise”.
– I like white noise a lot, it’s what you hear when you’re alone in the forest. It’s very healing, it’s good for us.
She also has a tattoo on her right rib. An Arabic text that means “you suffer, you learn and then you change”. And one on the neck – the text “lumiere rouge” which means red light.
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Tags: Melodifestivalen Loreen big favourites
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