Aurelia Butler

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    Claude, representing the Netherlands, is a refugee turned pop star.

    Reporting from from the St. Jakobshalle arena in BaselLouane singing “Maman,” a song addressed to her mother, who died of cancer.Fabrice Coffrini/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesWhen Louane was offered the chance to represent France at Eurovision, she immediately knew what she wanted to sing about: her mother.As a child growing up in a small town, Louane, whose real name is Anne Peichert, watched Eurovision with her parents and five siblings while gathered around the TV eating pizza. Even when it wasn’t Eurovision season, Louane recalled in an interview, her mother would put on videos of Celine Dion’s winning performance from 1988, and they would watch together, mesmerized by the Canadian singer’s voice.Those happy Eurovision sessions ended abruptly in 2014 when Louane’s mother died from cancer.A star in France with five hit albums, Louane, now 28, said that over the past decade she had written and sung many songs expressing grief and anger over her mother’s death.Her Eurovision track, a powerful ballad called “Maman,” has an altogether different message, however. “It’s a letter to my mother saying: ‘I’m finally fine. I’m finally good in my life. I am, myself, a mother,’” Louane said. “It’s a super special song to me.”Louane makes that transformation clear when she sings in French: “I’m better now / I know the way / I’m done walking down this memory lane.”Louane said the track had a secondary message that went beyond her own story. “What I’m going to try and make everyone understand,” she said, “is that even through the deepest pain, deepest sadness, you can find a way to be better, to finally be well.” More

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    JJ hits some high notes for Austria.

    JJ rehearsing “Wasted Love,” which makes full use of his classical training as a singer.Fabrice Coffrini/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesOperatic voices don’t usually feature at Eurovision, but JJ, taking the stage to represent Austria, is an exception.In “Wasted Love,” JJ, 24, gently coos about a recent heartbreak until he hits the chorus, and his voice soars in volume and pitch, making full use of his classical training.JJ, whose real name is Johannes Pietsch, is a countertenor, meaning his vocal range most closely matches a female mezzo-soprano. He is in the choir at the Opera School of the Vienna State Opera. In recent months, he has appeared in the company’s productions of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” and Benjamin Britten’s “Billy Budd.”JJ said that he hoped his performance would “awaken interest in classical music” among Eurovision’s viewers, but that he also wanted to make the case for greater use of operatic vocals in pop music. Putting them together could create fun “popera” songs, JJ said.After spending most of his childhood in Dubai, JJ started classical singing at 15 when he moved to Austria. His father, noting JJ’s high singing voice, asked him to try belting out the “Queen of the Night” aria from “The Magic Flute,” JJ recalled. Soon, JJ said, he was watching YouTube videos of Maria Callas and Montserrat Caballé performances, then imitating those renowned sopranos.Key figures in Vienna’s opera scene have wished JJ luck at Eurovision, including Bogdan Roscic, the general director of the Vienna State Opera. “He’s excited and happy for me,” JJ said, “but he said he will not watch.” Eurovision is still too much of a silly spectacle for some, even with JJ in it. More

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    Yuval Raphael, Israel’s Eurovision Entrant, Survived the Hamas Attacks of Oct. 7

    Not long after the attacks, Yuval Raphael said, she resolved to follow her long-held dream of becoming a professional singer.When Hamas attacked the Nova music festival in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Yuval Raphael went from dancing with friends to hiding in a bomb shelter.After attackers broke into the shelter and started shooting partygoers, Raphael played dead, then lay beneath bodies for eight hours until she was rescued.That experience, Raphael told the Israel Hayom newspaper earlier this year, changed her outlook on life. “When I was there, I realized that everything could be over in a moment, and you don’t want your life to end without experiencing it,” she said. Not long after the attacks, Raphael said, she resolved to follow her long-held dream of becoming a professional singer.Now, Raphael, 24, is representing Israel at Eurovision with “New Day Will Rise,” a ballad in which she sings, over twinkling piano, “New day will rise / Life will go on / Everyone cries / Don’t cry alone.”As Israel’s retaliation to the Oct. 7 attacks grinds on, some Eurovision fans have called on the competition organizers to expel Israel from the contest over the country’s conduct in the war.At last year’s final, some audience members booed Israel’s singer as she performed, though others cheered her. Raphael told the BBC this week that she was expecting a hostile reception during her performance and that she had been rehearsing with distracting sounds playing in the background. Indeed, on Thursday in Basel, a small group of protesters blew whistles and waved flags to disrupt one of Raphael’s public rehearsals.But, she told the broadcaster, she was trying to avoid the furor and stay focused on winning. Eurovision’s slogan is “United by music,” she said, adding, “That’s what we are here for.” More

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    Estonia’s entry, ‘Espresso Macchiato,’ brewed trouble in Italy.

    When Tommy Cash, a rapper and singer from Estonia, won his country’s Eurovision selection with “Espresso Macchiato,” he barely had time to celebrate before a backlash began.In the song, Cash sings in a cheesy Italian accent that he is “sweating like a Mafioso” from working so hard, and just wants a coffee. “Me like mi coffee,” he says: “Very importante.”Cash’s riff on Italian clichés did not go down well in some parts of Italy. Gian Marco Centinaio, a lawmaker with Italy’s far-right League Party, posted on Instagram that Eurovision should ban the song. “Is this the idea of ​​European brotherhood that the organizers of the Eurovision Song Contest have in mind?” he wrote.The flap also made headlines because Codacons, an Italian consumer rights organization, complained that the song “conveys a message of a population tied to organized crime.”In a recent interview, Cash said that he found the reaction over the top. He hadn’t meant to insult Italians, he said: “I love Italy. I love the people. I’m drawn to them because they’re so passionate.”In earlier songs, he rapped in English with his own heavy Eastern European accent, he said, and he also made a track with a German-accented chorus. His comedic Italian voice in “Espresso Macchiato” was no different than those, he said.Cash — who has made several tracks with Charli XCX — has many fans in Europe who love his left-field vibe and provocative videos, but he’s never been close to a household name. But in Italy, at least, he is now a star. Cash said that he had performed on Italian TV many times since “Espresso Macchiato” blew up. On a recent trip to Milan, he added, fans chased him down the street.He had a simple message for anyone who still felt insulted. “Drink a coffee,” he said: “Chill!” More

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    Which act is the safest bet?

    Kaj, representing Sweden with the song “Bara Bada Bastu,” is most likely to win according to most gambling companies.Sebastien Bozon/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesFor all the singing competition’s silliness, one aspect of Eurovision is serious business: the betting.Gambling companies expect Eurovision fans to wager about $265 million on the contest’s outcome, said Sam Eaton of Oddschecker, a British company that aggregates odds for major events.Eaton said that Eurovision was usually “the biggest market of the year” for online bookmakers, after sports events and elections.This year, gambling companies predict that Kaj, Sweden’s representative, is most likely to win. The comedy group will be singing “Bara Bada Bastu,” a catchy, if somewhat silly, track about the joys of taking a sauna.Kaj’s only serious rival, Eaton said, is JJ, an opera singer representing Austria with “Wasted Love.”How can bookmakers be so sure that this year’s Eurovision is a two-horse race? Eaton says the answer lies in data, especially the numerous Eurovision fan websites that run polls asking which song should win.A poll run by Eurovisionworld.com, for instance, had received over 220,000 votes as of Saturday. Kaj topped that poll with 17 percent, and JJ was second with 15 percent. Erika Vikman, representing Finland, and Shkodra Elektronike, Albania’s representative, were together in a distant third with 6 percent. The fans who voted in those polls were also likely to participate in Eurovision’s public vote to decide the winner, Eaton said.In seven of the past nine years, Eaton added, the act that topped those fans poll had gone on to win. “Eurovision is one of the easiest events to bet on,” Eaton said: “The information’s all there.” More

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    The 7 steps to winning Eurovision.

    Reporting from from the St. Jakobshalle arena in BaselLouane singing “Maman,” a song addressed to her mother, who died of cancer.Fabrice Coffrini/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesWhen Louane was offered the chance to represent France at Eurovision, she immediately knew what she wanted to sing about: her mother.As a child growing up in a small town, Louane, whose real name is Anne Peichert, watched Eurovision with her parents and five siblings while gathered around the TV eating pizza. Even when it wasn’t Eurovision season, Louane recalled in an interview, her mother would put on videos of Celine Dion’s winning performance from 1988, and they would watch together, mesmerized by the Canadian singer’s voice.Those happy Eurovision sessions ended abruptly in 2014 when Louane’s mother died from cancer.A star in France with five hit albums, Louane, now 28, said that over the past decade she had written and sung many songs expressing grief and anger over her mother’s death.Her Eurovision track, a powerful ballad called “Maman,” has an altogether different message, however. “It’s a letter to my mother saying: ‘I’m finally fine. I’m finally good in my life. I am, myself, a mother,’” Louane said. “It’s a super special song to me.”Louane makes that transformation clear when she sings in French: “I’m better now / I know the way / I’m done walking down this memory lane.”Louane said the track had a secondary message that went beyond her own story. “What I’m going to try and make everyone understand,” she said, “is that even through the deepest pain, deepest sadness, you can find a way to be better, to finally be well.” More

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    Eiza González Says Legend of Zelda Changed How She Looks at Life

    “At first glance you’d be like, ‘Oh, it’s a simple game,’” said the star of the new movie “Fountain of Youth.” “But it’s so much more deep than anyone could imagine.”Eiza González isn’t quite sure where she lives at the moment.“I’m a bit of a nomad,” she said in a video call from California, where she has a house in Los Angeles and a ranch in Ojai. “I’m here, there, everywhere.”That included Cairo, Bangkok, Vienna and various parts of Britain for the film “Fountain of Youth,” about an art thief and his entourage who go on a global quest for the source of the mythological waters.González plays Esme, a “protector,” though of what and whom isn’t always crystal clear. She describes the character as “Machiavellian fun, a huge enigma and kind of a poker face, but a sassy and witty girl.” The movie will stream on Apple TV+ starting May 23.It was her third project with the director Guy Ritchie — “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare” landed in 2024 and “In the Grey” will come out this summer — and her first time in an action movie at an Indiana Jones-like level.“I think he really enjoys someone that is willing to take risks and play and push themselves, and he saw a lot of desire in me,” González said of Ritchie before explaining why psychology books, the Criterion Channel and LED light therapy are on her list of must-haves. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.Psychology BooksI’m currently reading “Rewire” by Nicole Vignola. I’ve also been reading “Please Unsubscribe, Thanks!” by Julio Vincent Gambuto. Anything that is a deep dive into psyche and understanding the human behavior. I would’ve most definitely become a psychologist if I wasn’t an actress.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    What to Expect in a ‘Final Destination’ Movie

    We have a premonition of the (mostly terrible, often funny) things you’re likely to see in any of the films from the long-running horror franchise. Follow along below, and beware.If every terrible feeling you ever had — every lurch in your stomach during a bit of plane turbulence, every sinking feeling on a subway train that’s going just a little too fast, every tightening of your chest when driving behind a huge semi truck — always came spectacularly, horrifyingly true, you might be in a “Final Destination” movie.The first film in the franchise, directed by James Wong, was expanded from an unproduced spec script for an episode of “The X-Files” written by Jeffrey Reddick. It follows a group of teenagers who, after avoiding a fatal plane crash on a school trip because one of their classmates has a premonition of the disaster, discover that Death won’t let its plans be foiled so easily. That film has since spurred five others, all known for the Rube Goldberg-esque kill sequences that occur when Death returns to claim its victims in increasingly bizarre accidents.With the latest film, “Final Destination: Bloodlines” (directed by Adam Stein and Zach Lipovsky), now in theaters, we have a premonition of what you can expect to see in any given “Final Destination” movie. You might even say we’ve seen it all before.Opening DisasterA very unhappy roller coaster ride in “Final Destination 3.”Warner Bros.These films come out of the gate with massacres of biblical proportions: a plane exploding to smithereens in midair, a roller coaster careening into crowded fairgrounds, or a bridge packed with cars crumbling into the water. They can speak to cultural paranoias, like the safety of air travel and amusement parks, or create cultural paranoias in and of themselves. The accident in the second film that involves a logging truck and a busy road traumatized a generation of drivers. Since these disasters are visions, the movies get away with starting off the action by killing the characters we are just getting to know, paving the way for the breakneck speed (and broken necks) to come.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More