Voting has closed in France, so we spoke to Joanna Lagrave, one of the three participants there. She hopes she’s won the ticket to Copenhagen with her song Ma Liberté. Read what she had to say below!
escXtra.com: Hey Joanna! First of all, thank you for your time! Voting has closed now in the French national final, how excited are you for the results?
Joanna: I’m waiting for the results, but quietly. I’m Excited but, I don’t count my chickens before they are hatched. We are three so, I’ll see what happens…
X: Could you tell us something about you and your music?
J: “Ma Liberté” is a part of my personality that I didn’t explore in music before. Fragility and strength at the same time. But I have lot of others influences in music. I love Pop, Rock, electronic and I’m Mixed so I want my music to be mixed like me. I don’t want to be a part of one and only musical movement, I want to make My music in the way I think it’s better.
X: Why did you decide to apply for Eurovision?
J: It wasn’t my idea at the beginning. My manager saw my reaction in listening “Ma liberté” and he decided to present it for eurovision. And I said Yes. It’s was a new challenge, and I love it.
X: Your song, Ma Liberté, was written, amongst others, by Gerard James Borg and Philip Vella. Together, they already composed five Eurovision entries and an incredible amount of national final entries all over Europe. How was it to work with them?
J: It was really cool and doping. Because they’re passionated and I love to work with people like them. I don’t have the impression of working when I’m making music, compose and sing it’s the way I work. And we worked like that on this song.
X: You’ve also released an English version of your song. If you’d win the national final, would you consider adding some English to the song for the Eurovision Song Contest?
J: If I win, I will represent my country, France, so I will sing in french. I know others countries will sing in full english but, french is a really beautiful language, in music above all. So if I win, I will represent my country in full French.
X: You’re truly one of a kind in this national final: you’re the only solo singer and you’re also the only female. Do you think that that might be an advantage?
J: Maybe, yes. I’m a solo artist in front of two bands which are so differents with their music. I’ve confidence in my song and its strength. If I win it’s thanks to my song, not because I’m a woman.
X: How would you react if you’d be announced as the winner this Sunday?
J: I will be happy and the second after I will say to my team : ” So it’s time to work on staging! LET’S GO!” 🙂
X: Are you a Eurovision fan?
J: I can’t say I’m a fan but I love to watch it every years. I don’t miss Eurovision.
X: Do you have an all time favourite Eurovision song?
J: Yes! I love Loreen’s “Euphoria”. It’s a beautiful song and I discovered the artist thanks to Eurovision and since her victory I follow her career.
X: Finally, do you have a message for the readers of escXtra.com?
J: Thanks a lot for supporting me. I hope to meet you all in Copenhagen. 😉
escXtra.com would like to thank Joanna for answering our questions. We would also like to wish her good luck for Sunday’s show. You can watch her song, Ma Liberté, below!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPWVQ8vf45Q
