Stockholm 2016

Jamie-Lee Kriewitz: “My school supports me to the fullest!” [Interview]

She’s just seventeen years of age, but this girl has already won The Voice of Germany. This K-Pop fan is now hoping she’ll win the German ticket to Stockholm on Thursday with her winning single from The Voice, Ghost. Time to have a chat with Jamie-Lee Kriewitz. Read what she had to say below!
escXtra.com: Hey Jamie-Lee! First of all, congrats on taking part in Unser Lied für Stockholm! Did you apply or were you asked to participate?
Jamie-Lee Kriewitz: I was asked if I’d like to take part in ULfS. I needed some time to think about it and in the end I decided to do it, because I simply don’t want to miss the experience.
X: Your song, Ghost, is a clear sign that you’re in it to win it, because you’re entering your winning single from The Voice of Germany. Did you even consider entering a different song?
J-L: To be honest, it was quite clear from the start that I’d enter Ghost. That’s my winning single, my first ever single and with it I already convinced quite a few people on The Voice. When you hear it, you immediately link it to me and I believe that I can show what I’ve got with this song. Ghost is, in my opinion, perfectly suitable for the Eurovision Song Contest.
X: Your style is quite remarkable. What is it you like so much in Korea?
J-L: What I like in Korea is the respectful way of treating other human beings, for example the bowing when you greet someone. I also like the Korean ideal of beauty and Korean clothes. Though what I like most of all, is the music. I love K-Pop more than anything else and it introduced me to the world and culture of Korea. Besides that, I love the Korean language, I’m even learning it myself now, trying to get used to Hangul.
X: You originally wanted to study Korea Studies. However, music has now managed to get in its way. How are you dealing with school now (and possibly Korea Studies in the future)?
J-L: I am going to repeat the 12th year of school. So I’ll finish school in 2017 by doing my exams in design. I will focus on music as my profession and I’ll give it my all to keep my success going, so I can make a living out of being a musician. However, if that doesn’t work out, I’ll just follow my old plan to study Korea Studies, so I can maybe live in Korea sometime.
X: Most Europeans don’t know much about K-Pop. Could you mention some artists we should definitely listen to sometime? Who are your personal favourites?
J-L: My absolute favourite group is Block B. It’s one of the craziest boybands in Korea, that’s why I like them so much. My favourite songs from them are Very Good, Nillili Mambo and Her. Their subunit Bastarz also did Zero For Conduct. Aside from them, I like to listen to groups like Exo, BTS, Monsta X, Big Bang, Hello Venus, Vixx, 2NE1 and many, many, many, many more. When I’d list all of them, I’d certainly need a good few hours!
X: Which K-Pop artists do you think would go down well in Eurovision?
J-L: I’d say the most suitable K-Pop artists would be Block B, BTS, Big Bang or Exo. All of them are incredibly talented, cute and would be so refreshing for Eurovision.
X: Now, about Eurovision. Where does the dream come from?
J-L: I’d love to be internationally famous and the Eurovision Song Contest is a great opportunity to achieve that. Aside from that, it would be a great honour to represent Germany on that stage. I think it’s a dream for many artists to participate in such a show.
X: What’s your best Eurovision memory?
J-L: My best Eurovision memory is obviously the moment Lena took the title to Germany in 2010. I thought that was really cool back then, because that was the year I first followed the contest closely and I was so nervous! I was so happy for Lena, Germany and her hometown Hannover!
X: Ghost is currently almost four minutes in length. That means you still need to take a minute out somewhere before you can enter the Eurovision Song Contest. Was the decision on what to take out a difficult one?
J-L: It was of course not easy to decide which part of my song had to go.  We tried to make the cut as various as possible and that I could still show as much from my voice like in the full version. I think we did a good job on it.
X: What does your school say about your idea to travel to Stockholm for a week in May?
J-L: My school, especially my class and teachers, supports me to the fullest in all of my plans. They were already blown away during The Voice and always stood behind me. A lot of my friends were a bit sad, because I wasn’t there for such a long time. And now I might be gone again soon! But they all know how much it means to me and they give me a lot of courage and power for the time I’m now facing.
We’d like to thank Jamie-Lee Kriewitz for her time to answer our questions. Below you can listen to her song ‘Ghost’.

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