The Eurovision Song Contest 2021 rehearsals are in full swing in Rotterdam! ESCXTRA is bringing you interviews with the participants to hear all about their songs, journey, and all things Eurovision! Just before the Norwegian delegation headed to The Netherlands, Wiv had the opportunity to chat with their artist TIX. He will perform ‘Fallen Angel’ in the first semi-final. In the interview, they talk about his powerful and emotional official video, why he decided to enter MGP this year, the story behind his song, the reason for his somewhat “over the top” stage performance and much more!
We also get his answers to Wiv’s either/or game. So; do you think he prefers summer or winter? And is he an early morning or late night person?
Earlier today we saw TIX’ second run of rehearsals, which were pretty amazing. What better time to bring you this long-form interview from last week?
Some highlights from the interview
The official video (00.20) – “I decided that I wanted to explain my story in 3 minutes to the European audience.”
Being a Eurovision fan (5.55) – “One of the first times I went to a party, it was actually the same evening as Eurovision. And I actually kind of left the party and I went downstairs to the basement where there was a tv, and I had to kind of like sneak down there to watch Eurovision.”
Why he decided to take part in MGP this year (8.00) – “This year I feel like I have a message that I want to spread.” “The question around mental health is even more relevant now than ever.”
The staging (10.00) – “The staging is kinda like the 10% that makes the song and the story complete.” I kind of went a little over the top with the staging.”
Beating pre-contest favorites Keiino (18.35) – “I bet my money on Keiino!” “When I heard the first votes, I knew that “Wow, I think this song resonated with people even more than I actually first thought”.”
The Lindmo interview/mental health issues (21.55) – “The reason why I chose to tell the story was because I had gotten so much feedback from fans. Thousands of messages from people telling me that they were having a hard time, with just struggling with life. That they were identifying with a lot of my songs. And I felt that this was a subject that someone needed to talk about.”
Either/or (31.20) – Summer or winter? Books or films? Norwegian or English? Ballads or up-tempo? And more!
Retiring at 30 (36.05) – “No comment! Or, okay; I’ll give you a comment!”
Who is TIX?
TIX, or Andreas Haukeland (28), started his music career back in 2013. He achieved his first Top 5 in the Norwegian charts with the song “Sjeiken 2015”. For the first five years of his career he wrote mainly party music, often for groups of russ. However, in 2019 he released “Jeg vil ikke leve” (I don’t want to live), which became a huge success. In it he opened up about a really dark time in his life. His debut album Dømt og berømt from 2016 peaked at number two in the Norwegian chart.
2020
In 2020 he was the most streamed artist in Norway. This was mainly a result of his songs “Kaller På Deg” (Calling You) and “Karantene” (Quarantine), which both reached more than 10 million streams on Spotify. At Spellemann, the Norwegian Grammy Awards, both these songs were nominated for Song of the Year, and TIX won Artist of the Year.