25 Grand Facts about our 25 Grand Finalists
14 May 2022 at 15:30 CEST📺 Watch: Eurovision Song Contest 2022: Grand Final
From the Netflix Eurovision film and an episode of The Office, to Bon Jovi and a bronze medal at the 2006 Winter Olympics – there are a whole bunch of unlikely eccentricities that form the make-up of our Eurovision entertainers.
To help you get to know them a little better, we’ve put together some quick and quirky curiosities behind each of the competitors you’ll be seeing perform at this year’s Eurovision Grand Final. And for a deeper dive into our artists, check out our Participant Profiles for more back story, social media links and even Spotify playlists of their favourite tunes.
🇨🇿 Czech Republic: We Are Domi – Lights Off
Lead singer Dominika Hašková follows in her father’s footsteps by representing her country in Turin. Dominik ‘The Dominator’ Hašek won a bronze medal with the Czech national ice-hockey team at the 2006 Winter Olimpics in the Italian city. It was in the PalaOlimpico, too; the exact same venue in which his daughter will take to the stage at Eurovision.
Our beat-maker from Buzău, WRS, made the hearts of 'bebé-bés’ across Romania melt in the middle of the last decade, as a member of the Balkan boyband SHOT.
🇵🇹 Portugal: MARO – Saudade, Saudade
On stage with MARO at Eurovision are two singers (Diana Castro and Milhanas) that the artist actually competed against in the Portuguese pre-selection earlier in the year, Festival da Canção. The other three backing singers with MARO (Beatriz Fonseca, Beatriz Pessoa and Carolina Leite) also come from the domestic contest, but performed on stage with our artist while she was there, too.
🇫🇮 Finland: The Rasmus – Jezebel
Co-writer of Jezebel is Desmond Child, the American songwriter behind all-time classic hits such as Bon Jovi’s Livin’ On A Prayer, Cher’s Just Like Jesse James and Ricky Martin’s Livin’ La Vida Loca.
🇨🇭 Switzerland: Marius Bear – Boys Do Cry
Marius only became aware of his vocal talents during his compulsory military service with the Swiss army. His team heard him sing and quickly set him on the correct path to the rightful career he finds himself in today.
🇫🇷 France: Alvan & Ahez – Fulenn
The song Fulenn is based on an ancient myth from the artists’ homeland, Brittany. In the story, a young woman’s life meets a tragic end, all because of her desire to dance, which was forbidden at the time.
🇳🇴 Norway: Subwoolfer – Give That Wolf A Banana
Keith and Jim make up the duo Subwoolfer, who will be joined on stage by their musical mate DJ Astronaut. They come from the moon, and they are campaigning to have the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest hosted there, should they win on Saturday night.
The Snap that Rosa Linn refers to, is about snapping out of a personal lull, and commencing an important journey of self-discovery and healing.
🇮🇹 Italy: Mahmood & Blanco – Brividi
As with reigning Contest champs Måneskin, Mahmood shot to fame on The X Factor Italia. BLANCO joins him in Turin having just flown in from the US, where he shot an underwear campaign for a global fashion brand.
Not only has Chanel starred in productions of The Lion King, Flashdance, The Bodyguard and Mamma Mia, she’s also a Telenovela star in Spain, and therefore perfectly primed to bring the drama to her Eurovision performance.
🇳🇱 Netherlands: S10 – De Diepte
S10 is the moniker of Stien den Hollander, a singer, rapper and songwriter. Her favoured method of songwriting is to continuously add to a long list of inspiring sentences or phrases that have popped into her head, later building a song around them.
🇺🇦 Ukraine: Kalush Orchestra – Stefania
One of the group’s members already has experience of the Eurovision Song Contest: Ihor travelled to Rotterdam last year to compete with his other band, Go_A. You might remember their song, Shum!
🇩🇪 Germany: Malik Harris – Rockstars
Malik was inspired to write Rockstars after watching an episode of The Office! The quote 'I wish there was a way to know that you’re in the good old days before you’ve actually left them’ struck a chord with him and the rest followed.
🇱🇹 Lithuania: Monika Liu – Sentimentai
Not only is Monika an acclaimed performer in Lithuania, but she’s also served as a judge and mentor on talent shows like The Voice, The Masked Singer and I Can See Your Voice.
🇦🇿 Azerbaijan: Nadir Rustamli – Fade To Black
2022 is proving to be quite the year for Nadir; back in January he won the latest series of The Voice of Azerbaijan. When he was giving an interview about it on breakfast TV, the broadcaster surprised him by inviting him to represent Azerbaijan at the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest.
🇧🇪 Belgium: Jérémie Makiese – Miss You
Jérémie’s career in music runs parallel with his aspirations of becoming a professional footballer. A talented goalkeeper, the singer recently signed a contract to play for Excelsior Virton FC.
🇬🇷 Greece: Amanda Georgiadi Tenfjord – Die Together
At eight years of age, Amanda left Greece and relocated to Norway with her family. At school, she was in the same class as international pop star Sigrid!
🇮🇸 Iceland: Systur – Með Hækkandi Sól
Systur’s parents were in the Netflix Eurovision film, The Story of Fire Saga. Every time the elves appear in the movie, the song Heyr Himnasmiður is played. Their mother (Ellen Kristjánsdóttir) sings the vocals, and their father (Eyþór Gunnarsson) produces and sings on it as well.
🇲🇩 Moldova: Zdob şi Zdub & Advahov Brothers – Trenulețul
The artists released this song in October 2021, celebrating the train route from Chișinău to Bucharest being relaunched after two years of closure due to the pandemic.
🇸🇪 Sweden: Cornelia Jakobs – Hold Me Closer
Cornelia Jakobs auditioned back in 2008 for Swedish Idol. The judge that sent her packing, Anders Bagge, finished runner-up to Cornelia at this year’s Eurovision pre-selection in Sweden, Melodifestivalen.
🇦🇺 Australia: Sheldon Riley – Not The Same
The outfit that Sheldon performs in on stage at the PalaOlimpico – it weighs a whole 40 kilogrammes, causing the artist quite the logistical nightmare in getting it to Turin from Australia.
🇬🇧 United Kingdom: Sam Ryder – SPACE MAN
With 12.4 million followers on TikTok, Sam is the most followed British musician on the platform. He says he wrote SPACE MAN in approximately 12.4 minutes.
Ochman comes from a very musical family. His grandfather, Wiesław Ochman, is an internationally renowned operatic tenor, while his father, Maciej, was in a Polish rock band called Róże Europy.
🇷🇸 Serbia: Konstrakta – In Corpore Sano
In the early stages of her career, Konstrakta was in the band Zemlja Gruva. They had the honour of being the opening act for Amy Winehouse, at her last ever concert, in Belgrade in 2011.
Despite spending a good portion of 2020 in a giant ram costume (on The Masked Singer, which he won), Stefan was named the Estonia’s Sexiest Man of the Year by the popular magazine Kroonika.
📺 Playlist: The 25 Songs in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 Grand Final
Follow the official Eurovision Song Contest YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and Facebook channels – and subscribe to the Official Eurovision Song Contest Podcast.
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