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One Big Family: This is what we know about tonight's contestants

16 May 2019 at 19:47 CEST
MyHeritage is the Presenting Partner of the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest. Photo: MyHeritage
MyHeritage is the Presenting Partner of the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest. As part of their One Big Family project, they have extensively researched the background of several of tonight's contestants based on their DNA mix.

Romania's hopeful has a big family!

Ester Peony, this year’s Romanian Eurovision representative, is 98.4% Balkan and 1.6% Ashkenazi Jewish! They found 874 of Ester's relatives from 42 different countries all around the world, from Brazil to the United Arab Emirates to Japan. One family member in Germany has over 2,000 relatives listed in his MyHeritage family tree.

READ MORE: Ester’s Love for Romania is in Her DNA (external link)

A not entirely Baltic Carousel

This year’s Eurovision contestant for Latvia is Carousel, whose founding members are Mārcis Vasiļevskis and Sabīne Žuga. Both of them took MyHeritage DNA tests to learn more about their ancestors.

READ MORE: Latvia’s Band Carousel Discovers Their Roots!

The spirit of the Northern Atlantic

KEiiNO will be representing Norway in this year’s Eurovision. The trio was formed in 2018 by award-winning singer-songwriter Tom Hugo, Sami rapper and joiker Fred Buljo and singer Alexandra Rotan. Their entry, “Spirit in the Sky,” blends electronic pop music with traditional Nordic folk melodies and joik, the traditional song form of the Sami people. The spirit of the Northern Atlantic is infused in the song’s DNA and that’s no surprise in light of the band members’ DNA results!

READ MORE: The Spirit of the Northern Atlantic is Infused in KEiiNO’s Song and DNA (external link)

Ireland... West Asian!?

Ireland’s contestant for Eurovision 2019, Sarah McTernan, is 94.4% Irish, Scottish and Welsh, as well as 2.9% Balkan, and 2.7% West Asian!

READ MORE: Sarah McTernan Discovers Surprising Ethnicities in Her DNA Results (external link)

Love of music in DNA

Roko Blažević, sings for Croatia at Eurovision this year and it turns out that he is 91.7% Balkan, 7% North and West European and 1.3% Middle Eastern! MyHeritage found 935 of Roko’s relatives from 41 countries, mostly from the USA and Europe, but also in places like New Zealand, Chile, Iraq, and Turkey.

READ MORE: Roko’s Love for Music and Croatia are in his DNA (external link)

An ethnic chameleon

The heritage of this year’s Eurovision contestant for Malta, Michela Pace, perfectly fits the themes of her competing song, Chameleon. She is 28.2% Italian, 28% Greek and South Italian, 14.5% Sephardic Jewish, 13.6% Sardinian, 6% North African, 4.3% West Asian, 3.7% Middle Eastern, and 1.7% Nigerian! Quite the ethnic chameleon!

READ MORE: Michela Pace’s DNA Results Match Her Song, Chameleon (external link)

Proud of your ancestry

It may not come as a surprise that Tamara Todevska, this year’s Eurovision contestant for North Macedonia is 86% Balkan, but it’s the remaining 14% where things get interesting: she is also 3.4% Scandinavian, 1.7% Finnish, 3.3% Ashkenazi Jewish, and 5.6% North African! MyHeritage found 785 of her relatives from 41 different countries, many of them from the USA and Europe, but some as far-flung as Nigeria, Mexico, Hong Kong, and Kazakhstan.

READ MORE: North Macedonia’s Tamara Todevska & the Heritage She Never Knew Existed (external link)

Want to know more about the background of this year's participants? Check out the MyHeritage Eurovision Song Contest website!