Czech Republic | Mikolas Josef: I Was Offered To Sing "My Turn" In Kyiv
Recently, team Eurovoxx were able to sit down and speak to Mikolas Josef, the 22 year-old is bidding to represent Czech Republic in the Eurovision Song Contest which his self penned entry "Lie To Me" and will find out, like the rest of us on January 29th if he is chosen. But it was almost a very different story.
During the interview - which you can see for yourself here Mikolas admits he had been contacted by the broadcasters Eurovision department last year, as well as being contacted this year asking if he would be interested in submitting Lie To Me:
"I know we had talks with the ESC Division here in Czech Republic last year also, and I'm really that also this year they contacted me and they said, we would like you to go with "Lie To Me" and that made me really happy because last year it wasn't my song and I wasn't really feeling the connection"
Mikolas has been rumoured to be a considered artist in the past since the Czech Republic have returned to the competition in 2016, and although at this point did not reveal what song he was alluding to he was offered, later on he later revealed he was offered to sing in Kyiv with the song "My Turn" the song which was taken to Kyiv, but instead sung by Martina Barta, who unfortunately failed to qualify from the first semi final, despite finishing top ten with the juries, Martina only scored two points in the public vote.
Depsite being contacted and been in talks in the past of being an internal selection, Mikolas seems to be relishing being a competitor in this new selection, the first time a Czech Republic has used a national selection format since 2008.
"We always had talks and I'm really happy its this way (competing in a national selection format) because it's the people of Czech Republic who are voting"
We also asked Mikolas how does it feel to have his nation competing back in Eurovision after an extended break before in returning in 2015, he spoke proudly or the way Eurovision is changing and pushing music in the Czech Republic as a whole saying:
"I think competing in Eurovision is something that is really needed in countries like the Czech Republic, because if kind of pushes artists...I was at the press conference and you could this is something that really motivates people to do more international sounding music and thats always welcome and I feel we have made a lot of progress and with the new generation it looks like we are not afraid to sing in English and compete with other international artists"
Mikolas revealed he had been approached to sing "My Turn" when asked if the diversity of styles of the Czech Republic's prior entries since their return was a good thing and something he wishes to see continue in future years, by saying:
"I think the diversity is really important so the people can decide what they like. When they presented the song to me that Martina went with last year they wanted me to put some vocals on it and I said that I don't want to do it because I wasn't really confident about the song. A lot of the songs are wrote for competing and just don't feel real to me. I think it's really good to have something authentic, something that the people have written themselves and it kinda makes sense because in some quotation is the project of Czech Republic, this is what we do here. Not that I wouldn't like it (My Turn) but it just wasn't my style"
Although it is unclear if the song would have stayed in the same arrangement Martina had for Mikolas or that it would've garnered a better result, but safe to say after hearing "Lie To Me" and some of Mikolas' other back catalogue, a slow contemporary jazz song would be a step in the unknown for him it seems, and seems happy to have waited a year before trying with his own song. Will we see it in Lisbon? Despite the popularity surrounding his song, he and the rest of us will have to wait until January 29th to find out who has won and therefore will represent the Czech Republic in Lisbon 2018.
