Lisa Andreas - "Stronger Every Minute"
One of my all time favourite Eurovision entries...
So you can imagine how I felt when she agreed to an interview for LET ME BE THE ONE!
As I revealed during last week's show and the article to go with it, I had the good fortune and great pleasure to chat with Lisa via Zoom, me in the UK and her in Arizona! What she told me about her pre-Eurovision musical life, Eurovision itself and also her life now in the USA as a new artist is all in this week's show. Three separate parts plus some songs that are linked closely to her fill up hour one - have a listen to the Mixcloud below if you didn't catch it live:
And the playlist is here - hour two has the usual mix of news and new releases...
"Stronger Every Minute" (Greek Ending) - Lisa Andreas
Lisa Andreas Interview Part 1
"Stronger Every Minute" (Instrumental) - Lisa Andreas
"FANTASY REMIX 8" (Mariah Carey cover) - Lisa Andreas
Lisa Andreas Interview Part 2
"Shake It" - Sakis Rouvas
"Wild Dances" - Ruslana
Lisa Andreas Interview Part 3
"If Love Was A Crime" - Poli Genova
"Love Will Set You Free" - Engelbert Humperdinck
"Voilà" - Barbara Pravi
"Behöver inte dig idag" - Clara Klingenström
"Cœurs abîmés" - Madame Monsieur
"Cull Të Hutû" - Eugent Bushpepa
"xoxo" - zalagasper
"Mets Haykakan Harsaniq" - Iveta Mukuchyan
"Füst" - Boggie
"Ovo je ljubav" - Kameny ft Vanna
"Malebu" - Conchita Wurst
"Leva nu" - Frida Öhrn
The main part of the show this week is all about Lisa Andreas / Lisa Jayne Porter - she was one of my interview targets over the summer (something I mentioned during our chat) and I showed her the actual pencil list afterwards:
- The story about her first performance at that karaoke session was something that only chatting with an artist will bring to light. Having that confidence at such a young age probably explains why singing at the Cypriot National Final and then on the Eurovision stage in Turkey didn't phase her at all
- I had no idea that Peter Andre had written one of the entries in that National Final! "Me" by United might have been something that Lisa would have been happy to win but I am glad that history turned out the way it did!
- If you watch the SF performance and compare it to the Final, it is clear that her voice wasn't 100% and now knowing of her illness, I am amazed she managed such a brilliant job to get through. I also loved the the story about the back stage sound check and the sound engineer pointing out that it was only her for Cyprus, compared to most of the other artists
- You think you've done all your research and then your interviewee asks something and you don't know the answer! If you are going to tell someone that the UK gave 10 points in the SF and Final, perhaps it is natural to think that they might ask who got the 12s? We were clearly loving the Greek influences in the mid 2000s - Sakis Rouvas with "Shake It" got both of those! It was also nice to have some new information come my way with Lisa mentioning Turkey giving Cyprus their first points ever that year - Lisa obviously had a big influence on them.
- I had no idea that Ruslana and her dancers broke the 2004 stage, yet another great memory from Lisa. I could only find an article by esctoday.com about it afterwards, so that was a mind blown moment
- I read some information about her dancing career but I had no idea it stretched into musical theatre - a lady with many strings to her bow, given that she is now also a budding artist!
- I was joking about The American Song Contest application but Arizona could do far worse than to send a former top 5 Eurovision singer!
We spoke about social media with respect to her singing in the USA and her new art career - here is where you can find her:
Instagram
Singing and Performing https://www.instagram.com/lisajayneporter/
Art
Facebook
Lisa Jayne Porter Fan Club (aka Lisa Andreas) https://www.facebook.com/groups/633201630567822
Will we ever see her back at Eurovision? If her art continues to take off, chances are that singing might take a back seat but as she said, "Never Say Never"! Perhaps we will get to see her surrounded by press and fans as she was in Cyprus back in 2004:
I have to say that this was one of my favourite Eurovision interviews to do - Lisa was so easy to chat with and made it such an enjoyable experience. Given that she was one of the Eurovision artists I wanted to chat to this summer, the release of her EP now was such a fateful moment - maybe that list DID make it happen! Just one thing to say...
Lisa - thank you so much for your time and interest in chatting with me,
Here's hoping that whatever you want to do in the future is a massive success
and that you always keep a link to Eurovision!
Show 148 has been such a buzz that it is difficult to know how to follow it up - now I was just thinking of doing the normal news/new release type of show (as I said when I finished hour 2 in this episode) but I have had an idea for shows 149 and of course 150, one of which will involve you, my listeners and readers...
OUR MOMENTS OF EUROVISION 2021!
Mine first, just to give you an idea, next week on show 149 - there will be a mix of music and items from National Finals and Eurovision, aspects that affected me personally and also within the fandom, plus a couple of odd things that happened away from the Contest itself but were too good to miss. The first one involves this lady, her shoe and a drainage grill...
Tune in next week to find out
why Hanna Ferm kicks off
my list of Moments of 2021!