Kristian, the Little Wizard, and the Magic of a New Time
Материалът на български виж ТУК.
Text: Ralie Blag
Translation: Neil Scarth
I feel like sharing something nice and inspiring in connection with Kristian and his performance in the Eurovision Song Contest this year: by means of a dream of mine from the end of 2015, which I now recognise as a beautiful image which was gifted to me of what Kristian did for us all with his song pouring out from the Grand European stage.
I don’t know if there are others like me who felt on first listening to the song representing Bulgaria in this year’s competition that their wait for something extraordinary and very special had come to an end, but if there are, I know they’ll understand me. I’d never been such a big fan of Eurovision up until now but it’s this song in particular that made me to be. And Kristian, after all, is the one who holds the key to this magic. There’s something very special in him which could be seen right with his first appearance on X-factor. I’ll never forget the almost shocking sense of surprise he produced and continues to produce whenever he starts to sing, because no-one expects such a cute-looking child to demonstrate the voice and soulfulness of a performer and singer who can truly win people over with his artistic power. Maturity, style, taste… and a boundlessly moving sincerity. Energy from within transmitted in a captivating way through the voice.
And so it came about that I dreamt an interesting dream which I hadn’t managed to connect to anyone at the time, but I recently came to realise that the young guy in the dream had been Kristian. At that point there’d been no way for me to recognise him, despite the fact he’d been right before my eyes in the musical reality show, because the message of the dream was connected to his current performing. And how exactly did I recognise him? Right after hearing Beautiful Mess I was totally attracted, drawn in, involved… I became part of the film, so to say And I began once more to watch all manner of performances by Kristian on Youtube. After his performance of Chandelier at the beginning of X-factor, he’d fully captivated my attention but the truth is that his following debut single didn’t really impress me because I couldn’t sense the particular qualities I expected of him… so I’d forgotten him slightly, to be honest. On hearing Beautiful Mess, though, I was drawn back into the game with full force and one day I ‘saw’ him: the image from the dream surfaced while I was re-watching his performance of Wild Wild Dance, because there he’s dressed from head to toe in white, just like the young man in my dream.
I’d dreamed that I and my sister had gone to register with an agency and they were holding interviews for the purpose. A young man dressed from top to toe in snowy white had entered before me. I understood that he’d actually been a wizard: he was involved in white magic and had been telling his story but I remember nothing about it. I only remember that I was amazed that they’d left me to listen to him and watch him telling his tale and I was somehow aware at the time that the white magician was in reality the White Eagle inside and was using magic to become a human being… He wasn’t bothered by our entrance and I don’t even know if he actually noticed us because he continued his story/interview for the agency, gesticulating all the while with his hands. I noticed that he had a short haircut, with black hair, but his face was somehow outside my field of vision. And yet there was something Asiatic about him, he was fairly slim and upwardly oriented in terms of his figure. His palms and especially his fingers made a special impression on me: refined like those of an artist or pianist.
And that’s it. No action at all, neither exposition nor resolution of the story – only a beautiful character portrayal, but a very real one it seems to me, of Kristian and his white magic showered down from the world stage at Eurovision. Because with him it’s the particular energy which he radiates, both spiritually and mentally, which is the important thing about his singing. (And the White Eagle is, in my view, namely a symbol of an elevated spirit given flesh, come to give something to the world.)
‘You sing not with your voice, but with your heart,’
(Sanya, jury member in X-factor, Bulgaria)
‘What you’re doing is called true singing from the heart,’
(Dilma Bilan, jury member in The Voice Kids, Russia)
‘I’ve got a name for you and it’s ‘The Singing Heart’’
(Zaki, jury member in X-factor, Bulgaria)
And now comes the most important aspect of the whole thing: the reality of magic transferred to the everyday of our mutual relations. Teamwork reaching a new level in its dimensions. The most important thing, something which, as anticipated, is finally on the verge of finding its place in the world, is just this: the spirit of a new millennium applied to reality. Kristian is definitely a living embodiment of the essence of what is expected of us in the new era. And that is for us to work with a lofty spirit, the infectious energy of enthusiasm, fervour, responsibility and discipline, understanding, empathy, co-operation, warmth etc. And not just to achieve victory but to express and to give. Maybe this is the most essential lesson of his permanent residence in the number two spot[1]. Truly, the important thing is not rivalry and competition, but expressing and setting an example: it’s precisely this which is the basis of his personal journey and outlook on the world. The rest, if he needs it, will be bestowed on him The nice thing is that Kristian knows this…
And one more thing… I heard him say with child-like enthusiasm in one of his comments after Eurovision: ‘We ARE number one, the world just isn’t ready for us!’ The truth is that this was exactly my main feeling when I had my doubts about whether this song would ultimately win. I personally was instantly won over by it but I already knew Kristian and I knew what he expressed. It was just this quality of his, to be able to move and affect us as a performer with his purity, sincerity and the depth of emotion he conveys which first attracted the notice of Borislav Milanov, who wrote Beautiful Mess with his team especially for Kristian. Untouchable love, however, is still something whose realisation we’ll have to wait for…
It’s a fact that for most of the time up to the final of the Eurovision the public was attracted in its priorities by the rich of content ironic message of Occidentali Karma and the dancing gorilla. Yes, our civilisation is doing pretty badly and yet: is the ape-like part of us really what essentially characterises our existence? I cannot agree with this, because there is much more to our world, despite its obvious deficiencies. The song which ended up winning was truly the best and precise characteristic of nowadays – a pacifying option… A fine admission that the heart of Europe is sick and we are in need of a return to genuine values somehow, even though we’re still waiting and we don’t know for what exactly. Not that there isn’t a solution but we lack knowledge, perception and application to reality… And giving… – that outpouring (the splash of rain from white magic) which will wash away the pain and suffering of the past. The leading factor and most important aspect in the spirit Kristian radiates in terms of atmosphere is precisely that of joining together… and giving… in an utterly real way to the point of complete exhaustion if necessary, but always with the energy and intensity of rising up, of enthusiasm.
The messengers of the new time have yet to set the tone in this regard, in my view: and in all spheres of our social life, especially in that of politics. Changes are going to take place for certain – I have no doubts at all about that. And everyone who in one way or another has come into contact with what awaits us will understand my positive enthusiasm without scepticism. I can only wish that we’d already realised it… but alas, it has yet to come to us.
There was, though, something very particular in existence around Eurovision this year and I think that the unprecedented final results for the first two songs are highly characteristic of this. There has been no other year in which the jury and the public have been so unshakably unanimous. Portugal’s song didn’t budge for an instant from its top position while when it comes to the points gained by the first two songs and those further down, a clear borderline is to be seen, a great leap.
So here’s the latest portion of unique experiences accompanying Eurovision 2017, in this long broadcast by BNT HERE for those who know Bulgarian… Anyone who doesn’t will find extracts of this and other interviews further down, in the form of selected highlights.
Oh, and let’s not forget: when they asked Kristian in London what he would be if he wasn’t a singer, he answered: ‘I think I could be a good teacher. I really truly love teaching people new things.’ And his favourite film (genre) is Interstellar (see note [3])!
P.S. An interesting detail about the white magician is that on one of many mornings in a row which had begun for me with a look at the new materials around Eurovision and Kristian, something provoked me into sharing this beautiful characterisation written underneath his interview from Tel Aviv on Youtube. Several hours later… I burst in tears along with the participants in the promo-concert there when watching their press conference in Israel, which started and continued literally with the sharing of dreams and daydreams which come true.
Bulgaria won the prizes of the Press Centre in Kiev
(with over 1200 journalists from all over the world)
for the Best Stage Performance and the Best Visual Effects.
Highlights
______
K R I S T I A N
Kristian, video-blog, 11.05.2017
There was a kind of moment when everyone in my early childhood would explain to me that there was no chance of me making singing my occupation and that I should just forget all of my dreams completely. In the children’s choir I was always in the tenth row, the thirtieth on the left… and I was really upset about it. I took part in 90% of all our appearances but I was never a soloist. That did psychological damage to me as a child. I’ve never discussed it with my family, this right now is some kind of confession on my part… I’ve long since wanted to share this and so here’s the moment… I held a grudge against all these people who were always telling me I’d never fulfil my dreams, that I had to forget about it and occupy myself with something more serious. It was really insulting for me for them to tell me that I’d never be a singer; even the experts told me that my vocal cords weren’t right for it. That’s probably the driving force that made me keep going and now I hope to be a finalist in Eurovision, I hope everything will go well and that all those people who used to say that nothing would come of me will realise that I can actually be a singer and here I am..
I’ve never spoken about this, it really was very difficult for me… only we know how much I’ve worked, how deeply I got involved… Everyone talks about talent, talent, but talent is 10%, the rest is hours on end of working on your voice and on yourself and so on. It was really hard for me, I haven’t even let on about this to my mother… That’s why I myself always help people and all my friends know that they can always count on me because I know all too well what it’s like when there’s no-one you can rely on. And maybe helping people is like our family trait… and when you give, then you get it back.
Borislav Milanov*, press conference in Kiev, 06.05.2017
I think it’s easy to hear and see that Kristian is a world-class performer and his future, as I see it, is to be a world star. I can definitely say that.
*Borislav Milanov: the heart of Symphonics Musicology, who composed Kristian’s song, ‘Beautiful Mess’
Angelika Artunyan*, BNT, 14.05.2017
What did you spot in him? Because he’s always been relegated to the background somehow..
For me he has always stood above the others at the top. For me he is perfect. I’ve always told him this and I’ve always praised him. I haven’t been afraid to praise him because I knew that he takes things in exactly the right way. I’ve known him since he was 9. And from the viewpoint of my great experience as a musical educator I may say that for him there’s only one teacher and that’s God. He’s been kissed and sent to us for us to learn to be better people. I didn’t have to see anything. You can be blind, you just need ears to hear him. But even if you don’t have ears, you can feel the energy. He came and sang literally one phrase at our first meeting and I realised something that I immediately told his mum, his aunt, his brother and his father: this may sound extreme, because a certain amount of time needs to pass first, but worldwide fame awaits him. For me it was already clear after the first phrase.
*Angelika Artunyan, Kristian’s ‘Musical Mother’, is one of the first musical educators who recognized his talent and encouraged him to carry on working on himself.
Vyara Ankova*, BNT, 14.05.2017
Kristian is a warrior in the most beautiful senses of that word. He is so concentrated and disciplined in what he has to do that he turns it into his mission and you see this, you feel it and it gets transmitted back onto the whole team who’s behind him.
*Vyara Ankova, The General Director of BNT
Sanya Armutlieva, BNT, 14.05.2017
From the moment we started to be involved in X-factor, I’ve dreamed of having a platform for this boy where he can step forward and show who he is. Because I knew who he is.
*Sanya Armutlieva, Kristian’s Music Producer (Virginia Records)
BNT, 28.05.2017
Vladimir Mihailov*: When I heard the song for the first time… Bobby put it on for me, because we were working in the same studio, Perfect Records, but on different projects: without knowing who the performer was I remember just wondering who the singer could be! I had absolutely no idea that he was Bulgarian, because I know that Bobby works with singers from all over the world. I heard that performance and you could have knocked me down! And he said to me: that’s Kristian Kostov. I went: ‘No, that just can’t be true…’ But I remembered Kris from right back in the Bulgarian edition of X-factor, which he took part in. We were watching it with Misha, my wife, and when we heard, I can’t remember which performance it was exactly, but we both felt the tears well up immediately. We kept track of him the whole time so I don’t know what the first thing was that we heard but Kris has incredible charisma, apart from being unbelievably talented and hard-working as we’ve already found out. He has an unmistakable kind of charisma and I saw that in the Eurovision, where we were all backstage together, watching the big screen. You can’t mistake the genuine love of people for someone. The artists came and went and we all clapped, that’s normal, and we did it sincerely, but when Kris went on, people changed, I saw it with my own eyes. And I’m very glad. That’s simply charisma.
Kristian: I made friends with everyone around, I remember their names, I’ve got their telephone numbers… it’s obvious that that’s the secret of good relationships: you have to be sincere and grateful for the work they’re doing for you.
Journalist: You say that really quite often and that makes a good impression.
Kristian: A lot of people don’t appreciate that in principle it’s not you on the stage, it’s everyone together. I was selected because of BNT, the way I look was because of Demo Baza, the song because of Borislav Milanov and Symphonics Musicology, how I sound: the sound technicians, the backing vocalists, who were fantastic.. Here (he points to his chest, his heart) it was a little difficult for me to accept that I’ve got backing vocalists who sing three times as well as me… I can’t accept that… how can a backing vocalist be like a sensei to me… I could keep learning from Vlado for 10 years ahead, even just from the way he compresses the sound… I’m lost for words…
Sanya: This over-excited, exultant talk of Kristian’s with regard to his total success and the way he coped with this huge task called Eurovision, in an ordinary situation this would bother me, because there aren’t many people who have the potential to cope with this level of exultation. I don’t have any worries about Kristian, though. That day we had a laugh with him in the car – we were hurrying, we were running late, there was a blocked street… and at one point he turned to me and said: ‘You know, in my mum and in you there is some kind of beast which is ready to pounce just at the right moments to deal with various situations.’ I think there’s a beast like that in him too, a very likeable beast, and that’s his ruthless perfectionism towards himself.
*Vladimir Mihailov – a Bulgarian performer, one of the backing vocalists for Kristian in Eurovision
www. tjournal. ru, 20.03.2017
Journalist: Alla Pugachova has a song, ‘Kristian’, in which the lyrical hero is called ‘the warrior of love’, who is described as ‘handsome and adrift’. Does this song apply to you or does this image in no way approximate to the truth about you?
Kristian: I don’t think I’m quite so far adrift, but you could say ‘extraordinarily emotional’ (he laughs). I haven’t actually thought what lyrical hero I could be compared with. Maybe the closest figure for me is the one from Ed Sheeran’s song ‘Give me love’: brave and slightly lonesome.
Journalist: You say that your guru is Ed Sheeran and you describe him as a ‘perfectly normal young person’. What do you really mean by this concept?
Kristian: A normal person for me is someone who, regardless of his achievements, doesn’t get above himself. But to be ‘abnormal’ in the sense of ‘unconventional’ is necessary even. We stand out from each other by means of our atypical features and imperfections. A lot of people say about me that I’m overly joyful about life or that I should fix the gap between my teeth, but I don’t intend to change anything. It’s imperfections that make us something out of the ordinary and interesting.
Ventsi Vents*, BNT, 14.05.2017
In my view, music is something fundamentally, essentially, practically valuable: it’s a bridge between people, a bridge between the generations and between those who have their differences. Kristian has been an ambassador for this kind of thing. An ambassador for bridges between people and for this intelligent future way in which we’ll communicate: with music, with art…
Dara*: …with the soul…
Ventsi: …with the soul, yes.
*Ventsi Vents and Dara, Bulgarian performers, friends of Kristian
www.gazeta.ru, 18.05.2017
Journalist: You’ve probably had some conversations with the other participants in Eurovision. What was the atmosphere like? Could the rivalry be felt?
Kristian: I set out with the thought that we’d be competing against each other, that we’ll have rivals round about, ones we’d have to beat. But when we got to know each other, we became one big family. I don’t know how it’d been in other years, but this year the atmosphere was the main thing in Eurovision. We all helped each other: if someone wasn’t well, the others dashed to buy him medicine; if there were problems with the sound, someone would go to give a signal to the producer, someone else would let the Sound Director know. It was really nice.
Journalist: And did anyone help you personally?
Kristian: Absolutely everyone. I’m maybe the only one of the participants who had a knack of getting on with absolutely everyone.
https://twitter.com/LinditaWorld/status/864065511356858368
Demi, representative of Greece for Erovision, 13.05.2017:
He is the youngest and he is so wise… And he has an amazing voice – I told him before that his voice is golden. It’s true! I love him, I love his voice, I love his energy… And his song is amazing.
BNT, 14.05.2017
Sanya: I could say that at the start I approached the partnership with BNT with a certain distrust. I’m talking without any pretence right now. You know I don’t have much talent for pretending. I’m amazed by the people I worked with at all levels in BNT. Just to let you know, I’ve never been in this kind of situation… I haven’t been in such a positive cloud of energy. We really trusted each other and somehow started to love each other.
Journalist: This love will be talked about for a long time to come. Kristian even managed to win the love of his rivals. Now let’s welcome into our studio Vyara Ankova, yet another of Kristian’s mothers, and Ioanna Levieva, the head of the Bulgarian delegation.
Vyara: Kristian had a lot of mothers…
Ioanna: In this connection, I’d just like to say that Kris actually has a wonderful mum, whereas we’re just his partners. He is a fully equal partner in this team, no matter that he’s just 17 years old.
Nova TV, 14.05.2017
Journalist: What people don’t know is that behind this delicate appearance stands a Bulgarian-Russian machine. He has a fantastic character, he’s really disciplined and I don’t know whether the viewers can sense this, but he has a certain hardness in his character.
Sanya: That’s no joke: he IS a machine. A unique character. We were so tired after everything, we sat in the plane for Bulgaria and I told him about a book which is called ‘Talent is over-rated’. We talked about the fact that 90% of what makes some people extremely good at what they do professionally is actually the way in which they work, they have a little private cell in their brains which lets them cope with all the effort, which is neither fun nor pleasure, but which they have to pass through.
Journalist: Those of us who managed to hear from you in the meantime understood that Kristian had a serious health problem in the final days, with a high temperature, a sore throat..?
Sanya: Well… Kristian caught a cold three days before the final and wasn’t at all well. Before the final in front of the jury he was actually really ill.
Journalist: What did he manage to pluck up at that point: psychological strength, character, what?
Kristian: Emotion. Emotion is the most important thing for a performer. As I said about Salvador: he excites people. And that’s maybe the thing that makes us stand out from the others, because we sing more with meaning rather than trying to put on some kind of show. We approached it from the side of ‘Less is more’.
Vyara, BNT, 14.05.2017
This is a competition, they’re going to be zeroes and there’ll be 12’s. But there’s one main thing. Kristian is the great winner for me in this Eurovision, because he’s 17 years old and he managed to overcome the tension and the responsibility he bore on his shoulders.
bTV, 15.05.2017
Kristian: This year both Salvador and I were the true winners, but the moment was his. I don’t think I was weaker than him or that he was stronger or weaker: we were just different and right at this point the public chose him. And I don’t think it was because of the information that he had a health problem. Look at his performance, the way he moved his hands: he literally touches your soul when he sings, he plays music with his body.
Journalist: A lot of people support and genuinely admire Salvador. His song is unique. In the final, after the last performance with his sister, who had written his song and who helped him, I sensed a general feeling of people being at peace. Maybe that after all was the message of Eurovision this year. That’s what they’d wanted: at the end for a common sense of peace to be heard.
Sanya: This year it was a really beautiful Eurovision because something happened there. We were absolutely privileged to take part in the whole thing. We lived there like we were in a love balloon.
Kristian (in another interview): This year Eurovision was really some kind of little revolution.
The S O N G
and the energy of its magic
Kristian, www.eurovision.bg, April 2017
Every time I perform Beautiful Mess it’s as if I enter some kind of very special state of mind that I can’t quite explain. The song overwhelms me completely and it’s as if it’s leading me and not the other way around. A unique feeling! I’ve never experienced this with any other song up to now.
Kristian, BNT, 12.05.2017
I have astigmatism – I can’t focus and distinguish well the colors. I can’t see the audience and that’s probably serves in help with me, because when I’m on the stage, I have this feeling that I’m alone, but in my mind I imagine that there is an army of people behind me, which support me. I have this feeling that they push me, they help me, they stand by me while I’m singing… Because I don’t remember anything after I sing the song. I don’t remember the rehearsals… All the times when I was on the stage I had the feeling that somebody overtakes me and than everything flows by itself. And I say this not because it sounds beautiful, but because I just feel that way. Every time I watch my videos later, it’s little strange for me, because I actually watch them as a stranger – I don’t remember a thing and don’t know what I did or what I missed to do.
Borislav Milanov, at a press conference in Kiev, 06.05.2017
The main idea we thought of in the beginning was to put together a song for Kristian which would show his full power. Not just in terms of his vocal qualities but, above all, in terms of his emotions because he is a really pure and sincere artist. He is one of those performers who, when he pours out all that energy from within, can leave no-one indifferent: everybody senses this in a wonderful way. That’s why from the very beginning the song was created especially for him. And it remains his, if you ask me. It’s a beautiful song, but I can’t imagine anyone else singing it the way he sings it.
Kristian, BNT, 28.05.2017:
Everything was very spontaneous. Symphonics Musicology sent us a demo. Sanya called me and said that I had to come to Sofia urgently for her to show me something special and important. Right the next day I arrived from Moscow, because I had a presentation of ‘Next Level’. After the presentation, I went to the office straight away. Sanya told me about the song and asked me whether I wanted to take part in BNT’s competition to appear in Eurovision. At first I refused, I said, ‘No, no, I don’t want to. It’s terrifying! How can I, aged 17…?’ And I knew who some of the performers are – for example Robin from Sweden had already been selected and I said to myself: ‘How can I compete with such a stage presence! No chance – I don’t want Bulgaria to be disappointed with me…’ Then Sanya showed me the song and I said, ‘I don’t care how well I’ll get on… I’m in love with the song, come on, let’s get down to work! I won’t perform badly, we’ll work every day…’ And that’s how we started.
www.wiwibloggs.com, 03.05.2017:
Journalist: To me you’re almost like futuristic fashion model. Are you taking on a character?
Kristian: Yes, I’m feeling like a futuristic… world saver – hero… yes, and I’m trying like to shout to people that we should stop this mess.
Journalist: And how does the message relate to the staging?
Kristian: I’m alone, I’m all alone in a small room and the whole world is watching. So, from one side we are all alone but from the other side we are all together and love is the thing that connects us…
BNT, 14.05.2017
Vyara Ankova speaking to Kris about his performance in the final in Kiev:
We were sitting, Sanya and I, and since this energy was pouring out of you, this current, we tried to transmit it to the whole team and the viewers like this (she makes a funny gesture with her hands)…
Sophy, Kristian’s friend from his early childhood:
There was some special kind of flow of energy in him that just goes right through you. There was a lot of emotion which just flowed out of him. I sat and cried… It’s impossible for me to describe my emotions.
Borislav Milanov: The lovely thing is that Bulgarians now see that we have to come forward with really high quality stuff, not just to settle for something which we think will be popular. It’s more that we have to be ourselves. The song was created by an international team, but it began in a room in Lozenets (in Sofia), in my studio. It began with a Bulgarian idea.
Radio LOVE, 23.05.2017
Kristian: The company is Symphonics Musicology. The guys are just incredible! They write amazing music for artists like Kelly Clarkson and now they’re offering a song to Usher. I mean they have to choose whether it’s for Kristian Kostov or Usher. It’s a bit awkward for me, because Usher for me is just an idol and I’m waiting for an answer about whether I can record this song or it’ll be Usher after all. Really, these are some of the best musicians I’ve worked with and some of the best composers, everyone in the team has their own role. One of them deals with the sound mastering, another one writes the lyrics, another one the music… and I’m astonished how these three people (there are three people in Symphonics Musicology but Beautiful Mess was written by five people, i.e. another two joined in) – it’s hard to imagine how well they sense things from each other, how they get on so well and are just on the same wavelength…
Daniel, Kristian’s brother: They’re like close relatives – they understand each other with just a few words or even with just a look…
Journalist: Tell us: how much did they charge you for the pleasure? Was it paid for with your own personal funds or by a sponsor…?
Daniel: Actually, it wouldn’t be ethical to talk about the price here because for us it was considerably lower than the normal cost.
Kristian: They all worked from the soul.
Daniel: You could say they just liked Kristian and I want to give a special thanks to Borislav Milanov, who we worked especially closely with. He is the heart of the company, so to speak, and he really genuinely likes Kristian.
BNT, 14.05.2017
Borislav Milanov about the critical moments:
I want to mention a really critical aspect, which started right back in Bulgaria and for which I ought to apologise to Sanya Armutlieva, because when we were working really intensely and great together as a team, I let myself be led astray into an intrigue where they tried to divide us as a team but it didn’t succeed because the message of this song is exactly that: that shared love, our love, is untouchable by any kind of malice or envy. And I must say that this was definitely the formula for our joint success. That boy over there united us. Such different people, producers, attitudes, BNT… he inspired us and we were working for Bulgaria there, and not for ourselves and our egos.
Kristian (about the problems with the sound quality): We overcame them thanks to Borislav, I’m telling you – seriously!
Borislav: That’s normal. We know how hard it had been for Ukraine to make this thing possible and right from the first rehearsal there were problems. The people there were stressed out, all the countries were complaining, but I found, let’s say, a good approach to making sure our sound was right.
Kristian (from another interview, speaking about the same problem): I’ll let you in on a tiny secret: when you are friends with everyone, you’re in good hands.
https://twitter.com/willyleeadams/status/863729417780174851
Miscellaneous ups and downs
BNT, 14.05.2017
Journalist: Congratulations once again on the best look in Eurovision.
Sanya: His look is once again thanks to some Bulgarians who did some border-hopping and those are the absolutely unique people from Demo Baza, who do the costumes for ‘Star Trek’, ‘Resident Evil’, ‘Game of Thrones’ (some seasons)…
Kristian: On the red carpet everyone was asking us where we’d got our outfits, what is that?! I told them: From Bulgaria, you know – you’re welcome to come!
Journalist: And what’s that story that Kristian almost ended up singing in the final without a costume?
Sanya: The story is that we were going back at 2 in the morning after the concert for the jury for the final. Everyone was coming out of the venue in surges.
Kristian: We didn’t have any strength left, my voice was gone…
Sanya: Kristian came out with his little bag with the costume in it, our bus was late and Bobby put Kris on the French one in the meantime, so he didn’t get cold because he’d been fighting really severe pains in this throat for two days, tonsillitis, antibiotics… We arrived at the hotel, he turned round and… ‘Where is… my… bag?’ and at that moment we realised that the bag wasn’t there. We started to ring up the French… At which point our two co-ordinators from Ukraine, two wonderful girls, on their way to take a taxi, had seen, quite by accident, some kind of serious crowd gathering in front of the venue with dogs and security guards… they’d found a bag in the middle of the street, our bag…
Kristian: They’d cordoned off the zone and wanted to blow up the suitcase because they thought it was something dangerous…
(in the TV studio they burst out laughing in unison)
Journalist: An explosion? Kristian Kostov who blew up Eurovision!
Kristian (covering his face with his hand): Hm, only I could do that, something like that could only happen to me… I’m speechless…
Kristian, video-blog, 26.05.2017
What does an ordinary day of yours look like?
Everything starts with me not being able to wake up, then something else that I can’t do begins, I can’t manage to get enough to eat, then without fail I have to be late, then I definitely have to lose something or break something, then after that It’s all of a sudden time to go to bed again…
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[1] Always in the second line in children’s choir appearances; a finalist, but not a winner in New Wave Junior and The Voice Kids; second in X-factor, second in Eurovision too…. Maybe we have to wait for little Krisia, who also gained a respectable second place in Children’s Eurovision in 2014 and in New Wave Junior in 2015, to grow up and then with Kristian together in a duet to mop up all the points finally 😉 The power of unity in action!
See also:
Kristian Kostov – a citizen of the world who reaches ‘untouchable’ heights of the heart