Tali wins the Eurovision Song Contest for Luxembourg!
Back in August 2023, I wrote an article about Tali Golergant, this wonderful young female singer/songwriter from Luxembourg living in NYC who really impressed me.
My fascination would compel me to cover Tali’s now memorable performance with her eponymous band at Bowery Electric in the East Village last July. I didn’t know what was next in store for this young emerging talent. In the end, I can now take great pride in saying my gut feeling was spot on. I really know how to pick ‘em!
Fast forward to present. Tali Golergant, now simply known as “T A L I,” recently won the Luxembourg National Final for the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 with her performance of the song Fighter. She’s now headed to compete in Europe’s largest and most prestigious live music event, the World Final of the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo, Sweden from May 7 – 11.
Tali and I first met on a late night last May in a coffee shop on 23rd Street. She had just finished performing with New Aviv City at the Cutting Room. That happened exactly one year to the date of the upcoming Malmo Grand Finale. I can’t make that up. What’s even crazier is that I never go to that coffee shop!
Recently I had a chance to interview TALI in Greenwich Village.
K: You’re going to Malmo. How does it feel?
T: I was very overwhelmed at first, but I feel like now I’m starting to be serenely calm. And really just trying to tackle one day at a time and prepping and doing all the things I need to do. But yeah, it’s insane. I can’t even put it into words. One month later, it’s hard for me to understand that I’m going.
K: Tell us how the opportunity to perform for the Eurovision song contest came about.
T: Last summer Luxembourg announced that they were back in the Eurovision after a 31-year absence. That’s when I submitted as a songwriter and as a singer. I actually sent in a couple of videos from Bowery Electric and four of my own songs that I co-wrote with other people.
There were a couple auditions and the last one was in-person. I was just trying out my luck while being a music teacher and a nanny in New York. I flew all the way to Luxembourg for the final audition during Thanksgiving week. So it happened to be like the universe was with me. It was the week off from all of my three jobs.
I did the audition and flew back to New York. I had no clue if I passed. Then I got the song Fighter and they were like, “We love your songs, but we have this one song that we really want to do. Are you open to singing someone else’s song?”
When I heard the song, I fell in love with it. I thought it was a really cool commercial song that also lyrically spoke a lot to me. Then I did a take at 2:00 a.m. with a crappy mic with my boyfriend in his room. We just did it and sent it in. And the next day, turns out I’m in the finals. So the whole process was back and forth across continents and it was really intense, but I’m very thankful I went through that.
K: Your vocal performance was flawless and the dancers were amazing. Who created and choreographed that fabulous dance sequence?
T: It’s artist choreographer Mohr Hamami. She’s incredible. She also did Noah Kirill’s choreography last year who got third in the Eurovision and she did all the acts in the final.
K: How much rehearsing was required to pull everything together so perfectly?
T: We only had two weeks to learn choreography with the in-ears, the sound, the fire, the screens, everything. So it was pretty tight.
K: What do you have planned for your grand finale performance?
T: Song choice-wise it’s the same one. However, we are changing the production. We’re going to add a couple of little things here and there. I can’t really talk about in detail, but it’s going to be a lot bigger and I’m excited.
K: Is there anything else you’d like to say to Village View readers?
T: Thank you for reading and I hope you can support me in Malmo. You can vote even if you’re not in Europe. We don’t have that information yet, but you can vote through your phone with a text message. The exact link will be shared by the Eurovision website. I’ll definitely make sure to post it on Instagram if people just follow me @taligolergant.
K: Thank You for taking us on this exciting journey and we can’t wait to see you shine! It’s been a great joy to see your incredible progress unfold and chat with you. Very proud of you. Wishing you great success in Malmo in the final. I hope you win everything.
For more information, go to the Eurovision website. To watch my full interview, go to my YouTube channel @radjet.
Read this article where I originally wrote it in The Village View HERE.
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KAJU ROBERTO is an accomplished musician, singer/ songwriter, journalist, and an award-winning producer. He is the artist Rad Jet on Spotify.