We recently had the pleasure to speak with Artūrs Šingirejs, better known to Eurovision fans as Dons. He will represent his home nation of Latvia at the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest in May.

Dons has tried before to make it to the Eurovision stage. In his two previous attempts to represent Latvia, he placed second both times, and in 2014 finished just 93 votes behind eventual winners Aarzemnieki in the Superfinal.

Since winning Supernova 2024 last month, Dons has been extremely busy preparing what the staging will look like for Eurovision, and he admits that there will be some changes to the song and the performance of Hollow:

“I’d like to give it away. I don’t want to jinx it. It’s a work in progress at the moment, but the thing is, I would say that there will be some changes because the stage offers technical differences between Rīga and Malmö. Yes, the outfit is going to be different. The arrangement, some parts in the song are going to be different. We crank it up a notch a little bit. And then there is the [Malmö] stage, it gives us opportunities. Yeah, there’s opportunity, we can choose to use it, or we can choose to not use it.”

— Artūrs Šingirejs (Dons)

During his career, Dons has also worked as a songwriter with Latvia’s 2015 Eurovision representative Aminata. We asked him if he had spoken with her since winning Supernova:

“When we did get the ticket for Malmö, I called her up and she was very happy and she shared some information how to prepare yourself. So she’s very kind and she’s very sweet and she has an incredible voice. I think she has been one of the best representatives of our country, […] I would say the best one so far for us. And then we are very happy to have her. Also I really enjoy writing songs with songwriters because that is the place in the room when you sit, like let’s say if you’re two, three of you, the ego just goes away.”

— Artūrs Šingirejs (Dons)

Be sure and check out the full interview with Dons (above). It is now available wherever you get your favourite Eurovision podcasts!

He also tells us about how Hollow was created, how traveling awakens his creative process, he gives us some clues about what his Eurovision postcard might look like, his best guess at who’s winning the NBA Finals this year, and even his tips for spending one day in Rīga!

How do you like Hollow? How will Latvia do at Eurovision 2024? Let us know in the comments and on our social media profiles @buildingbridgespod !