This week’s interview on the pod was with the talented and humble singer and dancer Kaleen! She is preparing to represent her home country of Austria at the 68th Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö next month!

Kaleen’s song We Will Rave was selected internally to represent Austria by broadcaster ORF back in January. Kaleen however is no stranger to Eurovision, having already performed as a stand-in singer in Lisbon back in 2018 and more recently, she was stage director at Junior Eurovision in Armenia.

“I was just really lucky at that year [2018] because I did have an audition in Lisbon for the group of people for the stand-ins, and there was just one spot free still, and Marvin Dietmann, who I worked with a lot, was stage director at that time. He just asked me if I would like to do that. Already having ‘Fuego’ in mind, because of course, you know, that I’m a dancer and a singer. Yeah, but then the other songs, I did not pick them. They just gave me the list. Okay, those are my songs. Learn the lyrics, learn the language, even if you don’t know the language, which I did, but yeah, the whole process is just is so much fun, really, and for everyone who does not know that there is a stand-in process, dig into it, and just do your research because it’s such a fun part of Eurovision.”

— Marie-Sophie Kreissl (Kaleen)

As Kaleen prepares the staging for her performance in Malmö, she’s remained tight-lipped about what we’ll see at Eurovision. We asked her if the staging at the pre-parties might give us a hint as to what she has planned for Malmö, or if we’ll see something completely different, and this was her response:

“Well, completely different way would be probably not really possible in work. The song is just what it is and we’re all just partying and raving even either at the pre-parties. But still, I haven’t shown anything yet that I will do on the stage in Malmö, so we’re really trying to keep it a secret and so hold things back. Yeah, also, otherwise, I’m just having the best time at the pre-parties.”

— Marie-Sophie Kreissl (Kaleen)

Be sure and check out the full interview with Kaleen (above) to find out her thoughts on her pre-party performances, her plans for after Eurovision, and what happened when she met Conchita! The episode is available now wherever you get your favourite Eurovision podcasts!

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