Back for a second time this season, we were thrilled to have another chat with Iceland’s sweetheart, Hera Björk! We last spoke with her just before the Semi Finals of Söngvakeppnin in Iceland, and now she’s less than a month away from representing her country at Eurovision for a second time!

Hera’s song Scared of Heights is set to perform 8th in the running order of Semi Final 1 in Malmö. During our time with Hera, she reflected on how different the 2024 experience has been when compared to her path to Eurovision 2010 in Oslo, and she opened up that the road to Malmö has lamentably had its fair share of nastiness:

“I just try to to send empathy out as much as I can and I have a lot of it because I get a lot of support and I get a lot of amazing messages as well. I would say it’s a much bigger portion of the positive supportive messages than the negative ones. But of course, the negative, they hurt and they’re intense feelings […] Some of them like really ugly and really meant to hurt. But I’m a grown up lady. So I know where it comes from. I can deal with it. But I feel for my fellow contestants, the younger artists. I really feel for them because I think that this is not something that they deserve.”

— Hera Björk

But it’s not all doom and gloom for Hera – her sights are focused on her performance and she gave us a few small hints at what to expect:

“Well, we’re gonna keep it true to the song and to me as a performer so I mean there’s gonna be me there, and I’m gonna have my backing [singers]. But we are so gonna use and abuse this stage because it’s gorgeous. It’s so big and it’s so glamorous and it has so many features and the Swedes are of course the Olympians of Eurovision so it would be foolish not to make the most of it. So we will have some gimmicks we will elevate the staging and the song a little bit without losing sight of what matters!”

— Hera Björk

Be sure and check out the full interview with Hera Björk (above) to find out how she’s dealing with negative fans, her pre-party experiences so far, and how to walk a red (or turquoise) carpet like a pro! Dave even puts her real estate knowlege to the test! The episode is available now wherever you get your favourite Eurovision podcasts!

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