Will “Proud” be his ticket back to the biggest stage in Europe?

Fourteen years after capturing hearts as the frontman of A Friend in London at Eurovision 2011, Tim Schou is making his return to Dansk Melodi Grand Prix.

Best known for his dynamic stage presence and the anthemic New Tomorrow, which secured Denmark a top-five finish in Düsseldorf, Schou is now stepping back into the spotlight as a solo artist with his DMGP entry Proud.

His journey over the past decade has been anything but conventional—selling his apartment, couch-surfing around the world, and rediscovering his artistry on his own terms. Now, with a deeply personal song and a renewed passion for Eurovision, Schou is ready to make a statement and potentially bring Denmark back to the Grand Final.

Tim Schou has been drawn 2nd in the running order of eight songs in the DMGP Final. Tim wrote Proud along with Benjamin Rosenbohm (Denmark 2020), Emil Adler Lei, and Joachim Ersgaard.

We began the interview by asking Tim what memories remain from his Eurovision 2011 experience in Germany:

“I just remember the afterparty being such a rush of pure joy and love and partying. We partied hard back in 2011. […] For me, going from being a 23-year-old kid into adulthood of now 37—it’s two very different times in life.”

— Tim Schou

Given the fourteen-year gap since his last crack at Eurovision, the interview turned to Tim’s motivation to return in 2025:

“Once that Eurovision bug started to crawl under my skin, I felt scared to go back into this game. And I was like, ‘Okay, if I feel this scared, I need to face that fear.’ […] I wrote maybe 10, 15, maybe even 20 songs… and then I went back to the first one I had written, and it was ‘Proud’. I kind of knew it when I wrote it, but I wanted to keep going to see if I could beat it. But that song was just so genuine.”

— Tim Schou

Part of Tim’s journey after the breakup of A Friend in London took him through the United States, where he had some interesting experiences that took him out of his comfort zone:

“I had four nights at a shopping mall in California where I slept on the floor for four days on a rug. I was hiding from the mall cop every night, waiting for him to close down. Then I could literally walk around the whole mall. It was like ‘Night at the Museum’ with Ben Stiller.”

— Tim Schou

To hear more from Tim Schou, be sure to check out the full interview (above) and hear more about his journies around the globe since Düsseldorf 2011, his preparations for DMGP 2025, and his views on some of the challenges Denmark faces at Eurovision.

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Podcast thumbnail image: Simone Schødts