Swiss Eurovision star: I would love for Celine Dion to be in Basel
Swiss singer Zoe Me has said she would 'love' it if Canadian star Celine Dion makes a comeback at this year's Eurovision Song Contest.
Dion, 57, who won in Dublin in 1988 with Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi, has stepped away from touring in recent years, due to increasing health issues while living with stiff-person syndrome (SPS).
She did return to the stage at the Paris Olympics last year, bringing an emotional end to the opening ceremony with her singing Edith Piaf's classic L'Hymne A L'Amour while in the Eiffel Tower.
There has been increased speculation and rumours that Dion would perform in Basel as she represented Switzerland more than three decades ago, and the country has not won since then until Swiss singer Nemo clinched victory with The Code last year at Malmo.
Me told the PA news agency: 'I would love for Celine Dion to be in Basel, I don't know if she's there or not, but I love to meet her.'
She added that it would be 'mind blowing' if Dion saw her work as the singer won in French, and Me's entry Voyage is in the same language.
'I wouldn't say that she was a main inspiration for my work, but I did kind of want to make Switzerland proud and show the world what Switzerland has done over the previous years,' she added.
'So I mean, in my music video, you see an outfit that is a little bit inspired by the outfit that she wore, when she won. It's not the same at all, but it's like the same colour and the same kind of feel to it.'
The Swiss singer, who was born in Basel where the competition will be hosted next week, has taken UK talent on board in the form of writing Voyage in Scotland, working with Scottish songwriter Ili, a former X Factor star whose name is Emily Middlemas, and Theo Adams, the stage director behind Olly Alexander's Dizzy in 2024.
Me called where she stayed, between Edinburgh and Glasgow, 'a peaceful little place on Earth', which inspired her.
She said: 'So I thought that there's a lot of negativity in the world, and that we need to come together as people again and spread kindness, be kind to each other, support each other, show love to each other, and that was the moment Voyage was born.
'And I think if I hadn't been in Scotland, maybe I wouldn't have felt that was what the world needed in that moment.'
Last year, Eurovision was less than easy with contestants complaining about backstage issues. The organisers – the European Broadcasting Union – have enacted updated welfare reforms this year.
Me said that this year there was code of conduct for acts to 'sign', and called it 'basically just a lot of rules, you have to be kind to each other, you're not allowed to, like, say mean things, or, like, laugh about each other's, like, stagings… I was like, 'but that's like, obvious''.
She added: 'Apparently it's not obvious, which make me think, you know Voyage's it's even more relevant than what I thought it would be. Because if people think it's necessary to hand out a document that says, literally, 'be kind to each other'.'
As a previous winner, Switzerland is straight through to Eurovision final on May 17, but Me says she does not 'feel pressure'.
'I think the main goal for me is reaching people's hearts and maybe changing their lives for the better,' she said.
Switzerland will first perform in the semi-final, which begins on May 13 at 8pm BST.
Dion's rare condition, which causes progressive muscular inflexibility, was documented in her 2024 documentary I Am: Celine Dion.
She spoke during it of the pain she is living with, and her desire to return to performing.
The five-time Grammy-winner had revealed her SPS diagnosis in December 2022 before cancelling her Courage World Tour.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Car and Driver
2 hours ago
- Car and Driver
Brian Wilson, Beach Boys Singer and Hot-Rod Icon, Has Died at 82
Brian Wilson, co-founder of the Beach Boys, has died at the age of 82. In the early 1960s, Wilson's music brought SoCal hot-rodding culture to the world. He wasn't a hot-rodder himself, but he did nurture a love for the Chevrolet Corvette. As the co-founder of the Beach Boys, Brian Wilson brought an idealized view of early '60s SoCal living across the United States and around the world: sun, sand, surf, and a hot set of wheels. He died this week at age 82 and leaves behind a catalog of some of the most iconic entries in the American songbook and some of the best summer cruising music ever written. Born in Hawthorne, California, in 1942, Wilson grew up surrounded by drag strips and racetracks, coming of age in the time fictionally portrayed in American Graffiti. Famously, most of the Beach Boys weren't actually surfers themselves, and likewise, Wilson wasn't much of a car guy. However, he grew up steeped in an environment of hot-rod culture, and it couldn't help but percolate into his music. getty images 1963's "Little Deuce Coupe" is probably the best-known car-themed Beach Boys tune. A deuce is, of course, a '32 Ford, the kind of plain-Jane car a youngster could pick up for newspaper-delivery money, then swap in V-8 power and hit the tarmac. That flathead mill was ported and relieved and stroked and bored, and it purred like a kitten until the lake pipes roared. You can thank DJ and producer Roger Christian for most of the hot-rodding jargon on "Deuce Coupe," but it was Wilson who fishhooked catchiness that you just couldn't shake. Again and again, the Beach Boys hit the top of the charts with songs like "I Get Around," "Good Vibrations," and "Surfin' USA." getty images Plenty of other Beach Boys songs reference cars and car culture, including "409," written about a big-block Chevy V-8, and "Fun Fun Fun," with its Ford Thunderbird. "Shut Down," released the same year as "Little Deuce Coupe," features a blow-by-blow street race between a Max Wedge Mopar and a Corvette Stingray. Wilson himself seems to have enjoyed Corvettes, and he owned a few. In 1989, with the popularity of "Kokomo" proving the Beach Boys could still create hits, Wilson produced "In My Car," all about the feeling of cruising in a Vette. A few years later, Wilson ordered his own Corvette ZR-1, cherry red. Considered hugely influential and one of the first music producers to harness studio production as part of the creative process, Wilson changed the landscape of pop music. You can pay him no better tribute than by queuing up some of the Beach Boys' greatest hits, rolling down the windows, and cruising off on a warm summer's eve, looking for a good vantage spot to watch the sunset. Brendan McAleer Contributing Editor Brendan McAleer is a freelance writer and photographer based in North Vancouver, B.C., Canada. He grew up splitting his knuckles on British automobiles, came of age in the golden era of Japanese sport-compact performance, and began writing about cars and people in 2008. His particular interest is the intersection between humanity and machinery, whether it is the racing career of Walter Cronkite or Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki's half-century obsession with the Citroën 2CV. He has taught both of his young daughters how to shift a manual transmission and is grateful for the excuse they provide to be perpetually buying Hot Wheels. Read full bio
New York Times
2 hours ago
- New York Times
How the Beach Boys' ‘Pet Sounds' Entered the Pop Music Pantheon. (Eventually.)
Making a list of the best rock albums ever is easy: Something old (the Beatles), something new or newer (perhaps Radiohead), something borrowed (the Rolling Stones' blues or disco pastiches) and Joni Mitchell's 'Blue.' And, of course, bursting into the top 10 — and often higher — of any respectable list: 'Pet Sounds.' The overwhelming brainchild of Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys' chief songwriter whose death at 82 was announced on Wednesday, 'Pet Sounds' is beautiful — with gorgeous vocal harmonies, haunting timbres and wistful lyrics of adolescent longing and estrangement. It was a landmark in studio experimentation that changed the idea of how albums could be made. But one thing that stands out about the Beach Boys' masterpiece is how gradually it came to be widely celebrated, compared with many of its peers. 'When it was released in the United States,' said Jan Butler, a senior lecturer in popular music at Oxford Brookes University in the United Kingdom, 'it did pretty well, but for the Beach Boys, it was considered a flop.' Released in the spring of 1966, 'Pet Sounds' represented a break from the catchy tunes about surfing, cars and girls that the group had consistently rode to the top of the charts. The opening track is called 'Wouldn't It Be Nice,' but previous Beach Boys songs had described how nice it was. The album peaked at No. 10 — low for one of the most popular acts at the time — and was the first Beach Boys album in three years not to reach gold status, Butler wrote in a chapter of an academic book. The Beach Boys' record company, Capitol, rushed out a greatest-hits that outsold the album of original music. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Associated Press
5 hours ago
- Associated Press
AP PHOTOS: Bruce Springsteen's Berlin concert
BERLIN (AP) — American rock star Bruce Springsteen, long a political opponent of President Donald Trump, performed before tens of thousands fans at a Berlin stadium where he denounced the U.S. administration as 'corrupt, incompetent and treasonous'. ___ This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.
