Eurovision
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Ukraine has become one of the first countries to select which musical act will represent it in next year’s Eurovision contest, but even that joyous moment is marked by the impact of ongoing war with Russia. After a nearly four-hour showdown during which a handful of finalists performed songs for consideration, electronic music duo TVORCHI was chosen as the Eastern nation’s official competitors — all of which took place from a bomb shelter in Kyiv.
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The selection showcase, known as Vidbir, was livestreamed online from an underground metro station, which has been used as a bomb shelter since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, according to BBC and Eurovision. It was converted into a performance space for the show, which aired Saturday (Dec. 17).
“We did everything possible to hold this Vidbir in full swing, and once again unite Ukrainians around this important choice for the biggest music stage in Europe,” Ukraine’s head of delegation at Eurovision Oksana Skybinska told BBC. “The decision to go underground was the first one taken. It made us feel sure that the show itself could go on uninterrupted because no matter if we have air raid alerts the work could continue.”
TVORCHI’s Andrii Hutsuliak and Jimoh Augustus Kehinde performed their song “Heart of Steel” for their Vidbir entry, backed by dancers wearing gold gas masks and a visual effects screen divided into four quadrants. “Don’t care what you say, don’t care how you feel,” sang Kehinde, dressed in a gold jumpsuit. “Get out of my way ’cause I got a heart of steel.”
Near the end of the show, the pair stood alongside their fellow competitors onstage and listened as host Timur Miroshnychenko announced that they would be the ones to move on to the international Eurovision song contest, where they’ll battle against acts from 36 other countries.
Now that the duo is officially headed to Eurovision — scheduled to take place in May 2023 in Liverpool — TVORCHI has some big shoes to fill. At last year’s contest, Ukrainian’s Kalush Orchestra was victorious, winning for its hip-hop song “Stefania.”
Watch TVORCHI’s winning performance of “Heart of Steel” below:
Three years ago, Rosa Linn was writing songs in her free time and dreaming of a career in music. But she never expected a performance at a local village festival in her native Armenia would be her ticket to stardom.
Her standout delivery of an original rock song, backed by her band of friends, floored talent scouts in the crowd from record label Nvak Collective. Soon after, the team invited her to attend the company’s upcoming songwriting camp for women. “We really recognize the fact that talent is equally distributed — but opportunity isn’t,” says Tamar Kaprelian, Nvak Collective co-founder and Rosa Linn’s manager since last July, when the rising singer-songwriter also signed to the label.
Kaprelian says that while Rosa Linn was more introverted than the other songwriters at the camp, her personality beamed through the lyrics she wrote independently after songwriting lessons. When Rosa Linn returned to class one day, she presented the first verse of a folksy pop song about hopelessly ruminating over a romantic interest. That early draft became “Snap,” the global crossover hit that has catapulted her career and led to her first Billboard No. 1.
Inspired by her “first real love” in 2017 during her time as an exchange student in the United States, Rosa Linn returned home to Armenia feeling hung up. “I wrote about my readjustment process and mental state,” the 22-year-old says. “It was a very hard period for me. It’s just about life, and I think that’s why people relate to it.” Adds Kaprelian: “She came in with those deep lyrics, and I was like, ‘There’s something special here.’ ”
Over the next two-and-a-half years Rosa Linn fleshed out the rest of the song ahead of its official release this March. She says that the final product is “very close” to the original demo, and includes vocals she cut in a hotel room, as well as her own guitar playing, “even though I’m not the greatest guitar player. That’s why the song has a vulnerable feeling. It’s honest and not perfect.”
Kaprelian sent the track to local radio stations, but was determined to get the song noticed on a larger level, eventually submitting it as an applicant to represent Armenia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2022. Rosa Linn was ultimately chosen for the televised music competition this May (besting a finalist entry submitted by one of her friends), where she performed “Snap” to 161 million people across Europe. She placed 20th.
“We really saw it as a steppingstone,” Kaprelian reflects. “When she didn’t rank well, we could have been like, ‘We tried. Let’s move on to another song.’ Instead, we decided to double down on ‘Snap’ and I know that it might not have seemed smart, but we really went hard in the TikTok strategy.”
Rosa Linn (left) and Tamar Kaprelian photographed on November 11, 2022 in Malibu, Calif.
Martha Galvan
Turns out it was the smartest thing they could have done. Rosa Linn began “experimenting” with different videos on the platform, including acoustic performances, remixes and POV-style clips showing the behind-the-scenes action at Eurovision. And after a fan-made, sped-up version of the track was uploaded to TikTok, “Snap” began to go viral.
More than one million videos were uploaded to the platform using the quicker, pitched-up version of “Snap,” with users showing everything from favorite recipes to sweet moments with their pets, as well as participating in a wholesome trend in which people highlighted the “color palette” of their hair, skin and eyes. Its popularity on TikTok pushed “Snap” up the Billboard charts, leading to its Billboard Hot 100 debut at No. 97 on the Sept. 3-dated chart. It has since reached a No. 82 high and spent seven weeks at No. 1 on Adult Alternative Airplay. “After [seeing the song do well], that’s when I knew it was real,” Rosa Linn says. “‘Snap’ gave me the best and most productive year of my life.”
It also led to a major-label deal with Columbia Records, which Rosa Linn signed in August. The label has already set the artist up with top songwriters and producers, including a recent session in Los Angeles with Diane Warren and Dan Wilson. In late October, she released her follow-up single “WDIA (Would Do It Again)” with fellow Eurovision star Duncan Laurence — and then capped the month with her late-night television debut on The Late Late Show with James Corden. Rosa Linn is now in the process of curating her sound to represent her artistry, with hopes of releasing a debut studio album. “I’m very picky,” she says, noting she has no timeline in mind for her full-length. “I wrote a lot of songs in the past three years, but none of them got released because [then] I would write another and it was better. This period is me growing as a songwriter and trying to improve.”
“I’m always going to stay personal and honest,” she continues. “My music is a representation of what I’ve gone through. Coming from Armenia and now living my dream is unbelievable.”
Rosa Linn photographed on November 11, 2022 in Malibu, Calif.
Martha Galvan
A version of this story will appear in the Dec. 10, 2022, issue of Billboard.