Early morning today, news finally came out regarding who would represent Austria in the upcoming song contest, it was news that was expected for quite a while, but today finally confirmed it. With that, let’s have a quick look at who Austria’s representative Kaleen is.
Who is Kaleen?
Born under the name Marie-Sophie Kreissl, but known by the stage name Kaleen, is a 29 year old Austrian singer, dancer and choreographer, who originates from Upper Austria.
Kaleen has been a dancer from the very young age, which then transited her into ballet, and afterwards into various other dance styles, which include modern, jazz, musical and more. She has even competed in national, European and even World championships.
Where does the singing begin then, considering she’s now representing Austria in a singing contest? Well, the Eurovision Song Contest is truly a show that inspires. It turns out, that Kaleen was a stand-in singer when the contest took place in Lisbon in 2018. A stand-in singer, are those who practice the staging, choreography and camera angles, prior to the arrival of the original artist. In this case, she was a stand-in for several countries, one of them being for Cyprus, who back then was represented by Eleni Foureira.
She has since been involved with both the contest and the junior contest on multiple occasions, by being the creative director for Spain and Bulgaria during the 2022 junior contest, as well as for Spain in 2022, when the contest was held in Turin.
In 2023, she helped Austria, Armenia, Germany and Georgia with their stage performances.
Other than the Eurovision Song Contest, she has also founded her very own record label, which launched in 2021, and has just recently released her very first album in late 2023.
Speaking about the upcoming contest, she had the following to share after the announcement:
- “I think I haven’t fully grasped the fact yet, that I’ll be standing on that stage as an artist myself. I am in love with this world of lights and cameras and believe it’s a privilege to take the audience on a journey. I worked hard for this, and I am extremely proud. I am very looking forward to showing the world what I can do!“
Program director of the Austrian broadcaster(ORF), Stefanie Groiss-Horowitz also had something to say:
- “With Kaleen, we are sending an artist who is versatile – she sings, she dances, she choreographs, and she is an absolute Song Contest insider. We are going to put on a big show in Malmö!“
The title of her song has been revealed to be “We Will Rave”, which has been described as a techno-inspired pop track. The song will first be released in March 2024, but among the songwriters, we do find Jimmy Thörnfeldt, who has penned few other past Eurovision entries, including last year’s winning song “Tattoo” by Loreen.
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Source(S): Eurovision.TV & Ö3.orf.at (In German)
