February is almost over, but the anticipation is building as the selection for the Serbian representative in the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 approaches. Fans of the competition have been immersed in the released tracks for a while now, causing a buzz on social networks for a good reason.
Last year we had a chance to talk to a fantastic new artist, FILARRI, and this year, he’s coming back to grace us with his presence and chat with us about his upcoming participation in PZE24!
Filarri was born in 1999, and is a budding musician and influencer within the Balkan scene. Before starting his Balkan career, he competed in prestigious global festivals in Romania, Malta, Slovenia, and Austria, winning top honors.
2023 was a strong year for him: he participated in PZE23 with his song “Posle mene”. His 2023 MAC performance was a spectacle, showcasing his song “U tami” with a dedicated team of dancers, and attracting attention with a unique artistic creation. He also performed at Belgrade Pride premiering his duet “Camagra” with rapper Sajsi MC.
Apart from endorsing fashion and makeup, he actively encourages a well-balanced lifestyle on social platforms, stressing the importance of self-care through proper nutrition and physical activity. Furthermore, he staunchly champions human rights and minority rights, demonstrating a dedicated commitment to fostering equality and diversity.
And 2024 is proving to be another great year for him, kicking it off with his PZE24 hopes of representing Serbia at the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö! So let’s see what he had to say about his journey so far, and what his aspirations are moving forward!
Welcome back to ESCUnited, Filarri! It’s an honor chatting with you again and it’s lovely seeing you back in PZE. How have you been?
Hello ESCUnited, I am happy that we have the opportunity to talk again this year. I am very proud of our interview from last year, maybe it was even my best interview before PZE23.
I’m doing great, I’m really looking forward to everything that comes next and everything that my team and I have prepared. I am very happy that I will be in the competition again this year, I think that last year I did not perform exactly as I imagined my Eurovision performance. This year I am more prepared, more determined, braver and more coordinated than last year.
How has your journey in the music industry evolved since our last interview, especially considering your strong performance at PZE23 and 2023 in general?
Although people did not really recognize all my qualities in last year’s performance, I am very proud of it. I look at that performance as the beginning of my singing career, where I learned a lot, gained a lot of experience and learned how demanding it really is to participate in a festival like this. I went through many rehearsals – sound, framing, mise-en-scène, general… many shows, guest appearances, photo-shoots, statements. That competition taught me very quickly how to deal with negative comments, judgments, memes. PZE23 was definitely my elementary school and crash course in show-business. Also, it was an opportunity for people to start considering me as a musician and singer, not an influencer. I am very grateful and proud of that experience; I would recommend everyone to apply for PZE. It is an invaluable experience and opportunity,
After this festival, many doors opened for me. I met various people from the world of music, the media followed my next project and appearance. Moreover, I got many collaborations with various world brands such as Hugo Boss, Diesel, Eucerin, Nivea, also getting the front cover of Gmaro magazine. I performed at Belgrade Pride and Belgrade Fashion Week, I released three more songs and three music videos after PZE23. I met my wonderful friend and inspiration Sajsi MC, besides recording a duet song we became great friends. She is my sister Libra, my great support and wind at my back – thank you! All in all, for me, the year 2023 was a great start and a great launch for everything I prepared and designed this year.
Your duet “Camagra” with rapper Sajsi MC premiered at Belgrade Pride in 2023. What significance does this collaboration hold for you, and how do you choose your collaboration partners?
I thought for a long time with whom I would like to record my first duet in my career. After PZE23, I realized that I have been listening and following the career of Sajsi MC for a long time, I love her courage, her way of thinking, her huge talent in rapping and writing the best lyrics. Sajsi MC is a real artist! Shortly after that I decided to contact her, let’s get to know each other and have a drink. Getting to know each other was phenomenal – we realized very quickly that we are two Libras, so to speak, a family. We picked each other up and went shopping, the duet was already arranged by then. The collaboration was fast and efficient, a beautiful time spent in the studio where we worked together on the text, melody and arrangement. We had a lot of fun and made the hit song “Camagra”. This collaboration is very important for me, because I continued creative work together with Sajsi MC. We’re already working on new songs for me, maybe we’ll do a duet again, who knows…
I like teamwork and would like to collaborate on projects with as many talented colleagues as possible, whom I listen to and follow privately. I might have one criteria for a duet, which is that the duet song must only be with Libras haha. So here I can announce another duet with my dear colleague – Libra! SOON!
Sounds exciting, we can’t wait! More importantly, your dedication to human rights and minority rights is commendable. Can you share why are these issues important to you?
I think that every public figure must use his influence to propagate the right values, protect the vulnerable and fight for the rights of people who have a vulnerable position in society. Being different in this time and environment is difficult, we live in a time of condemnation, discrimination, challenge and a lot of bad energy. I believe that we must clearly and loudly fight for the rights of all people who do not have an equal position in society, also to protect the weaker ones. My fight for human rights has just begun, I want to stand up for all of us who are different, who do not conform to the molds and rules of society.
It is a great honor for me to perform at Belgrade Pride in 2023, I haven’t seen so much wonderful energy, good time and smiling people for a long time! I provide all the support to the LGBT community and I want my song “Ko je ta žena” to motivate everyone to be proud of who they are, to nurture their feelings and emotions, and to walk proudly with their heads up!
Lovely message! Let’s talk a bit about your PZE participation, though. As you aim to represent Serbia at Eurovision 2024, what emotions and aspirations do you have leading up to the event, and how do you approach the creative process for a competition like this?
Eurovision is my boyhood dream! I’ve been following this festival since I was little, my best memories are from the Eurovision Song Contest in Belgrade, when I roared from the stands as a boy in 2008. I would like to represent my country proudly; I really like teamwork and competitions. I think Eurovision is the place where I can best present my art, without limitations and judgments, a place where I would learn a lot and where I would be smiling 24/7! I hope that someday this boyhood dream will come true.
I decided to present myself in the right light this year, to show who I am and what I can do. I decided to talk about things that are still a taboo topic in Serbia, but they are very important and should not be avoided, I hope that the audience will recognize and understand that this year. As my song says “everyone was once a child who doesn’t know what to do with tears”, I want this song to remain as a motivation and a support for everyone who goes through a huge number of judgments, challenges and discrimination. Also, I believe that this year I will present an audio-visual spectacle that will be talked about for a long time and that people will really like. I think that Serbia will not be ashamed to send such a performance to Eurovision!
Whoa, sounds like a full package. When you look at your previous entry “Posle mene” and 2024’s entry “Ko je ta žena”, what do you think is the biggest difference, apart from the actual theme of the song?
Last year, I submitted the song “Posle mene” to the PZE, which had been sitting in my drawer for a couple of years, I didn’t know how to best promote it because the song is very radio-friendly. My team and I decided to apply for the PZE23 competition without any excessive expectations, we passed it and found ourselves completely unprepared in the competition. The song was really great, written by Teya Dora, but I was aware that it was not the song and the sound I wanted to present to the Eurovision audience. I didn’t believe in that song; I didn’t think it was a good decision to enter the festival with it.
I had no plans to apply to PZE until I found a song worthy of this competition, which is conceptual and strong enough. I wanted to wait as long as I needed to mature and find a song that I could stand behind one hundred percent. In October 2023, Nikola Kirćanski Kei sent me a demo of the song “Ko je ta žena”, which sounded interesting to me at first glance, when Ajzi and Kei wrote the text for this track – I realized that the text was brave enough, “mine” enough and to really feel everything I say and sing. That’s when I knew this was my year and I was applying again!
“Ko je ta žena” is truly an empowering song. It almost feels darker, in a way. How did you come up with an idea for this song, what inspired it, and how did the creation process come about?
The song “Ko je ta žena” is multi-layered, made very wisely to leave room for all people to experience and analyze it in their own way. One group of people thinks that I am addressing this song to a girl, and the text is actually of a love character. Others take the song very seriously, as a song that opens the topic of questioning gender identity and self-knowledge. I am very glad that many people told me that the song motivated and strengthened them to be proud of the way they are born. On the third side, my experience of the whole song is the acceptance and nurturing of female energy in a man. We live in an environment where it is a sin to nurture our feminine energy, where society expects us to hide and restrain it. For me, this song is an acknowledgment of being proud of my feminine side, which includes art, creativity, emotionality, tenderness and a sense of aesthetics. In every living organism there are two energies, male and female – every man has a female energy, just as every woman has a male one. The only question is how much someone will allow their “other” side to develop, strengthen and express. We should all embrace our feminine side!
The song was written just for me. I spent hours and days talking with Nikola Kirćanski Kei. We understood each other very well, connected and he knew exactly how to make a song for me. Thank him for that! I am very proud of this project, of this song.
What can we expect from your performance this year?
The preparations for this year’s performance are very demanding, I set myself a difficult task. Preparations include many singing lessons, dancing lessons, strict nutrition and diet, a lot of fitness training which is important for stage movement and singing. I tried to do everything in my power to meet my expectations, I work hard and hope for a good placement!
You can really expect anything on stage this year, I am preparing a bombastic performance that will not leave anyone indifferent. I will be alone on stage; I want the focus to be on me and everything I have prepared. I can promise you an extravagant costume, a lot of singing and the help of technology that has not been seen in our area until now.
We would expect nothing less from you! Now, my favorite question: if you could have a duet with any of the PZE participants this year, who would it be and why?
I must admit that this year’s festival set a high standard and that it is far better and of higher quality than last year’s. I don’t think it has ever happened that so many good and different compositions have been submitted. I have to admit that at least ten songs are to my taste and if I were the audience, I would have a very hard time deciding on one that is my absolute favorite.
I heard all the songs, one day I sat down and listened to everything in detail. I have to admit that I have my favorites: Zorja’s song is beautiful and I would love to steal it, Zejna’s song really drives me and lifts my mood, Iva Lorens’s song is genius, Kat Dosa is too interesting for me and I think I captured the energy of Libra on ace , and of course the song Konstrakta delighted me for another year. Konstraka’s song is definitely the song I sang the most times to my team!
In regards to a duet, I would defiantly choose Konstrakta or Zorja. I love creative, different and talented performers. I love people who leave no one indifferent. Konstrakta is a concept, Konstrakta is power – it would be a great an honor and privilege for me to collaborate with her. On the other hand, Zorja is certainly the best female vocalist in the competition, such power, such a range is rarely found. I fell in love with her falsetto and could listen to it forever.
What final message would you like to share with our readers?
I wish all the spectators of this year’s festival to enjoy the good music and the spectacle that we are all preparing and to vote for the best! I hope that Serbia will accept my performance, that it will understand and support it. Vote for me in the first semi-final night on February 27th, I’ll be number 7. Vote for number 7 on Tuesday at 5556! Buckle up, we’re taking off soon!
Thank you for your time, Filarri, and best of luck with your PZE performance!
Filarri will be performing “Ko je ta žena” at PZE’s semi final 1 on February 27. You can follow his Instagram for updates here.
What do #YOU think about Filarri and his song? Let us know on social media @ESCUnited, on our Discord, or on our forum page!
