For many of us, Luke Black’s Serbian entry for Eurovision 2023, ‘Samo mi se Spava,’ is the most relatable song of the season.
With lyrics like “I just want to sleep forever, I like it better when I dream,” the song describes a familiar feeling for many of us — the wish to escape reality for as long as possible. In a stressful world, sleeping or playing video games can become invaluable sources of respite. Although this can provide a lot of healing, Luke’s performance also suggests that it’s important that we never lose touch with reality, nor allow ourselves to become “controlled” by our need for escapism. Waking up, he unplugs his hypnotized dancers from their stupor, and bravely confronts the world around him.
This weekend, I had the wonderful opportunity to catch up with Luke ahead of his electric performance at the London Eurovision Party. Over the course of our chat, we talked about dreaming, his emotional connection to the video game Fortnite, the story behind ‘Samo mi se Spava,’ and even the special move he would have as a video game character.
Well, hello first of all! Thank you for joining me, this is my first interview, I’m well nervous.
Oh! Thank you, thank you so much. We will be good!
So my first question is, it’s getting kinda close to Eurovision at this point, have you started having dreams about Eurovision yet, because your song is about dreams?
That’s a good question actually, nobody asked me that. Uh, I don’t dream of anything, I’m literally in the dream world everyday. [Laughs] I don’t know where I am most of the time. You caught me sleepwalking!
[Laughs] That’s incredibly relatable. So, as well, could you tell us a little bit about how the song came about because it has so much, so many layers to it, and I really love your song.
Thank you so much, thank you so much. The song came about as I repeated to everybody around me, “Ugh, I can’t anymore, I just wanna sleep, I just wanna sleep.” There’s so many things happening in the world, and you know, and then I wanted to sleep through that, not to see it. I turned a bit of a blind eye to it. And then, um, during the pandemic other people started feeling the same way, so it kind of like, I kind of created the song in 25 minutes with my producer Majed and we created this song, and you know, it has become a bit of an anthem for sleeping through problems. But my performance actually was to do the complete opposite. So it’s supposed to wake me up, wake the other people, you know, the dancers, my friends actually, and you know, the audience up. And you know, I really think that this Eurovision thing is a really big wake-up call for me as I’m really someone who didn’t want to perform as I had massive stage fright.
Which is amazing by the way, well done.
Yeah! I wanted to go to open mic night first but I have to go and perform in front of 20 thousand people. [Laughs]
It’s genuinely inspirational, so well done!
Yeah, well, we’ll see. It’s inspirational if I’m good. If I fail, don’t do this at home.
You will be good, you will be good! We’ve seen your performances!
Thank you.
And finally, I know it takes a lot of influence from video games? I love video games, I know you do too. You said in an interview that you want to be put in Fortnite, I think?
Yeah, I don’t know. I need to get bigger as an artist to be able to get the Fortnite skin. I don’t think they would be interested now, but I would literally beg on my knees to have a Fortnite skin. Because like, that video game saved my life, that one and The Last of Us: Part Two. Literally, when things get so overwhelming, I would whip out Fortnite and I don’t know, it means so much to me. And it means so much to a lot of people as well, like the people that I met through the game. And I also met my flatmates through the video game, so like, it saved my life in that way as well. Like I live with friends, yes! [Laughs]
[Laughs] That’s a very meaningful answer, [whereas] my very silly question would be, if you were put in the video game, what would be your special move?
Well, you know, there’s lots of shooting in Fortnite, right? So my special move would be to immediately fall asleep [laughs] and avoid all the bullets. Yeah, to literally, imagine like you can press something, you fall asleep and then you’re bulletproof.
That’s awesome. I won’t keep you too long because I know you’re really busy, but thank you so much.
Thank you so much, thank you.
Luke Black will represent Serbia with his song ‘Samo mi se Spava’ in the First Semi-Final of Eurovision 2023, on Tuesday the 9th of May.
Are #YOU a fan of Luke Black’s entry this year? Let us know in the comments below, on our forum, our Discord, or on social media, @ESCUnited!
