Alex Mercy is a member of the band Aiwink, which is competing in Dziesma 2013 with their song “Now or Never.” Alex tells us more about how his band got involved with Dziesma 2013.
ESC UNITED: Hello Alex. Congratulations on making it to the next stage of Dziesma 2013. Tell us a bit about yourself and how you became a songwriter.
ALEX: Thank you! I play guitar for more than 13 years, about 7 years ago I started writing songs. Actually, at first these were only guitar riffs, but as I was getting more mature as a musician, some of these riffs became songs.
ESC UNITED: How would describe your song “Now or Never“?
ALEX: I think “Now or never” is catchy enough to fight for the 1st place!
ESC UNITED: What led you to deciding to submitting “Now or Never“ to Dziesma 2013?
ALEX: It was my wife who forced me to compete in Eurovision this year and I really appreciate that.
ESC UNITED: So where were you when you found out “Now or Never“ made it? What was the first thing you did?
ALEX: I was working at that time and was really surprised by a telephone call with congratulations for selection of my song for the semifinal. The celebration was very modest – we simply drank a bottle of champagne with my wife.
ESC UNITED: Tell us about who’s performing the song? Is Aiwink doing it?
ALEX: We are performing with the band and I’ve chosen young and talented singer DIANNA. She’s only 17, but has incredible voice tone.
ESC UNITED: Now that we are a few days away from Dziesma 2013, how are you feeling? How are you and your team preparing for your Semi-Final?
ALEX: I feel prepared, thank you. We worked a lot.
ESC UNITED: What do you believe is the key to winning a song contest like Dziesma or Eurovision?
ALEX: I think there is no concrete answer. Both the song and appearance play huge role in such a competition. One year the winner is a slow, dramatic song, the other – great show and disco beat. So, a simple luck is a key factor as well.
ESC UNITED: Do you have any favorite Eurovision songs?|
ALEX: I have some, but I prefer not to say names, sorry.
ESC UNITED: What advice would you give to anyone interested in songwriting?
ALEX: To my mind, the best adviser is Jimi Hendrix who said that if you here voices in your head – you have to pull them out, no one will do it instead of yourself.
ESC UNITED: Any closing thoughts you would you like to share with your fans?
ALEX: To those who believe in our song – thank you for your support! We’ll do our best to go to Sweden!
ESC UNITED: Alex, thank you so much! And good luck to you and the rest of the Aiwink band this weekend at Dziesma 2013.
Catch Alex’s song at Dziesma 2013! “Now or Never” will be performed by his group Aiwink on February 9, 2013.
Zack
February 6, 2013 at 15:33
Yes, I considered putting multiple songwriters of multiple songs together, but i wanted to have one article per song, to really let the songwriters have a place to call their own on here! I’m so happy with how supportive and willing the songwriters have been. Many thanks to them all!
Roy van der Merwe
February 6, 2013 at 14:33
Why there is a lot of emphisis on Latvia is because they donot have an OWN OGAE CLUB and not an own website to promote their entries. We ate OGAE REST OF THE WORLD is technically also the home of European countries without clubs and as LATVIA has a big selection, we have decided to highlight their ROAD TO MALMO instead of say Denmark or Norway or Estonia who have their own clubs
Roy van der Merwe
February 6, 2013 at 14:30
I think the Latvian selection will be a strong contest and it willbe hard to pick a winner