Established in the business with successes like Ace of Base in his catalogue, John Ballard started to get invited to participate, mainly as a lyricist, on various projects for Eurovision by Dimitris Kontopoulos. He grants us full access to all the various shenanigans that takes place to create a Eurovision success in some countries where he sometimes has had to write up to 80 (!) different lyrics for the same song, and he speaks his mind about his colleague and songwriting partner Philipp Kirkorov.

What is like to compete for countries such as Russia or Azerbaijan, and what do your colleagues have to say about it? How much is influenced by politics and is a simple Scottish lyricist from Sweden treated as a valued member of the team or only as a talent for hire? How many songs do you present for a superstar like Sergey Lazarev, which songs have made the rounds for several countries and how much has he attempted to compete in either Sweden or the United Kingdom?

We will learn this and much more when John Ballard opens up.

Legend: John Ballard

Songs: Hold Me (Azerbaijan 2013), Shine (Russia, 2014) You're The Only One (Russia 2016), This Is Love (Greece 2017) & My Lucky Day (Moldova 2018)

Host: Emil Löfström

Contact: emil@schlagervannerna.se

Instagram Facebook

http//www.eurovisionlegends.se

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.