Zoë will represent Austria at the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest with her song Loin d’ici. Here she talks to esccovers.com.

Hello Zoë. Many congratulations on winning the 2016 Wer singt für Österreich?…and therefore representing Austria at the Eurovision Song Contest in May. How did it feel when you realised you had won?

When I heard the hosts say my name out loud I couldn’t believe it, I was completely overwhelmed and it felt quite surreal to me but when I started realising it I was extremely happy!

Can you tell us what ‘Loin d’ici’ is about?

The song is about the search for paradise, it is not necessarily a real place, more like an imaginary paradise, a place where you simply feel happy. Everybody has his own paradise, for me it is being on stage.

Will there be any other language versions of ‘Loin d’ici’ (for example German or English)?

Maybe,  but now we don’t have anything in mind.

Your album ‘Debut’ was released last year and all the songs are in French. I presume German is your natural language. What inspires you to sing in French? Do you have some French background?

My father and I, we both went to a French school, so we learned French from a very young age , still we never had planned to write French music together. One day I came home from school and my father and I started jamming together, suddenly I sang some French words, and it sounded natural and I felt good with it.

Have you heard the other Eurovision songs from this year? Do you have any favourites at this time?

I’ve listened to all of them , but I could not pick a favourite for the moment, I think I need to see the final performances first, but of course there are songs which got more stuck into my head than others.

Who are your musical influences?

I get inspired by all kinds of music, there is no specific artist who inspires me, I think what inspires me the most are singer songwriters who really spread the passion and energy that they put into their music.

Anyway thank you and good luck Zoë in May in Sweden.

You can see the official video for Loin d’ici below.

Source: www.esccovers.com