We at Eurovision Ireland want to hear from you. Is there a song that really means something to you? Something that made you really fall in love with Eurovision? Something that you associate with a particular event in your life? In our ‘Real Me’ articles, we get to the root of why we can’t get enough of Eurovision.

Our next #TheRealMe Eurovision Memory comes from Karina Brandt Rasmussen, who administrates both KEiiNO-news.net and the Facebook page KEiiNO Fan Group Official.

“My best and most treasured Eurovision memory is Norway 2019.”

“After my second daughter was born, I developed HELP syndrome because of a severe case of preeclampsia and one of the side effects of this was that I developed a thyroid disease which is very difficult to control. When it’s at its worst, my body doesn’t take up the nourishment there is in the food i eat and slowly it effects my inner organs so they don’t function as they should which again, like a domino effect, affects other organs. So frequent control and constant adjusting of medicine, is very important.”

“Like with so many other chronic illnesses, there’s a lot of chronic fatigue involved, pain, brain-fog and depression because of the whole situation of your life; your life has fallen apart, everything you used to do you can’t do any longer, in a way you have “lost your life” – a mourning not many people understand… You see your friends and other people live like always while your illness has stolen your life and keeps you from living and keeps you at only existing, trying to survive from week to week, and the outlook for nothing to change for the next 30 years, is very depressing, frustrating and filled with anxiety as well.”

“This is where music comes in. What is more healing than love and music?”

“Eurovision has always been a big part of my life, both as child, teen, young adult and now.”

“April-May 2019 my thyroid illness was very severe and whichever medicine combination the doctors tried out, it didn’t work as expected. So I had reached a point where exhaustion and lack of strength to fight, had made me accept that my life was about to end. A very sad truth since my daughters were only 10  and 13 years old and still needed their mother. So it was about making the best out of a bad situation while we could.”

“So during Eurovision week, we were all three watching what I thought would be the last Eurovision shows together, when KEiiNO came on the second semi-final, and Tom began to sing. Those bright blue shining eyes looking directly into the camera and his amazing voice, Alexandra’s amazing angelic voice, Fred’s liveliness, and amazing joik that brought out an old and warm familiar feeling from deep inside me (I’m of Sámi ancestry through my dad’s family and grew up with joik from my granddad), the staging, the beauty of them all, and then the explosion into the chorus with drums and all… It ignited such a powerful flame inside me, it moved me so I began to sob. It made me want to hear more, I didn’t want to die, I wanted to hear more of this amazing music. So as soon as the song was over, I grabbed my daughter’s phone and googled KEiiNO. I kept listening to “Spirit in the sky” over and over and over, and every time I heard it, I felt a little bit better. The more I read about KEiiNO, the more I wanted to know. The video interviews showing their amazing personalities made me want to see more.”

“I began to slowly fight my way back to life. The medicine began to work, my mood cheered up and it truly was the miracle I needed to survive.
Two weeks later I had gained enough strength to go back home…  so I feel I truly owe KEiiNO my life….”

“Because of my history, and what the existence of KEiiNO did for me and still mean to me, working as one of the administrators of the official KEiiNO fangroup on Facebook, KEiiNO Fans Official and my website KEiiNO NEWS is of great importance to me. It keeps me from going completely under, mentally and it gives me something more to get up for in the mornings than only sending my daughters off to school. And for this, I put all my reserve energy – after household duties – into doing what I do, translating articles from Norwegian to English so international fans can read about KEiiNO too, communicating with other fans, gaining friendships, listening to music, tell everyone who wants to listen, about KEiiNO and how amazing they and their music are.”

“Getting an interview with them just before the release of OKTA for my website was a dream come true, and can be found on Youtube. I’m a nobody – and still, they did it…I felt like I won the lottery.  It’s probably some the happiest I have felt since I became a mom the second time 12 years ago.”

“This is why KEiiNO, Eurovision 2019 and “Spirit in the Sky” will always have a special place in my heart.”

Do you have a song that means something to you? Tell us about it and you may feature in a future article!

Authors: Karina Brandt Rasmussen, James Scanlan

Source: Eurovision Ireland