#STORYOFMYLIFE – Day Five with Jamesfrom EI

In this series, we’ll be talking to someone and asking them to pick five songs (over five days) that mean something to them. These may not be their top five songs of all time – merely songs that attach to a specific memory or time in their life.

James from Eurovision Ireland continues this series. What’s his final choice, and what’s the story behind it?

Monika Linkytė – Stay

Someone once said to me that the “songs you see win national selections are always special” – this may well explain why I have a soft spot for Daniel Kajmakoski’s Autumn Leaves (and also why I think the Macedonian version Lisja Esenski is significantly better than what we saw on stage in Vienna!) It also, in part at least, might explain why Lithuania’s 2023 entry Stay has become so special to me.

Watching national selections for Eurovision, sometimes there is a moment when a certain singer performs and you know they’ve got it in the bag. That was very much the feeling we had in 2023 after seeing Monika Linkytė sing – we being a little cluster of foreign journalists who’d all braved freezing February temperatures to be sat in a TV studio in Vilnius. I remember how we all looked up and down our row in the audience, exchanging the confident nods of those in the know while the audience around us erupted with applause. Sure enough, the votes came in and even though she tied with Rūta Mur, Monika was declared outright winner.

After the cameras stopped rolling, our gaggle of journalists went to interview Monika. Anyone who has interviewed anyone on camera knows it can be a really mixed bag. Some people are naturally gregarious and fun, others much more reserved and harder to engage. Others, you might as well talk to a brick. Luckily, Monika and her backing singers formed one of the best interviews I have ever had with a Eurovision contestant. We were laughing and shrieking like we’d been friends for years before we’d even started, and even with the camera rolling and doing the serious journalist thing (“So Monika, what is your favourite kind of cake?”) it all felt very natural and fun. I asked about the chanting in Lithuanian, so Monika explained – then got me to do it, just to check my pronunciation. Before I knew what was happening, Monika’s backing singers started harmonising, Monika is singing the chorus of Stay – and I join in too! Me, duetting with a veteran Eurovision singer, moments after she’d won another national selection… one of those truly brilliant moments you can never imagine, or ever forget!

Unfortunately, the footage was rendered unusable – the hazards of filming inside a TV studio with interference from a variety of electrical sources, sadly! So my singing debut remains unheard – but I like to think I managed to hold the tune! And there were witnesses, so they know it happened! Even if I didn’t get to share it with the world, it remains my favourite-ever interview I’ve done for Eurovision Ireland.

As well as all the fun memories of that weekend exploring frozen Vilnius and the high of meeting and singing with Monika, the song itself also spoke to me. Its lyrics summed up very much where I was in that moment: recovering from heartbreak, acknowledging that pain and loss, feeling low, vulnerable and needing kindness – but also saying “I’m still here”. I matter. I can do this.

“Well, it ain’t easy, to love someone like me,” Monika sings. You are always easier to love than you imagine you are. Be brave enough to embrace yourself. The moment you do that, you start to come back to life.

“Finally, my heart is beating”

That’s James’s final choice. Come back on Monday for the start of another five memorable songs. If you have five songs that really mean something to you, drop us a line with them and the stories behind them, and you could feature soon.

Author: John Stanton

Source: Eurovision Ireland