Singer Adonxs tells of journey from ‘couch-surfing in London’ to Eurovision star
Adonxs, 29, was the frontman of a London-based band called Pace.
A Eurovision Song Contest act has spoken about how when he first moved to London he had to “couch-surf” in the city, before finding a network of fellow creatives to expand his music career.
Slovakian singer Adonxs, 29, who was the frontman of a London-based band called Pace and attended the British and Irish Modern Music Institute (BIMMI) in the capital, will represent Czechia in Basel, Switzerland, as the competition takes place this week.
The self-described queer artist, real name Adam Pavlovcin, is a previous winner of the Czech singing contest SuperStar, and is entering Eurovision with the dramatic song Kiss Kiss Goodbye – written in London.
At a hotel in Basel on Tuesday, he told the PA news agency: “It was one of the best decisions for me to move to London, although the first year was definitely a big struggle. I was considering so many times moving back.”
He added that for the “first month, (he did not know) anyone in the city, (while) already studying, (and) looking for a place, couch-surfing… looking for a part-time job, it was a lot”.
Adonxs said that he learned a lot through his professional experience, but also praised “the creative hub” of London, where he met his band, made up of Greek, Slovakian, British and Monegasques musicians.
He called this time, “a huge stepping stone for me”, and says he is hoping to return to the UK.
“I feel like the UK music market is market of its own, and it’s not that open to a lot of foreign, new artists, and especially being in there as a foreigner, might be even more trickier,” Adonxs added.
He also said that he does not think that the Eurovision organiser, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), is “forbidding the queer flags, or trans flags”, with the new rules this year.
“Eurovision is a very queer safe space, and it’s full of queer people, so I don’t think it’s censoring queer people,” Adonxs said.
“I feel like Eurovision would not be here without queer people, and the only thing is that we will see the flags all around the arena, and we (artists) won’t be able to have them.
“I wasn’t planning on bringing the Slovakian flag, because I’m proudly representing Czechia. I would probably wear a queer flag, but I wasn’t having this thought process with myself just yet.
“So now I know I won’t be able to do it, but come on, my performance is queer, and people know that, and I’m a queer artist, so I don’t think we can get rid of that on stage.”
The delegations are only being allowed to promote their own country’s flag during the contest, and not an LGBT+ one. However, fans have no restrictions on what they can bring into the arena, unlike last year when pro-Palestinian flags had restrictions.
Adonxs said he hopes his performance at Thursday’s semi-final will be “liberating, uplifting and powerful”, and get audiences to “be fully connected to what’s happening on stage, to be connected with the illusion and fantasy that I’m bringing on stage and live through it with me”.
“The thing that people might not know is sometimes I feel like I might be unreachable, or reserved, and I’m not. I’m just shy, or I’m really introverted,” he added.
“I’m not reserved and I’m reachable. I’m very much reachable.”
The first semi-final is held on Tuesday, while the second semi-final will start on Thursday, and the final at the same time, 8pm BST, on Saturday. The three shows will be broadcast on the BBC in the UK.
