Kultura / Culture
Luke Black, ready for Eurovision Life in London has made me optimistic Since winning in Belgrade as a debutant with the electro-pop song Samo mi se spava [I just wanna sleep forever], Luka Ivanović (30), aka Luke Black, has been counting the days until the 67 th Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool
day. How has life in Lon- don helped to form you as an artist? “Life in London isn’t at all easy. It helped me to train and learn a lot about myself as an artist, but also about music in general. I believe that I’ve taken on a certain opti- mism that London, as a city, pro- vides, and that’s also how I gained the courage to try to represent my country at Eurovision. Until mov- ing to London, I lacked the con- fidence required for such an un- dertaking.” How do you spend your time there; do you attend any good gigs and do you have some recommenda- tion? “I haven’t performed in Lon- don to date, but rather have done other jobs. I’m now a manager at a publishing company. However, I have had the opportunity to at- tend numerous concerts of many big stars and artists who are on the rise, so I extracted every message I received from them. Every ven- ue is a place for gigs and I don’t know precisely what I would recommend, because gigs are held and highly rated across all parts of the city.” Are you planning any changes for your perfor- mance in Liverpool? “We’re working on making the performance bigger and better for the needs of the big stage. But the message, aesthetics and spirit of the performance will not change, because that contains an impor- tant message.” You are going to a city that has produced many great musicians. Will you set aside time to follow in the footsteps of The Beatles? “I haven’t managed to vis- it Liverpool so far, so this trip will be extremely important to me, given that The Beatles were among the first bands I listened to as a kid. And it could be said that they paved the way for my own development as a songwriter.”
Born in Čačak in 1992, Luka showed his talent for music at the tender age of 12. He com- pleted two colleges and master’s studies in the field of music pro- duction, while he has been living in London for the last four years and is the only musician from Serbia to have a signed contract with Universal Music Group, with which he successfully toured Chi- na in 2016. He has promised sur- prises on stage with his dance ac- companiment, while the Serbian representative’s ever-increasing number of fans around the world will be cheering him on. Here’s a question that peo- ple probably ask you a lot these days: how do you sleep? Have you woken up a bit following your win? “Greetings to all people aboard Air Serbia planes and I wish you pleasant flights! I have woken up; I needed about ten days for that. But I’m present now!” The public has many in- terpretations regarding what you wanted to say with the title and lyrics of your song, just as they did in 2022 with Konstrak- ta’s song In Corpore Sano. Why did you tell us that you’re sleepy? “The sentence “I just feel like sleeping” is one of the things I long repeated to myself when I want- ed to switch off and protect myself against negativity. And, as much as that helped me in the moment, it equally postponed my solving of internal and external problems. I
would like to wake up even more and perhaps inspire people around me to do the same.” While we’re discussing Konstrakta, didn’t she somewhat inspire you to apply to compete in “Song for Eurovision”? “That’s right! I had no connec- tion with Eurovision until recently. But when one of my close friends registered, won, and was even re- ceived wonderfully – I’m referring to Konstrakta – I decided to try my hand at it and see what could de- velop from that. I now definitely feel a lot more connected to the format and can’t wait for prepa- rations.” The song is pretty dark, while you even chose
the colour black for your stage name. At the same time, you come across as a satisfied and jovi- al person. What’s the source of this appar- ent contradiction? “As a teenager, I wasn’t
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as serene as I am today, and that’s how the name that I now use to present my- self emerged. I don’t live as darkly as my music might make it appear, but inspiration is inspiration, so I try not to change it in any way to connect it more with my everyday life.” You’ve come a long
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way from your hometown of
Čačak to London, where you live to-
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