Lockdown in the UK sent them to Prague. We Are Domi is now the Czech Republic’s representative for the Eurovision semifinals in Turin, with two Norwegian musicians in the band.

– We two Norwegians understand nothing when a winner has to be chosen. Everything runs in Czech. But then there’s the official Eurovision video in English in which, among other things, TIX gives us 12 points. “We won the jury and the international vote and are in fourth place among the Czech voices,” said guitarist Casper Hatlestad (27) of Stavanger on the phone from Prague evening through Friday.

Together with keyboardist Benjamin Rekstad (26) from Nesodden and Czech Dominika Hasek (26) on vocals, they were notified on Thursday night that they had won the Czech Melody Grand Prix and would thus represent the Czech Republic in the Eurovision semifinals in Turin in May.

As such, they were able to bounce champagne at Casper’s house in Prague, as the bar closes at 10pm in the Czech Republic due to the virus.

From England to Czech Republic

The three met in Leeds, England, where they studied music. But in August 2020, they moved east to the Czech Republic, due to virus restrictions in the UK.

During a concert with former Eurovision representatives of the Czech Republic, they were asked to make a contribution to the competition.

We Are Domi submitted three songs, and in the end the song “Lights Off” became their contribution.

On December 6, the competition to be the Czech Republic’s choice for Eurovision began:

“We’ve seen on YouTube views and comments that we’ve been favourites, but the last two days we thought we weren’t going to win,” said Benjamin Rekstad.

With 97,000 views on Youtube they were among the two contributions with the most views, they said themselves.

– You are in fourth place among the Czech votes – how will you convince the Czechs that your contribution is the right one?

– I thought we’d get higher, but that’s not the case. Luckily, we won another vote.

– How will We Are Domi’s stage performance in Turin be next year?

– We have a lot of ideas, but we want to be authentic and play in the charm as three good friends, said vocalist Dominika Hasek.

– If you ask us tomorrow, we have another answer for this. First we’ll celebrate, keyboardist Benjamin Rekstad said Friday night.

Also see what the ESC 2021 winners are doing:

Greece also chose Norwegian

Some countries did like the Czech Republic and sent Norwegian artists: Greece chose Amanda Tenfjord from Sunnmøre, with a Greek father.

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