Efraim Leo: "One of my goals as an artist has always been to inspire others"

Photo: Matilda Hammar

Time for a new interview, back in 2018 I heard one of the songs from our next guest and I remember liking his voice a lot, now he is set make his mello debut and I'm curious to see what he will bring to the contest, here are Efraim's answers:

Name: Efraim Leo

Birthday: October 5th, 1997

Height: 182 cm

Favorite color: Dark green

What’s your strangest talent? I can fake cry, it's difficult some days but I can do it.

What is the strangest thing you have in your room? Probably this old small tree dragon from my mom hanging in the ceiling.

What are you really good at? I would say my biggest strengths except siging is writing music and coming up with melodies.

What are you really bad at? Playing football, I really wish I was better but I suck haha.

Childhood memory: I have so many, but a really great one is when I was like 9 and made a rap song with my Uncle. It's the first time I really started to realise how fun it is to make music.

Celebrity crush: Definitely Ariana Grande 

Who would you cast to play you in a movie about your life? Tom Holland, such a big fan of his

What would the title of that movie be? Hard question! "From dream to reality" maybe.

Favorite movie: Interstellar. That's my favorite but I love everything from Christopher Nolan.

Favorite TV series: How I Met Your Mother or Modern Family. It's a tie I think.

Dish/Snack/Beverage/Candy we should try if we ever visit Sweden: The drink we drink during Christams time called Julmust (Christmas must) is one of my favorite sodas and definitely something you should try.

What is your guilty pleasure? I don't really feel guilty over stuff, but maybe that I love playing videogames on my free time and that I buy new games more often than I should haha.

Can you recommend us a song (old or new) from an Swedish artist? "Slå mig hårt i ansiktet" with Thomas Stenström.

Can you teach us some interesting words in Swedish? A word I find really beautiful in the swedish language is "Tillit" which means trust.

Hej Efraim, Welcome to the eurovision universe, how are you doing?

Thank you! I'm doing really good. Really excited for the journey ahead.

How would you describe yourself as an artist?

Very personal and emotional artist. One of my goals as an artist has always been to inspire others, be able to relate to them and make them feel heard going through their ups and downs in life. 

You are one of the participants of Melodifestivalen 2021. How did it all begin?

I have grown up watching the swedish Melodifestivalen and really loved it. So when I got the opportunity to be a part of it I just had to say yes.

"Best of me” is the title of your song, and its written by you, Cornelia Jakobsdotter, Amanda Björkegren and Herman Gardarfve. How was it working with them?

So fun! The energy they brought to the songwriting session was absolutely amazing. We were sitting in a hotel room in Stockholm just vibing and at the the end of the day we had the song. I had a blast writing this song with them and I can't wait for you guys to hear it.

What’s the story behind the song?

It's a story about how hard it is to leave and forget about someone you love cause you know they're not good for you.

What's the process of creating a performance for mello like and who are you working with in that area?

Would like to keep this a secret for now.

I'm a big fan of Swedish language music and these last couple of years I have felt that it hasn't been represented as it deserves in Mello (If we compare it to those songs in the charts). Out of the 65 songs that have finished in the top 5 from 2008 to 2020 only 10 have been in swedish, why do you think the mello world prefers english songs? 

I would say it has to do with english being a more versatile language to write music in. Here in Sweden everybody grows up listening to more english music than Swedish, so to a lot of people it's much more relatable as well.

If you could invite any artist (that makes music in swedish) to mello, who would you pick?

Maybe Oscar Linnros or Veronica Maggio. Real OG's when it comes to modern Swedish pop.

What do you like about Eurovision?

The diversity. It has songs from different cultures and countries and that is so fun to see. Also the great energy it brings to everyone watching. A real peoples fest and that is so valuable.

Tell me the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the word:

Rain: Wet hair

Mirror: Justin Timberlake's song with that title

Rollercoaster: FUN!

Owl: The woods

Applause: Concert (pre-corona)

Is there anything you want to say to close the interview?

Thank you so much for having me and hope you like my performance in Mello. If you wanna follow my road to the stage my instagram is @efraimleo. 

Thanks to Efraim for the interview!

Instagram: efraimleo

Facebook: EfraimLeoOfficial