- Title: Portugal's Eurovision champion Salvador Sobral says he wants to change music
- Date: 14th May 2017
- Summary: KIEV, UKRAINE (MAY 14, 2017) (REUTERS) ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** VARIOUS OF 2017 EUROVISION SONG CONTEST WINNER FROM PORTUGAL, SALVADOR SOBRAL, WALKING OUT OF CURTAINS TO MEDIA, POSING FOR PICTURES AND WALKING AWAY SOBRAL ARRIVING FOR NEWS CONFERENCE WITH HIS TROPHY AS MEDIA AND FANS GREET HIM AND CHANT 'PORTUGAL' FANS CHANTING 'SALVADOR' (SOUNDBITE) (English) 2017 EUROVISION SONG CONTEST WINNER FROM PORTUGAL, SALVADOR SOBRAL, SAYING: "It's amazing, but honestly, man, I just want to live a peaceful life. I hope that can happen, but I am sure it will. Maybe it will a big fuss in the beginning, but I don't know about national hero. If I thought of myself as a national hero, it would be a bit weird, you know. Yes, I am the national hero, I mean." MEDIA AT NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) 2017 EUROVISION SONG CONTEST WINNER FROM PORTUGAL, SALVADOR SOBRAL, SAYING: "I wish I could bring the change. That would be my biggest joy if I could bring some sort of change to these things and to music in general - music with content. You know, this is a beautiful song, it has some emotional contents and lyrical message, beautiful lyrical message, harmony, you know - things that people are not used to listening to these days because people just listen to the radio songs that are thrown at you and say 'you have to like this because I am going to play it 16 times a day'." REPORTERS LISTENING (SOUNDBITE) (English) 2017 EUROVISION SONG CONTEST WINNER FROM PORTUGAL, SALVADOR SOBRAL, SAYING: "It won't be different in any way. I'll have a tour, you know, summer tour in Portugal. And I'll just continue to do my life. I don't think anything will change. You know, this is fun and let's not forget these things - you win today, tomorrow nobody remembers about you, so you have to continue doing a great musical job and that's what I am going to try to do." MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (English) SOBRAL'S SISTER, LUISA, SAYING: "I think our ears sometimes is so overwhelmed with everything that is happening that when someone comes and sings something very simple and very straight to your heart, it works ten times more. So I think the simplicity the way he did it, the way he delivered, the way he was feeling -- this performance, I love every performance because he always does it differently but this performance, I think I could see in his eyes every word, maybe because he was tired too, he was feeling everything more." MEDIA VARIOUS OF SOBRAL AND SISTER LEAVING
- Embargoed: 28th May 2017 01:53
- Keywords: winner show music Portugal contest song Eurovision
- Location: KIEV, UKRAINE
- City: KIEV, UKRAINE
- Country: Ukraine
- Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment,Sport
- Reuters ID: LVA0016GO8XMV
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Portugal's Salvador Sobral won the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday (May 13) performing a jazz-style ballad written by his sister, taking the top spot for the first time in the country's history and celebrating with a call to "put emotion back into music".
Along with singers from Italy and Bulgaria, Sobral was a favorite going into the final of the annual song fest, which was hosted in the Ukrainian capital Kiev, and he led the voting throughout the evening. Portugal finished ahead of Bulgaria and Moldova.
A soft-spoken, 27 year-old with a scraggly beard, Sobral won with "Amar Pelos Dois" ("Love For Both of Us"), sung in his native Portuguese. This is the first time Portugal won since it first entered the contest in 1964. After being announced as the winner, Sobral performed the ballad again, this time in duet with his sister Luisa.
Asked later at a news conference whether he was now a national hero, he said: "Honestly man I just want to live a peaceful life, if I thought of myself as a national hero it would be a bit weird, you know."
Ukraine hosted the competition while it also fights a war, hundreds of kilometres (miles) away in the east, against Russian-backed separatists. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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