A couple of weekends back, I had the pleasure to accompany my friend and musical compadré, RYKKA to the Swiss Eurovision Finals. It was very exciting for me to see my good friend up there on stage looking like a million bucks and singing for Switzerland. She composed the song "The Last of Our Kind" specifically for the Eurovision Song Contest, and it won for Switzerland. You can see her fabulous performance "here." Rykka (Christina Rieder) and I have been friends for a long time, we met almost a decade ago at a music conference around 5am singing together in a circle of music makers of all kinds, instruments jamming along spontaneously on the penthouse floor of a hotel filled with music industry people from all over. We were friends from the moment our voices melded!! Little did I know that our future lives would parallel each other as she too would be spending her time between Canada (B.C) and Switzerland (Zurich.)

Some of you may be wondering why I am writing about Rykka's performance and not my own? That is a fair question, seeing as I am also a Singer and Song-writer. I have, in the past auditioned for Ireland's Eurovision (did not make it, obviously) and a couple of years ago, I auditioned for Canada's Got Talent. A few years back, I even auditioned for Cirque De Soleil. So I have been down those "audtition" roads and am clearly not cut out for such things. People ask me if I get nervous, well the most nervous I have ever been is during the auditioning process. I can sing for a crowd made up of hundreds, even thousands, but when four people are there, judging me, I clam up. Anyway, more RYKKA!!! My friend has been VERY busy since winning for Switzerland, but she managed to answer a few questions I had... So here they are!

1) What are your hobbies?

R: Whenever I am not making music, I am making something. If it's not one thing, it's another. I Love to make costumes, if it's like Christmas holidays, I Love to bake. I'm in Love with making! Haha.

2) How do you find happiness?

R: I think that being in nature is a great way to find happiness. My favourite place is in the mountains, or in the forest near my house. I relate happiness to being centered and at peace. A few nights ago, I couldn't sleep because my head was buzzing and I pictured myself floating over a blue lake. It totally worked and I could clear my mind and I fell asleep.

3) What was the name of the first song you ever wrote and what was the chorus?

R: When I was 16 my boyfriend was 21 haha...my parents were cool with it actually. But anyway, he was so lazy. I wrote a song called Runaway for him, telling him that he is missing out on life by just sleeping and being lazy all the time.

4) What would you do if you saw someone litter?

R: When I see someone litter I'm like "Hello! It's 2016 not the '80's!" Who didn't get the memo? I just can't get into the mind frame of not caring about abruptly littering. Here in Switzerland people are really good about recycling, when I see someone throw a plastic bottle in the garbage, I freak out haha.

5) What is one of the most important things for you to do to prepare for Stockholm?(Stockholm is where the Eurovsion final will take place)

R: I'm mentally preparing myself. I'm also working to make my voice stronger. I'm taking voice lessons for the first time in years and really fine tuning them.

Of course we could go on and on with more questions, and perhaps after Stockholm we will do an update. IN the meantime, keep your eyes and ears open for my girl here, you will be hearing more, for sure!

Thanks for reading,

Love

Lindsay

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