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Interviewer: Hi Alexander. Welcome to Belgium.
AR: Thank you! I: How's it been so far?
AR: Nice. You know I've been to Brussels, like 2 or 3 years ago, and also 6 years ago.
I was participating in a musical, 'Some Sunny Night'.
It was for a disease called Cystic Fibrosis, and actually you have the main office for the whole community.
But its so interesting that Antwerpen... Antwerpen? could be so different from Brussels.
This is so, everything is so, I feel like I'm in "Lord Of The Rings", you know? Everything is so big, and old, but still stylish. I like it.
I: How has winning Eurovision changed your life?
AR: You know actually, before Eurovision, I did everything I could to get out in the world, yeah? You know, get to the open world and see the world.
Now, occasionally, I do everything to just be alone, from the world. Actually that’s one of the main differences.
Errrmmm, before I had bad conscience, because I played too much TV games, video games.
Now, I have bad conscience because I never get time to play video games. So, but that was very negative.
I mean, the positive way of saying it is that I... I don’t have any time to do anything.
That’s very cool actually, because it means that I'm, I'm fully occupied doing music things and stuff.
I'm a classical musician. I'm very proud of that, really, because not many classical violinists get the chance to get the high score of Eurovision, as a singer, right?
I'm not a singer, c'mon! I'm a violinist. I'm a composer. I do music.
And its not important for me to be on the top list of the charts and radios all the time.
Its important for me to please my fans, my audience. And they are getting pretty big now. Its like... on Facebook, its like 500,000 people!
I: Well after Johnny Logan won the contest, he went back and won it again. Would you ever go back and do it again?
AR: Never. Errmmm, no. I... I am so proud of that moment. Of Fairytale, of everything that just clicked.
Everything was good. I don’t want to do that again.
I... I feel that there is a balance...in the, in the force. I talk like Star Wars. There's a balance in the Universe, really.
I like to see myself as a part of it, so I don’t.... when I'm 70 years old, I don’t want to compete with all the new artists, I want to help them.
And already now, I feel like helping new Eurovision stars, right?
But definitely I will... I will participate as a composer. Many times for many countries.
And I don’t expect to win or come top 5 every time, I just want to make music.
I won already, and now its about giving joy to people, collaborating with people, and showing new talents.
And showing people also MY new talents, right? Its a very good world we live in. Really.
I: You are here with Paula Seling. AR: Yes.
I: You wrote the song for her.
I: How did you come to write it?
AR: You know, I have a list of, like, top 10 people I want to work with, and, Paula Seling was definitely one of those in that list.
And when I wrote the song about love and hate, and giving instead of receiving,
and I needed a strong voice, I thought of Paula, and I called her, and she was cool with that, so we've been working the last year.
And its a nice privilege just to be travelling around Europe, playing with people you like, you know.
And Paula has a very good team with her.
So I always have very low shoulders in the music I do, because I don’t do music in the radio format.
I don’t expect my music to be big on the charts, or on the radio. I just expect it to be big in people's hearts.
I mean, its like, when I wrote Fairytale, I showed it to most of the radio stations in Scandinavia and other countries as well.
They said: “Sorry Alex, but this is not for radio. We're never going to play that.” And then I won Eurovision, and they played my song.
I: Will you be touring other European countries?
AR: You know I, I really want to go on a professional tour, because now I am on a, you know a zig-zag, like duh-duh-duh-duh, I'm on a zig-zag tour.
I get invited everywhere, like, Ukraine, Malta, Greece, Turkey, USA, but its just one concept here, one concept there.
Concept, not concert, like playing with an Irish band here, playing for the gay rights here.
Its, its very fun, but its of course, its exhausting, because I need to prepare myself for a completely new thing every... every day actually.
And in the middle of that, I have to make other songs. It's really exhausting, but I.... I don’t complain.
I just want, I just want to tour, I mean, instead of doing a zig-zag tour, I want a bus tour, playing with my own musicians, doing the same thing.
For a month maybe. That would be nice.
I: Can we expect a new CD from you soon?
AR: Definitely. Its a Christmas album coming up, and I'm working with a very big project, at least its very big in here, in my heart.
For the children, which is the most important audience I'll ever have.
I mean I'm proud of the gay audience, but children are like, 10 times more important, right?
So, I want to do something for them, and for their families, so people can gather together.
Its a story, and I... I'm working on that. I don’t have a deadline. Maybe it takes 1 year. Maybe it takes 10 years.
I just want it to be the biggest thing ever, in my life. Meanwhile, I'll just write singles. Single songs.
Because that’s, that’s where, that’s what the music business has become. It doesn't have to be albums anymore.
But I've already given 3 albums. 2 in English, 1 in Swedish. I feel like a successful person, really.
I: Are gay rights important to you?
AR: Yeah. But, its not.... the good thing is that I don’t think about it anymore, because now its.... in most of the world, its a normal thing now.
And that’s good, because, you know, its so boring to talk about gay rights.
Its so boring to talk about, that women should vote, you know, because I feel that we're past that.
Its a waste of energy, really. Its like, gays are gays. Heterosexuals are heterosexuals.
Its... we're almost there. We just need some more years, and everything will be chill.
I: Yeah. That’s a clear message there.
AR: Yeah. C'mon. Its boring to fight. Fight for your right. I mean, we already have our rights.