After an emotional first press conference, Montaigne chatted to the Eurovision press again last night alongside Australia's Head of Delegation, Josh Martin from SBS.
We got a sneak peek of what the cross to the Green Room may look like and later in the evening got a look at Montaigne's live-on-tape performance.
Montaigne was asked about the support she received from fans after her first press conference, saying,
"I did receive a lot of message, a hashtag even sprung up called #heartsformontaigne which was very sweet. There was a big reaction to it which I felt guilty almost... For me it was a very sincere emotional reaction. I just wanted people to understand, I think I had been quite repressed about it, all the way up to that point.”
Josh Martin from SBS also added,
“We’d love to be there, one of the things we love the most, is being amongst all the other delegations, all the other countries, all the other artists…. We have a major case of FOMO at the moment, looking at all the social feeds, we’d love to be with you there.”
When asked about the biggest challenges this year for Montaigne, she stated it was the short time period to prepare, saying,
“Biggest challenge, (was the) lack of time, we would have had extra months to prepare and time on stage to test the whole thing, run through and sing. From the Mardi Gras, we had two or three weeks, to get to the very final Eurovision performance, which was quite the push for everyone”
When asked about her input to the live-on-tape performance she said it was a collaborative process,
“I had a lot of input, a fairly collaborative process, I mean I have zero technical chops in regards to lighting and staging and all that stuff, I just had big beautiful dreams. With people around me like Blink TV who are the production company and SBS were in charge of bringing my vision to life as best as they could. So there was a lot of round-table meetings where I talked about what I saw for it… so it was very much an evenly balanced weighting of work.”
Josh Martin from SBS adding,
"Montaigne is one of the most collaborative and generous creative artists there is. It’s always so wonderful to have that collaboration, and have some a generous artist and creative artist to push things and share that dream."
Josh also talked about what the preparations for the next week ahead look like, sharing that,
"It’s going to be a lot of late nights for us, so we’re sort of with you on the same timezone in Rotterdam, I think this year being on the other side of the world and bringing Eurovision to life for Australian audiences is a lot more technically challenging than we’ve previously had. The Dutch have put on the most amazing show for the whole world to see and we’re along for the ride to bring that to Australian audiences in the best way. Lots of coffee, lots of early starts and late nights."
When asked about doing Eurovision again next year, Montaigne was quick to dismiss that approach.
“I don’t know if I want to do it again next year, I want to try some other things for a bit, I did that for two years which forced me to focus only on that, there are definitely some other things I would like to do and work on. I won’t say no to ever doing Eurovision again, but definitely not in the next couple of years.”
When a press member asked if Montaigne would visit Rotterdam when she could travel again she was enthusiastic about it, saying,
"Yeah maybe I will, that’s a nice idea, I think that could be quite cathartic."
With the Dutch host adding "Give us a call, and we give you a tour!"
We'd love to see that happen!
Watch a snippet of Montaigne's live-on-tape performance below.