Two big Eurovision stars Måns Zelmerlöw and Polina Gagarina have released their duet, ‘Circles and Squares’, on February 19, for the Swedish Figure Skating Association and the International Skating Union (ISU) as the official song for the 2021 World Figure Skating Championships. Last week the Ice Skating Australia Board announced the nominated team for the championships who will be represent Australia.
The ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2021 will be held at the Ericsson Globe in Stockholm, Sweden, from March 22 – 28.
The Swedish Figure Skating Association has partnered with Måns Zelmerlöw and Polina Gagarina, to create a specially commissioned song for the Championships entitled ‘Circles and Squares’.
The Swedish and Russian singers will also perform the single together during the Exhibition Gala on March 28, 2021. The two artists met at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest, which Måns Zelmerlöw won with his entry ‘Heroes’ and Polina Gagarina took second place with ‘A Million Voices’.
Although the ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2021 are currently planned to be held behind closed doors, the event will be televised worldwide. The ISU will publish detailed information on where spectators can watch the Championships closer to the date.
“We hope that the official World Championships song will be something for the Figure Skating world to gather around and be proud of. With these two global stars performing the song, it’ll be extremely popular and trigger interest from Figure Skating fans the world over,” says Ulrika Molin, World Championships project director.
“When we wrote the song, we wanted to match the drama and dramaturgical dynamism of Figure Skating. I really think that we’ve created a song for the ice,” says Måns.
“For me, this co-operation is not only about travelling to beautiful Sweden, where the World Championships are being held, but also about getting into the world of Figure Skating. I really admire the skaters. Everything they do seems impossible and fantastic to me. I’m delighted that Måns and I are singing the main track for this major event,” adds Polina.
The song was written by Måns Zelmerlöw, Stefan Örn, David Lindgren Zacharias, Sandra Bjurman and Jon Eyden.
Stefan Örn and Sandra Bjurman both co-composed and wrote the lyrics to Azerbaijan’s Eurovision 2011 winning song ‘Running Scared’. They both are also co-wrote many other Eurovision songs by Azerbaijan including ‘Drip Drop’ and ‘When the Music Dies’. Stefan Örn also co-wrote ‘Start A Fire’. He also jointly produced ‘Space’ for Montenegro’s entry in 2017.
Australia is expected to compete in the ISU World Figure Skating Championships. The competition will be used to determine the entry quotas for each federation at the 2022 World Championships and the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Last week the Ice Skating Australia Board and ISA President Peter Lynch announced the nomination of the Australian team to the World Championships in Sweden.
So far announced for Australia are Brendan Kerry, Kailani Craine, Holly Harris and Jason Chan.
Brendan Kerry is a 26-year-old figure skater who is an eight-time Australian national champion, is a 2019 Toruń Cup and 2016 Egna Spring Trophy champion. He is also a bronze medalist in major international competitions.
Kailani Craine is a 22-year-old figure skater who is a six-time Australian champion, international champion and silver medalist and also competed in the 2018 Winter Olympics where she finished in 17th place.
Holly Harris and Jason Chan are competing in the Ice dance. Holly is 18-years old and is the 2019 Australian national champion. Her partner Jason Chan, who is 24-years old is a Canadian-Australian ice dancer who is the 2019 Australian national senior champion.
This week would have been the 2021 ISU Four Continents Championships in Sydney, however has now been rescheduled for 2023 in Sydney.
You can catch both Måns and Polina performing the single together during the Exhibition Gala on March 28, 2021.
The music video is expected to be released on February 28, 2021.
‘Circles and Squares’ is now available on iTunes, Spotify and Apple Music.