Saara Aalto has teased big plans as she prepares for Eurovision 2018.
Saara, who was runner up on The X Factor in 2016, has chosen to represent her home country of Finland in this year’s competition.
This is Saara’s fourth attempt at Eurovision, trying three times to enter the competition in the past but was always second best.
Ahead of her first performance, Saara has revealed how she had originally given up on her dream before X Factor.
“I went to X Factor UK and I said to my fiancee that I’m going to go to Eurovision but when I’m invited directly, I’m not going to compete anymore,” she explained. “I said it loud but I thought it would take another 20 years until I’m invited – and then I got a phone call in autumn 2017 and I was laughing – it only took me one and a half years, you have to be careful what you wish for!
“So I immediately knew I had to do it, it was perfect timing after X Factor UK and people being excited about my new music, I thought it was a perfect platform to show my songs to all of Europe.”
Saara will be competing with her song Monsters and has big plans for her performance.
She told the Metro newspaper: “I can say I’m doing something that has never been done on a Eurovision stage before.”
Saara went on to praise Eurovision, saying: “Eurovision is the best event – it’s the best celebration of the year, what could be better than having an event that brings people together from all over the world?
“It’s such a positive event and I just hate it when people have negative comments about it because it doesn’t do any harm to anybody, it only brings people together – so we should have more Eurovision, Eurovision every week, I think the world needs it!”
Eurovision 2018 will air in May from Lisbon, Portugal.
The UK Eurovision act for 2018 was confirmed last month. SuRie and her song Storm, written by Nicole Blair, Gil Lewis and Sean Hargreaves, will head to Lisbon in May after being chosen in a live show.
SuRie is an actress and singer who is no stranger to the Eurovision Song Contest, appearing as a backing singer for Loïc Nottet in 2015 and Blanche at Eurovision 2017.
