The Secret of EUROVISON 2023 with Danny of Voyager 

I love how when voyager got their first 12 points and the camera got tp them, they were in the middle of eating a sandwich.

Thanks heaps for having us on the show Nik! Worth getting up at 5am! Voyager aka Danny Nokturnal

Long time ago Finnish people tried to send Nightwish, but like always, the jury ruined it.

Really enjoyed Voyager's performance. Lord of the Lost deserved so so so much better. Also love the metalheads sticking together (Käärijä is a HUGE Rammstein fan if his chest tattoo is anything to go by).

Danny is such an great ambassador for both Eurovision and metal. And cool anecdote about Stratovarius -can't believe I didn't know that!

Been loving Voyager for a long time. I am Finnish, so couldn't vote Käärijä, so Voyager naturally was my top choice. You guys are so awesome.

Afaik the harshest vocals in Eurovision were not from a metal band but from Hatari, an electro-industrial cyberpunk band from Iceland who performed in 2019. They're amazing!

There was a Hungarian metalcore band in the 2018 Eurovision final called AWS

I'll be totally honest, I found the 2nd semi-final to be rather boring to the point I fell asleep and it wasn't until Voyager came on that I actually woke up, one of the best entries this year no doubt, I'm glad Portugal finally gave their 12 points to an artist that brought something new and original, and with no political interest. Best of luck for Voyager in the future. Cheers.

Pretty much everything is allowed at Eurovision! You should watch Hatari, who represented Iceland in 2019, with their song “Hatrið mun sigra” (Hatred will be victorious). They are a techno/industrial/punk rock band in BDSM-attire. It’s crazy and out there and a pretty cool song:

49:52 💚 “He really was the people’s champion”

Not to ruin both of your ideas of Voyager being the first to perform a metal breakdown on eurovision, but AWS from Hungary pulled it off in 2018 with the song Viszlat Nyar (Rest in Peace Örs). EDIT : sorry for mentioning this again, seems chat was already on it while I was done typing ;) Loved this podcast ! Danny sounds like a wonderful guy able to enjoy every moment, that is so nice to see. Also it makes me feel better as a metalhead that always had this guilty pleasure of Eurovision, I knew I wasn't alone but feels good to hear a metal performer talk about Eurovision like this.

Voyager were one of my fav entries this year and besides their song they just seem like the sweetest people ever, they were simply enjoying the time, ate sandwiches and made some friends🫶

I live in Europe and I've been following Voyager and Lord of the Lost for a while. So I was really stoked when I learned both of them were going to Eurovision. Thanks for this talk, I'm glad to see these guys get the recognition they deserve.

I was a Eurovision fan as a kid before I got into metal. I do remember the "how can you like Eurovision when you're a metalhead?" until Lordi rocked up to the stage and the following year in Finland they had Apocalyptica playing during the interval. Lordi really kicked that door wide open for those brave enough to submit rock and metal tracks after that. Credit to Loreen too because she helped to up the game for more "serious" entries coming forward. The standard of songs now are far higher than in the early 90s when I was watching Ireland win again and again and introducing us to Riverdance. Australia have played a huge part in upping the game too. So having one of my favourite bands actually appear in a contest I was ribbed for loving for years was just epic! I'm also loving that three artists I've been banging on about for years are all mentioned in here: Voyager, Sleep Token and Neurotech. I think I picked up the last Voyager album and the first Sleep Token albums about the same time in 2019 and played BOTH to death and Neurotech I played on the student radio rock/metal show I co-hosted 10/11 years ago on a number of occasions. We even did an around the world show with a different metal artist from each country and I said I'd love to hear Wulf playing at Eurovision because his music I think catches my ear as more than just metal because it has fantastic melodies within it. Someone already mentioned in the comments about Nightwish going forward for Finland and they were turned down (what a missed opportunity!) but there have been a range of rock and metal and Iceland flung in some industrial with Hatari and I felt Luke Black this year for Serbia took that forward though a less aggressive side to that, there was definitely a later NIN feel to his track. You have to keep an open ear in Eurovision for some absolutely brilliant tracks in a variety of genres which definitely has become a lot more diverse. Estonia had a country song last year which was pretty good too. You definitely need to watch some of the madness of the pre-parties on the lead up even if you don't do a round up of the finals next year :)

It's great that Eurovision is now a platform where you can introduce a large audience to various kinds of metal. Similarly, I hope that metal fans will also see Eurovision as a platform to experience non-metal (and non-pop) music like the Flamenco drone from Spain or the ultra French song from France.

Eurovision and Metal is such a weird but great blend. So many metalheads I know are also really into Eurovision. Love it. Voyager got my vote this year

Proud to be Portuguese. Those 12 points were totally well deserved! 🇵🇹 🤝 🇦🇺

Thanks I really enjoyed this and could have listened longer. I found Voyager through Eurovision and loved their humour, their commitment and enthusiasm towards Eurovision while showcasing their music.Which I have gone on to look at more of their music since then. I hope they loved the whole experience and enjoyed their time in Liverpool and will go back one day and play there again.

There was a glam metal called Wig Wam who represented Norway in Eurovision 2005 and they ended up in 9th place with their song "In my dreams". Unfortunately they don't get mentioned a lot, but they did gain some attention when their song "Do Ya Wanna Taste it" was used as the theme song for Peacemaker.

I’m so happy there are metalheads who appreciate and love Eurovision even if there isn’t always metal present - I was delighted to find out how much Voyager (and Danny especially) are fans of Eurovision and how much they knew about the previous acts! I have a bias towards the contestants who really know their stuff and love the contest, the ones who are just in it for the followers are generally quite bland but the ones who really genuinely appreciate the contest are the most grateful and happy to be there. Metal and heavy music isn’t generally my thing but I thought Voyager and LotL were AMAZING and I ended up really enjoying AWS too in their year (rest in peace Örs 😔) so I support the idea that Eurovision is a great gateway for people to experience new music that they wouldn’t normally listen to or try. Also I had a similar experience to Danny as a huge fan; sitting there in the arena watching live in a position I literally never thought I would ever get to be in (a Brit sitting in a live UK-hosted Eurovision!) - I caught myself a number of times just appreciating the moment and taking it all in 🥲 Oh and the crowd as far as I saw were respectful of Loreen’s win and didn’t keep chanting but outside the arena especially at Käärijä’s sauna bus there were people commiserating and also just celebrating Cha Cha Cha still. It was awkward for us too when the chants were happening, it felt disrespectful in a way!

I predicted Voyage to finish 3rd. I'm sad they didn't get more votes. This guy is amazing singer and their song Promise simply rocks.

Probably one of the best ESC interviews ever, where artist understands and knows the competition so well and deeply! Like he said, be a fan - it will come across!

check out Lordi from 2006/ metal band from Finland and they won that year.

I'm quite sure that their Perth show will be the heroes welcome, and that the rest of Australia will follow suit. Looking forward to their Brisbane show next week! Voyager are sensational to see live. The energy that you saw in those 3 minutes of Eurovision, is prevalent through their entire set. You can see how much fun they're having and every single person in that venue is having the best night of their lives.

Great interview, so love the energy and sense of humor of Daniel , and explaining all the small details of Eurovision. I am a big fun, but I didn’t knew about the details behind the scenes. Voyager made really great covers of a few of songs of other contestants. I wish them all the luck and will be watching them in Munich this year!! Can’t wait!

Voyager's new track 'Prince of Fire' is incredible! ❤

A great chat !

It's so amazing to hear how an artist's experience differs so much and in so many ways when they go to eurovision compared to a regular live show or a tour. I got introduced to Voyager through eurovision and this was a great interview, thank you for this

Great episode, I've never heard of Voyager before Eurovision 2023. It was nice to get a bit insides about them and how all the recent things came to be. You guys also mentioned Blind Channel shortly. It would be awesome to see those dudes at your podcast some time. Cool, down-to-earth dudes, I bet that would be a fun episode.

Damn that was a great interview, could've probably listened for another hour!

That break down put my jaw on the floor! I guess I didn't realize how metal the song already was (maybe the guitars were low in the mix?)... regardless, because I didn't hear the metal in the first half, the break down caught me fully off guard! ...HOLY SH!T 🔥

Aussie Croat here. Can confirm Eurovision thrives, SBS used to have dedicated hosts and parties when I was younger. Now everyone has their own house parties for it. My mum and I still watch the way we used to when I was a kid. We go on media lockdown until Sunday and binge it all. Earliest year I remember was 98, I was just shy of 7 years old. We used to tape them, and I would play the vcr tapes until they wore out. I cleaned my room/read/did my homework to them. I even used to know how many minutes in my favourite songs used to be. And I still go back and listen to them all on RU-vid now. I still know winning artist, song, country, and host country in consecutive year order since Dana

Nik, you should probably check out AWS - Viszlat Nyar. They represented Hungary in 2018. Only metalcore entry I know of to date.

Awesome interview.

Awesome interview 👍😎

Awesome guy! It's a pleasure to listen to him.

I had the same thought at the Beginning like the Interviewer. Them beside Germany and Finland were the Best. I love that Song and listen to some others. Australia deserved more Points. Finally something different. Not just Pop Shite all the Time. Thanks for the Interview. I found "New" Bands to discover and appreciate. Yeah still sad about Käärijä...totally unfair. Think about the La Zaara Finger flip. She said what i thought. There were so many good Songs. And i haven't watched it for many Years.

This was such a cool and interesting interview! I've been watching Eurovision on and off since I'm European and it was great to hear about the ESC experience from their angle, I learned lots

Thanks for the interview, was really interesting ^^ Hope to see more from Voyager

I was hoping you would interview Danny, damn, I’m just so happy this podcast episode showed up in my RU-vid feed as a special surprise! Voyager has been getting better and better over the several years, and I’ve been enjoying every second of it! Thanks to both of you for this awesome podcast! Keep on crushing it Nik! Your growth over the past couple years has been astonishing, and you keep levelling up your work. Make sure to enjoy every second of it, your enthusiasm is just infectious!

love them

Watched Eurovision for the 1st time since i was a kid just because of Lord of the Lost & Voyager...yeah it was like 3am start in my part of the world. So stoked u guys did so well!!

I never heard of voyager but promise was my nr 1 and now im going to one of their concerts 😊

I was there - Voyager were great. This is a great interview , really enjoyed it

Closest I felt to having a family member on stage there... And I'm Croatian. You lot gave me the chills and I literally rooted at the telly. Just amazing work.

They are now my new favorite band❤❤❤

Cool for daniel to shout out blind channel, theyre in my top 5 of artists

I was glad to hear Danny bring up Devin Townsend because that's exactly who I thought of when I first heard the final part of Promise on Eurovision and wondered if maybe he'd been an inspiration... :D

Didn't know our media asked them to sing our song (lithuanian, don't usually follow stuff before the semifinals). Sorry if that was awkward :D

Yep, definitely die hard Eurovision fans in Perth & Australia. Omg that's right, I forgot they used the actual 2019 Tel Aviv audience in the Fire Sage movie! I was watching an ESC United rehearsal livestream at the time and Matt & the team were talking about what was happening on the stage with Will & the filming. So we all knew about the movie before it came out.

being Canadian and a metalhead and infatuated with Eurovision, this interview and the number of times Devin Townsend was mentioned made my heart SOOOOO HAPPY YOU HAVE NO IDEA

So cool to see you feature this band. That new album of theirs is absolutely a must hear for US audiences.

Enjoyable interview! I'm hoping that Finland will cross your path again, as Käärijä has said he want to take his sound more toward electric guitars and more of a metal sound (him being such a mega Rammstein fan since the tender age of 8) ... so here's my favourite RU-vid Finnish teacher with a short from the day of the Grand Final about how to say his name: ru-vid.comVfKKHBAlN0s?feature=share

52:30 looking forward to your North America tour! 🇺🇸 🇨🇦

I'm not really a fan of metal, but I think Voyager are great, I really liked their song. Eurovision was also interesting because of them, because it's great that as many musical genres as possible are represented at Eurovision.

Thanks for the great interview. Voyager is one of my big winners from ESC 2023. They served so much quality in every aspect and even elevated the "look and feel" of their official music video with the stunning staging in Liverpool. I was not expecting that. Comparing their performance with our german entry Lord of the Lost, it's not a surprise they ended up much higher on the scoreboard. Their presentation was just on a very different level and "Promise" was composed with ESC (staging) in mind. LOTL instead simply took a song from their last album, because they jumped very late into our national selection. This huge difference in terms of preperation and "ESC instinct" is one of the main reasons why Australia did so much better with their rock/metal song. Props to Voyager and the whole australian team for their great work 👏👍🤘

46:59 Btw it is incredibly political. The jury vote was brought back in 2009 to stop the results from being skewed as countries were voting for their close allies/neighbours. Finland REALLY wanted to win this year and basically no televotes from Finland went to Sweden. And the Swedish media, even though they won, started spouting a lot of bullshit about how Finland was "once a part of Sweden" and that Finland didn't vote for Sweden because Finns are jealous of Swedes. It got ugly. Also the fact that Russia is banned from the competition because of the Ukraine Invasion, but Israel is a competitor and continues to do well? 🤨

Nik should have Käärija on so he can teach Nik how to say Käärija 😂😂😂

Daniel imitating Finnish accent always kills me. He does it so well!

What an exciting interview for someone like myself, who is a European metalhead liking Eurovision :) Really enjoyed every minute of it. Nick, it would be pretty cool if you do some reaction videos on Eurovision next year. I think that metalheads reacting to Eurovision are not very common:)

Loved listening to Danny and the interview itself. I loved the natural conversational vibe. I saw one recently with another favourite band of mine which came across stilted Q and A based. As a eurovision fan (tier below superfan), I was super impressed with this year's line up - Voyager gave me life! Super sad the voting didn't line up with audience appreciation - as you say you had to vote for the favourite to win for them to get the glory rather than voting for who you enjoyed most. Lastly I was so interested to hear about the BTS, especially the phoney camera - that puts Voyagers voting announcement into perspective. I felt sorry for them before in a laugh behind hand kind of way but now I feel really sorry that BBC did that to them - but I never understood "all publicity is good publicity"/meme culture

There is a full gig with Käärijä that will be available worldwide for the next 2 years. However if I put the TV channel RU-vid deletes my comment. But just think of which country Käärijä is from, Finland, and you can find it. The gig was recorded 1 week after Eurovision. And it is quite awesome if I might say so. (Though I have no idea what rap concerts are normally like since I have never listened to that kind of music before. Maybe they are all like that. Though I doubt it).

First time in my life I can thank to Eurovision for something.. Thank you because I've discovered such a great band 🎉

I really hope australia get a extension to come back to eurovision, been great seeing them every year

Devin Townsend / Voyager tour 2024, lets go!

"You can't have keyboards in extreme metal?". Wait till they find out of melodic death metal.

Hubby and I were like, oh wait, we reviewed albums from them years ago on our webzine :D.

Been watching Voyager live in perth for nearly 10 years. they are easily one of the best live performers I've seen. Every show is amazing.

I enjoyed this interview. I have known Voyager for over ten years, and it was a happy surprise to know they are representing Australia in ESC. Have not listened to them in a while, but Promise was solid. A good Voyager song, but perhaps not really a good song for ESC at this point of ESC history. Seems like the juries still are not so ready for metal, at least not progressive metal, although hard rock has already won. Sympathies from Funland. Cha cha cha.

I was really surprised to hear that Nik didn't know about Voyager. I used to get surprised that many people in Bulgaria KNEW Voyager and with time I got the opinion that they are quite famous with everyone listening to every kind of metal :)

Voyagers last album is an absolute banger. I really hope they really grow because of all of this exposure.

You definitely need to check out AWS from 2018

VoyagerAU, Teramaze & Hermina Top Recommended Aussie Bands

Dustin The Turkey was actually a character from a children's TV show in Ireland for many many years 😅

“I asked a major UK celebrity ‘How do you deal with this?’” Translation: I spoke to Rita Ora backstage.

I think the audience is bigger than what is calculated. It's an event with a lot more people per TV than other programs. To a certain degree, they are not waiting for the genera of music they like. People is more open during Eurovision. Maybe you see a puppet turkey and it becomes your favourite show and you don't listen or like anything similar during the rest of the year.

Neurotech!!! He also has two other projects called NeuroWulf and NeuroAxis. He’s such a cool person to talk to. Would be cool to have him on a podcast or video of yours

What Danny says about how people voted is true for a lot of people. Even though I had Australia 2nd, all of my voting budget went to my no. 1 because I just couldn't take the risk that a "missing" vote from me would mean that he didn't get my country's real 12 points. 😬 It doesn't quite work like that of course, if I had given Finland 19 votes instead of 20 he would probably still have had our real 12. 😄 🤣 But that's the mindset of a lot of voters I think. It's all votes on the favourite, and no one else gets anything. And as much as I hate Finland not winning overall, they got my country's real 12 (and surprisingly, also our fake jury 12), so I can feel slightly less ashamed of that at least. 🙂 Real 12's = televote 12's. Fake 12's = rigged jury 12's.

Omg hi Danny :D

At 50:56-51:00, I couldn't help laughing. All I could think of, whilst Denny spoke, was "Lord ... lost"

Excellent interview, thank you. 🤗 I had Voyager 2nd in my top 10, after Käärijä. I will follow you in the faint hope that you will do an interview with Käärijä. He is a quite chill dude so I think he would like your interview style. Just remember that Käärijä is not fluent in English. Some people think Käärijä is joking when he's talking in English. He's not, he is genuinely not fluent and will miss any obscure references in English.

Everyone is forgetting about AWS, from Hungary, in 2018 :(((

That about metal heads change is true. I'm into metal since my teens and I usually try not to show it. (I was afraid of being put in to the box or scaring off some ppl.) Im a girl and its quite unpopular in Poland and here we have many stereotypes and preconceptions about metal people. We are still one leg in the past but it is slowly passing. Generally, Its just not my thing to scream at loud my preference. All music is great - from classical to rap. All is gud. X3 Personally I liked "Cha cha cha" for its mix of hard rock and rap. First time I saw it it was: What?! And now I'm a fan of a rapper. Peliä! ... LOL I used to hate rap. Don't be judgmental about the genres and closed in comfy frame. It great to have a taste but keep your ears and heart open! Explore all there is! Enjoy music and share it with the world. :)

Hungary sent a metal band sometime between 2016-2019, Before Orban pulled the country from the competition.

It's been on a American TV channel the past two year.

Fam if Canada ever enter I wanna see Alexisonfire

I'm sure it was mentioned before, but for a proper metal breakdown, you should check out Hungary's entry from 2018. A W S - Viszlat nyar

Can't wait for you to get Chris Harms from LotL on the podcast as well. Loved this episode!

Holy shit Danny's Finnish accent was on point lmao

Check out Ukraine 2017 O.tortvald band the song Time, post hardcore breakdown one of my favorites😍

As a Eurovision sceptict sicne childhood, this was the year I couldn't avoid it and ended up watching. Ridiculous amounts of talent on stage, the quality compared to the 80's, 90's and 00's was insane. And between Voyager, Loreen and Käärijä there was at least 3 contestants that would have all been able to win any other year. Almost sad that all these top entries ended up running against each other but it really became a great show, even to me. And it introduced me to Voyager which is how I ended up here.

Cha cha cha might've not become such a meme if it won.

I wanted to tell you about a metal-ish live performance from Käärijä. But RU-vid keeps auto-deleting my comment. 😭 Just know that Käärijä has a metal/rap crossover song, and he has performed it live. (I can't even put the name of the song because RU-vid removes it). 😭 It's not Cha Cha Cha.

“Here’s a band that plays breakdowns on Eurovision.” Hungary’s AWS feel ignored.

Sweden only won as next year will be 50 years since ABBA won the contest Finland have been robbed twice first Terasbetoni in 2008 now Kaarija in 2023 it's a fix!

Does Danny still speak German fluently when he moved at 11 years old? That is 6th grade so I think he should still speak some good German, right?

Nick doesnt even know how eurovision works. He was praising Germany for getting to the final lmao

1 hour chat about Rock & Eurovision without mentioning Maneskin ... mmm...I find it very strange... we would not see so many bands taking part if it was not for them PERIOD!

Nik, you talk too much.