Upon landing in Madrid on a Sunday afternoon in March, with the city at half gas from the pandemic, Gjon Muharremaj, 22, could have looked like one of those young French people who come to drink the streets of the capital. Nothing is further from what awaited the young man in the city, in the less than 24 hours that he spent in it. Yes, Muharremaj has that singing accent, but his life is very different, far from merrymaking and partying. He is a musician and he came to act as the only guest on a program in which he was not the protagonist but which, probably and without him knowing it, was going to give him a fame that could have almost immediate consequences on his career.
Hours after his landing in Barajas, Muharremaj crossed the corridors of Mediaset to sit at the piano on a then empty set and interpret his song The whole universe in front of the audience gathered in front of the screen: more than 3.7 million viewers. He was in charge of starting the documentary program Rocío, tell the truth to stay alive, in which after 20 years of silence Rocío Carrasco, A year, daughter of Rocío Jurado and Pedro Carrasco, gave her version of the family drama in which she lives immersed.
And among all that media noise, Muharremaj’s melody accompanied Carrasco’s words and left its echo in the audience. It won’t be the last time they hear it. Because the young man, by the stage name Gjon’s Tears (Lágrimas de Gjon), is the representative of Switzerland, his country of birth and the same one that welcomed his parents after leaving Albania, at the next Eurovision Song Contest. And in it he will interpret this theme, The whole universe.
Gjon’s story in Switzerland is similar to that of Blas Cantó in Spain: both were popularly chosen to represent their countries at the 2020 song festival, which the pandemic swept away. And both were the safe option of their national televisions for the next edition, which will also be held in Rotterdam, as the previous one was scheduled. If he sang he changed his forgive me for Universe, Gjon starts from an even better position, because last year his song – then Answer meAnswer me – it was a clear favorite, something that places it in a prominent starting place for eurofans this 2021.
Although born in the popular cheese town of Gruyère, considered one of the most beautiful villages in Switzerland, Gjon Muharremaj has its origins further afield. His father is Kosovar and his mother is Albanian. His family has always been aware of his love for music, a passion that he developed since he was a child. In fact, that’s where his name comes from: his grandfather got a version of Can’t Help Falling in Love, the ballad popularized by Elvis Presley, and the man cried in front of him. The boy thought he had some kind of super power and incorporated those tears, tears in English, to his stage name.
He has said that origins are not something that defines people, not for him, who maintains strong ties with his homeland, and has participated in various television contests there (as in the first edition of Albania’s Got Talent, in 2011 and only 13 years old), but also in Switzerland, in another Got Talent, and in France. In fact, in 2019 he was a semifinalist in the gala version of The voice, forming part of the team of the Israeli singer Mika, who chose him for his interpretations of Elton John, Bowie or George Michael.
In addition to having a band, Gjon’s Tears & The Weeping Willows, already in 2019 he released his first solo song, Pig, an intense ballad in English – with Albanian choruses – that rose to number one on the Albanian charts. This has been followed in the wake Answer me and now The whole universe. Both are very popular in his native Switzerland and in France. The video clip of the first achieved more than three million views and the second one has surpassed it: the song premiered on March 10 and in just over two weeks only the main video clip has 1,600,000 views (although there are others who accumulate 400,000 and 100,000 visits).
This second Eurovision attempt has also brought out his facet as a composer. To create this The whole universe which is making him famous in Europe, he attended a songwriting camp, and created 20 songs in a month and a half. As explained by the Swiss television SRF, a panel of 100 people and 20 experts chose their favorites and gave their opinion on how to improve them, then those changes were incorporated, videos were recorded (to see their voice live) and they were sent back to the jury. The young man said that he was looking for a song with a message that was universally understood. “I had to find producers, composers and authors for the festival, but for me the most important thing was to find the most beautiful song that I was capable of writing”, explained in the SRF.
For him it was “strange” to go through so many filters, because normally he teaches his subjects to his “close circle, the family”, and those opinions were alien and strange to him. But that helps him get started with everything he can listen to next May in Rotterdam, where he will first have to overcome the semifinals to reach the grand final on the 22nd. Switzerland had not come with a song in French for 10 years. to the contest, where he has participated from the beginning, except four times. In fact, it welcomed it in its first edition, and won it with the also melodic Refrainby Lys Assia. It took him 32 years to get another win: in Dublin, with Celine Dion y Do not go without me, in 1988. It may have taken another 33 for the Swiss boy of tears to shed them, like his grandfather, with happiness.
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