Benny Cristo is set to travel to Kenya to revamp his Eurovision entry ‘Kemama’ ahead of Rotterdam.
The Czech participant Benny Cristo has revealed more details of the planned revamp of ‘Kemama’. The singer posted on Instagram yesterday that he will be traveling with his manager to Kenya to revamp the song following his Eurovision Song CZ victory. He commented:
This trip will be just as important for the song as it will be for the message behind it. Will be talking about this later, all I can say now is that racism is far from over even when you try to represent the country you were born in.
Benny won Eurovision Song CZ scoring a total of 22 points. He finished second with the international jury and first with the public vote, four points ahead of runner up Elis Mraz & Čis T.
Who is Benny Cristo?
Benny Cristo (born Ben Cristóvão) was born on June 8 1987 in Plzeň in the west of Czech Republic to Czech and Angolan parents. The singer rose to fame in 2009 after participating in the talent show Superstar, where he was a finalist. Since then, he has released 3 albums, 3 EPs, and numerous singles. His most recent single (before his Eurovision song) “Aleiaio” reached #3 in the Radio Top 100 in the Czech Republic.
The Czech Republic have achieved their two highest places in the last 2 years, with Mikolas Josef coming 6th in Lisbon 2018 with the song “Lie to Me”. One year later in Tel Aviv, Lake Malawi achieved their second best placing with their entry “Friend of a Friend” coming 11th. Before this, their best placing was Gabriela Gunčíková who came 25th in 2016, this was their first appearance in the grand final despite competing 4 times previously.