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Canadian vies for Swiss in Eurovision contest

The Local
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Canadian vies for Swiss in Eurovision contest
Photo: SRF

A Canadian singer was picked at the weekend to represent Switzerland in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest set to take place in Stockholm in May.

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Rykka, a singer-songwriter from Vancouver, won the Swiss televised final on Saturday night, beating five other competitors with her English-language song, The Last of Our KInd.

She won the most votes both from a ten-member expert jury and TV viewers who selected their favourites by telephone.

The competition was broadcast from the small town of Kreuzlingen, in the canton of Thurgau, where contestants presented an array of styles featuring everything from cow bells to a smiley-filled LED backdrop.

Thirty-year-old Rykka, the stage name for Christina Maria Rieder, sang in the centre of a stage filled with dry ice.

Currently a resident of Meilen in the canton of Zurich, she has already produced four albums, one of them under the stage name she now uses.

She will represent Switzerland in the Eurovision semifinal on May 12th.

If she makes the cut, she will advance to the final on May 14th.

Switzerland permits foreigners to represent the country in Eurovision, a contest organized by the European Broadcasting Union with participants from 43 countries.

The last time a Canadian competed for the Swiss was in 1988, when Céline Dion participated and won the competition before going on to become an international superstar.

Check out Rykka's winning entry below:

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