Eleni Foureira was photographed for Vogue Greece and gave a full interview about the pleasant twists in her life.
As the singer goes through the last months of her pregnancy, she talked about the difficult childhood years she experienced in Albania, about racism she suffered in Greece, her participation in Eurovision, and about her dream of having a career abroad.
Referring to the beginning of her career and how she had to hide her origin, the singer said: "I was from Albania, as if it was something bad. Then I couldn't support myself, TV was also different, more violent."
"I think if I started today, people wouldn't let them do that to me. The world today is going against racism, it is not letting it flourish, and that is very important," the singer added.
"In fact, she pointed out that her wish is to raise an open-minded child, without prejudices: "Now, in this phase of my life, I am constantly thinking about how I can raise an open-minded child, without prejudices and stereotypes.
"I want to teach him to respect all people, not to discriminate, not to bully, to accept, to empathise, to understand diversity and to fight for visibility. I want him not to be ashamed to be himself and to leave room for the other people around him to be themselves."
Regarding her difficult childhood: "I can't compare the way he will grow up to how I grew up. I experienced another situation. Poverty, civil war in Albania, migration to Greece, a huge way to redefine my life at a very young age."
"At the same time, however, with unlimited love from my parents. All this made me very sensitive but also very hard at the same time. Ten years ago I was handing out leaflets on the streets. We had to survive. There was no room for all of us not to work.
"I will raise a child who will not have to do this to survive. But I want to teach him that it's OK not to have it all and that life is a game of claiming.
"Nothing comes to you so freely. I want him to know that in order to have something, he has to work hard, just as I have worked hard to offer him what I will offer him."
In another part of her interview, Eleni Foureira talked about the successes after Eurovision and the possibility of moving abroad.
"Don't look at me like that with my belly! I normally enter the studio, record new tracks, prepare a new foreign language album, prepare my tour. To me this is life. I have a huge longing to get back on stage and then come down to hug my son. I can't wait to combine these two great loves of mine."
Also, it was mentioned for the first time that she decided to spread her wings in America, but the circumstances with the coronavirus brought her back to Greece.
"With the success of Eurovision, an ambitious door opened for me abroad, which I always dreamed of.
"I was always at concerts outside, I found myself playing on the same stage with Dua Lipa and at some point, with the help of my company, Panik Records, and George Arsenakos, I moved to Los Angeles with the intention of settling permanently and looking for it there.
"And suddenly the pandemic breaks out and everything falls apart. I came back to Greece because I didn't know what all this was and I wanted to be close to my family" .
About her feelings at that time, Eleni Foureira revealed: "I was very upset then. Just when the whole thing had acquired a flow and there were the right conditions to do something nice outside, something so unexpected came to turn it all upside down.
"It was a time of great introspection for me. I turned to myself and said 'Look and see. You can't live for your work alone. You can't look for happiness in just one thing'.
"I thus began to balance my life outside of work, which remains my big capsule, but I realised that I needed to energise my personal life as well. Somewhere there I felt more strongly the need to start my own family. And amidst all these thoughts came this baby."
The announcement of her pregnancy
The news of her pregnancy was published by Foureira on November 13 with photos showing her belly. Lying on a bed next to her is Alberto BotÃa, her partner and father of the baby, and she announced that they will have their first child.
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