What can you shop for in Vienna that you can’t get anywhere else?
Custom-made shirts at Gino Venturini, one of the oldest shops in the city, just around the corner from St. Stephen’s Cathedral. Once you’ve been measured there, you don’t have to worry about anything anymore and your shirts can be shipped all over the world.
Vienna isn’t complete without…
Sacher cake. Although I personally am a huge fan of the Sacher cube with rum, it’s even juicier than the cake.
Do you have a hotel tip for us?
The new Mandarin Oriental. Everything is very well arranged, as we say in Austria. A great spa and a really good gym, which I use regularly. I always stay there during Eurovision rehearsals and show week. It feels like home.
How do you actually prepare for the shows?
We started two months ago. From Sunday to Wednesday I’m in Vienna for rehearsals and recordings, and from Thursday to Saturday I’m in Cologne for Let’s Dance. In between, I was also in Berlin to launch my fashion brand Orimei by Victoria Swarovski with About You. The last three weeks before the Eurovision Song Contest are really scheduled down to the minute, there’s hardly a free moment from early morning until late at night.
Did you always want to be on the big stage or did it happen by chance?
I wanted to sing. That was something I really wanted. At 13, I wrote an email to the producer of Jimmy Blue Ochsenknecht. It was very cheeky, with no demo, just signed “Victoria S.” He actually wanted to meet me, and we recorded a song right away.
Your first TV appearance was in a show by comedian Mario Barth.
I was 15 then. Mario Barth invited me after I sang for him. I spotted him in a supermarket with my mother, introduced myself, and just started singing in front of him. Completely spontaneously. Again, very cheeky, but he liked it. I was allowed to sing “One in a Million” on his show. That led to a record deal, and I became the youngest artist signed to Sony Germany. I went on a stadium tour with Mario, who was the opening act for David Guetta and Taio Cruz. I still finished my high school exams and then moved to Los Angeles for three years to pursue my music career.
You returned at 21 to join Let’s Dance. How did you react when you were asked?
Not as quickly as with Eurovision. I thought about it for a long time, whether it was the right format. I wondered what people would say about me, whether they had prejudices because of my last name. In the end, it was absolutely the right decision. I won the show, and—with a one-year break in between—eventually got the offer to host Let’s Dance. That was never my plan; I kind of fell into it. Today, I can hardly imagine a different life.
