Friday, May 4th 2018

Lukas spent the majority of his Friday talking to Bill Barnes on Facebook. The Irish contestant wasn't really knowledgeable on other European countries: he had no idea where Lithuania was on a map, didn't know who was participating this year and couldn't remember Norway's capital city. After a while, though, Lukas started wondering if he wasn't playing dumb, adding so many emojis to his messages. Well, that's not why I was talking to him in the first place, anyway.

Lukas was growing more and more eager to discover the truth. Chatting about their favourite musicians was nice, but this was more important!

Lukas frowned. Nah, no buzz.

Lukas heard his stomach growl. Answer quickly, Bill, I need to have dinner! He had even skipped lunch to keep on talking to him with the jet lag between Ireland and Lithuania. 

Lukas waited ten minutes before putting his phone down on the bedside table, ready to grab some noodles. Was Bill's "Yeah right" sincere or sarcastic? It was hard to know, with this man. Maybe he'll contact me again. Maybe. Lukas forgot the noodles and browsed YouTube to check Bill's music video. He immediately sighed: the ratings were bad, very bad! Why did so many people dislike his clip? Bill was half-Japanese, could dance, sang very well and won X Factor in his country. The song wasn't bad at all either. Could people be jealous of him? That's sad, he deserves more.

Lukas thought he touched the Like button until he realised he had shared the music video on his own Facebook page. 

"Damn!" he shouted out loud.

Unlike Bill and Tomas, Lukas was a web-mess. He was able to do everything he wanted to avoid and more - in this case, sharing instead of liking - and Tomas had offered twice to manage his social networks for him. Maybe he should be the one doing it, I guess! I have to delete this, but how? Let's check the parameters.

Unfortunately, he already had two notifications: some random fan who liked the post... and a "Thanks!" from Bill Barnes himself. Is this guy stalking my Facebook page every three seconds? Lukas had no choice but to go with the flow. He edited the post with a nice message so it would look natural.

Lukas sighed and looked at his post, feeling more ashamed than ever. Advertising other candidates because he was bad at "this internet thingy"? Awesome. His phone started ringing and it wasn't a text - Tomas, obviously. Too bad to text.

"... Taip, Tomas? Kaip tau sekasi?"

"No, we're doing this in English, Lukas."

"Okay..." said Lukas with a strong accent. "How are you?"

"Why are you sharing Ireland's song? This guy doesn't even know who you are!"

Lukas hesitated. He never hid anything from his agent and bestfriend, but this time... It didn't feel right to tell him. He was talking to Bill way too much for it to sound innocent, even if it actually was. Instead, he answered:

"I want to look like a nice candidate, Tomas. Do you know that Michał Szpak did this in 2016? He shared a lot of other songs and got an amazing amount of points from the viewers. Well, I wanted to do this on purpose, also because I enjoy some other songs."

"... Right. Good idea, but you should have told me before! I thought you had been hacked!"

"That would be a ridiculous hacker, only posting nice things."

"Yeah. Do you want me to take care of your social networks? I'm asking again. I could do more of this stuff and you could focus on something else."

Lukas thought of Bill's messages. Tomas would see everything!

"No, thanks. I'm actually enjoying it!"

"Really?"

"Yeah!"

"If that's so... Well, talk to you later, don't forget to pack your things! The flight is tomorrow!"

Lukas knew he had to take the plane the day after to Paris - and that didn't prevent him from staying in bed all day. He felt lazy but incredibly good at the same time. Sloth wasn't a part of his personality that he was proud of, but maybe it was his last occasion to do nothing at all before months. Lukas didn't believe he would win the Eurovision Song Contest, but who knew? Even if I lose, I'll have a new career. I won The Voice but never recorded an album. After Eurovision, I'll have enough visibility and fame to do it!

To find some courage, Lukas grabbed a remote and played the official CD compilation of last year's contest - the one that made him want to try and participation for his country.

The first song was France's. French singer Kendji Girac won ESC 2017 with a sort of flamenco song, burying every other contestant under at least 100 points. What is France's song, this year? He went on Wikipedia and reviewed all the entries, in the order they were announced. Lukas felt a lot of pride when he remembered he was the first one.

So, France had decided to play the gitano card twice? Maybe not their best move! Lukas almost had a chance to win, then... if the bookmakers would stop praising Denmark. Ah, Denmark! One half of the kiss scandal!

As if he had heard his thoughts, Bill suddenly sent him a message.

The discussion went on and on without relevant pieces of information.

Lukas enjoyed watching the Eurovision fans' channels, reading their thoughts, comparing their pronostics to his own hut feeling. This year, though, it obviously felt more personal. No one really talked about his song "Secret Life". The Silent Treatment. Great.

Lukas quickly searched for "Btw" on Google. Oh, yeah, "by the way"... I really need to improve my English before I make a fool of myself during press conferences!

Or START packing. Russia's song playing at full volume reminded him that the top priority was his plane, not Bill Barnes. His investigation over the Kiss Scandal had gone nowhere, therefore he didn't need to talk to him right now. Focus, focus, focus.

Lukas wrote a quick "Thank you", lost in thought. No country at Eurovision could vote for its own candidate, so Bill had given him a strong helping hand! Perhaps his place in the finals would be secured by Irish voters!