Kyle Alessandro: "I want to make music that shows who I really am"

At Het Grote Songfestivalfeest in Amsterdam’s Ziggo Dome, Norwegian Eurovision 2025 star Kyle Alessandro (19) arrives with an apologetic smile. He’s been rehearsing all day, he still has to perform tonight, and his voice feels “a bit strained”. “So if I start going on a rant, stop me,” he jokes. Naturally, he talks a lot. But he's unstoppable.

What energises him most is talking about the little Eurovision family he formed earlier this year. During the competition, Kyle became inseparable from Austria’s JJ, Denmark’s Sissal and Malta’s Miriana Conte. The four lovingly branded themselves the Beauty Blenders.

Seeing the lineup of Het Grote Songfestivalfeest, you’d think it was a planned reunion. “It was a total coincidence,” Kyle says, laughing. “We didn’t even know everyone was booked until like a month after Eurovision. We speak every day. I said, ‘I have this show in Amsterdam on the 20th of November,’ and JJ just went, ‘What? Me too!’ Then Miriana. And Sissal was doing Dancing with the Stars in Denmark, she thought she couldn’t make it, but they made it work. So yeah, we’re all here.”

Their friendship wasn’t built on PR or TikTok collabs. It was organic. “JJ sent me a message on Instagram in March saying: ‘Hi, do you want to FaceTime sometime?’ He said the same to Sissal. And we were both like: yeah, why not? We’d already spent so much time together from the national finals until Eurovision, so it’s just very nice to see them again. I’ve seen JJ a couple of times this summer too.”

“i’m making music that’s actually me”

Since Eurovision, Kyle has been spending most of his time in the studio. He’s careful not to leak anything, but he’s excited. “What I’m working on now is just to make music that’s 100 percent me. Most of the songs I recorded before my Eurovision entry 'Lighter' weren’t like that. Now I’m in the studio with people who truly understand what I want to make.”

He’s more involved than ever. “I produce myself, I write myself, I sing, I help with the design. I like to be hands-on. I produced like 50 percent of 'Lighter' and wrote 50 percent of the lyrics. Now it feels like a real collaboration instead of someone handing me a finished song to sing.”

Performing music he actually helped build feels different, he says. “Exactly. It’s more authentic.”

And that authenticity matters, because 'Lighter' carries a heavy story. The song was written about his mother and her battle with cancer. “She’s cancer free now,” he says with a deep breath. “She told me I should never lose my light. And if I ever lose it, I have to find it back. That’s where 'Lighter' comes from. We got told she only had six months left. I was like, ‘Are you going to die?’ It was… a lot.”

His Eurovision armor suddenly makes sense. “I wore armor to showcase the warrior spirit she had throughout her whole journey.”

But the song’s meaning widened after its release. “I didn’t expect how much it would mean to someone else. When you’re going through something like this, you think the whole world revolves around you. Later people reached out saying: ‘I understand completely, thank you for this song.’ And I was like: maybe I’m doing the right thing.”

His grandmother was also diagnosed with cancer while he was writing the song. She passed away shortly after. “I wanted to dedicate it a little bit to her too, and to everyone who knows someone with cancer or has it themselves.”

eurovision: less glamour, more reality

What surprised him most about Eurovision was not the stage, but the backstage reality. “I knew it would be intense, but not that level of intensity. And backstage — I thought it would be a bit more glamorous. Not that we didn’t have what we needed." There weren't any free massages or sushi. "No,” he laughs. “We had to buy our own food.”

As for the infamous hotel differences? “I don’t want to say our hotel was bad,” Kyle says diplomatically. “But I was not in the 'upscale' one. JJ was. He teased us constantly. Let's say Sissal and I were in a more low-profile hotel.”

queer visibility and taking up space

Kyle is openly queer, part of a growing group of LGBTQ+ Eurovision artists who are reshaping the contest. “It’s important to take up space,” he says. “Eurovision is very open and very queer, but in everyday life… before I came out, I didn’t express myself fully. Not even in what I wore. Coming out opened a lot of doors for me, but more internally than anything.”

When asked which queer artists we should keep an eye on, he hesitates. “Omar Rudberg from Sweden is iconic, so he’s not really ‘up-and-coming’. “I almost mentioned someone else,” Kyle laughs, “but then I realised I don’t actually know if that person is open about it yet. That’s up to them.” What he can say is that he draws energy from artists who dare to be themselves. “There is so much talent in the queer scene. I love listening to artists who break boundaries and write honestly about their feelings. That inspires me enormously. Just look at JJ. He’s so outspoken and really dares to be himself. I love that.”

“we just live our lives. it’s not complicated”

Kyle is often photographed with his boyfriend, model Brede Bremnes, at premieres and events. Their schedules seem hectic, but they’ve found an easy rhythm. “We’ve been busy at the same time and also had downtime at the same time,” he says. “When we’re not working, we’re just at home. We rewatched all of Stranger Things the other day and all four Conjuring movies. We just respect each other and what we’re doing. We love each other, so it’s not hard to make it work.”

Kyle's single 'Model' is out now.