It’s early July 2022. At the SUISA Songwriting Camp in the Powerplay Studios in Maur near Zurich, 38 musicians are giving free rein to their creativity. Teams work together to compose pop songs intended to become a hit, whether at the Eurovision Song Contest, on the radio or on music streaming platforms.
Zoë Më is taking part in the event for the first time. The Swiss singer and songwriter, who lives in Fribourg, is currently in Scotland. There, surrounded by a Christmas tree farm, she writes a song draft consisting of a verse, pre-chorus and chorus.
Swiss-Scottish coproduction
She sends the ideas to the Swiss producer and songwriter Tom Oehler. The two SUISA members have been paired into a songwriting team, together with Scottish songwriter iLi – who is currently at the Songwriting Camp on Lake Greifen in Switzerland. “That was a funny coincidence,” says Zoë Më in the interview three years later. Communication between Scotland and Switzerland took place via video calls and voice and text messages in a group chat.
The team of three worked on Zoë Më’s song ideas and developed a complete demo track by the end of the day’s songwriting session. This version of “Voyage” was in fact already close to the final track, although the creators have tried out other possibilities and made several different variants since these beginnings. “We always believed in the song,” says Tom Oehler. And now the song has repaid their faith: “Voyage” was chosen as the Swiss entry for the home ESC in Basel.
SUISA Songwriting Camp successful at ESC
“Voyage” is the sixth song from the SUISA Songwriting Camp to win the national selection for the Swiss ESC entry. Previously, “Stones” (ZiBBZ), “She Got Me” (Luca Hänni), “Répondez-moi” (Gjon’s Tears), “Watergun” (Remo Forrer) and “The Code” (Nemo) have also been successful. Other ESC songs from the Songwriting Camp organised by SUISA in collaboration with Pele Loriano Productions are “Sister” (for Germany) and “Amen” (for Austria).
Swiss songwriters and producers have become sought-after people in international ESC circles. In addition to “Voyage”, two other compositions with Swiss involvement can be heard at this year’s ESC: Benji Schmid co-wrote the Maltese song “Serving”, and Benji Alasu co-wrote the Armenian song “Survivor”. Both Schmid and Alasu, who are also SUISA members, have participated in the SUISA Songwriting Camp before.
From a Swiss songwriter’s perspective, there are therefore three reasons to keep fingers crossed at the home ESC. But the Scottish co-composer of “Voyage” is particularly focused on the Swiss song, as she explains in the interview: “Zoë is going to be incredible. She is an amazing person, she is an amazing artist, an amazing singer, an amazing songwriter, just overall an amazing person and I am so excited to watch her conquer that stage and live her dreams.”
