GISTPodium x ESF 2021

GISTPodium x ESF 2021

Precies tussen de twee halve finales in is GISTpodium uitbundiger en extravaganter dan ooit met de speciale Songfestival-editie. We hebben miss Maybelline Garçon on the mic als special host van de avond en een line-up om je vingers bij af te likken! Jonge talentvolle artiesten uit de wereldstad Rotterdam geven een eigen draai aan het ESF 2021: met de 23 jarige Jim Jonathan van Gorkum op de piano, met de componiste en vocaliste Cosmic Bride (Natalia Kharetskaya) die bijna de inzending werd van Litouen en met niemand minder dan de Zuid-Afrikaans/Rotterdamse Darren Gardner, die samen met Guus Bok het ‘unoffical anthem’ van het Eurovisie heeft geschreven. Meer Eurovision wordt het bijna niet. En dat allemaal – gewoon via de Lifestream van Studio de Bakkerij! Als je een kaartje hebt gekocht, krijg je half uur van tevoren de url en wachtwoord, zodat je in een beveiligde omgeving de live-stream kan volgen.

Line-up
Darren Gardner
Cosmic Bride (Natalia Kharetskaya)
Jim Jonathan van Gorkum

Special host
Maybelline Garçon
They call her miss Maybelline Garçon…
She has been part of the legendary house of garçon for a few years now and has been traveling around Europe to attend/MC/compete in balls. Miss thing is known for a face so BEAT, you wanna make sure you put a leash on your husband when she’s around. Maybelline is one of the newer MC’s within the European ball scene. I hope you’re ready for her, because this girl is gonna give it to ya…

Vaste host
Auxs

Darren Gardner
Darren Gardner is a South African singer-songwriter with pop, rnb and jazz influences. Growing up to the sounds of Mary J. Blige, The Beatles and Nat King Cole, he developed a passion for Contemporary Jazz and pop music and decided to pursue singing. He studied Classical Singing with an extra major in music production in Pretoria, South Africa and has been working as a professional musician since 2014.

In 2016 Darren moved to the Netherlands and is currently under the mentorship of Stanley Clementina. He has worked with many noticeable names in the industry, Martin Garrix, grammy award winner Chris Henderson, Berget Lewis, and ZO Gospel choir to name a few and is in the process of releasing his next single later this year.

Darren wrote the ‘Unofficial Anthem’ of Eurovision, together with Guus Bok.

Jim Jonathan van Gorkum
De 23-jarige Jim Jonathan van Gorkum is in zijn dagelijks leven topsporter in de atletiek en studeert fysiotherapie aan de Paramedisch Hogeschool Fontys in Eindhoven. Sinds een paar jaar heeft hij de piano ontdekt en ook daar ontbreekt het niet aan talent. Bij GISTpodium #67 zien we zijn sprong in de muziek en wie weet hoe hoog hij de lat weet te leggen in de toekomst…

Natalia Kharetskaya
Natalia Kharetskaya is a lithuanian vocalist and composer based in Rotterdam. Graduated from Codarts in 2019 and currently further crafting her artistic path in the Netherlands. Together with a Rotterdam based italian producer and composer Davide Fortugno (aka Exra) she collaborates on creating new sound universes.

Specially for the live performance the team is joined by an italian sound engineer Pablo Gastaldello, whose work is focused on electronic music production with the integration of a movement based control systems.

During the showcase in GISTpodium we will invite the audience on a voyage, where stars are born in collapses of interstellar clouds. In a void where the solar wind carries fragments of dust it’s a silent prayer and a reminder, that every star could be a Sun to someone.

The name “Cosmic Bride” is inspired by a quote of Igor Stravinsky “Music is the Bride of The Cosmos”. Choosing a quote of a world-famous composer, who popularised lithuanian traditional music world-wide is a homage to Lithuania, the home country of the lead vocalist and composer of the music project – Natalia Kharetskaya. The act debuted in lithuanian national preselections for the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 and was ranked as one of the top 50 national final performances across all Europe.