A EUROVISION star from Leamington is set to release his first single.
Rafael Bobeica was just 11-years-old when he represented his native Moldova in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest.
But now at age 18 he is studying his Music, Performance & Production at Leamington College and planning the follow-up to his debut single and video titled Baby, which has had 30,000 views on YouTube.
He is also working on an album – all of which will form part of his final course project.
He said: “The single was an idea that I had in my head for a long time which was to make an epic piece of work with a 90s-style video reflecting my feelings I had when writing this song.
“The process was long and it took us about half a year to create this final piece of work. I loved the creative process of song-making and the brainstorming for the image style, also the video shooting because I had to test my acting abilities.”
Rafael took part in the international Eurovision competition in Ukraine back in 2013.
Recalling his moment in the spotlight, he said: “I consider this as the most beautiful experience of my music career.
“Even if I was just 11 years old at that moment, I have enjoyed and lived all the moments that this contest gave to me. Since I was a kid I loved Eurovision and it was my dream to participate in it.
“In 2013 I had the opportunity to enrol in the national election contest and due to a lot of perseverance and work I won the amazing opportunity to represent my country, Moldova. It definitely brought me gratitude among our citizens.
“From then I knew that I wanted to develop music as my profession and that I wanted to achieve big results, and the only place I could think of was the UK, as it’s one of the leading countries in the world in the music industry.
Course leader Louise Clayton-Hatch said: “Rafael has been performing all of his life and was quite an established musician prior to joining the course. It is a privilege and a great responsibility to be able to support him and help provide the foundation for him moving his professional music career forward
“The fact he chose Leamington College after such dedicated music training in Moldova is a testament to the reputation and quality of learning that we offer.”
