Czechia are back in the Eurovision Song Contest and hoping for success after Aiko narrowly missed out on a spot in this year’s Grand Final with her song ‘Pedestal’. This time they will be sending Slovak singer ADONXS. Read on to find out more about him!
Who is ADONXS?
ADONXS is the stage name of 29-year-old Adam Pavlovčin, who was born in Myjava and raised on Senica, both of which are in Slovakia. Inspired by his older sister, ADONXS took up singing and dancing from an early age and also learned to play the piano. However, as he hit puberty, ADONXS lost a significant amount of his vocal range, dropping from a tenor to a basso profondo which is the lowest bass voice type. As a result of this, he temporarily quit singing and instead focused more on dancing, winning the Slovak championship for street dancing on five separate occasions. He was a member of the RDS Dance Company and performed as a backing dancer for musicians such as Robbie Williams, Nicole Scherzinger and Leona Lewis.
After moving from Bratislava to Prague, ADONXS started taking acting classes and signed with a modelling agency, walking the runways for major fashion designers including Alexander McQueen. It is in Prague that ADONXS rediscovered his passion for singing with the support of renowned Czech opera singer and vocal coach Hana Pecková. Speaking to Czech publication Daily Style, ADONXS said:
As a little boy, I had a higher voice in the tenor range and after the mutation, the “basso profondo” – the lowest in the range. For a while, I stopped singing because of it. I was frustrated and couldn’t sing a single song from my repertoire at the time. But gradually I found my way back to it and started to appreciate my voice, which Hana helped me a lot with. I personally felt that low voices weren’t that interesting. So basically, we worked for 11 years to expand my range and get my highs back while still keeping my lows. That was my biggest singing challenge.
ADONXS, Daily Style, June 2022
Aged 18, ADONXS moved to London to study Songwriting and Creative Musicianship at the renowned music college BIMM. Describing this time as a period of complete liberation and self-discovery, ADONXS came out as gay to his parents after falling madly in love with a boy. He wrote his first song ‘Speechless Boy’ about this experience.
PACE
ADONXS made his start in the music industry as a member of the group PACE, which he first formed in high school alongside his friend Adrián Čermák, who now composes film scores. The pair continued the group when they moved to London and were joined by guitarist Lorenzo, who hails from Monaco, and Greek drummer Chris. Their debut EP ‘Keeper’ was released in 2018 and combines baroque pop with orchestral elements. They went on to release two more singles, ‘Hunt Me Down’ in 2019 and ‘Fallen’ in 2020, the latter of which you can listen to below:
PACE continued to build up a steady following, playing London venues, music festivals and pride events and were an opening act for British singer-songwriter Grace Carter. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, restrictions were placed on live music venues, meaning all of the band’s performances had to be rescheduled. Subsequently, ADONXS moved back to Prague to pursue a solo career.
SuperStar
ADONXS kick-started his solo career in 2021 by participating in the Czech-Slovak talent show SuperStar, which is part of the Idol franchise. He was approached by producers and had apparently turned down offers to appear on the show in the past, telling ELLE magazine:
I always considered the competition to be artistic fast food, which is why I avoided it for many years. However, last year the concept changed a bit, a new jury came in and really high-quality singers took part in the competition. The level of the label has risen a lot. And when the invitation came during the pandemic, I said to myself: “Ok, everything is closed, people are at home and the TV is working, I’ll give it a go!”
ADONXS, ELLE Magazine, February 2022
His participation in SuperStar stirred up some controversy due to ADONXS wearing gender non-conforming outfits during his performances. When asked about his choice of costume, including a translucent dress, ADONXS responded that “Clothes have no gender.”
ADONXS ultimately won SuperStar, making him the contest’s first openly queer winner. Speaking to ELLE, ADONXS expressed that he felt this was a step forward for conservative Czech-Slovak society, telling the magazine “I believe my victory has helped pave the way for other queer entertainers, actors, or politicians to come out and not be afraid to be their authentic, queer selves.”
You can watch ADONXS’s grand final performance of Eurovision 2019 winner ‘Arcade’ by clicking below:
Solo Career
Following his win, ADONXS signed with Warner Music Group and began working on his debut album. He received a nomination for Best New Artist at the 2022 Ruka Hore Awards despite having yet to release any material and was also honoured in Slovakia’s Forbes 30 Under 30 List.
In May 2022, ADONXS debuted his first solo single ‘Moving On’ and also his stage name. ADONXS derives from the Greek god of beauty and desire Adonis who is presented as a sexually ambiguous, androgynous figure despite being male. Speaking to ELLE magazine about the name change, ADONXS said:
The alter ego Adonxs didn’t just come about overnight. I had this concept in my head for several years and it came about during my studies in London. I created this alter ego there, when I still had huge stage fright and fear of performing. I told myself that Adonxs could do anything and so far he has really done it.
ADONXS, ELLE Magazine, May 2022
Speaking to Slovak publication Pravda about ‘Moving On’, ADONXS said:
We had several songs in the works, but this one clearly stood out and we knew right away that it would be the opening single. For me, ‘Moving On’ closes one and at the same time opens another stage in life, which I am extremely looking forward to and which I am already living a little bit […] On one level, the song talks about a relationship that went nowhere and, on the contrary, dragged me lower and lower every day, and at the same time, it is my own anthem for joy about what is happening in my life.
ADONXS, Pravda, May 2022
ADONXS launched ‘Moving On’ with a live performance on Let’s Dance (the Slovak version of Strictly Come Dancing/Dancing With the Stars) where he wore a skintight garment with hand-sewn crystals by Czech company Preciosa, which he also wore in the music video that you can watch below. The song went to number one in the Slovak Top 50 music charts.
Following on from this, ADONXS released two more singles ‘Game’ and ‘Cold Summer’. ‘Game’ marked his second number one in the Slovak music charts, remaining in the top spot for eight weeks. In November 2022, he released his debut album ‘Age of Adonxs’ which was rated as the best Slovak album release of that year by Musicserver. ADONXS also received nominations for Artist of the Year and Album of the Year at the 2023 Ruke Hore Awards. He was awarded the Evropa 2 Song of the Year Award for ‘Game’, as well as their awards for Best Male Artist and Best New Artist.
In 2023, ADONXS released two more singles from his album ‘No Common Measure’ and ‘OVERTHNKR’ before releasing ‘Sám’ in March 2024. This marked his first ever Slovak-language release.
Eurovision 2025
Since 2018, Czechia has selected their Eurovision representative through the national final format ESCZ, which has undergone many changes over time, progressing from a fully online selection to a live show last year. However, in September 2024 the Czech delegation announced they would be internally selecting their 2025 entrant. In a press release, Head of Delegation Krystof Samal stated:
It has been a wonderful journey to showcase Czech music on an international stage through ESCZ. Moving to a closed competition process encourages established artists to participate discreetly, without the added pressure of public competition. This approach also allows us to focus our resources on staging and both internal and external promotion. Our new direction is aimed at achieving the best possible result for Czechia, recognising the potential for Eurovision to become the phenomenon here as it is in other European countries.
Krystof Samal, September 2024
Interested participants had until the end of September to submit their entries which were then evaluated by a demoscopic jury, an international jury and a selection committee from Czech broadcaster ČT, who would decide the vote in the event of a tie.
On Tuesday 10th December, the official Instagram account of Eurovision Czechia released a screenshot of an anonymous artist’s Spotify Wrapped, inviting fans to guess whose it was and explaining they would find out on Wednesday 11th December, the scheduled date when ČT confirmed they would reveal Czechia’s Eurovision 2025 participant. Eagle-eyed fans noted that this correlated with ADONXS’s own Spotify Wrapped stats and correctly deduced that he would be Czechia’s new representative.
ADONXS’s song will be released at a later date. While we don’t know much about it, he has said that he composed several submissions and that his song will be “Uncompromising, cheeky, sometimes cinematic and with room for dancing.”
Although we have yet to hear ADONXS’s entry, many Eurofans are excited about the implications his participation could have not only for Czechia but Slovakia too. Slovakia have not participated in Eurovision since 2012, although have expressed a desire to return since 2023, ultimately failing to do so thus-far due to budget cuts. However, could a good result for ADONXS spur Slovakia on to return in 2026?
Only time will tell but in the meantime we wish ADONXS the best of luck this May!
You can follow ADONXS on social media!
Instagram: @ageofadonxs
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