Aurela lets Europe feel the passion

In her first rehearsal today, the Albanian representative Aurela Gaçe demonstrated her powerful voice. On stage, she was supported by three backing vocalists, two female ones and one male, as well as a drummer and a guitar player. Without any glitches, they finished their rehearsal and seemed confident on the screens.

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Aurela's dress for the First Semi-Final was also shown to the cameras - a beige semi-transparent dress. During the rehearsal, the stage was lit mainly in red, with turning white spotlights appearing during the chorus. On the background LEDs, white wings were displayed, and smoke effects were used as well. During the chorus of her song, pyrotechnical effects - flames appearing around the stage - were used too. Aurela sang her entry Feel The Passion in English, with just the last chorus in her native Albanian language.

 "I'm feeling great. I hope to learn a lot here, I need to hear myself, the backing vocals, I need to feel the arena. It feels good!" Aurela Gaçe
 

The composer of the Albanian entry, Shpëtim Saraçi, told Eurovision.tv before the rehearsal: "I've been working with Aurela for more than 20 years now, she's a great and very professional singer. Our hope and wish, for now, is to reach the Final." Just before she entered the stage to rehearse, Aurela Gaçe stated: "I swear, the bigger the arena, the higher my adrenaline goes. I think I'm living my dream. I come from a small country, and even if we have big voices over there, the stages and the arenas are smaller than the talents that we have. I've always dreamt of singing in a big arena, and now my dream is coming true."

Aurela started her press conference by singing a part of her entry to the press, first in the Eurovision Song Contest version, and then in the original Albanian version. "Eurovision is like a holiday for me. I make music because I love it, and the competition doesn't matter to me. If it was up to me, I would just go on stage, sing, and go back to Albania. But as it is a competition - please vote!", Aurela explained. Replying to the question of a German reporter, she said that the video clip to Feel The Passion was shot in her home town, Vlora, and she invited the press to visit the city. She finished the conference by presenting the chorus of her entry accappella together with her backing vocalists.

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Aurela Gaçe was born in Vlora on October 16th, 1974. Her real success began with her song Night in Fest 95. Aurela performed live concerts around Albania and released various albums from 1998 on. Aurela's style of singing varies from pop to folk. In 2002, Aurela moved to the USA where she currently resides. She quickly gained popularity there, in the Albanian community. Her comeback in the Albanian Song Festival, where she first started her career, was in 2005 as a special guest, and a year later she was awarded with the first prize in the Magic Song Festival with a song titled Open Yourself.