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Lena returns to the Eurovision stage

07 May 2011 at 18:22 CEST

Lena arrived calm amid a crowd of cameras backstage before her rehearsal. "I'm very good, I'm excited," she greeted Eurovision.tv. The intensity from all the journalists doesn't seem to bring her down. "That's crazy," she just says. "I have so much fun here, it's awesome, I love it! I met the Irish guys, and they were very funny. The most fun part here is to meet all the people."

On her way to the in-ear rehearsal before going to the stage, Lena curiously peeps into the offices backstage. She has already had a chance to check the area out. "As I am an opening act, I've already seen the stage," she explains.

For her Saturday premiere rehearsal, she is already performing with the final stage clothes. "We've done the performance a few times, and we didn't change anything," she says. And Lena already knows what it's about, having participated last year as well.

"I'm very excited to go to the viewing room after the rehearsal. That's the most important and exciting thing, to see how the microphones, the sound and the cameras work," she says. Does it help to have the experience from last year? "I think a bit. But the arena is different, the stage is different, and the people are different."

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When her first rehearsal started, Lena still seemed very relaxed, joking throughout the whole soundcheck. She even asked the technicians in the hall to tell her the current standings of a handball match, which they did!

She managed to show her charisma and vocal skills to the cameras excellently, and she was very well received by the huge audience in the arena! Fitting her black stage costume, she was wearing blue high heels and she had a big blue flower attached to her hair.

Lena was accompanied on stage by five alien-looking backing artists in silver suits covering all of their body apart from their faces. Two of them were vocalists, the remaning three were dancers performing an elaborate choreography. To add to the mystic and cool atmosphere, blue and white spotlights were used, creating the shape of a hourglass around the act.

The background LEDs first displayed turning rectangles, later changing to duplicated images to one of the backing vocalists, and in the end showing a breaking glass, just when the corresponding sound appears on the half playback of Taken By A Stranger.

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Lena started her press conference by distributing pieces of apple pie to the press. "I baked it last night and my singers helped me," she explained. When she was asked about the change of styles between Satellite and Taken By A Stranger, she explained: "I’m turning 20 this year and I like to change and try out new things, just like every girl." 

As regards her first rehearsal, she stated that she was happy with it, but they were considering changes of the stage clothes, her make-up and a few camera shots. When she was asked which other 2011 Eurovision Song Contest songs she liked, she mentioned the Armenian song Boom Boom. "I like Blue’s song, too, I’m a girl of the 90s, I like that they’re performing a song just like back then." 

On her way to the photo position, Lena walked just in tights as her shoes got soaked in apple juice as a half opened bottle got spilled in her bag.

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