Lozano to sing in Macedonian

Before their rehearsal, the team behind Lozano and Esma told Eurovision.tv that, after Lozano had sung his parts of the song in English, they would switch back to the initial version in Macedonian language for the Semi-Final, as listed in the official participant profile.

Lady in red

Apart from that, only minor changes were foreseen for this second rehearsal. Esma wore her stage costume today, a bright red dress with Swarovski applications and a special traditional Roma headscarf. The dress was designed by Elena Luka.

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Lozano wore a black suit, and in the beginning the cameras are mainly on him. When Esma entered the stage, they changed to wide angle to show all performers together. The stage was set in blue colour.

Lozano: "Esma is our national treasure"

In the beginning of the press conference, Lozano stated: "We are happy with the sound and the stage at this second rehearsal."

"Youth and experience come together on this project", Esma stated on their musical collaboration. She has been on stage for 55 years. "Esma is our national treasure, it’s an honour to be on stage with her. I’m happy to be invited by MKTV to be here together", Lozano added.

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Esma gave more details on her musical background: "I began my career when I was 10 years old, and I wrote my first song at the age of nine. Thousands and thousands of concerts I have had all over the continents. I have raised 48 children - 47 are male, and one is female, Eleonora, who is here with me as a backing singer."

Lozano: "I have only five years of career. I started at a talent show, and after that I have been on many international contests, like Slavianski Bazar in Belarus and Sea Songs in Ukraine. Now I'm finally here at Eurovision, and I hope you like our song."

On the change of languages between the first and second rehearsal, Lozano explained: "We think that the Macedonian version is better, and that’s why we decided to have it in Macedonian instead of English."

Initially, another song called Imperija had been foreseen to represent F.Y.R. Macedonia in the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest. The Head of Delegation, Ljupčo Mirkovski, explained: "We recorded a demo of Imperija only. I know that many people outside our country liked Imperija, but in the end, it has to be the choice of our people, and we should listen to that, so we decided in favour of Pred Da Se Razdeni."

Lozano added: "Now we want to concentrate on Pred Da Se Razdeni. Imperija is a thing of the past for now. We will think of whether to release it after Eurovision."

During the press conference, Esma sang an accappella version of one of her hits, Čaje Šukarije, together with the rest of the team.