Quick quotes of Saturday, 17th of May
18 May 2008 at 00:47 CESTCZECH REPUBLIC: Tereza Kerndlova
“We’re really happy to be here”. “Everything is well prepared. We had so much fun. This year we have a real dance show; all the girls are dancing on the stage. Normally, we dance to hip-hop music, but this is a little bit different.” “It’s such a good experience to sing on a big stage in front of 20,000 people; it’s a pleasure to be here,” said Tereza.
“We like Belgrade, we like the people we met in the centre and we’re very happy to be here,” Tereza said.
At the end of the conference they performed Have Some Fun.
BELARUS: Ruslan Alehno
“The 2nd one (rehearsal) also was very good. We put our costumes and we have a chance to see how they look. We made some corrections from 1st and 2nd (rehearsal), but all is good. All staff and services are working on very professional level and we are very thankful to them.”- Ruslan said.
“Hello to everyone! I came to support Ruslan to give him a victory baton for Eurovision.” – Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2007 winner said. “It is very hard to answer there are a lot of professional singers, Sweden, Diana, Israel. It is hard to say something about only one of them, they are all great”. – Ruslan added. He received an award from OGAE Rest of the World.
LATVIA: Pirates of the Sea
They were given lucky underwear from one of the journalists at the press conference. “In Mozambique I met some pirates but they are not good guys so I hide.” – Joannis said when asked if he met any pirates since he sailed a lot.
They sang Nel blu, dipinto il blu by Domenico Modugno. “I feel honored to represent Latvia. Latvia is full of nice and colourful people. I live there for five years already.” – Roberto said. They also danced at the press conference and sang Wolves of the sea at the end.
CROATIA: Kraljevi Ulice & 75 Cents
“We just finished 2nd rehearsal, the things are going nice and smooth, band and sound is going smooth along with the cameras of multi camera director Sven Stojanović.” One of the delegation members said.
“There were a lot of songs at Dora and this one won. We personally invited without any competition 10 most popular composers in Croatia and the other songs were sent by ordinary people.” – Aleksandar Kostadinov said. “Željko and Jelena were there and audience was outstanding in our show, I don’t know how. All audience was standing and applauding.”
BULGARIA: Deep Zone & Balthazar
“We are quite happy with our 2nd rehearsal. We have some problems with the laser harp because it has to be more visible, the stage has to be darker and with more smoke” they added. They showed the guitar-shaped DJ turntable; "It's the only one in the world", said a member of the Bulgarian delegation.
they said it will be on the market in a couple of years. The Bulgarian performer Joanna she threw some of her underwear at them. "It's my birthday on May 23, so I wanted to make a small present for you", she said.
DENMARK: Simon Mathew
“It was better than last time. We're getting used to everything on the stage,” said Simon. Since it was Simon's birthday, the journalists sang “Happy Birthday” song in English and Danish.
“Simon is a very pleasant guy to work with. He's very down to earth and funny,” said a member of the delegation. A press representative asked Simon if he was worried about his new album, since he was training for a policeman. Simon replied, laughing: “I want to force people to buy it.” The delegation sang a song in Danish.
UNITED KINGDOM: Andy Abraham
Andy started the conference by saying: “Soul has come to ESC. The ESC is such a huge event and I want to respect it by giving it a great song, a song that makes one feel good”, Andy said.
“My song wasn't a typical ESC song, they said it was too good for Eurovision, but I don't think so. If you have a good song, ESC is a great place to start” said Andy.
“I didn't realize how huge ESC was until I got involved. ESC for me is absolutely brilliant,” Andy said.
GERMANY: No Angels
“I'd like to thank Belgrade, Serbia, RTS and EBU for a very warm welcome. We feel very lucky, very secure and well supported from our hosts”, said the German HoD. “It's a great honour to represent our country and to be here” said one of the performers and added: “ESC is the biggest thing that happened to us, even though we were quite successful before we came here.”
“The second rehearsal went very well, we had some problems because we have lot of things on the stage, but altogether it was a good rehearsal”, said a band member. When asked about their impressions about the stage and the Arena, they said: “The stage and the Arena are fantastic; they're really, really good looking.”
One journalist asked what their favourite ESC 2008 entry was. They answered: “We all think Azerbaijan has a great song. We will definitely be there for both semi-finals and we're looking forward to being in the Arena as part of the audience.”
“We translated our song to Serbian this morning,” they said and sang a part of it at the end of the conference.
Lucy from No Angels surprised the journalists when she sang a part of the song Sanjam originally performed by the Serbian singer Lepa Brena.
FRANCE: Sébastien Tellier
When asked about their first rehearsal in the Arena, they said: “We just focused on vocal things. We wanted to keep some surprises for you for the last moment.”
Because of the ESC rules, the synthetic voices from the song had to be performed live by the back vocals. Regarding this, Sébastien said that he thought that the choir version is even better. He also noted that real voices were imitating the synthetic sounds, adding that he liked the irony of it.
At the end of the conference, the back vocals performed a gospel song.
SPAIN: Rodolpho Chikilicuatre
"We're very happy to be here in Belgrade", said the Spanish HoD.
"I'm so proud to be here, very surprised and satisfied that I'm treated like a star", said Rodolfo.
"This year has been very easy, Rodolfo became very popular in Spain," said the Spanish HoD. Rodolfo added: "I really don't know how it happened. I just made the song and it became popular. Everybody is dancing to it in Spain."
When asked how success has changed his life, Rodolfo said: "Before all this, I used to get up in the morning, have coffee, and nobody told me anything. Now, I get up in the morning, drink coffee, and someone grabs me and yells: You have to win!"
Regarding the rehearsals, HoD said: "We hope that tomorrow we'll have the right frame and the right steps."
SERBIA: Jelena Tomasevic
The performers sang Oro a capella. “Thank you for coming to Belgrade and being the part of most beautiful event in the world, Eurovision Song Contest”, Duska Vucinic – Lucic, Serbian delegation Head of Press, said.
“Thank you so much for this warm welcome, it is such an honor being at the same time a participant and host, you can ask me whatever you want me to ask.
It (ESC) means a lot for us, we are small country but with a lot of talented people. I hope I will justify your expectations.” – Jelena said. “My first album will be released a month after ESC.” – Jelena continued. “I had problems with in ear monitoring, it was too loud for my ears, after that it was really good (regarding rehearsal).” At the press conference Jelena wanted to sing something and then she asked if microphone worked . Duska, Head of Press, replied: “Yes this is RTS, everything works!” Jelena then sang a traditional Serbian song. Dejan Ivanovic (lyrics writer) explained that Oro is a traditional dance in Balkans region.” I was in Belgium, Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia (on her promo tour). Jelena received two presents from OGAE Greece. One was an olive branch, the other one was a Greek flag. After the press conference Jelena hosted gala reception called “music treasures: Serbia”.