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Romania: High Energy Balkan Girls

04 May 2009 at 13:54 CEST

The stage has a picture of a large sprawling tree on the LCD screens, the image of which appears to change from night to day during the three minutes. There is one backing vocalist for Elena, who is stood at the back of the stage, and four dancers. The choreography is fast paced and both artistic and energetic, and fits well with the general feel good factor of the song.

    

Elena remarked about having a problem with the bass, and not being able to hear herself on the monitor during the first two run throughs. The requested adjustments were made by the technical crew and the performance remained vocally strong.

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Elena arrived at her Press Conference wearing a national dress made by her mother, who is a folk singer herself, hence the musical family background. Elena also added that although he is a priest, her father is very proud of her participation and is very open minded about everything. A Norwegian journalist asked Elena what kind of boys do Balkan Girls prefer?. She added "He should be very funny, he should have that something, I don't have a specific type!".

Elena explained that she took part in a lot of festivals in Romania in the past, including the famous Golden Stag Festival. When asked about her background Elena adds "I released three albums, two of which are latino music.  As for this year, The Balkan Girls is the most broadcasted song on radio in Romania at the moment, which is great because last year the song which took part in the Eurovision Song Contest was not promoted so much on the radio, so I feel we have had more support and are better prepared for the competition."

Elena is half Romanian and half Macedonian. She comes from a family of priests and had her breakthrough as a singer in 2003 when she became the singer of Mandinga, a very successful band in Romania. In March 2005, Mandinga was placed 4th in the Romanian national final for the Eurovision Song Contest with the song My Sun which got a golden disc one year later. In January 2006, Elena opened her own dance school called Passitos. One month later, Elena ended the collaboration with Mandinga and started her solo career, with the help of the musical producer Laurenţiu Duţă. She released her first solo album, entitled Your Voice in 2006.

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