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Safura sparkles during her second rehearsal

22 May 2010 at 13:34 CEST

Safura wears an elegant turquoise and blue dress which has LED elements within it. It illuminates and sparkles at the end of the performance when she walks to the end of the catwalk. The four female backing vocalists are wearing blue and black dresses. The male dancer today is wearing a black waistcoat with a red tie and black trousers.

The set up of the stage is largely unchanged from the first rehearsal. There are two podiums on stage, a smaller one with a staircase which Safura begins the performance at the top of, under a spotlight. To Safura's left there is a larger podium where the four backing singers stand. Both podiums have LED screens and images projected on to them throughout.

Safura is wearing incredibly high heeled shoes and as she takes each step down her podium staircase, that step illuminates in a turquoise colour. The backing singers also step down from their podium simultaneously and join Safura on the main stage. As the second verse starts, the male dancer also takes to the stage and interacts with Safura before she walks to the end of the catwalk towards the end of the song. For the last performance during todays rehearsal, Safura decided to go barefoot.

    

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I will practice more and more

A press release was handed out during the press conference by the Azeri team, it highlighted some facts about the performance. The concept of the dress was to help bring the living flow of the ocean to the stage. It was created by designer Francesca Rosella. The stage podiums with the LED elements were created to bring life to the scenes of the overwhelming element of water, from lonely drops to powerful rainfall, to a stormy ocean.

In her press conference, Safura explained "The dress is not fully finished yet, it's kind of uncomfortable to wear at this stage but everything will be ready for the Semi-Final performance."

Safura's backing singers were then all introduced to the media, three of them are Swedish and the fourth is British but based in Los Angeles. The four girls joined Safura in an acapella performance of a traditional folk song from Azerbaijan. Safura had been teaching the backing vocalists three Azeri folk songs during the past weeks it transpired.

Over the next days before the Semi Final performance, a journalist asked Safura about what she will be doing. She added "We will be practising every day, like we have been doing for the past few days. We have more rehearsal time booked to make the show more professional on stage."

Safura was questioned as to how she feels about being bookmakers favourite to win the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest. She replied "It is very nice that people think of us as one of the top songs, but it doesn't mean I don't have to practice, it means I have to practice more and more."

Safura revealed that her parents will be coming to Oslo to support her bid for success in Europe's Favourite TV Show, and that she is very grateful to them for all of the support that they have given her in her career to date.

The final question of the press conference went to the Head of the Azerbaijani Delegation, who was asked by a British journalist how ready is Baku to host the contest next year if Safura were to win? He confidently answered "All participants are all able to win this contest. Of course we would like to win. We are  prepared to host the event next year if that happens. We already had such kind of events in Baku before, and we would definitely love to host the Eurovision Song Contest in Baku."

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