Sieneke's voice is back for the Netherlands

The Dutch entry Ik Ben Verliefd (Sha-la-lie) is played everywhere in the Netherlands. The genre differs from much of the other contemporary music at large in the world, and now, the rare composition has made it to Norway. The song is played frequently at the EuroClub, to great acclaim. Simultaneously, the Norwegian youth has picked it up and listens to it, especially as party music.

However, a worry about the performance has been the vocal loss suffered by Sieneke. On TV in the Netherlands the past week, she was seen answering by writing her replies on a whiteboard. But for the second rehearsal this Saturday, she was back full force, and sang her entry seemingly without effort.

Few things have been changed in the performance since the previous rehearsal. For the second rehearsal, Sieneke was still joined by three backing singers on stage, standing on her left side throughout the performance. In the background, she had an amusement park style side-scene, in front of which there are two mime characters. These two performers, a male and a female, now slowly but steadily moved forward during the later part of the song, finishing beside Sieneke. Furthermore, Sieneke herself was now wearing her final stage costume.

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"The voice is coming back"

Instead of beginning a press conference after the rehearsal, as nearly all artist's do, Sieneke and her team sent a greeting to the journalists in the press conference hall to meet them outside of the press area for some special gifts. Outside of the entrance, representatives from the Dutch team were handing out orange feathery boas. When the attendees were dressed up in the orange colours, a car with the text Sha-la-lie printed on the outside drove up.

From a hatch in the roof of the car, Sieneke emerged, waving to the photographers and giving a few comments, before advancing into the press conference hall together with her team. A large crowd followed her, and when the Dutch team settled on the podium inside, they entertained the assembly with the mime puppets, who could only move when hearing the magic word Sha-la-lie.

In the beginning of the press conference, Sieneke began by apologising for speaking poor English. But nevertheless, she conducted the entire press conference in that language, and one of the attendees pointed out that this was the first English press conference of the day.

Regarding the voice complications, Sieneke explained that she had a flu a couple of weeks ago and was ordered to keep silent by her doctor.

"It was a disaster for me. But now the voice is coming back, and I'm so happy that it's under control now," she said

The Dutch team also informed everyone that the song contains some jokes and special lines. The lyrics tell of two people hearing a song, and these two are represented by the puppet characters on stage.

"We made the song very typical for the Netherlands, and the backdrop we use on the stage is a replica of an original organ," Sieneke explained.

The famous songwriter of the entry, Pierre Kartner, is still not on location in Oslo, but Sieneke explained that he is set to arrive on Wednesday.

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