After lunchbreak, Slovakia was the first country to rehearse. Stunning Kristina took the stage, accompanied by four dancers wearing traditional costumes and carrying wooden branches, and by a folk singer in a white chiffon dress. Apart from that, the dominating colour was green: Both the stage background and the chains hanging from the ceiling were lit in green, and Kristina herself wore a short green dress. Towards the end of the song, the backing dancers showed a special performance including strings around the lead singer. Smoke effects were used to underline the mystic atmosphere of her ethnic song Horehronie, and the whole act looked already great on the screens, with a very special shot being used showing the choreography from above the stage. Vocally Kristina was well supported by her backing vocalist. The Slovak delegation confirmed that, in the First Semi-Final, the musicians will wear the same dresses as during today's rehearsal.
In the press conference, Kristina confirmed that she felt great in Oslo because "on such a wonderful stage, you can't feel bad", as she said. Kristina explained that her song was all about nature and beautiful green colours, while she is impersonating a wood nymph and the backing dancers are guarding here. When she was asked how Horehronie was created and why it was presented in her mother tongue, Slovak, she told the press that the song is based on lyrics written by Kamil Peteraj, a famous national poet, and that the song was actually written to fit the words. She did not consider it a disadvantage not to sing in English, as she was convinved that, if someone likes the song, he would like it in any language. However, the international release of an English language version is being considered for the time after the contest. During the press conference, Kristina also performed an acoustic version of her Eurovision entry together with a Norwegian guitar player, and to finish, she invited the journalists and fans to come to Slovakia and visit Horehronie!
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Kristína Peláková started her singing career with the single I'm Yours in 2007. One year later she released her debut album which went platinum in her country. At the beginning of summer 2009 she started to work on her second album, from which the first single reached No.1 in the Slovak charts. Her victory in the Slovak national final was virtually uncontested as in the final round she received nearly 40 percent of the public vote. Her song was written by Martin Kavulič who is a famous composer in Slovakia. He specialises in pop and dance music, but he likes other genres too. Apart from producing he also plays guitar and piano. His cooperation with Kristina began a couple of years ago. The lyrics of the song are written by Kamil Peteraj. He is a legendary Slovak poet, lyricist and screenwriter. He is well-known not only in Slovakia and the Czech Republic, but also in other nearby countries.
