Slovakia heading for MAXimal success

For Max Jason Mai, the road to Baku has been a long and hard way, not just literally: He was internally selected to represent Slovakia but, at the same time, had to agree to pay all the expenses of the participation himself.

From the very beginning, though, Max has believed in this unique opportunity and started to work hard to make this dream come true. He even sold his car to be able to travel to the US and record two songs - two potential Eurovision entries.

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Back in Bratislava, he presented the two songs - a ballad and a crazy energetic rock song - to a jury at RTVS, the Slovak public broadcaster. They vote for the latter, and Don't Close Your Eyes is set to become the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest entry of the small Central European country.

Yesterday, Max performed his Eurovision entry for the first time live in front of a TV audience, on the public channel STV1. In his intoxicating performance, he was accompanied by his band, wearing white face masks. Max afterwards emphasized that his band will also support him on stage in Baku, but the details of his Eurovision Song Contest performance will remain a secret till the rehearsals. You can watch Max Jason Mai's live performance of Don't Close Your Eyes on Youtube:

Talking about his attitude and goals, Max says that he is a maximalist, and he is willing to take a risk. Even though many people in Slovakia think that he is crazy, he believes that this story will have a happy end for him, and he counts on the rock fans all over Europe to help him achieve it!

You want to find out more about Max' song, check out the preview video, read his biography, or learn the lyrics of Don't Close Your Eyes by heart? Then look no further - check out his participant profile on Eurovision.tv!