News - Bulgaria: DJ Balthazar exclusive interview | Eurovision Song Contest News - 2008 Belgrade, Serbia 

Three DJs, a guitar player and a lady vocalist will be flying the Bulgarian flag in the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest. DJ Balthazar and Deep Zone, that is DJ Dian, DJ Rossko, Lyubomir Savov and Joanna Dragneva, teamed up for the second time with a song that is already a huge hit in Bulgaria and which is about to be heavily promoted around Europe as well.

Bulgaria takes part in the Eurovision Song Contest for the fourth time this year with an entirely different entry by DJ Balthazar and Deep Zone. DJ take me away was penned by Dian Savov and arranged by the performers especially for the contest. We caught up with DJ Balthazar for a chat about their way from the Bulgarian final to Belgrade, about his career and his cooperation with Deep Zone.

Bulgaria just keeps surprising us. After a very successful "non-Eurovision" song last year with Elitsa and Stoyan, one more original entry from you this year which already rates high with fans. You must have known all along that DJ take me away was not what you'd call a typical Eurovision entry, what made you enter EuroBGvision in the first place?

First of all I would like to say, that we did DJ, Take Me Away specially for Eurovision. Of course, we knew that it was not a typical Eurovision song. Actually, this was the main reason why we choose to produce such a different track - we were sure it will stand out and people would notice it. We wanted to try our luck when we entered EuroBGvision, we didn't have any expectations in the beginning.

Did you expect to win your national final? You won by a tiny margin of 0,10% over the runner-up. This must have been nerve wrecking, how did that make you feel?

To be honest - it was quite a surprise for all of us when we won the national final. We knew we had an interesting track and a decent chance, but still, most of the other participants in the final were also very good. When we heard our names we couldn't believe our ears in the first few seconds, but then it felt really nice. It's always good to be a winner :)

Our Eurovision experts have noticed that your entry will be the song with the longest intro ever in the contest and the entry with the third longest instrumental part, are you aware of that fact and do you think it could be a disadvantage (as it takes long until the chorus starts) or even an advantage (as it stands out)?

That's some interesting information and we weren't aware of that fact. I believe it's an advantage, because we have more time to do a great stage show, until the vocalist starts to sing.

Ira Losco, the 2002 Eurovision runner-up and a very successful artist in Malta, advised her country in an interview with us last year to "Listen to MTV if they want to win", meaning choose a song that people want to listen to on channels such as MTV. DJ Take me away entered the MTV World Chart Express at #2 back in February. That in itself is a great achievement. Do you think it will help you with your placing in Belgrade?

One of the main reasons why we won the national final in Bulgaria is because we made the track a huge hit in our country. It was heavily rotated on all local TV & radio stations, also many DJs played it in the biggest clubs (we have a few club remixes as well). We used a good marketing strategy and it worked fine for us. So yes, I think if we manage to make the track popular all over Europe this will definitely help us with our placing in Belgrade.

You have been Dj'ing for ten years now and you are considered to be one of the most respected professionals in your field in Bulgaria. What would you say is your greatest achievement so far?

During the years as a professional I earned the acknowledgement of the fans, and a huge respect from club owners, promoters, and even the competition. That's really important to me. If some of the readers would like to find out more about me, they can visit my website www.djbalthazar.com.

Your career has seen you perform in clubs in over 20 countries all over Europe and further away which is something not many participants can claim. Although in a much smaller scale, do you think this experience will prove to be valuable when the time comes to face the multinational audience of Eurovision?

This international experience will help me a lot for sure. I'm used to playing often in front of large crowds and I don't have  "stage fright" for years now. Of course, Eurovision is something much much bigger, but I think the principles are more or less the same.

At what stage are your preparations for May? Will the song be choreographed differently to what we saw in the Bulgarian final? What can we expect?

We're in the final stage of clearing all the details for May. The choreography will be slightly different, but there will be no general changes. However, we plan to add some really cool new elements on stage and make the performance much more exciting.

Has a promo tour been scheduled, which countries will you be visiting?

We are waiting for a final confirmation for the tour next week, but it looks like that we'll most probably visit Hungary, Czech Republic, Malta, Portugal, Croatia and FYR Macedonia. Our promo tour will start in April.

How is your cooperation with Deep Zone working out? You are all successful DJ's in your country. Is that a problem when there are decisions to be made?

The cooperation between me & Deep Zone is working out just great. Our first joint project was in June 2007, when we produced together the track Welcome To The Loop which became a big hit in Bulgaria. After that we did a big national club tour, which gathered more than 20.000 people. DJ, Take Me Away is our second joint project for now. So far there was never a problem when we had to make any decisions, we all follow the same path.

And the final question, would you have a message for the Eurovision fans, readers of esctoday.com?

I hope this year they will vote for something fresh and different.