News - Croatia, Ireland, Latvia, Serbia, Poland, Norway | Eurovision Song Contest News - Azerbaijan 2012 

All the artists that have had their technical rehearsal today also hosted a press conference for the assembled media today. Much of the action here goes on in Russian, even if simultaneous interpretation is available via separate headphones. We thank the Russian organizers for these summaries we have edited for our readers.

Croatia

The Croatian lead singer Igor Cukrov explained the press how his studies theology brought him physical balance in his life, which helped him to connect as well with his audience during concerts. Right after he treated the press to a song from church in an old Croatian dialect. The band’s female lead artist, Andrea Susnjara, told the press how happy they were to represent Croatia in this year’s contest: ‘It’s like a dream to be here. I believe this will be an excellent launch of our career.’ Croatia has the difficult task to be the first entry on stage during the second semifinal: ‘We are aware it will be quite difficult, however, we’re quite confident’, Igor said.

Ireland

Irish lead singer Sinead Mulvey was amazed by the size of the stage: ‘It’s really terribly big’, she said. ‘We’re only used to perform in smaller setting, so we really have to get used to such a big stage.’ Sinead told the press about the start of her singing career and how she became a member of the band Spice Kids at the age of ten. She told that her family will be in Moscow to support her. The girls say they are happy to represent their country this year after being fans of the contest for so many years.

Latvia

The Latvian press-conference proved the most multilingual of all: Russian, English, German, Latvian and Polish were spoken. At any moment when they could not find words in one language, they switched to another. “We are multilingual,” the band’s lead artist Intars Busulis said proudly.
In spite of being multilingual, Intars decided to sing his song in Russian. “I like Russian a lot. And I think it is appropriate to sing in Russian here.” Not all of his fellow-countrymen agreed with it, though some liked the idea, he confessed.

According to the singer, he did not use the advice of his predecessors. “Be yourself, don’t try to pretend something you are not”, this is his recipe for success. 
Intars Busulis’ way to the contest was not an easy one due to the severe crisis in Latvia’s economy. That is why his participation is a great responsibility. “I hope, I will be able to make the best of this contest, to make our country proud of us”, he added.

Serbia

The press-conference of the Serbian delegation proved to be one of the most entertaining. The band started out by singing their song to an accordion and went on to double it in an excellent Russian. It transpired that the Serbs had recorded their song in as many as six languages and that was not the limit. They would like to translate it into Belarussian provided that they find someone who might help them out with the text of the lyrics.

One of the members of the duo, the author of the song, told us to have participated in last year’s contest on behalf of Montenegro. Back then, he did not have to sing and that was much less straining.
The Serbian delegation took this chance to remind that it was Belgrade that hosted the last year’s contest.  In Serbia it was an absolute success, they remarked, and kindly wished the Moscow hosts to outdo them.

This year’s motto for Serbia delegation is: “Love, live and leave!” They believe this reflects the principles that everyone should follow: love, live to the fullest and then leave the things you have already experiences for something new and exiting. The contestants have put this motto into action: the duo and the back vocals staged a show right in the press-centre. 

Poland

Polish singer Lidia Kopania started her press-conference by sharing her impressions of the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow. She enjoys a lovely atmosphere and the friendly people around her. Lidia is an experienced contestant– in 2001 she participated as a backing singer.
This time she represents her country on her own; her song ‘I don’t want to leave’ written by as many as four authors is truly an international undertaking. Lidia will sing with a dancer in the backdrop. Lidia herself used to be a dancer, she also plays piano. Her versatile talent brought her to the ‘Miss Teen’ contest that prompted her then to pursue professional training in signing.

Lidia told about her voice: “Yes, it spans four octaves. But I have to do a lot of work to keep it in good shape,” she replied modestly.

One of the journalists wondered what Lidia would be doing if she was not involved in show business. She said that once she thought of becoming a doctor. In the long run, however, she went for the history of arts as something that was more in tune with her scenic career. “I believe my songs can heal people’s souls. They have special a healing power I try to share with my audience”, disclosed Lidia motivation behind her performance.

Norway

Norwegian press conference was the most popular among the journalists, since some believe that Alexander Rybak is among favorites of 2009 Eurovision Song Contest. The very first question mentioned the energy of Alexander’s performance and a few journalists went as far as to predict the artist’s victory.

To the question about the source of inspiration for the song, Alexander said that the idea came to him accidentally when he was travelling in the countryside and enjoying the beautiful scenery of Norwegian nature. He had a violin with him and the melody came to him – the composition “Fairytale” was born.
Alexander started singing at a very early age. His earliest recollection of signing is performing Belarusian “Kupalinka” to his mother when he was a child. Representatives of Belarus in their turn reminded Alexander that he has a lot of fans among Belarusians.

When asked whom does he support among other contestants, Alexander immediately said: “Svetlana Loboda”.

In general Russian and Belarusian journalists were the most active at the press-conference – Alexander’s command of Russian was a pleasant surprise. Still, some complexly worded questions turned out to be beyond the artist’s understanding and he simply asked the audience “to speak with him like with a child”.

Alexander’s birthday is next Wednesday and to the question about presents he said that he would be really happy to get a cake or to hear a performance of his song by another artist.

You can see a clip of Alexander Rybak performing at his press conference here: