AZERBAIJAN: Eurovision hopefuls brief reporters on eve of final

Record ID: 218233

  • Title: AZERBAIJAN: Eurovision hopefuls brief reporters on eve of final
  • Date: 26th May 2012
  • Summary: BAKU, AZERBAIJAN (MAY 25, 2012) (REUTERS) ***AUDIO AS INCOMING *** ***BEWARE FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** CRYSTAL HALL, EUROVISION 2012 VENUE NATIONAL FLAG OF AZERBAIJAN VARIOUS OF LEGENDARY SINGER AND BRITISH EUROVISION SONG CONTEST FINALIST ENGELBERT HUMPERDINCK, WALKING INTO NEWS CONFERENCE ROOM MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (English) BRITISH EUROVISION SONG CONTEST FINALIST ENGELBE
  • Embargoed: 10th June 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Azerbaijan
  • Country: Azerbaijan
  • Topics: Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVADYBI0CYYRO684I76MV3FNREG8
  • Story Text: Eurovision Song Contest finalists from Azerbaijan, Britain, France, Germany and Spain sat for reporters on Friday (May 25), on the eve of the contest final expected to draw in 125 million viewers across Europe on Saturday (May 26) night.
    The contestants briefed the reporters inside of Baku's Crystal Hall, a state-of-the-art facility built earlier this year. Approximately 16,000 people will be in the audience for the live show on Saturday.
    From Britain's Engelbert Humperdink, a 45-year, 150 million record-selling veteran of the music business to German contestant Roman Lob, who only became famous months ago after winning the German talent show "Unser Star Für Baku", the contestants said they were nervous.
    Humperdinck talked about his selection for the contest, "Love Will Set You Free" which he said he hoped would become one of his chart-topping classics.
    "Romantic songs have a great deal of value attached to them. The fact that they have a great lyric and great musical content, a great melody, and these are the sort of songs that last for a long, long time. And this was, it's a well-written song, and I've had hits as ballads, as waltzes before. I've had number one's before, and I'm hoping to add this, this song to one of my number one lists," he said.
    And, Humperdinck said, he was wearing a lucky charm for the final.
    "Nobody's perfect, nobody's confident enough for anything, and you need all the help, even from somebody above. And I really mean that most sincerely," Humperdinck said.
    Lob said the venue itself was a big surprise, but he welcomed it.
    "I like the stage. The stage is very big. In the first moment I've seen it, I said 'oh okay'. I was a little bit nervous but it was oklay. Yeah. I like the stage. The sound is very good. And the people, they work there, are very cool," Lob said.
    Italian hopeful Nina Zilli, who is performing "L'Amore È Femmina (Out Of Love)", said she thought the ex-Soviet country's hosting of the event was a positive step in elevating its image in Europe.
    "Um, maybe in this country, it's not like Italy or, you know, we're used to huge concerts and you know, party, so it's really cook that even all over the world it's opening up to music and art. It's always best," Zilli said.
    Azeri finalist Sabina Babayeva who is preparing "When The Music Dies" for Saturday's concert used her news conference to call attention to the 16 contestants who did not make it to the final and said she was in the contest for music.
    "I just want to do one thing first, so let me do this. Um, I just want to say thanks, and big big my grateful applause to the 16 great singers which unfortunately didn't passed to the final," she said.
    "My message is: Eurovision is all about music and not politics. Thank you," Babayeva added.
    French contestant Anggun made the biggest splash with journalists at the venue. The "Echo (You And I)" performer said she wanted to preach tolerance.
    "People always say 'how come you want to seduce the gay public with your videos?' I'm like no. I have been doing videos like that many, many years, but of course this is the first time a lot of people actually get to see those videos. So, um, and I have to tell you that 98 percent of my friends are gay, and whenever I make a video I want them to, you know, I want actually to please them. I want them to actually want to watch my videos. So actually, the message that I'm trying to convey here is the message of tolerance," she said to applause.
    Azerbaijan won the right to host the annual contest last year in Germany with the victory of its entry, the love song "Running Scared", from Eldar Gasimov and Nigar Jamal, better known as Ell/Nikki. It is the fifth former Soviet republic after Estonia, Latvia, Ukraine and Russia and the second Muslim country after Turkey to host the event.
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