- Title: RUSSIA: Eurovision finalists have final dress rehearsals
- Date: 16th May 2009
- Summary: WIDE BRIEFING BY LLOYD-WEBBER AND JADE EWEN (SOUNDBITE) (English) COMPOSER ANDREW LLOYD-WEBBER SAYING: "There's an awful lot of staging everywhere and I thought, well, this is a song contest and I really wanted to represent Jade as a singer of hopefully a song that will be around a bit." FANS APPLAUD
- Embargoed: 31st May 2009 13:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: Entertainment
- Reuters ID: LVA1S8POO3U943JZ0Z8TS1G9A6MD
- Story Text: Artists from the 25 nations competing in the Eurovision Song Contest final took part in a dress rehearsal on Friday (May 15), the eve of the big day.
The show kicked off with a reprise by last year's winner, Russian Dima Bilan, who flew onto the stage carried by a 'cherub', as he sang his 2008 winning entry 'Believe'.
As a member of the so-called Big Four - the founders of the contest - Germany always gets a spot in the final. This year's entry 'Miss Kiss Kiss Bang' was performed by DJ Alex Christensen and singer Oscar Loya, with a guest appearance by burlesque performer Dita Von Teese.
Von Teese delighted the audience with her trademark elegant striptease.
"The most important thing is confidence and I think when you have confidence and you know who you are and you're not trying to analyse what makes other people sexy as much as what makes you feel good about yourself, you can definitely see the difference between real confidence, that something that comes from within and that's what's really sexy," she told reporters at a briefing before the dress rehearsal.
One of the biggest favourites this year is Alexander Rybak from Norway, performing his own song 'Fairytale'. Rybak's composition has been No.1 in the Norwegian singles charts for weeks and is in the Swedish pop chart too.
Host country Russia is represented by singer Anastasia Prikhodko whose song 'Mamo has lyrics in Russian and Ukrainian. On stage, Prikhodko wore a simple white dress and was surrounded by video screens showing her face.
Sakis Rouvas from Greece is no stranger to the Eurovision Song Contest and has represented his country twice before in 2004 and 2006. Rouvas put in an energetic performance with his dance tune ' This Is Our Night'.
This year's entry by the UK is also seen as one of the trophy favourites. Jade Ewen sings 'It's My Time', a song composed by musical legend Andrew Lloyd-Webber together with lyricist Diane Warren.
"There's an awful lot of staging everywhere and I thought, well, this is a song contest and I really wanted to represent Jade as a singer of hopefully a song that will be around a bit," said Lloyd-Webber after the rehearsal.
Lloyd-Webber also played piano accompaniment to Jade Ewen on stage. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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