A month still to go, but Eurovision contestants are already marshalling forces to win in Oslo

Many believe that for all the advance lobbying and razzamatazz, the three minutes on stage are still the most crucial moment

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By Pirkko Kotiranta
     
      Preparations for the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest to be staged in Oslo at the end of May are in full swing - and not only in in the Norwegian capital.
      Almost every one of the 39 participating countries has made a more or less ambitious advance publicity programme.
      Many participants plan to tour Europe - assuming the Icelandic volcano woes permit.
     
The Finnish entry this year is Työlki Ellää, a folk-pop song written and composed by the Finnish singer-songwriter Timo Kiiskinen.
      The duo representing Finland at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest is Kuunkuiskaajat (”Moon Whispers”), consisting of Susan Aho and Johanna Virtanen, two singers from Finland’s most successful contemporary folk group Värttinä.
      ”The amount of work has come as a surprise”, says Susan Aho.
      ”Sponsor discussions, meetings, and other events have been so frequent that once in a while I have been wondering where we could find time for the main event, namely rehearsing for the song contest itself”, Aho continues.
      ”It has been fun to keep a video blog. We have borrowed a camera and a computer from the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE. We do the shooting on our own, but the videos are edited at YLE”, Aho reports.
      ”Being a duo, we will benefit from this all even later on when the song contest is over”, she adds.
     
On Wednesday evening last week Kuunkuiskaajat were to perform at the opening of a regular ferry route between St. Petersburg and Helsinki. The presence of Vladimir Putin, the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, was bound to attract a lot of attention from the local media.
      ”Russians have been especially interested in our piece”, Aho notes.
     
Last Saturday, Kuunkuiskaajat were to participate in a promotional event titled Eurovision in Concert in the Netherlands.
     
It was also nice that in the Eurovision Theme Night Douze Points in London, the Finnish duo placed third in their own semi-final preview, right behind Iceland and Albania.
      Aho and Virtanen have done quite a job by giving a huge number of phone interviews, while e-mails have been pouring in.
      ”Luckily, there is a good support team to answer them all”, Aho says.
     
”It is naturally an advantage if people get to know a piece already before the contest. In that sense, advance promotion is important”, Aho says, but then on reflection she adds: ”However, the main thing is the contest itself, not least because of the huge number of viewers”.
      The Eurovision Song Contest will have an audience of more than 100 million.
     
While many put their faith in advance touring and public appearances, some participants trust more in the social networking sites and in the power of the Net in general, like for example Estonia.
      ”The crucial moment will be the three-minute performance on stage”, says Mart Normet, the entertainment manager at the Estonian Television ETV, pointing out that Estonia has even won once (2001) without any major promotional efforts.
      ”Some years ago, a competitor from a small country visited every participating country, did gigs, gave interviews, and so on”, Normet notes.
      The result? ”It placed last”, Normet says with a shrug.
     
In Azerbaijan, people think otherwise. Safura, one of the ante-post favourites for the 2010 ESC, is preparing for the contest abroad, according to a tight schedule.
      The competition version of her song Drip Drop has been recorded in Stockholm, while the singer is working on her first album and doing concert appearances in Sweden.
      The writers and producers of Azerbaijan’s entry in the Eurovision Song Contest are Swedish top professionals who boast previous collaborations with artists such as Madonna, Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, and the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest winner Celine Dion.
     
Safura is not spending much time in her home country when preparing for Oslo.
      When she is not in Stockholm she is in Kiev, where she does promotional work and other prepping and lobbying, according to the website eurovision.tv.
      When it comes to choreography, Safura trusts JaQuel Knight, an American choreographer who has been awarded for his work with megastar Beyoncé, among others.
      Moreover, according to the website esc.today.com, Safura’s video will be directed by Rupert Wainwright, who has previously directed for example Michael Jackson’s History.
      Apparently, Azerbaijan - which entered the Eurovision Song Contest family only as recently as 2008 - is taking the contest very seriously indeed.
     
They are not the only ones. Stars and seasoned professionals have also been put into harness in Great Britain when preparing for this year's Eurovision Song Contest.
      The country slumped in the ESC rankings for a few years, often putting up lightweight acts and then grumbling at the way in which the competition was "stitched up" to ensure they failed humiliatingly, but in 2009 it made a determined effort to raise the profile through a composition by musicals giant Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber.
      This year the composers of Britain’s entry are Mike Stock and Pete Waterman - in other words two of the three men in the famous Stock-Aitken-Waterman songwriting and record producing team, who scored more than 100 UK top 40 hits in the 1980s and early 1990s..
      Josh Dubovie will be the UK’s hope in the Eurovision Song Contest with his song That Sounds Good To Me. In March, 19-year-old newcomer Dubovie won the UK finals, titled stirringly "Eurovision: Your Country Needs You!". The styling for Josh's performance in Oslo will be handled by Frank Strachan, the man behind the innovative looks for artists such as Kylie Minogue and Pet Shop Boys.
     
In the next week or so, Josh will begin six weeks of extensive press coverage, with interviews lined up with publications and websites from right across the continent, the BBC reports.
      MaNga, the Turkish band for the Eurovision Song Contest in Oslo, will also be clocking up some decent airmiles. They are about to start off their promotion tour in Switzerland, Germany, and the Netherlands.
     
In recent years, Serbia has been very successful in Eurovision Song Contests, raking in the "Balkan vote".
      Artist Milan Stankovic will present Serbia’s entry in Oslo. The song titled Ovo Je Balkan has been written by Goran Bregovic, a renowned rock star at home and a composer of film music.
      ”The financial crisis sets limits to the promotional possibilities we have planned”, says Jasmina Mijailovic from the Serbian broadcaster RTS to Helsingin Sanomat.
      ”However, we would like to cover several markets by making promotion in Bosnia & Herzegovina, Makedonia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, France, and Albania”, she notes.
      Serbia’s Milan Stankovic is already wooing Spanish voters with a Spanish-language YouTube video version of his song.
     
Croatia has taken a similar route, making English, Italian, and Russian versions of its entry.
      The viewing figures of Eurovision entries are huge, with a month still to go to the actual show: by April 20th, more than 2.4 million hits had been recorded for the German singer Lena’s Satellite that is currently heading the bookmakers' tables.
     
The Norwegian representative does not want to come under great pressure before the song contest at home: ”I will give only phone interviews”, says Didrik Solli-Tangen through his manager.
      ”It is all about those few minutes on the stage. It is not worth while travelling across Europe”, he adds. Didrik Solli-Tangen’s song is My Heart Is Yours.
     
Anna Bergendahl will represent Sweden in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest with her song This Is My Life.
      The 18-year-old pop singer still goes to school, which is why Sweden has been focusing on record promotion: Bergendahl’s debut album has just been released.
      In addition, Bergendahl has made a guest appearance on a Norwegian television breakfast show. She is also giving phone and e-mail interviews, reports Ulrika Hammar from Sweden’s Television SVT.
     
Latvia’s Aisha said that she is at present rehearsing for the main role in a musical, and would participate only in the Eurovision in Concert event in the Netherlands on Saturday April 24th.
      Around half of all countries participating in the Eurovision Song Contest took part in the Eurovision in Concert preview.
     
In this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, ballads will be well represented, which is why a different kind of song could stand out.
      This is at least what for example Estonia hopes.
      According to Mart Normet, the country’s entry Siren has been gathering praise and admiration from music professionals.
      The song performed by the band Malcolm Lincoln was chosen by a public vote, which has caused some amazement.
      This is already the second time for Estonia to trust in a ”paradigm shift” in its national selection by bringing forward ”pop music with character”, Normet notes.
      ”We do not underestimate our viewers”, he adds.
     
The finals for the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest will be organised in Oslo on May 29th.
      Then it will be seen whose strategy and paradigm will eventually draw the longest straw.
      So far at least, Azerbaijan seems to have been doing something right.
      Safura is joint favourite with the German entry on many online betting sites, with prices of around 3/1 being offered for an outright win.
      Other fancied names include the Israeli, Danish, and Armenian hopefuls, while Finland's Kuunkuiskaajat are at present deemed to be among the rank outsiders, with prices of between 66/1 and 200/1 being offered against the Eurovision Song Contest being arranged in Helsinki in 2011.
     
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 21.4.2010


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Kuunkuiskaajat to represent Finland at Eurovision Song Contest in Oslo (1.2.2010)

Links:
  Eurovision Song Contest
  esctoday.com
  Värttinä (Wikipedia)
  Eurovision Betting Odds
  BBC: Eurovision Song Contest Oslo 2010
  Douze Points
  Kuunkuiskaajat

PIRKKO KOTIRINTA / Helsingin Sanomat
pirkko.kotirinta@hs.fi