Patricia Kaas of France, who is famous for Mademoiselle Chante le Blues, Jade Ewen from Great Britain, and Sakis Rouvas from Greece are amongst the names of just some of the singers who confirmed that they shall participate in the international Eurovision 2009 Song Contest. They will arrive in Moscow in May to perform and let all of Europe choose the winner. Moscow was chosen to host Eurovision-2009 after Russian pop-star Dima Bilan, supported by Olympic champion figure skater Yevgeni Plyushenko and Hungarian violinist Edvin Marton, charmed Belgrade with his song Believe In Me. This time, the audiences will probably hear the song’s sequel, since Niels Brinck from Denmark announced the title of his song, Believe Again. What is especially interesting about Eurovision-2009 is the participation of the legendary composer Andrew Lloyd Weber. It’s My Time, a song composed by Mr Webber, will be performed by British singer Jade Ewen. They say that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin promised Webber he would vote for the song.
More than 20 countries out of 43 have already decided on who shall represent them in Moscow. Russia has not yet announced its choice. Yuri Aksyuta, director of musical programmes at the television channel Pervy Kanal (Channel One), commented, “We decided to trust the experts, not only the popular vote of the audience. Then, after the experts choose, the finalists will perform before Russian audiences. One of these performers shall be picked to have the honour of representing Russia”. The final winner will be selected in a televised ceremony in early March. Of course, Russians wish that their participant is as strong as other members of the Eurovision-2009 company. However, nobody expects a landslide victory. Even now, music producers now are thinking about Eurovision-2010. Yana Rudkovskaya, Dima Bilan’s producer, believes popular Russian opera and pop singer Nikolai Baskov could represent his country in 2010. Ms Rudkovskaya says Eurovision has never heard such a splendid tenor, in her words, “A truly golden voice”. Indeed, Baskov’s voice is praised by the world-famous Spanish opera diva Montserrat Caballé. Incidentally, the two were planning to perform together in New York on 14 February.
12 February 2009
Natalia Viktorova
Voice of Russia World Service
http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=rus&q=101708&cid=24&p=11.02.2009
Editor’s Note:
To give you an idea of the calibre of these performers, I am posting videos by Patricia Kaas, Jade Ewen, Niels Brinck, Sakis Rouvas, Dima Bilan, and Nikolai Baskov below. Truly, there is life outside of the USA!
