EUROVISION 2015: SECOND SEMIFINAL QUALIFIERS

VIENNA, AUSTRIA – The Second Semifinal for Eurovision Song Contest 2015 is over and we have the ten qualifiers for the Grand Final this Saturday. Let’s see the results and in comparison with oikotimes.com’s Europrediction.

FIRST SEMIFINAL RESULTS

INFORMATION ON AZERBAIJAN

This year’s Azerbaijani representative, Elnur Huseynov, is not new in the Europe’s favourite TV show and the Eurovision family. In 2008, Elnur together with Samir represented Azerbaijan for the first ever time in the Eurovision Song Contest. This year, Elnur will sing his mystical contemporary ballad Hour Of The Wolf.

INFORMATION ON CYPRUS

John is a big gamer, and if he’s lucky enough to take a break from his hectic schedule, you’ll find him down the local Internet Café…. and then you may not see him for three days! He’s actually a pretty good gamer! John’s musical influences are now Ed Sheeran & John Mayer – in fact any artist with a great voice and a great song. His interest in Eurovision began about 10 years ago when he heard the song Stronger Every Minute by Lisa Andreas and hoped one day he could represent Cyprus in the Eurovision Song Contest.

INFORMATION ON ISRAEL

Born in Paris and raised in Israel, Nadav recently won the TV talent show, The Rising Star – Israel’s most viewed singing competition. Here his prize was being given the honour of representing Israel at the Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna. Nadav wants to bring a powerful combination of European and Mediterranean sounds to the show.

INFORMATION ON LATVIA

Aminata was born in Riga in 1993 to a Latvian mother of Latvian and Russian descent, and a father from Burkina Faso. She considers herself foremostly Latvian.She grew up in Latvia – a country, where everybody sings – but her strong and unique voice, which is a blend of three different singing traditions – African, Russian and European – has attracted attention in many singing competitions and music projects she has successfully participated so far

INFORMATION ON MONTENEGRO

Nenad Knežević Knez was born in a family of musicians in Cetinje, the royal capital of Montenegro. His solo career began in 1992 with a performance at the prestigious Yugoslavian music festival MESAM. His Second album Dan za danom (Day by Day, 1994) brought him some more hits. The third album Automatik from 1996 broke all sales records

INFORMATION ON NORWAY

Kjetil Mørland comes from Grimstad in Southern Norway but has lived in the United Kingdom for most of his adult life. This has had a huge influence on him as an artist and songwriter. With the British band Absent Elk, Kjetil released the album Caught In The Headlights, produced by Toby Smith from Jamiroquai. Performing the song with him is Debrah Scarlett. Of Norwegian and Swiss origin, Debrah lived in a town called Nittedal north of Oslo until she was five years old, but has lived for the majority of her youth in Switzerland. In the autumn of 2013 she made an impression on many people with her unique voice by taking part in The Voice Norway. Since then she has performed for many people in her two homelands. In August last year she moved back to Norway and is now seriously hoping to kickstart a music career there.

INFORMATION ON POLAND

Monika Kuszyńska is a Polish singer and songwriter. She started her music career as a soloist of the Polish band Varius Manx in 2001. Together they released four albums. After a tragic car accident in 2006, Monika remained partially paralysed and to this day she moves in a wheelchair. She couldn’t continue her career as singer, but didn’t give up her dream to perform on stage again. She didn’t submit to despair and helpless passivity.

INFORMATION ON SLOVENIA

Marjetka graduated at the Ljubljana Academy of Music, and now teaches budding vocalists at her musical workshops. Raay is one of the most prolific music producers in Slovenia, and has been increasingly active abroad in recent years. Raay has been the most played Slovene songwriter on annual airplay charts. He has designed Maraaya’s music style, which is usually described as “indie pop”.

INFORMATION ON SWEDEN

Måns Zelmerlöw masterminded one of the most memorable moments in the history of the Swedish selection show, Melodifestivalen, with his performance of the uplifting Heroes. Obviously both the song and the vocals had to be strong – previous winners have included artists from ABBA to Loreen – but the visual spectacular show took everyone by surprise and rendered him the victory in the contest on his third attempt.

INFORMATION ON LITHUANIA

Vaidas Baumila is one of the best-known singers of the young generation in Lithuania. After a period of singing on the cruise ship Queen Elizabeth, he has been a part of prestigious plays and various TV projects. Back in 2006, the singer released his debut album What Do You Like? to great popularity. His second album Listen to Me was released in 2008 and gave him the award of Best Singer in Lithuania. The singer is currently working on his third album, which is to be released in March 2015. When Monika was a little girl she used to dream of being a dancer. However, as soon as she had started to play the piano, Monika understood that music is more important than anything else.

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