God morgon Europe. This is Malmoe calling and we have another great and exciting day ahead of us bringing you the latest highlights of the contest. Tune is with us!
GIANLUCA MEETS BONNIE
Today Gianluca met Bonnie Tyler over a cup of tea in Stortorget Square, Malmo. The two artists held a casual conversation about their background in the music industry and also about their musical families. Both Gianluca and Bonnie come from a large family. Gianluca comes from a family oif seven siblings. They are all connected to music. Bonnie explained that she has three sisters two brothers. One of the sisters and one of the brothers are also singers. Gianluca presented a copy of his Eurovision CD containing the song ”Tomorrow” to Bonnie, who asked Gianluca to sign it for her as Doctor Gianluca. He explained that the CD contains a family version of ”Tomorrow” sung by the Bezzina family. She was very happy to hear that all the Bezzina family are somehow inolved in music and continued by saying that she has always wanted to cover the track by the Pointer Sisters ”We Are Family”. Bonnie presented her latest album ”Rocks and Honey” to Gianluca. The album was released in March. It contains the UK Eurovision single called ”Believe In Me” Before the tea meeting was over, Bonnie, who is an experienced artist, gave a word of advise to Gianluca. ”No matter what the result will be, as long as we feel that we’ve done our best. Luckily with all the lights we don’t see all the audience, pretentding they’re not there; just look at the redlights!” stated Bonnie.
GIANLUCA SINGS IN SWEDISH
The song “Tomorrow” is leaving a very positive vibe in Sweden, to the point that the song has been translated to Swedish by popular TV characters Igor and Petter. The Swedish version is called “Imorgon”. Dr Igor Zindovic is a doctor at Skane University Hospital (SUS) cardiac surgery department in Lund and Petter Oest is studying to become a doctor at Lund University. Both Igor and Petter have some important roles on Swedish TV. Igor plays a leading role in the popular series ‘Junior Doctors’ and Petter hosts a very popular TV show called ‘Bacillakuten’. The Swedish lyrics have been kept very faithful to the original lyrics in English.
The video shows a collection of smiles of this unforgettable journey of Gianluca and his band in Malmo. It includes some video shots from the visit to SUS, a hospital which specializes in paediatric intensive care for children from neonatal to adolescents from all over Sweden. The video also shows meetings of Gianluca with Loreen, the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2012, and some of this year’s participants including Koza Mostra band members from Greece, Cezar representing Romania, Sopho and Nodico from Georgia, the lead singer of the Bulgarian team Elitsa Todorova, the Italian representative Marco Mengoni, Valentina Monetta from San Marino, Krista representing Finland, Eythor Ingi representing Iceland and of course with the British star Bonnie Tyler.
CEZAR AT THE EUROVILLAGE
Eurovision Song Contest fans from all over the world, but also Romanians living in Malmö and its surroundings came to see Cezar performing “It’s My Life” on the stage of Eurovision Village, an open space in the center of the town, arranged by the organizers for concerts, interviews, meetings and other promotional activities of the participants. Cezar was nvited to perform his song in front of the audience, but also to run an interview for the two hosts of the Super Studio, a mini tv studio right next to the stage.
“I’m happy I had the opportunity to perform in front of the people. I always feel good seeing there’s an immediate reaction of those listening to me. I found a very receptive public in the Eurovillage. It was also a nice surprise to see so many Romanians, established in Sweden, who had come especially to meet me and wish me good luck for the Thursday semifinal”, said Cezar after finishing the ad-hoc autographs session, at the end of his performance on the stage.
AGNES READY FOR SEMIFINAL 2
Swedish superstar Agnes will appear in the second Semi-Final of Eurovision tomorrow. She will be performing the single “One Last Time” from her latest album “Veritas” and her international hit “Release Me” which was a top-ten hit on several charts worldwide and No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs. She will entertain the audience with a mesmerizing performance of these two songs. Don’t miss it!
OFFICIAL VIDEO FOR BIRDS
The moment that the cizenses from the Netherlands were waiting since 2004 came last night. Their representative, Anouk, finally got threw the semifinals. She was probably counting on it before publishing a video for “Birds”. By the bookies she is one of the favourites to win the contest, but as she is drawn to perform in the first half of the Grand final, that is becoming questionable, as we all know that the songs that are performed later have more chances to win. Anyway if you like Anouk’s song, you can watch the official video here.
BELGIAN TV RATES
RTBF announced the viewing figures for last night’s semifinal. Over 721.000 people tuned in to watch the show, but with their neighboring country, the Netherlands performing on the same night didn’t help to reach last year’s number of 750.000. In 2011 they also performed in the same semifinal, the number was 630.000 and in 2010. when Belgium qualified for the first time since 2004, almost 700.000 people were watching Tom playing his guitar.
CYPRUS TV RATINGS
The Cypriots are sad for Despina Olympiou but they surely supported the contest as 41,4% watched the show last night in Cyprus. When Despina got on stage the ratings got to 56,6%.
