Sensational Temptational

Gothicband "Within Temptation" will be the Dutch entrant for USC 2005. They are very much rumoured as possible Dutch entrants for the ESC. Now the USC-public can hear why. The beautiful song 'Memories' was only one of the good songs to choose from in 2005. Dutch Management chose the less know song, for Within Temptation already participated with succes with 'Stand my ground' and 'Angels' in other contests.


Within Temptation - Memories

In this world you tried,
Not leaving me alone behind.
There's no other way,
I pray to the gods let him stay.
The memories ease the pain inside,
And now I know why.

All of my memories keep you near.
In silent moments,
Imagine you being here.
All of my memories keep you near,
In silent whispers, silent tears

Made me promise I'd try,
To find my way back in this life.
Hope there is a way,
To give me a sign you're okay.
Reminds me again it's worth it all,
So I can go home.

All of my memories keep you near.
In silent moments,
Imagine you being here.
All of my memories keep you near.
In silent whispers, silent tears.

Together in all these memories,
I see your smile.
All of the memories I hold dear.
Darling you know I'll love you,
Til the end of time.

All of my memories keep you near
In silent moments,
Imagine you being here.
All of my memories keep you near,
In silent whispers, silent tears.

All of my memories...

Are you ready?

USC News meet Madame choclate of Ukraine

Wednesday April 29th. Stockholm 00:30. Restaurant Flemming.

Finally after waiting a long time we get a 20 minute interview with Ukrainan Eurovision artist Svetlana Loboda and her manager as the translator. Svetlana say she never liked nor was a fan of Eurovision but she knew both about Dima and Ani in 2008 and think Ani was the better one.

You can listen to an extract of the interview in the video here:

She knows the good ukrainian results in eurovision (one win, 2 second places and a 7th etc) and feel indeed some pressure and expectations to do a good result but she concentrate on her stage show number in Moscow which is still a total secret. They revealed only a small part of it in London and they will show that part in Stockholm here tonight too. But most strongly they emfasize that they will not show anything substantial from the Moscow act before the semifinal. So we can expect a spectacular stage show that is not only special but also very difficult and dangerous to perform and Svetlana need her circus act skills from Kiev variety and circus academy. There will be no choclate on the stage but there will be some in her bed, she add smilingly. She will have her family and a whole fan group with her to Moscow and she tells us that she is a bit concerned about that her mother and father worry a lot about her safety during the use of the “Hell Machine”.

Svetlana tell us that she wrote the song with russian lyrics on a beach in India. Suddenly there was a cow that licked her in the neck and scared her a lot, but it was a friendly cow. When she found out that she was gonna be in the national final for eurovision (which she won win maximum points from both the televoters and the jury) she asked a friend to write the english lyrics because english is her problem and she just started to learn more. The russian version is now a huge hit in russia and ukraine now. She tells us she make her music with her computer by playing chords on the keyboard, adding drums and other sounds. I ask if she was trained in classical music or if she uses piano to write pop songs. The answer is both. If she wanted she could record a classical Romanov piano concert. She write music mainly to express charisma and energy and the flame inside. The energy of the music inspires me.
She cant easily tell us her favourite song. “Hard to say, I watched the movie about Edith Piaf and that amazed me”. Svetlana starts to sing “Padam Padam”. And yes she can sing live too. Singers she admire are Lennie Cravits and Goran Dregovic. She can not name a single favourite song but she listen to a lot of music, less for artists themselves but most for the energy in the music.

We discuss the chocate inspired video. I ask if there was real choclate or if it was computer animated. Svetlana tell us that they had food specialists from Russia that helped them do all the kind of food elements roses and food inspired artwork that exist in the video. They also filled a bathtub with a mix of cacao, to be precise 12 kilos, and some other ingrediences like paint and fluids that made it liquid and possible to swim in. Svetlana came up with the idea herself and she also wrote the whole script herself and indeed she is the woman in the choclate bath. And Svetlana proudly reveal that it is her own bum that comes up to the surface in the ukrainian esc video. Svetlana tells us laughingly that you couldn’t eat the choclate without having stomach problems which some of the crew members learned the hard way. On stage in Moscow there will not be any chocolate, "Only in my bed" Svetlana says. To impress us futher more she simply add that she edited and produced the video herself in her macintosh computer.

When they started the tour they didn´t expect to get so high in such short time. The best thing so far during this tour was when the organisers of the Amsterdam party called us and the team learned that “Be my Valentine” won the audience SMS vote in Amsterdam preview party. They all was very positivelly surprised and just screamed out load in euphoria. Now they learned they are climbing in the betting lists from 24th to 4th place. She visited London and other cities many times mostly for the quality of music they have but it is the first time in Stockholm. She arrived at noon and will leave early in the morning a few hours from now so she did not see much of Stockholm nor the other cities on this esc tour but she tasted some swedish food. Herrings.

She has heard the other competing songs and when we ask for the ones she likes the most she mentions that the artist that impresses her is Mr Rybak from Norway. He has a very young and very positive heart and has very good energy. Svetlana think Malena Ernman from Sweden is very funny because she reminds her of a Ukrainian singer and artist who also do the same kind of facial expressions that Malena does in her number. When she first saw the Swedish entry she thought it was that ukrainian singer. When we ask her to speculate on who is gonna win she elaborates on the theme that the winner need to be different and special and that that is why they make the spectacular show in Moscow. Futher on she mentions the Lordi winning as a result of attracting a new gruop of voters that was not there before. “Everything is very unpredictable. Every year the Eurovision gets a new audience and also the audience are the gay community but also house wifes”. The audience is different every year. But the winner will be an artist with some kind of charisma and a flame inside of them. Something special. I would like to bring a good taste to the audience and make an energetic and big festival stylish performance. All her songs she recorded so are more european than Ukrainian some say.

What is the worst thing that an happen in Moscow?
“I don’t wanna think about that.”

What is the best thing that can happen in Moscow?
“That we win.”

What will you do if you win?
“I want to go to Nepal and think about how to live and start my life from a new page”. In the future she wants to explore her inner energy and also visit Nepal and try to cure her fear of hights. She also started to learn english. To visit the Himalayas is to get closer to the sky.

In the end she gives a complement that it is a pleasure to talk to us since we are the very first professional journalist, “a complement to you, you have very clever eyes and it is very nice to speak to you”. Her manager and our translator states that as a journalist himself he think it is “very nice questions, very good, an old journalist school I’d say”. I don't know if they really mean this or if it's a PR trick to make all write good things about them but he looks sincear and she shy.

I say that I might vote if there is a smashing show in Moscow. Svetlana humbly say “Thankyou” and her manager say they are actually the head liner of tonights show here in Stockholm. As we walk out we arrive as Arash perform “Boro Boro”. We just missed Jade but now we can enjoy Arash and Aysel and Soraya and of course Svetlana Loboda and indeed the lady from Ukraine can sing live too and we feel the energy from inside.

Liza and Jörgen