This afternoon, the second rehearsal took place for the group Vanilla Ninja with their song Cool vibes. The four girls are joined on stage by two men, one on guitar, the other on drums. Their costumes are in black and white, though the background video effects are in red. The columns at the side of the stage drop down by expanding during the song. It was clear to see that there is good team work between the group members between the takes. By this stage in rehearsals, after the final take, they start timing the gap for the postcards, and get the artists off stage as quickly as possible and set up for the next song (in this case Croatia). This involves the floor manager sometimes rushing them, and making sure artists exit the stage correctly.
Press conference
The Swiss conference opened appropriately with remarks from the head of delegation, saying how Switzerland is a very open minded country, and open to all sorts of influences, and they are happy to have Estonians representing them, and that they think it is a very good song. Later on, when further pressed about Estonians representing Switzerland, and whether there weren't any Swiss artists good enough, the head of delegation replied that it was an open competition, “anybody” could submit a song, and they selected the best. The composer lives in Basle in Switzerland, and had worked with the group Vanilla Ninja before, so that was how they were chosen.
It had been widely reported that there had been problems with the composer, David Brandes, but where was the lyric writer, Dohn O'fl Ynn? He was due in today, later in the afternoon, said the head of delegation.
With this Estonian background in mind, would their families and friends be cheering on Estonia or Switzerland? The universal answer was Switzerland of course.
What did they think of the other songs in the contest? They described Norway as “scary”. while their fellow Estonians Suntribe, are “cool and friendly”.
As one of the favourites in the contest to qualify for the final, would they prefer to be the first name called out with an early draw, or could they stand the tension and wait to be the last country called out and have a later position? As long as they are in the final, then they would be very happy, with wherever they are drawn.
Had they ever voted at home when watching the contest in the past? Yes, one of them had voted for Ruslana, and another had voted for Max from Germany last year.
What about the lyrics of Cool vibes, what were they about? It's a song about a tiger, called Cool vibes, who they joked couldn't make it to the show, but he might make it to the final! He can be both friendly, and dangerous, at the same time, you just don't know!
Last year in the Estonian selection they had competed with a disco song, whereas this year for Switzerland it was more of a rock song – did they have any preferences? They consider their music to be pop, so it can be disco/pop or rock/pop, but it is still pop.
The conference finished with the customary photo seesion for the fans. Vanilla Ninja next appear on stage at the first semifinal dress rehearsal on Wednesday 18th May from 15.00 local time.
