For the next two days it is the turn of the finalists to rehearse, and this morning started with Javine for the United Kingdom, with Touch my fire. The first check is to see how the potential costumes will look on camera, and these were displayed on hangers for the camera lens, they are mainly in vivid red and gold colours. Predictably perhaps with a song about fire, the video effects are mainly in red. There then followed the sound check, before we had three complete performances for the camera. There is some different choreography from that used in the Making your mind up final, with two male dancers, who start on the drums on the presenters stage, before joing the three female dancers who are already on the main stage with Javine. Rehearsals seemed to go well, and received a good round of applause in the hall.
Also in the hall for the United Kingdom rehearsal, was BBC3 commentator for the semi final Paddy O'Connell, who was recording some links for A liitle bit more the programme which will follow the live transmission of the final on Saturday on BBC3, while Javine was rehearsing. Esctoday.com had the opportunity to chat to Paddy O'Connell, and later this week we will be revealing which ten songs he thinks will qualify for the final.
Press conference
As Javine had entered competitive programmes, like Pop Idol…The Rivals!” and Making your mind up, had she received any advice from any of the contestants, from these programmes, and how tough had the final been. She hadn't actually spoken to any of them, though Andy Scott Lee was a great friend she had known before, and Girls Aloud had sent her good will messages. the final had been very tough, with several well known names, such as Katie Price, who they all thought would win. Javine herself was shocked when she won.
The single of Touch my fire is released today, so what were her expectations in terms of chart success, as she has had four top twenty songs to date. She would love a top ten position, or maybe even into the top five. She has been busy working hard to promote it, with television interviews, magazine photo shoots, promoting both the Eurovision Song Contest and her single at the same time, she has been “swept off my feet”.
As one of the songwriters, did she have the charts on her mind, or the Eurovision Song Contest in mind when she wrote it, and why do the contest, as she has an established career? She had been given three weeks to come up with a song, with the Eurovision Song Contest in mind, and she regards the contest as an exciting opportunity, and it is “so much fun”. She had a lovely welcome in Kyiv, and has been taken by the atmosphere, and everyone is very hospitable.
There have been complaints in the past few years about political voting, so was it deliberate tactic to give the song Middle East elements, what was the reason for the choice. They had experimented with different ethnic songs, from Asian, Caribean to Turkish, before this was the one she choose.
A Swedish journalist, asked about the costume she will wear, and will it be sexy? The dress will have “loads of bling, bling, and the knickers too, very flash”
What were her expectations in terms of result, and had she heard any of the other entries? A top five would be great, and she had heard the entries of both Cyprus and Greece, and thought both were great songs. As to her earliest memories of the contest, well she loved ABBA, even though they won before she was born, and all their other songs, but she never thought in a million years that she would ever be in it, but its exciting and she is enjoying it, it is the biggest stage with the biggest audience that she will ever perform on.
As with virtually all other artist at the press conferences , she was asked to sing a song, she sung a bit of the Carol King song Natural woman, although she prefers the Aretha Franklin version.
At the time, it was quite controversial when she was eliminated from Pop Idol..The Rivals!, so how had she felt. “I was gutted at the time” she admits, but is happy now with marking out her solo career.
Was it easier being one of the Big Four and not having the pressure of the semifinal to go through. “Yes it helps not to have the semifinal and the nerves, so I'm happy”.
Asked about new material for next album, and whether it would contain songs like Touch my fire, she already has people working on her next album, which will have more R&B songs on it.
The BBC also confirmed, once again, that they will not be broadcasting the 50th Anniversary extravaganza from Copenhagen later this year.
The photo session concluded the conference. Javine will be back for her second rehearsal tomorrow morning at 11.00 local time.
