The artist flying the flag of San Marino, Valentina Monetta, is in London to promote her song Crisalide. On Friday she had a training session with top London vocal coach Joshua Alamu.

Joshua Alamu is one of the most famous vocal coaches in the UK.

He has worked with artists like Joss Stone, Westlife, Will Young, Beverly Knight, 911, Daniel Bedingfield, All Saints.  He is working on the  “ultimate artist” project endorsed by Tulisa, JLS and other big name acts.

Joshua Alamu has also worked for popular television shows like The Voice UK, Dance X and Just the two of us for the BBC, Pop Idol for ITV.

He is not stranger to the Eurovision Song Contest stage himself: Joshua was one of the backing singers for the UK entry Jessica Garlick in Tallinn in 2002.

He has also worked with the Maltese Eurovision artists from this and last years, Gianluca and Kurt.

Joshua spends a lot of time in Malta.

Joshua tells us how he feels that the attitude towards Eurovision is definitely changing in the UK.

Music industry people are now all very happy to take part after big names like Andrew Lloyd-Webber have been part if the song contest, he says.

Even in the USA people in the music industry are following what is going on in the Eurovision Song Contest, as they realise it is such a big showcase in European music, says Joshua.

If only the general public in the United Kingdom stopped treating it like a big joke, he laughs.

The Eurovision Song Contest has so much great talent involved, so it deserves much more credit than it is sometimes getting, says Joshua.

You have to be very talented to do a dance routine like the Swedish winning act Loreen did last year and still be vocally good, he states. And as a vocal coach we get to push the artists even further!

Crisalide is the 21st Eurovision Song Contest entry for veteran composer Ralph Siegel.

He has such a passion for the song contest, says Joshua Alamu about Siegel. We have worked together and he is such a perfectionist and will probably always be associated with the Eurovision Song Contest, says Joshua.

With Valentina Monetta Joshua worked on Friday polishing her singing ahead of her London performance on Sunday.

Joshua Alamu was very impressed with Valentina Monetta. She has such great talent and it is such a pleasure to work with her, he enthuses!

Esctoday.com wants to thank Team Valentina Monetta for this exclusive meeting! Watch a special greeting from Joshua and Valentina below: