Israel: Interview with Mei Finegold

by Gil Laufer 398 views

The third interview of the 2014 Eurovision representatives is coming from Israel. ESCToday got the chance to meet Mei Finegold and have a friendly chat with her, during her rehearsals for the musical Kazablan.

What is your first Eurovision memory?

I was very young, I think since I was three years old I was sitting with my family every year watching Eurovision, taping it on video cassettes and watching it constantly again and again, imagining I’m on a big stage and singing along even though I didn’t know how to speak English when I was young. I remember good things, I remember things that only make me smile.

We still haven’t seen a live performance of Same heart.

You’ll see very shortly, there were a lot of rumors about why I don’t do a live show. There are good reasons. You must have order in the working process and we do keep on the right order. We’ll do it for the first time in a very creative way.

How will your stage performance will look like?

I’m not able to talk about my outfit yet because it’s still in working process and I love it. The performance will be with two amazing female dancers, one of them is my best friend in the world and she also did the choreography in the same heart video. She’s gonna dance with me along with another beautiful amazon woman, which is very important for me because since the beginning of my way in music there was something about female empowering that was very important for me, it burns underneath my skin and I will have to bring it to the eurovision stage.

We meet you at the Cameri theatre, one of the biggest theaters in israel. what are you doing here?

I’m doing a show, a musical called Kazablan, which is a remake to an Israeli classic. It’s a big massive show, we did 300 shows in one year and it’s still running. I play a character called Roza which is a red-headed-super-sexy-bigger-than-life bar owner, and that’s what we do here every night.

According to the odds and polls, Same heart is the strongest Israeli entry since 2010, and some say that it can end very high. What do you think about that?

I hear different things every day. I hear good things, one day we’re first, one day we’re 5th, one day were 15th, but it’s a good place to be in. It changes all the time so I’m trying not to be affected by it, but it does mean one thing: that people give us love and it’s ridiculously amazing, I’ve never experienced so much free love in my life.

Many people say that the Eurovision is full of political voting, and that countries without helping neighbors like Israel might not do well.

That’s right, many people say that. I try not to think about it at all. When you start thinking about the polls and the politics and about what everything else have to say, you lose a bit of focus, It’s a thing I learned when I became a mother, to listen to your own intuition and if you gonna be affected by what everybody have to say you’ll lose it. I decided to stay focused and true to myself and I do listen to all the people around me because everyone wants the best for us in the competition, and I’m not thinking about what if and the politics and what if people sell votes or buy votes or if they like us or don’t like us, it’s a music competition and I want to bring the best performance and the best music into the competition.

Have you heard the other competing songs? Who are your favorites?

I heard some, they’re good. I don’t wanna say favorites, you can totally lose yourself and actually even today I had a long drive and I’ve listened to about 30 countries and I loved them. I don’t care I have a tough competition, and I feel even more blessed to be a part in a hard and tough competition, because it means you’re good if you’re in a good company.

You will go up on stage as the second song, how do you feel about that?

I don’t know how I feel about it, but I guess I will be nervous before the show, but it’s good because you gonna take out the nerves very quickly and then sit back and enjoy the show, so I get the best of two worlds.

Will you be aiming to an international audience now?

I don’t have any plans in my head. I have plenty of blessed work here in Israel and I do have some work waiting for me after eurovision. I always say that if you wanna tell god a joke, tell him you have plans. I’m open minded to everything, if some opportunity will open up I will definitely be there, but I don’t aim to that, because you’ll get sick. you can’t aim everywhere, so at least I’m blessed, I’m not lost.

 

 

 

 

 

ESCToday would like to thank Mei Finegold for this interview and we wish her the best of luck in Copenhagen!