Before yesterday's rehearsals of the second Eurovision Song Contest semi final, Regina Osk of Euroband talked to esctoday.com. In this interview Regina talks about her views previous Eurovision Song Contest experience, her favourite Eurovision songs and her recording career.
How did you feel when you were so narrowly behind Silvia Night in 2006 in the Icelandic preselection?
'Of course it's great to have won now. It's fate I suppose. Silvia was amazing, really; a great creation by my friend Agusta Eva. Maybe the joke was a bit too much for the rest of Europe. But I loved her'.
Have you sung on the Eurovision stage before?
"Yes I did backing vocals with TwoTricky in Copenhagen in 2001, then also with Birgitta in Riga and also Selma in Kiev. Parken was huge of course and the whole town had Song Contest fever. In Riga we finished in the top ten, which we hadn't done for a good while, and it was also wonderful to get the opportunity to visit Ukraine, which is a country so completely different to Iceland. I have so many good memories from all these cities, but I always knew that one day that I would be at the front of the Eurovision stage, and now I have finally done it'.
Do you watch the Song Contest at home?
'Oh yes of course! My mother has watched it ever since Dana won in 1970 for Ireland. I remember our first entry in 1986 for Iceland. My favourites are All Kinds Of Everything and Non ho L'Eta. And the dance songs too. It's great fun singing Wild Dances and also My Number One. On tour as Euroband we also sing La det Swinge, Ooh Ah Just A Little Bit, Take Me To Your Heaven and also the Icelandic entries such as Eitt Lag Einn and Ne Eda Ja and 'Nina' etc. Gretar Orvarsson who performed with Stjornin and also wrote Nei Eda Ja is a member of Euroband and in Belgrade with us, by the way'.
You have already released 3 solo albums?'
'My first CD in 2005 was called Regina Osk and contains cover versions along with new songs. The album was intended to introduce me as an artist. The second album 'I djupum dal' (In a deep valley) appeared in 2006 and presented new songs by Icelandic composers. My last album appeared in 2007 and is called 'Ef vaeri eg' (If I were). Everything on that album was composed and written by me and Karl Olgeir. The last two albums were entirely in Icelandic. I love singing in our beautiful language in fact, although English seems to suit the techno of 'This Is My Life' better'.
Fullkomin Lif / This Is My Life changed a lot during the preselection process. Why was that?
'Well, the preselection was long – maybe too long, I can't imagine it will be like that again! Every time there was a new elimination round we wanted to do our absolute best. We changed our costume, dance routine and the song itself to keep it all fresh and new. We thought that in the end we should present the song in English so that the audience knew what the song would song like in its final version. Oggi the composer has done a lot of dance music in Sweden, and Paul Oscar had a huge hit last year with dance songs that Oggi composed. It was a big decision in the end do do the dance version in English but we are very happy with the results and English fits the song very well'.
Have you heard any other songs in this year's contest?
'Yes and they are all very varied and different! I very much like the Swiss entry'.
Do you think that Iceland needs to rely on neighbourly voting, or do you think that any good song can win?
'I think anyone can win if they have a good song, or at least end up in the top ten. But I suppose in the end people do vote for their neighbours. Then the small countries often lose. But we will see'.
Thanks Regina and good luck in the contest!
