Blue Café was top of the bill last night on the Grand Place in Brussels where a concert to celebrate the expansion of the European Union took place. Esctoday.com was there as well and had an exclusive interview with the polish representatives at this year's Eurovision Song Contest.
For the occasion of the expansion of the European Union the Grand Place, Brussels, was the scene for an all-day concert by artists from the 10 new member states. Top of the bill was this year's polish Eurovision Song Contest representative Blue Café.
For more than an hour, Blue Café gave a top-class performance, introducing the thousands of people gathered at the Grand Place to their repertoire. Tatiana Okupnik, the singer and linguistic wonder, performed songs in Polish, French, English and Spanish, coming from the two Blue Café albums Fanaberia and Demi-sec, as well as some yet unrecorded stuff.
Blue Café's Eurowizja 2003 song You may be in love set the Grand Place on fire but the moment everybody had been waiting for was the presentation of their Eurovision Song Contest song Love song.
Before the concert esctoday.com had an exclusive interview with Blue Café:
Blue Café is here in Brussels to represent Poland, one of the 10 new member states of the European Union. In two weeks you'll represent Poland at the Eurovision Song Contest. Are you feeling like ambassadors of Poland?
Yes, kind of. Yesterday we still performed in Poland. We arrived this morning in Brussels (Belgium) and tomorrow we perform in Lille (France). We are proud to be here and to represent Poland. It's a surplus value to our career.
This year was the second time you particpated at the polish national final. Had it become a target to represent Poland at the Eurovision Song Contest?
Participating in 2003 with the song 'You may be in love' was the beginning of a serious career for Blue Café. Our debut album 'Fanaberia' went platinum and our second album 'Demi-sec' went gold the first day of release: a great result for a new band!
After our participation at Eurowizja 2003 we were a bit upset cause we believed our song 'You may be in love' was very strong. This year we tried it again with 'Love song'. We actually believed even more in the chances of this song which was written with the Eurovision Song Contest in mind. That's why 'Love song' actually doesn't completely reflect the real Blue Café style.
Why did you record a new version of Love song for the Eurovision Song Contest?
Just to improve it. At the Eurovision Song Contest you have only three minutes to do your performance and to make people vote for you. Many of them hear the song for the first time so that's why we made it a bit more 'bouncy' and attractive.
What is the performance going to be like in Istanbul?
Compared to the polish national final, not a lot will change. The video of our live performance at the national final in Poland was sent to turkish broadcaster TRT and they will try to create a similar atmosphere on stage in Istanbul. About what clothes we will wear, I really don't have any idea yet.
What's on Blue Café's programme for the next couple of days?
Tomorrow (2 May) we perform in Lille (France), then we are doing some TV and Radio shows and we finally leave for Istanbul on 7th May.
Have you heard any of your competitors' songs yet?
No, we haven't. We have been quite busy the last couple of weeks. But we'll surely check them soon on esctoday.com.
What do you expect of your participation at the Eurovision Song Contest?
We are already very happy that we can be there. Everything extra will make us even more happy. This is a great opportunity for us to present Blue Café to Europe. We can now do it in three minutes instead of spending some months on promo tours throughout Europe.
Esctoday.com kindly thanks Blue Café for the cooperation. Special thanks to Piotr Grąbkowski, Tatiana Okupnik and Kamila Sowińska!
