trlzlzllzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Why are you interested in the Baltic music scene and their national selections for the Eurovision Song Contest?
Billy Butt: I was the first producer from the west who, back in 1985, was invited to Moscow and the former Soviet Union to produce an album with Russian artists. I have travelled a lot in the Baltic states and I have a special love for Lithuania and the Lithuanian people. In 2003 I met representatives of a Lithuanian record company and we produced the song In your eyes that was sung by Amberlife and competed in last year's Lithuanian Eurovision Song Contest selections.
What about this year�s contribution to Lithuanian selection?
The song �Little by little� was originally intended for Amberlife as well. But after last years scandal�s around the voting system in Lithuania. The Lithuanian record company didn�t want her to participate this year again. So we found Laura Cepukaite and I invented the group name �Laura and the lovers�. We recorded the song in Stockholm in November last year. We believe that Laura is a great singer and she has the possibility to make a great success. If she wins the Eurovision Song Contest she will have all of Europe by her feet�s.
Is this a song you have submitted before to Swedish Melodifestivalen?
Bobby:No, the song was written the day after the last day of application in Sweden this year. This is a newly written song and it has not been submitted to a competition before.
Do you do this because you find that the competition is too hard in Sweden?
The concurrence is hard everywhere in the musicbusiness nowadays. As you know, I managed to get four of my songs into Melodifestivalen this year. I don�t have a need to participate in Lithuania because of the concurrence in Sweden.
What happens if you will represent more countries this year in ESC then?
We don�t think in that way. We are musicians and producers. We think first of all on our music. And not what will happen with it afterwards. If we win for an other country than Sweden, we see it as something positive for Sweden as well, since we are Swedes!
What do you think about the Lithuanian music scene?
Billy:The music industry in Lithuania is very interesting and exciting. It's a small country but with a lot of talents. As for example: Amberlife, Kuchinskas, Bavarija, Geltona, Mango, and others. The problem is that it�s a lack of knowledge about how to launch those great artists abroad. Lithuanian music definitely has a great potential. But they must learn from the mistakes as for example, the quite boring entries that Lithuania previously has sent to Eurovision. We don�t have any greater ambitions about staring a major investment in Lithuania, but we would find it great if we could find an artist that we could launch on a major scale in the rest of Europe as well.
Ok, so do you have any more songs submitted around Europe, this year?
Billy: I�m producer for the song �In the heat of the night� that the Latvian artist Ksenija Jakunina will sing in the Latvian semifinal in Riga on the 5th of February. It�s also composed by Swedes; Tommy Kaså, Kenneth Wennman and the Latvian writer Ugiz Tirgitz. Once again, it�s my love for the Baltic�s that have brought me here. I�m travelling to Riga today (17th of January) to prepare everything for this event.
Whats your�s favourite ESC-entry ever?
Bobby: It�s Waterloo with Abba of course!
Billy:I like the Irish entry from 1971 �All kinds of everything� sung by Dana
What do you think about esctoday.com?
We love it, It� so great with all this information about the Eurovision!
