The girl trio Feminnem from Bosnia & Herzegovina rehearsed late last night, with their song Call me, and held their one and only press conference. They are accompanied on stage by three female backing singers, who use the presenters stage on the right hand side, for most of the song, before it descends, and they join Feminnem for a rousing finale. Last night the girls were dressed in silver halter neck tops, and jeans. The song received a huge applause in the hall from those fans who were still present.
Press Conference
It is something of a tradition that Bosnia & Herzegovina only hold one press conference during the rehearsal period. This year the decision was also as a result of circumstances, due to their late rehearsal on Monday 16th, and having to attend the official reception at the Mariinsky Palace.
The lights darkened in the room, before the trio of Ivana, Neda and Pamela entered, carrying a birthday cake, with fifty candles on it, singing the traditional Happy birthday song to celebrate the anniversary of Dear Eurosong (which fitted in better to the tune!). Their present to the fans was a copy of the CD & DVD of their song, plus a traditional bookmark, which for once was calmly distributed, without the embarrassing scenes witnessed at earlier conferences.
The session opened with some words from the head of delegation, who remarked that Bosnia & Herzegovina will be performing as 21st in the running order on May 21st, but hoping that the result will be a first position. She emphasised how important the contest was in their country, and that they had been broadcasting the show since 1964, and that it shows that people can share common values. Sarajevo had hosted the Winter Olympics in 1984, so maybe next year they could host the Eurovision Song Contest?
It had been a tough time when the country had first participated in its own right, in Millstreet in 1993, but they are happy that period is now behind them, now they are optimistic. She is hoping that all Europe will be convinced by their song Call me sung by the three blondes, and the three brunettes who will be on stage.
The three blondes, have their own nicknames, much in the same way as the Spice Girls or even this year's Norwegian artists Wig Wam, Ivana is Sexy Feminnem, Neda is Baby Feminnem, while Pamela is Fancy Feminnem, and they each introduced themselves, and talked about when they were born, their families, and their love of music, and how they knew each other.
The composer Andrej Babic is a self confessed fan of the contest, although he pointed out he is not Bosnian himself, but is proud to represent Bosnia & Herzegovina, just as in the lyrics of the song “different flags, but nations gathered” and that it was “wonderful to be here”.
The girls had been on a hectic promotional tour with their song, but there were some countries they did not manage to visit, so as a treat to people from Turkey, Spain, Germany and Denmark, they sung versions of Call me in these languages, for the delegates assembled. The Danish version was the hardest for them to learn, and they were hoping there were not too many Danes present, as the Scandinavian party was taking place at the same time as the press conference.
One journalist asked about the line “Hallo Copenhagen?, and why is was missing from the live performance? This was down to the time limit of three minutes, under the EBU rules for the contest, so couldn't be included. The girls said the idea had come from a sketch show they had seen, and that line had made them laugh, so it was included in the video. Andrej then played the words from his mobile phone, which he had stored on it.
Prior to the conference, the new video of the song had been played, which has several Eurovision ingredients included, plus elements of record covers, that will remind you of a certain Swedish band that won the contest in the seventies! Had they needed any permission to include these?
As these covers are not identical, and have been redesigned, they are “not copies” of the originals. they were the idea of the video director, who had also worked with Mia Martina, and did their 1994 video.
The group sung some Eurovision songs for the audience, starting with possibly their favourite, Waterloo plus Take me to your heaven and finally Hi, all of which received a rapturous applause from the fans.
The head of delegation brought the conference to an end, thanking everyone for attending, and reminding them to look out for their spokesperson on Saturday night Ana Mirjana Racanovic, who is possibly the most beautiful woman in Bosnia & Herzegovina, having won their national beauty contest in 2001.
Then the beautiful girls from Feminnem posed for photographs. They will next return to the stage on Friday 20th May from 15.00 local time for the first dress rehearsal. By that time we will know which songs will follow them in the running order in the final.
