Wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the Finnish for 'Hello Finland' in gold letters, Edsilia Rombley and the rest of the Dutch delegation for the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 departed for Helsinki today amidst a flurry of media attention.

Team Edsilia, complete with backing singers, choreographers, stylists and writers, crowded aboard KLM flight KL1169 at Schiphol earlier today, clearly full of anticipation for the big event. "It's so exciting", said Edsilia, already a dab hand at the song contest after her participation nine years ago at the Birmingham Eurovision Song Contest.

Performance energy
The singer also admitted that time to get the entry perfect had been extremely limited, but that a lot of work has gone into the presentation of the song since the Dutch national selection, and her performance ethos will be an integral part of the act. "When you sing, you have the audience in front of you and you put your energy across. You get a lot back from the audience, too. When I listen back to the song, I can feel what I'm singing."

About her forty-one competitors, Edsilia admits that she has only general recollections about the styles of this year's songs rather than particular entries. But one track does stick in her mind – neighbouring Belgium's Love Power by the KMG's. "I really like that Motown vibe." The KMG's will fight it out with Edsilia for one of the top ten places at the semifinal on May 10th. Edsilia's first rehearsal takes place tomorrow.

You can view pictures from Edsilia's departure at this link on highlow.nl.