As we already reported, Dutch broadcaster NOS organised an official press conference this morning to announce the Dutch participant for the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest in Belgrade. Given the fact that the Dutch television show RTL Boulevard already mentioned the name Hind 2 weeks ago, no big surprises were expected. esctoday.com attended the press conference.

The press conference was opened by Gerard Dielessen, head of the Dutch broadcaster NOS. He said he was very happy with the new system for 2008: "Edsilia's poor result made us plea for a change of the system. We weren't the only country who filed a complaint, so probably that made the EBU decide to review the system. However, I would have prefered to see the bigfour in the semi finals as well".

Dielessenalso revealedthat there will be a television programme to select the song, quite comparable to last year's selection. However, Paul de Leeuw won't be involved this year. Probably the programme will bebroadcasted in cooperation with Dutch broadcaster VARA again though.

Both semi finals will be broadcasted in The Netherlands. The semi final with Hind in it will be broadcasted live of course; the second semifinal will be broadcasted later, according to Dielessen. This means that both semi finals are likely to be live if the Netherlands is drawn to participate in the first show. If they are in the second semi final, it is likely that the first one will be shown on the Friday night.

Then Gerard Dielessen introduced the participant for Belgrade; Hind. She told the press that she was very happy that NOS asked her. "It's a big honour to represent my country. For me, the invitation came as a big surprise, although I was aware that I was mentioned in all sorts of Eurovision polls."

Hindis going to invitesongwriters to write a song for her. "Anything is possible, and I have no special preference for a particular genre. I might write a song myself as well, but I promise to give every song a fair chance. I really want to be inspired; of course I will give my own touch to it, Ineed to feel a song to bring it the way I want.Songwriters who are interested can send a song to the following email address: [email protected]

No doubt about the choice of language this year, because Hind was very clear about that from the very first moment. "The song will be in English", she said. "Even if a songwriter sends me a song in Dutch, I'll have it translated. I always sing in English, this just fits me best".

At the moment Hind is recording her third album. It will be a pop album. "I already recorded 10 songs, so I'm looking for 2 more songs. Of course I want my Eurovision entry on the album as well".

After that, it was time for some one to one interviews, and Hindwas willingto talk to esctoday.com as well. We will bring you the exclusive interview later today.

You can see another of Hind's videos below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lv3lTrHJht8