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A Eurovision Artist In April: Promos, Production and Public Performances Written by on April 18, 2015

All the songs in the Eurovision Song Contest were needed to be submitted in their final form in mid-March. The artists then have to perform in mid-May in the live TV shows, a gap that has remained fairly concrete over the last few years. The month of April though is not dead space, with plenty of work to do to prepare for Eurovision and beyond. Most notable are the promotional events of Riga, Amsterdam, London and Moscow, but there is much more work and opportunities to take up beyond that.

Reporting from Riga, Ben Robertson looks into the pressures of being a Eurovision artist in April and considers what artists will be doing before setting foot on Austrian soil.

“We’re having a big promo tour,” says Eduard representing Moldova this year. “We started in Georgia, then Riga, Tallinn, Amsterdam, London. It’s all travelling, preparation, rehearsals. Of course everything will be different, we have made lots of changes and I think it will be a big surprise.”

With Eduard Romanyuta representing Moldova in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 (Photo: Alison Wren)

With Eduard Romanyuta representing Moldova in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 (Photo: Alison Wren)

Eduard’s three minutes on stage is well over a month away and his competitive battle to represent Moldova has been successful accomplished. Now though is high time for our Eurovision Song Contest artists to kick through the gears towards Vienna. This apparent lull before everybody converges on the Stadthalle is not the reality for these acts, many of which have never experienced an exposure and pressure quite like it.

Each part of this journey can be vital preparation. The different countries to visit for promotion, the interviews with the plethora of journalists from countries you’ve never travelled to, the hours and hours spent rehearsing each minute detail, all have their purpose and all fill up every spare moment.

Arriving Prepared For The Eurovision Stage

It’s rare to feel full at home on the Eurovision stage. Before acts perform in front of juries for the first time each gets to rehearse inside the Eurovision arena for blocked out time, this year fifty minutes. It’s enough chance to go through each song usually between six and eight times. In one sense that may seem plenty, but the artist often is left as a puppet pulled on strings by their controllers.

The artist isn’t privy while on stage to the camera work going on around them. It’s their delegation head, choreographers watching from off-stage working out most of the time what works and what doesn’t, passing on instructions to change this dance step or this spotlight position which the artist must now follow.

It’s a stressful time to get the most out of those few moments while keeping an eye on the clock. At a National Final level schedules are equally tight, but the more relaxed atmosphere gives artists the opportunities to feel and try out the stage much more before the competition itself begins. At Eurovision you have a press room watching every run-through with fingers ready to report on every uncertainty or lack of confidence. There is nowhere to hide, and no time to do that anyway.

One of the best things to come out of the Malmö competition was the usage of local students to act as stand-ins for the real artists before the show. It allowed the production company to run through the show using the original instructions from the Head of Delegations meeting, and then the acts can tweak and tinker with possible staging issues that arise before they set foot in the arena. It’s a good move and vital to helping our artists flourish. A significant number of Eurovision artists are not yet stars, winning selections on tiny four-camera productions or as internally selected teenagers not used to anything larger than a TV studio. Watching, learning, analysing and altering what they have seen already on stage is essential to make sure all Eurovision entrants can not just find cameras they can sing well and show their artistic flair.

Running Around The Continent Of Dreams

While at the Press Conference in Riga I did my best job at speaking to as many of the different artists as possible running around the backrooms of the Tallink Hotel. We started all of our conversations by going through what they are all doing in the brief window of opportunity that April brings.

Many like Elnur from Azerbaijan are now taking every chance of exposure they can get, as he racks up the air miles jumping across from Budapest to Moscow and Amsterdam, as well as planning trips to three other countries that were last week yet to be confirmed.

Promotional events can be part of the key to success in the Eurovision Song Contest. By far last year there was no artist who worked harder throughout April than Conchita Wurst, attending every promotional event possible and catching flights across the continent from one night to the next. This was in many ways easier for the Austrian act, being internally selected the previous calendar year gave plenty of opportunity to co-ordinate this logistical minefield through Europe’s time zones. However it also had the benefit of getting the Conchita story out there well before the Song Contest itself. The image and the story was normalised before the big media latched on in May and it allowed ‘Rise Like A Phoenix’ to shine from the charismatic singer.

But a preview event is not necessarily going to help Eurovision artists in getting love and support from the voters through Eurovision week alone. It’s a great opportunity, but in reality it is rare for artists to get the chance to shine out beyond the event itself and the few thousand fans that will be keeping up to date with the Eurovision bubble before it graces our TV screens.

There are for most acts two main benefits to constant travelling and accepting the invitations for preview events. One is for your own personal experience, as we heard last year the simple fact of being invited to perform in London or Amsterdam is exciting for many acts from many of Europe’s smaller nations. It is unlikely to happen ever again for many of them post-Vienna. Furthermore there is the fact that Eurovision itself is a busy time with everybody wanting a piece of your time. Thrusting yourself in the middle of the media scrum at these preview events gives you a taste of the real thing, making it much easier to cope with.

Eurovision Is Not Just For May, It’s For Life

The difficulty for many of the artists is that Eurovision itself is being treated as an end goal, with the results table dictating their success. Caution needs to be taken with this approach because Eurovision gives so opportunities and platforms of unparalleled size that artists may never get access to again. I feel confident in saying all the acts I met in Riga wanted to progress in the music industry as a career and I was impressed by acts proactively bringing up work beyond the three minutes we all know and love.

Melanie from Switzerland is trying to squeeze in the time to get an EP released before she appears in the Semi Finals. Aminata from Latvia has managed to do this already, and has worked since the Latvian National Final process to get a new album ready for launch.

‘When I understood that I would go to Eurovision I understood that I should release my album as fast as I can, because I want to show my album to the people who will be there. I needed to work fast to finish it.”

In interview with Aminata from Latvia (Photo: Alison Wren)

In interview with Aminata from Latvia (Photo: Alison Wren)

Melanie would be wise to try and follow up with music to release by the time she is on stage in Vienna. The fans you capture that search your name and music come May need something more than one song to latch onto. You need them to build a connection that is lasting, they need to become a fan as Ewan has written for ESC Insight previously. One song is usually enough to tie them to voting for you, or to make them love Eurovision itself more, not you performing or creating that masterpiece. It’s well worth spending the time on making new tracks if the future career is the end goal.

Chaos, Confusion and Crazy Colours

There is, after all, nothing else quite like the Eurovision Song Contest. Few moments in an artists career are as competitive and are therefore as emotionally draining as what Eurovision can be. Burnout can be a common problem as there really can be just too much to do and limits that the body can’t handle. All the work now has to be targeted and has to be taken in moderation. Definitely go on the promotion tours, but treat them as a fun experience. Get the music ready to go, but make sure it keeps true to your artistic style. Prepare for the rehearsals with a fine-tooth comb, but don’t expect it all to be the same when you set foot on the multi-million valued set.

Meeting one half of Azerbaijan's winning Eurovision duet from 2011 (Photo: Alison Wren)

Meeting one half of Azerbaijan’s winning Eurovision duet from 2011 (Photo: Alison Wren)

“At the moment the acts have to be very busy, be very tired. But in Vienna they have to be relaxed, they need to be themselves. The Eurovision audience is very sincere, to be loved by a Eurovision audience you have to be open and relaxed.”

These are the words of Eldar Gasimov, who was in Riga as one of the special guests in Vienna when I asked what tips he had for the artists. He is correct in that being relaxed for the finals is key, you need to be in control to be able to perform your A-game. All the preparations before the competition are great fun and can make it all feel natural when it is your time to shine. April for a Eurovision artist should be about getting ready for what to expect and to make the most of that opportunity.

The team at ESC Insight say thank you to Eurovision Club OGAE Latvia for their co-ordination of the Eurovision PreParty Riga, and also thank Air Baltic and Live Riga for their help in making the event possible. 

About The Author: Ben Robertson

Ben Robertson has attended 23 National Finals in the world of Eurovision. With that experience behind him he writes for ESC Insight with his analysis and opinions about anything and everything Eurovision Song Contest that is worth telling.

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