Still managed to warm up “Brainstorm” in Palanga
In recent weeks, our Eurovision representatives, the band “Sudden Lights”, seem to have added a few more hours to their day – interviews and meetings, performances and photo shoots, filming for the erudition game “VIP” and the so-called “meet & greet” event with fans in “Acropolis”. etc., etc. In addition to all that, “Sudden Lights” quietly snuck off to Palanga this week, where they warmed up the group “Prāta vētra”. We kept silent, because the concert of the “brainiacs” at the neighbors’ on April 28 was not particularly advertised – probably our group was afraid that the fans might choose Palanga and refrain from attending the planned concert in Liepāja on July 22. “It will be our first concert in Lithuania – a great honor and a great event for us,” the musicians of “Sudden Lights” rejoiced before the upcoming trip.
“We have so much work now than ever before and – so much love too! Besides, not only in Latvia,” the group’s vocalist Andrejs Reinis Zitmanis was happy at the aforementioned meeting with fans. “We managed to visit several countries – we were in Moldova, twice in Spain, the Netherlands, Israel and Poland. We met many, many people, including many Eurovision fans, and we were surprised by the warm welcome. From the outside, it’s even hard to imagine how huge an event Eurovision is!”
Eurovision fans in Argentina remember the “Song of Happiness”
In Europe, this contest really has a huge number of fans – it will be really hard for our “haters” to imagine it. “I was most surprised by the great zeal of Eurovision fans, how much they are informed about various things related to the contest and how thoroughly they follow all the events surrounding it. They even remember our previous “Supernova” song (“Just Fine”, with which the group came second in 2018 – aut.), even though it was so long ago – five years ago! They have researched all available information about us, read the Wikipedia article, etc. Some have even learned Latvian and can say “thank you!”, “hello!” and “thank you for giving us your time!”. At these events, we had the opportunity to perform our song, which has three Latvian words at the end, and it was so touching to hear when a full arena in Amsterdam sang along with these three Latvian words! It really warmed our hearts.”
The band’s bass guitarist Kārlis Vārtiņš remembered a gentleman from Argentina who came to the musicians and said that his favorite song from previous Eurovisions was “Dziesma par laimi” performed by the duo “Fomins & Kleins” (it was in 2004). “He sang it in the original Latvian language, and I would say that he knew the words of this song very well. Even better than us! It’s so amazing – in Argentina and from all countries, it is the “Song of Happiness” that is remembered!”
The stage in Liverpool was opened by King Charles III
Although “Sudden Lights” arrives in Liverpool already this Saturday, the decisive events are expected in a week “with a tail”. The group will perform in the first semi-final of Eurovision on May 9, where Norway, Malta, Serbia, Portugal, Ireland, Croatia, Switzerland, Israel, Moldova, Sweden, Azerbaijan, Czech Republic, Netherlands and Finland will also participate. The second semi-final of Eurovision will be held on May 11, and the final on May 13. “It looks like the schedule in Liverpool will be even less stressful than it has been so far,” thought Andrejs. Rehearsals will take place every other day, but on the other days it is planned to set aside time for a visit to Liverpool. “But the work doesn’t stop – we have to continue the activities on social networks, we also have to finish the future song, and on May 1, a meeting organized by the Latvian Embassy is planned to celebrate Latvian holidays.”
This week, the Eurovision stage was ceremonially opened in Liverpool, moreover, it was done by the King of Great Britain, Charles III himself – this just proves once again how seriously this event is taken. “So far we have only seen the scene remotely, but in a very interesting way. Before Eurovision, rehearsals were held where professional dancers performed our moves, our choreography, and then this material was sent to us so that we could see how the lights, the stage layout and other technical details would look, and we could evaluate how our choreography. I must admit that it was quite funny to see four British guys, expressive dancers – models, performing our movements. By the way, one was chosen even visually similar to our drummer!”
The bookmakers have given us the role of trail runners
Sudden Lights goes into the competition with good intentions. Also about your competitors. “For the time being [Eirovīzijas dalībnieku koncertos] there is only friendship among all, the atmosphere of the competition has not yet been felt. There is no rivalry, no envy – everything happened suspiciously nicely. Of course, we don’t know what’s in store in Liverpool, but we spoke to the ‘Other Boys’ and they said that they’ve all been very friendly and positive about each other at promos like this before, but when these two weeks started [līdz konkursam], then you can forget about friendship – the spirit of rivalry starts. But we will continue to be friendly. After all, music is not a sport. The competition is very cool, the competition is cool, the gambling is cool, but the music is above all.”
True, the all-knowing bookmakers do not promise us an easy day in this competition – Latvia is mentioned in the group of “outsiders”. “There is, of course, a bit of a gloomy feeling that we have been evaluated as one of the last ones, but it can be understood – historically, we have not fared very well in this competition. The saddest thing is that there are also people in Latvia who do not believe in us, although this is also quite logical, because there will always be such people,” Kārlis sighs. “But, as Andrej already said, we are going to the maximum, our activities and performance from it [bukmeikeru domām] does not change. Despite the forecast, we are moving forward with unabated power.”
Hoping for European hipsters
As for the results, then you can fantasize about two scenarios: 1) already after the semi-finals, our “tails down” drive home, but the spectators follow them in a friendly manner, agreeing under the banner “they should have sent Patricia”; 2) after the victory, the group is carried on their arms, but the government is nervously biting its nails, trying to figure out where to pull the “pitch” for holding Eurovision ‘2024. Obviously, the first scenario sounds much more plausible, but Sudden Lights just smiles at it.
“It seems to me that the performances that did not make it to the Eurovision finals have been evaluated very differently even at home so far,” says Andrejs cautiously. “But the Other Boys seem to have managed to pull it all off last year with a pretty good aftertaste [un negāciju nebija]. I think that our performance will be much more important than the result. I have to quote again [grupas “Citi zēni” līderi] Jānis Pētersonu, who said that Eurovision is actually a long-term project for Latvia – we need to constantly send the best and highest quality music there possible, and at some point we will finally start to be taken seriously in Europe. Of course, we are realistic – winning is a utopian scenario, however, a competition is a competition, and we do not want to rule out such a possibility, but it is clear that the fight will be difficult, and most likely it will be a fight for a place in the finals. But after that – we’ll see!”
“Sudden Lights” also thinks that the song “Aija” is uncharacteristic for Eurovision and therefore could “catch” some additional votes from indie rock fans as well, since the dominant genre in this contest is pop music. “We really hope that all European hipsters will turn on their TVs at 10:00 PM on May 9th to watch our performance and vote!” jokingly summarizes drummer Mārtiņš Matīss Zemītis.
We no longer dream about Wembley Stadium, but about Lithuania and Estonia
The group perceives Eurovision as a springboard for further heights. “I won’t lie when I say that at the beginning of the group, our ambitions were very high: as young guys, we thought that Wembley Stadium was completely real, but at some point you grow up and realize that not everything in this world is possible,” admits Andrejs. “We have always moved forward in small steps, and we would like to hope that this Eurovision is also one such step, which will give us the opportunity to perform at least here in Lithuania and Estonia, and who knows, maybe a little further. A concert in Germany has been arranged for September, but at the same time we have not forgotten about the concerts in Latvia. That is the most important thing. These trips abroad give us an opportunity to appreciate what we have already achieved here. Until now, everything happened in Latvian – songs in Latvian, concerts in Latvian, etc., but now we have taken a step outside the comfort zone – we have to speak English. And this is a very natural step in the group’s growth.”
And also: “Despite the fact that we are from such a small country, we have felt a lot of love for our song outside of Latvia, and it was surprising. I don’t know how other Latvian musicians fared in other years, but this is something unusual. We already have people to work with abroad, but we are from Latvia and primarily want to stay here, perform here, write new music here and do it in Latvian.”
2023-04-29 02:15:11
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