At a time when Latvia has recently chosen its representative for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, the participants of previous years – composer and legendary musician Arnis Mednis and Linda Dinsberga, more commonly known as Anmary – are lingering in their memories in the program “Pasaki to svligi”.
Both musicians are open – behind the scenes of the effective event, not everything went as smooth and bright as it might seem from the outside. Arnis Mednis can talk about his Eurovision adventures with a good dose of humor and self-irony:
“There is a saying “Curiosity killed the cat” – curiosity killed the cat. It’s about me and Eurovision. I realized pretty quickly that I got on the wrong tram, but the door is closed and you can’t get out!
As far as I remember, the biggest joke was about what those girls would wear. In Eurovision, there is such a rule that after the third attempt, the stage outfit cannot be changed. But Marina Whiteyuk, one of the backing vocalists, was ready to drown as she hated the dress. What to do? We figured we could stage an ‘accidental’ tear of the dress. Organizers can sew a dress on it. No, Marin is hysterical, she won’t go to Eurovision with some patched-up outfit. In the end, he achieved his goal.”
On the other hand, Annmary’s performance ultimately did not turn out as she had planned, and she is still a little sad about that:
“Even though I already had experience in music here in Riga, I was still very naive, I didn’t know much, I trusted others. When you go to Eurovision, there is a bunch of people around, where everyone pulls the decks in their own direction, everyone has their own opinion. I had the biggest problem with the background singers – at the last moment they allowed themselves to announce “either we’re in the foreground or we won’t sing at all”. As a result, there were a lot of us on stage. I would have preferred to be alone – after all, it was a song for me, written for me.”
However, despite all the ups and downs, mishaps and curiosities, both have positive memories of Eurovision and are grateful for the opportunity to participate in it. You will find out exactly what the competition gave to the further career and growth of musicians by watching this video!
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