From Russia With Love - Part 3

Friday 8 May 2009

 

Good Afternoon from a very hot and sunny Moscow.

 

Friday already! - were is the time going?  Well, we're still going strong with the rehearsals here at the Olympiyski Arena.  Lovely Chiara from Malta is sretching her vocal chords on stage as we speak - and as we all know, it ain't over till the fat lady sings...

 

Now, the opening of Euroclub was a fabulous affair on Tuesday night.  How fab and groovy does it look in the attached pic?  They sell Irn Bru there - so me, Elaine and Andrew decided to have a wee Scottish picture.

 

Ani Lorak and Sergei Lazarev were singing, and the wine was flowing in very copious quantities.  After 3 or 4 glasses of red I was taken over and introduced to little Sacha Son from Lithuania who asked us to sit at this table along with th delegation (free cds all round!).  What a jolly little fellow.  I told him how fabulous and contemparary his song was (which was a blatant lie - I despise it!).

 

A few more (7) red wines later and I was dancing on a a podium with the aforementioned Chiara - telling her that she is completely fabulous and that she is a National Treasure of Eurovision and that there should be a statue of her somewhere, or something (I think she liked that - well it got me a big cuddle and a kiss!).

 

A few more red wines later Uncle Robin decided it was time for us to leave - spoilsport!

 

I did manage to take a rather nice piccie of St Basil's Cathedral in Red Square on the way home though, so at least I still had some capacities.

 

 

The following day we saw fantastic rehearsals from Azerbaijan (I think this is a SERIOUS contender to win - if it's not going to be Norway).  Nice pic I took of Aysel & Arash attached.

 

The best press conference so far was not surprisingly The Toppers from The Netherlands.  These boys are a riot, with their ostentatious stage clothes and fantastic sense of humour.  The dutch press kit actually sings the song to you when you open it up.  Gordon said, "take it home and give it to someone you hate!".  Jeroen Van Der Boom (on the left in the picture) wins this year's "Person Whom David Is Most Likely To Stalk For 10 days" award - yum! :-)

 

Svetlana Loboda from Ukraine - the Anti-Crisis Girl - is in serious danger of disappearing up her own backside - suck is her gusto for self-promotion.  She's been cristened Slutty Svettie by one of our colleagues...

 

Having said that, her backing dancers are a big hit with the "clientele" in the hall.

 

Finally for this report then, on the way to Euroclub the other night we passed what I can only assume is the Russian equivalent of the Tiller Girls...

 

Dos Vi Dan'ye