Over the past week since the Eurovision finals in Iceland, we've witnessed quite a stir in the media about "who wrote the 2009 Icelandic entry?" ("Is It True")
The overall confusion started when the RUV channel that was broadcasting the national finals, initially included only the Icelandic co-writer's name (Oskar Pall Sveinsson) in the TV show credits. But in the follow-up broadcasts, the show's hosts repeatedly announced the three writers individually.
At first it all seemed too trivial, and quite frankly, nobody was too bothered since we were all too busy speculating about the outcome of the competition.
On February 14th, "Is It True" finally won in the national selection process (44%!) and we're officially taking the song to Moscow in mid-May!
What we weren't expecting, however, was the interest that the co-writer situation has sparked among Eurovision fans and the European media.
There was one particular article that caught my eye... have a look.
A few other press articles followed, including German, Russian and Belarusian media outlets.
A lot of these sources are accurate, with a couple of interesting suggestions ("Tinatin is an American singer with Georgian roots and an impressive track record as a songwriter in Iceland"....REALLY??? I didn't know that!!!)
One of the Eurovision Forums in Russian was a real joy to follow - so entertaining! Ranging from Icelandic-entry lovers to those who simply "don't get it", the members of the forum have also tracked down the original demo and they were enthusiastically comparing the two versions and trying to figure out if I wrote the song or just appeared on the demo as a session singer, or maybe at the last minute I had decided to perform the song myself at ESC 2009? VERY COMPLICATED!!!
But I assure you, it's all very simple: "Is It True" was written by Oskar Pall Sveinsson, Christopher Neil and yours truly; the song will be performed in Moscow (just like during the pre-selection in Reykjavik) by the wonderful Johanna; it will not be translated into Icelandic, as some have suggested and/or predicted - and finally, the semifinals (day 1) will be held at Moscow's Olympiyskiy Stadium on May 12th followed by the finals on May 16th, so do make sure you cast your votes during the semifinals accordingly :-)
And one more thing: this exclusive interview was featured in the weekend issue of Novoye Russkoye Slovo, the leading Russian newspaper in America, also published in Russia, Ukraine, Israel and the worldwide web!
P.S. Here are the preliminary charts on the Eurovision website -- the poll results will be updated every Monday based on the fans and potential televoters preferences, so feel free to vote for your favorite (or your least favorite) song by following the link
P.S.s. A little something to make you all... smile :-) a big fan of the song, apparently!
No comments:
Post a Comment