BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

30/06/2007

Polina Smolova vs Mihai Traistariu

They both competed in Athens, at the 51st Eurovision Song Contest. Now both singers, Polina Smolova and Mihai Traistariu meet again at the New Wave 2007, an international contest of new singers which takes place in Yurmala, Latvia in late July. This is the 6th edition of the contest, which is considered to be the ''Eurovision'' of the ex-Soviet countries, as it's broadcasted to 10 countries and attracts 20 millions viewers.

Polina Smolova represented Belarus, singing Mum, but she didn't manage to qualify to the final, ending 22nd with 10 points. Mihai Traistariu had better luck as he had to compete to the final, thanks to Luminita Anghel & Sistem who achieved the 3rd place in 2005 with the song Let me try. Mihai ended 4th with the song Tornero. Both singers meet again this year at the international contest of new singers, New Wave 2007, held in Jurmala, Latvia from 25th to 30th July. Natalia Gordienko participates ( Moldova 2006) at the contest as well, competing for her country. In 2006 she competed at the Eurovision Song Contest in duet with Arsenium, singing Loca, which ended 20th out of 24.

In previous years other eurostars took part as well. Maria Naumova (winner of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2002) came third at the contest in 2002, Dima Bilan (Russia 2006) ended 5th in 2003, Tina Carol (Ukraine 2006) ended 2nd in 2005 and many others, such us Sopho Kalvashi, this year's Georgian representative at the Eurovision Song Contest in Helsinki, who won the 3rd prize in New Wave 2006.

General Director of "ARS" holding company, General Director of the "New Wave" contest Alexander Rumyantsev said: "Eight thousand musical performances from 37 countries have been auditioned. That's significant for us. These are good figures for the six-year old contest. I admit the fact that it was difficult to single out anyone from the participants. They are becoming better and better every year. It was really difficult to make a choice. We think that we have selected the most worthy singers, capable of making the contest interesting, attracting attention of the audience and making a big event out of it. This is valuable! We did not want to exclude some of them, so a decision to let 18 persons get through to the final was made. Performing time was thus cut to 3 minutes. We gave them a chance and I hope we will not regret it! Formerly the "New Wave" could be watched in other countries by means of satellite communication. This year the contest will be broadcasted in Europe owing to the contestants who come from European countries. Many countries are going to watch their contestants, make TV programs, and broadcast live from Jurmala. I wish all the contestants to perform in the "Dzintari" concert hall successfully. Be sure of yourselves and let good luck help you to win!"

Finalists of the contest are:

Belarus - Polina Smolova

Germany - Francisca Urio

Greece -Martakis Kostas

Georgia - Eleonora Gogolashvili

Italy - Alessandro

Kazakhstan - band "Rin Go"

Latvia -Erglis

Moldova - Natalia Gordienko

Poland - Marina

Russia - Nastya Kochetkova; Natasha Vinokur; Masha Novikova

Romania - Mihai Traistariu

USA - Chioma

Ukraine - Vasiliy Lazarovitch, duet "Barcelona" (Vladimir Tkachenko and Galina Gavrilko)

Czech Republic - Kate, Issa Samer

Source:

http://www.esctoday.com/news/read/8906