Sveiki, Latvia! And hello, Europe! The Eurovision Pre-Party Riga 2017 takes place on Saturday evening at 20:00 local time, officially marking the start of the Eurovision pre-party season. Five of this year’s competing acts — Naviband from Belarus, Martina Barta from Czech Republic, Triana Park from Latvia, JOWST from Norway and Kasia Mos from Poland — will do their best to make a solid first impression. They’ll share the stage with Eurovision 2016 star Justs and Eurovision 2004 winner Ruslana. It snowed this morning, but the heat is most definitely on…
Earlier this morning journalists — including wiwibloggers William and Edd — joined Martina and JOWST for a sightseeing tour of the city.
When we saw JOWST in front of the National Opera we just had to grab the moment and say hey hei haaaay.
The hands-on performers were full of good cheer, despite rocking mostly black outfits. Black is the new black, y’all!
We also had the good luck of rubbing shoulders with “My Turn” singer Martina Barta, whose bold red lip drew us over like a moth to a flame.
The girl is understated but she still sizzles as you can see in this photo. And yes: Unlike in her Eurovision 2017 video, she was fully clothed.
After a very soggy morning it was time for the press conference, where we had our first chance to see a large group of Eurovision 2017 singers together on the same stage.
The guys from Belarus and Norway were clearly very excited, and they took a moment to snap the audience of bloggers, journalists and cameramen before them. Awww.
If you’ve got 26 spare minutes, you can watch the entire press conference below. They acts all say what Eurovision means to them, sound off on which pre-parties they are most looking forward too and let us know what other songs they’ll be singing tonight. JOWST make it clear they’ll be singing just one song. After all, they’ve only known each other for two months…
Unfortunately Kasia Mos was having issues with her flight in Krakow and the severe delay meant that she hadn’t yet landed in Riga. But we look forward to hearing her slay this evening.
Ruslana is a big deal. So it’s only natural that organisers decided to give her her very own press conference.
She encouraged visitors not to read into negative headlines about Ukraine and expressed her wish for people to see the beautiful Ukraine that she knows.
Early on during her press conference, a journalist asked for her thoughts about Ukraine’s ban on Russia’s Yulia Samoylova. She said that Ukraine was “absolutely right” to ban the singer because “it’s about Ukrainian law.”
We pulled out that segment of her press conference above. But she had lots of other things to say, so be sure to check out the full Ruslana press conference video.
“I think all Ukrainians are waiting for this moment,” she said.
“It’s very important for us to feel that Europe is with us. We are Europe and Europe is with us. It’s for us an event that is more than a music celebration. It means we stay together.”
She’s confident the show will come off without a hitch.
“At the same time I am happy about the team who try to organise Eurovision to the best…I am happy about the team of EBU and I have a lot of meetings with the production group, and I know that a lot of Ukrainian young musicians want to show the new music from Ukraine.”
You can watch all of our interviews from Riga in the playlist below.
@Team Ruslana
Thousands of Ukrainians living in the European Union countries illegally, it is a violation of EU law. Ukrainians, start with yourself, illegal immigrants, return to Ukraine.
thank you William
🙂
ukraine should make up more bull excuses and ban other pre-contest favourites like italy, belgium and bulgaria and who knows? they might host contest next year, just saying.
Of course Ruslana was right, think about it, if somebody says about your country that doesn’t have the borders that should have, what would you think?
Think : Spain, Belgium, Poland, UK, Israel … so on … what would you think if somebody starts talking about your country’s borders, that are not the right ones.
Ukraine has a reasonable law.
””””In diplomacy, a persona non grata (Latin: “person not appreciated”, plural: personae non gratae) is a foreign person whose entering or remaining in a particular country is prohibited by that country’s government.””””’
All countries have their ”persona non grata”. All.
I wish I was there!
TODO UN EXITO ESTOS EVENTOS POR DIOS QUE VARATA PRODUCCION, CUAL PORMOCION LOS SONIDOS TE PENA AJENA Y NO LES SIRVE DE NADA HE DICHO
*entire team Wiwi’s boyfriend
@Purple Mask
A tiny brain cell of my already small brain died(?burned) with that joke!!
@babyboy
Edd has been Willie’s and team wiwi’s boyfriend for a long time now!!
After a Maidan Ukraine already another.
@Oxana
In Ukraine the law and the rights are in the side of the strong, money and weapons.
Kasia Mos did just make it in time for the concert, and WOW can she sing!
Check out the Wiwibloggs YouTube channel for some performances. 🙂
Ern “…LGBT laws, take a look at the Ukrainian laws!!” indeed, thake a look and praise Ukraine for having strict laws against discrimination of minorities at work and for constitution which states that all people are equal in their rights. sorry we have no more laws about the subject. hey Ern, what’s up? some nasty Ukrainians slapped your lesbian’ butt in rude manner this time? 🙂 or it’s your last weak attempt to show how evil is Ukraine and how Russia is better. wiwi, there’s no secret that you’re a part of LGBT community. why don’t you share your own… Read more »
@mocosuburbian Kraków is faar .. it’s about 1100 km from Riga , so it’s better to take a plane than drive a car.
@mocosuburbian
In Europe people usually prefer taking planes over driving or trains long distances, mainly bc its relatively cheap to fly
maybe i’m a stupid american but isn’t krakow not that far from riga
i imagine it’s like the same distance as DC to Milwaukee like do you really need a plane kasia hmmmm
also despite only four eurovision 2017 artists showing up this seems like a great preparty
I’ll be honest I think I have a crush on Edd.
Hope you guys have a great time tonight!
@Tom: Let’s imagine that we have all listened to you, and acted accordingly. A large proportion of Wiwibloggs correspondents would not go to Ukraine. A reasonable proportion of ESC fans wouldn’t show up. Behind-the-scenes technical staff, dancers, musicians choreographers… some would be missing. It may (or may not) affect the technical experience of the contest. Is this what you want to happen? At the end of the day, our sexual lives are private and hopefully NOT the reason we travel to other countries and support the contest. We all do it because we love music. So let politics be politics;… Read more »
William is that your new boyfriend? he is cute:-p
I like Naviband, they’re so cute and positive :)! Good luck!
@Ern
If I were gay, then I would be afraid to go to Ukraine, because there with impunity rages radicals.
Question for Ruslan
Why Ukrainian laws are not for Ukrainian government people, officers of the The Security Service of Ukraine, Knesset deputies. Why they are free to enter the Crimea from the Russian side and not be punished for it.
Martina’s song is one of the weakest in this year’s edition. Such a big waste of money, energy and time going to promotional tours…. She’ll be on the last place in her semifinal. Sorry, but I don’t like and and it doesn’t stand out at all 🙂 Last year Czech Republic had a masterpiece, even in 2015 their song was great! This year is just a disappointment…………
Good luck in Eurovision for neighbors Latvians and Belarusians, I like their songs.
The Flashlight burned Kasia’s eyes. (sorry!…) 😀
Why didn’t Kasia turn her flashlight on in the fog!! D’oh!!
Awesome interviews, thank you! <3
Amazing interviews! You get to know the artists better!
NAVIBAND are so happy and cheerful! They are really having the time of their lives! I enjoyed their interview!
Despite disagreeing with Ruslana, I think she did the right thing by supporting her country at this press conference. I think it shows very low class to publicly speak-out against your country at such an event.
By the way, to anyone who dislikes Russia because of its supposed anti-LGBT laws, take a look at the Ukrainian laws!! I think all those people who boo Russia will be very disappointed.
I sure hope Martina makes the final.
NAVIBAND are amazing! 😀 <3 they need to make it to the final <3
I hate the feeling when the singer i admired in 2004 becomes the singer i hate.
I think you don’t know this yet; tonight will air a show on german television (Germany, Austria and Switzerland I think), hostet by Florian Silbereisen (jury member from the german national final) and there will be a little”pre-eurovision” with Nathan and Levina performing their respective esc entries. And I think there will also be a public voting betwen these two 🙂
Riga
YAASS!! Y’all have a good time!!
Was it fog in Krakow that delayed Kasia’s flight? I hope she makes it for the concert. Enjoy! x