They dress casually on stage. But Czech Republic’s Lake Malawi are well able to turn it out on carpets of any colour.
At Sunday’s Eurovision 2019 opening ceremony, our William asked the dapper trio what it’s like to be on a red carpet. Drummer Antonín Hrabal answers: “It’s great. We’ve been on the blue carpet in Madrid, but it wasn’t so big”.
Do the “Friend Of Friend” hitmakers dress so smartly in real-life? The group’s frontman Albert Černý jokes: “Of course! These suits are ours. We didn’t steal them last night”. It seems they only steal hearts.
However, guitarist Jeroným Šubrt is used to donning a slick suit. In fact, his day job necessitates it: “To be honest, I’m a lawyer so I have to”.
Which of the three takes the longest to get ready? The answer is unanimous — Albert!
To be fair, he has a valid excuse — he looks after his shoes. The vocalist shares his best tip for maintaining footwear.
“Yeah. ‘Cause I take good care of my shoes. I’ve got this really good aftershave cream that works wonder for the shoes as well”.
While shoes are important, it’s likely that the lads are more concerned about the upcoming first semi-final. Are they going to the final? “We hope so. Let’s see how it goes”.
Rehearsals point towards a positive outcome. Here’s what our Angus wrote in his review of their second run through.
Unfortunately we had no feed in the press centre for this rehearsal, however our bloggers on the ground in the arena were making positive noises. The main note is that the band needs to channel their effervescent stage presence into a killer vocal. We love the enthusiasm from the jumping, but not at the expense of hearing the studio quality vocal we know they can deliver. No doubt Lake Malawi will have things locked down by dress rehearsals.
In his press conference, Albert addressed the “enthusiasm” criticism and said Lake Malawi are approaching the jury and televised performances differently. The jury show focus will be on vocal perfection, with enthusiastic elements unleashed in the live semi-final. And that divide and conquer approach could pay dividends.
What do you think of Lake Malawi’s chances? And will you be trying out Albert’s shoe care tricks? Let us know in the comments.
The durmmer (on the left) is so hot
“The jury show focus will be on vocal perfection, with enthusiastic elements unleashed in the live semi-final.”
This strategy might backfire. Televoters care about the voice too, not just about seeing Albert jumping. A voice mistake and you will become a meme like Manel Navarro,
I agree with you 100%