ESC+Plus has talked to Attention 2, semifinalist twins of this year’s Finnish national selection for Eurovision, “UMK 2016”. The duet will perform “Ready For The Show” in the second semi-final to take place tomorrow.
ESC+Plus: Hello! First of all, thank you so much for your time and congratulations on having been selected to take part in the Finnish national selection for Eurovision 2016!
Can you tell us about you, your musical career and important achievements?
We’re twin girls from Finland. We are really energetic, happy, care-free and hopefully people also find us funny 😀 Our duet Attention 2 is a really new thing in Finland but we have a lot of experience from all kinds of musicals, movies etc. Our biggest achievement so far is definitely UMK like few years ago this was only a thing that we were able to dream about!
E+: What impelled you to take part in “UMK 2016”?
Eurovision Song Contest is a huge dream of ours and now that we are finally sixteen and old enough to apply, we did. 🙂
E+: How did you feel when you knew you had qualified for the semi-finals? Did you expect it?
We were (and still are) really excited and just ready to show what we got. It means the world to us that we are part of the UMK16 family.
E+: What it would mean for you to represent Finland?
It would be the greatest thing ever! We would work even harder to do well in the Eurovision and represent Finland proudly.
E+: Can you tell us about your song? What is the story behind the lyrics?
It’s an upbeat pop song. ‘Ready For The Show’ is about valuing your imperfections and just going after your dreams basically. It’s also about changing negative things to positive things and finding your own strengths. I think people might hear the lyrics as our story as well but we think the situations and just the overall topic is relatable for us all.
E+: Why do you think your song has to be selected for Stockholm? What are you strengths to reach the top in the competition?
I think we should go to Stockholm because this is our ultimate dream and believe it or not we’ve wanted to do this for so long. We are energetic, ready to work hard and confident enough to perform our song in front of millions of people. Our song is definitely capable as an Eurovision song and we would bring something new and special to Stockholm.
E+: How are you preparing your stage performance for “UMK 2016”?
We have been practicing the performance a lot. We’ve been on dancing and singing lessons. We are just trying to bring the best performance that we can do on this saturday!
E+: Do you usually watch Eurovision? What are your favorite songs in the history of the competition?
We love ESC and we watch it every year! It’s hard to pick a favourite one because there are so many but Ninas favourite is Lapponia by Monica Aspelund (1977 Finland) or Be My Guest by Gaitana (2012 Ukraine). Annis favourites probably are Dancing Lasha Tumbai by Verka Serduchka (2007 Ukraine), Loic Nottet Rhythm Inside (2015 Belgium) and Rise Like A Phoenix by Conchita Wurst (2014 Austria).
E+: If you could choose a Eurovision former participant to sing along with, who would it be?
I think it would be fun to sing with Jedward because they are twins and we are twins.. So it would be kinda funny 🙂 We also would like to sing with Loic Nottet because he seems like a really nice person and has a great voice.
E+: Besides Eurovision, what are your plans for this year?
We want to succeed more and go further in music industry. Just make more music that we and other people enjoy!
E+: Finally, can you send a message for our readers and Eurovision fans?
Thank you so much for everyone who has been listening to our song and giving positive feedback! It really means so much to us and we hope that you will enjoy our performance. Love you loads!
E+: Thanks for your time and good luck!