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Arash: â€œWe will do everything possible to winâ€ â€“ INTERVIEW - PHOTO

Arash: â€œWe will do everything possible to winâ€ â€“ <font color=red>INTERVIEW - PHOTO</font>

14 April 2009 11:25 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Ulkar Gasimovaâ€“APA. Azerbaijani representatives at Eurovision 2009 Song Contest to take place in Moscow, Russia in May, 2009, Aysel Teymourzadeh and Arashâ€™s interview was published on the contestâ€™s official website. APA offers the interview.

- How do you feel now, being Eurovision participants?
- Aysel: Itâ€™s an amazing and life-changing experience, I feel like my whole world has turned brand new and Iâ€™m very exited about everything thatâ€™s going on.
- Arash: You know, itâ€™s a very complex feeling â€“ like Iâ€™m doing something very new for myself and creating a part of history at the same time. Plus Iâ€™ve got a beautiful and talented girl near me â€“ every manâ€™s dream!

- Aysel, can you tell us how youâ€™ve got the idea to apply to the national Eurovision preselection in Azerbaijan?

- Aysel: First of all, Iâ€™m a big fan of Eurovision. Since I was a child I was dreaming about participating in the contest. And I was so glad that our country started with a big success last year. In September my friends told me about the national selection to this competition. I decided to participate and to try myself and succeed! Itâ€™s just awesome! I pursued my dream and it is actually here! The first reaction was like â€“ am I dreaming? I was really shocked with this phone call! It was like â€“ Iâ€™m just 19 years old, Iâ€™m a student actually and I will represent whole Azerbaijan! Itâ€™s an amazing opportunity and a lot of responsibility but Iâ€™m proud to do it.

- Have you actively taken part in the selection of the song for your performance, or it was left in the hands of the professional jury as well?

- Aysel: No, I didnâ€™t. It was left to the professional jury but their choice is all I couldâ€™ve even dreamt about â€“ an energetic and very romantic song that totally fits me in every possible way.

- Arash, is it true that you have decided to apply to Azerbaijan pre-selection as a songwriter spontaneously, reading the information in the Internet?

-Arash: I had a concert in December in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku. So that was the first time Iâ€™ve heard about the national song selection but that time it was kind of rumors. Later I found out about the song contest in the Internet and it really hit me â€“ why not? As you see I was right.

- Can you tell us the story of the song creation, was it written specially for Eurovision, or was it one of your older songs waiting for its time to shine?

- Arash: As I said, it was written for Eurovision and for Aysel. The main idea of the song was in my mind for quite a long period but it was just a simple tune. When I saw the news about the Azerbaijani National Selection and saw the beauty of Aysel for the first time I just could not get rid of the lines in my head... Always on my mind, always in my dreamâ€¦.

- When submitting the song, were you proposing it to be performed as a duet, or how else this idea has been born?

-Arash: I didnâ€™t expect that Always will be performed as the duet but the idea was born spontaneously and Iâ€™m very happy how everything worked out!

- Tell us how youâ€™ve got acquainted? What was the first impression of both of you about the other part of the duet?

- Aysel: Iâ€™ve known Arash as a famous musician and songwriter so I was shocked when Iâ€™ve heard for the first time that he wrote a song and this song is for me! I remember my first impression when I met him in the studio. I felt very comfortable with Arash after 5-10 minutes of conversation! So it was so easy to spend almost 48 hours in the studio recording the Always song after that.
- Arash: Aysel is a perfect match for the duet â€“ she is amazingly talented, got great and unforgettable voice and she is so beautiful. So I think the other part of the duet is perfect for me.

- How can you describe your song Always in one phrase?
- Aysel: The romantic anthem for Eurovision 2009.
- Arash: And Iâ€™ve got nothing else to add, Aysel has told everything.

- It was decided to change the arrangement of the song for it to become a more national product, with Azerbaijani traditional instruments. Are you satisfied with the result?
- Arash: I like how everything sounds now. Weâ€™ve used tar, the national Azeri instrument, and it gave this song a unique sound and vibe that Iâ€™ve always wanted to hear.

- Are you planning to record new versions of the track, other languages, remixes? May be a version in Russian or Azeri?
- Arash: Good idea for the nearest future! But now we want to focus on the promotion of the original Always version.

- You have already filmed the music video for your entry, a simple one but none the less impressive. Can you tell us more about its creation?

- Aysel: It was a new experience for me. I didnâ€™t expect that so many people should work for the 3-minute music video. Actually, we were doing the shooting after the concerts in Moscow and Bratislava at the Eurovision National Finals. Honestly, Arash and I were a little tired. But as you see finally we got an incredibly energetic video, like the song itself. Find it here if you havenâ€™t seen it. So all the team did a great job I think.
- Arash: Weâ€™ve done a huge amount of work. It took more than 15 hours to shoot. Itâ€™s all about the amazing energy among us and around us.

- You have already started your promotional tour, do you think in general that pre-contest promotion is important for the contest success? What will be your next tour destinations?
- Aysel: I donâ€™t know our next destination of the promo tour? We decided to change a bit our performance so we are focusing on that now. What we are actually doing on the secret base in Europe and what will be our next promotional tour destination youâ€™ll know very soon.

- Besides promotours, how and where your rehearsals usually take place?
- Aysel & Arash: We are in Stockholm now rehearsing a lot to make an amazing performance for the audience.

- What are your favourite entries from the past of Eurovision contest?
- Aysel: Among my favorite songs are Abba â€“ Waterloo (Sweden), Maria Serifovic â€“ Molitva (Serbia), Maria â€“ Hold on be strong (Norway) and so much more. Itâ€™s very hard to pick one from such a huge amount of amazing songs!
- Arash: I am keen on the winners of Eurovision of last years. We had a lot of really amazing performances recently I should say.

- What do you think is more important for Eurovision success: song, performer or the show?
- Arash: Everything. You canâ€™t take out any part of it. The song must be amazing, the performance â€“ huge and unique and the performer is that one who makes every other part work.

- Eurovision is sometimes labeled a political contest. Do you think of it as a political event?
- Aysel: No, for us itâ€™s an opportunity to present a great song and to introduce Azerbaijan, the Land of Fire, to European viewers.

- What will be your aim in the contest?
- Aysel: I think you donâ€™t need to bother even to go and take part in some competition if you donâ€™t want to win it. Weâ€™ll do everything possible to take Azerbaijan up high!
- Arash: So we will do everything possible to win.