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Bulgaria: Dj Balthazar and Joanna speak to esctoday.com
This year, Bulgaria is making a real investment in the Eurovision Song Contest. Starting off with a long national preselection and moving on to careful planning of the act's staging in Belgrade, they have gone to great lengths to present the European audience with something unique. A prototype, guitar-shaped turn table, an original guitar, a laser harp, especially developed for the contest, Peter, a top, multi award winning break dancer, four DJs and a lady singer all dressed by a high profile designer aim at representing their country in the best possible way.
The band seem to be genuinely enjoying all this, although they admit there is a price to pay for all that fun. But having fun is just one aspect of their approach. Successful music professionals all of them, take the Eurovision Song Contest very seriously and are determined to give Europe their best hoping it will be appreciated.
"Many people think that Eurovision stopped in the seventies", says DJ Balthazar, "so we thought the contest needs a new, modern face". In a delightful interview with esctoday.com Balthazar and lead singer Joanna spoke about the contest, their plans for the staging of the song in Belgrade and we even discovered together the lyrics of DJ Take me away in Greek. Joanna told us that her Svarowski crystal studded dress is designed by Virginia Zdavkova, one of Bulgaria's most prominent designers who has also had her dresses in the Oscar's ceremony.
DJ Balthazar and Joanna Part 1
DJ Balthazar and Joanna Part 2
DJ Take me away competition
You can win five DJ Take me away and two limited edition posters by answering correctly the following questions:
a) Who are the Bulgarian entrants this year? (five names)
b) Which countries did DJ Balthazar and Deep Zone project visit during their promo tour?
c) What was Bulgaria's best placing in the Eurovision Song Contest and when?
Send your answers, together with your full name and postal address at win@esctoday.com until Monday 12th May 10.00 CET.
Related polls
- Eurovision 2008: best multilingual entry?
- Best winner of the last 25 years?
- Worst winner of the last 25 years?
- National finals 2008: which runner-up should have won?
Go directly to the reactions
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- DannyT
LOL, I wouldn't wanna run through a patch of druggy's wearing just an Irish flag!!!!
- Alex P
Thankyou very much! 
Danny T & Jonny K:
Ireland win would be great of course. Greetings for Ireland and United Kingdom . Speaking of Irish music, I hope Lord of the Dance will perform in Eurovision in the near future !
LoL this interview was the funnyest i've ever seen from a 2008 esc participent!Balthazar and Joanna look very good together!
i am realy imprest how much interviews they gave during there promo tour!
According to one site for online betting Bulgaria is 3-rd to qualify in semi final 2 after ukraine and swiden!I think its a bit underate by the odds but the bookmakers are giving them a good position!
You kan see the site hire:
http://odds.bestbett(...)nd-semi-final-winner
I agree that everything depends on there live performance!But from the information i have it will be realy grat and will include alot of fire!
Good luck in Beograd Deep Zona and Baltahzar!
I L 
V E you Joanna 
Good luck to all the countries which will support us and dont forget we love you too!
BTW 
tella you have made a great interview!
@ Jonny K
I would run my local park too but it is so full of drug dealers and god knows what else, it wouldn't be wise.
I would run around to my local chippy and back
- DannyT
If Ireland won I would be so happy I would run around my local park wearing nothing but an Irish flag, singing "Irlande Douze Points"!!!!!! (So for the irish people, I hope you win, for my dignity . . . . . thats a different matter!!!!)
- Alex P
I'm sure your stage show will be great and I am really looking forward to the Bulgarian performance, good luck from the UK!!! 
@ Alex P
I second that. I have only seen small glimpses of the stage so far but it looks brilliant. Here's to a great show where Ireland wins in the end!!
And thanks to Serbia also, of couse. The stage in Belgrade is awesome and I have a feeling that show will be more than great.
Very nice song one of my top 10 this time. Good luck.
Thank you Greece, Macedonia, Belgium, United Kingdom, Sweden, Italy, The Netherlands and all the other friends.
Greetings and best wishes for all !
great news for Bulgaria!! My favs! they sure will get points from Macedonia, i hope Bulgaria will give us more points than last year.
GO MACEDONIA
Alexander Kokov:
Taste differs. That was just my opinion. I like this year's Bulgarian entry. Good luck
"Some people think Eurovision stopped in the 70s"
How would they know, Bulgaria only joined in the 2000s! lol
As for "Voda" I was not at all surprised it qualified, it was one of the more fresh and original entries last year, ethnic sounds mixed with a pulsating trance beat, and my personal fave.
Stockholm calling :
Ohhhh,last year Bulgaria was SUPER!I hope that this year will be the same!
Night Elf:
I didn't like "Voda" either. I thought Elitsa was screaming all the time.
- Night Elf
I was also shocked by the qualification of "Voda"! I still can't see the attraction with it 8)
This is great song... I don't think they will win, but I wouldn't mind if they do so
I prefer this song 1000 times more than last year entry from Bulgaria..I was shock when they qualify from the semifinal with "Voda" and this year I will be shocked if they don't qualify because song is amazing ////
- Stockholm calling
Yeah, lets hope for the best! Bulgaria deserve a good result this year, because they have simply put so much effort in.
Fingers crossed xx Good luck to Bulgaria from the UK!!
Jonny K:
You have a point there but let's hope for the best
My favourite song this year!! However I agree with most of the comments below - in the live version she is a bit out of tune and nervous (and honestly for three phrases that she has too sing, not very difficult vocally speaking... oooufff i don't know). A pity, the song looses all its force 
I would love to see for this song a spectacular show full of lights and dancers, this could help... Go Bulgaria!!
I`m sure that Ioanna(singer) will be more concentrate!In NF she couldn`t believe that they won!So take it easy and don`t pressure her!
- DannyT
- Stockholm Calling
Yeah! The thing is, that if her vocals were bad at the Bulgarian NF because of nerves, then she has alot to overcome at Belgrade because she will be in an arena full of 15,000 people!
I hope she does sort her vocals, because this sort of modern music can drive the contest forward, and should hopefull do well!
Good luck to Bulgaria from the UK!
I agree.
I've been watching their live performance (as I don't care much for the preview videos) and the vocals are not that good, I'm afraid. I hope they will sound better in Belgrade. In that case this could be a winner.
@ Jonny K
I think it is a shame cos this was the song when I first heard it made the biggest impression but her performance at the Bulgarian NF was really disappointing. I hope she focuses on her voice rather than posing on the night cos Bulgaria was in my top 10 until I heard the live vocal
- DannyT
- Arabic Scents
You both have a point, whilst the song is great in studio version, the live vocals are pretty dire. So its best not to make any predictions until we see the rehearsals because I really don't know what the vocals will be like come eurovision night!
Although their song is catchy, fresh and very happy there live performance was very bad indeed. So for now I prefer not make any prediction.
I think Bulgaria will do very well but I also think her voice will crack
AHhhhhhhhhhhhh so cute!!!!!!!! i love them!!!
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