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Lauris Reiniks\u2019 \u201cYour Morning Lullaby\u201d has been accepted for the finals of Latvia\u2019s Eurovision preliminaries Eirodziesma 2010, which will take place on February 27, 2010, at the Ventspils theater house “J\u016bras V\u0101rti”.\u00a0\u00a0Before this major event, Lauris has been happy to answer those questions that are posed to him most frequently.\u00a0\u00a0Read the interview, listen to the song, learn why he has decided to return to the Eurovision stage, find out his plans, his ideas about Eurovision, and many other interesting things.<\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n Q:<\/strong>\u00a0What\u2019s \u201cYour Morning Lullaby\u201d about?<\/p>\n <\/strong>A<\/strong>:\u00a0\u00a0The song is about hope that we find when we are away from home for a longer period of time.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s not usually the case that we miss an entire village, city or country.\u00a0\u00a0We mostly miss little elements from our homes and our dear ones.\u00a0\u00a0When we think of those, we feel warmth in our heart, and we feel positive sadness and yearning for home.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cYour Morning Lullaby\u201d is about a boy who is forced to leave home.\u00a0\u00a0When abroad, he misses a song which his girlfriend used to hum into his ear in the morning, the idea being that she wanted them to stay in bed a bit longer.\u00a0\u00a0The song only had a melody, and he named it the \u201cmorning lullaby.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0They both know that the only hope that they have is that someday he will return, and all will be well.\u00a0\u00a0When I was writing the lyrics, I was thinking about a soldier on mission, but once the song was recorded, I came to understand that in truth it\u2019s a much broader story which has to do with the present-day situation in Latvia.\u00a0\u00a0Due to a crisis and lack of\u00a0work so many Latvians have been forced\u00a0to leave the country to start their lives somewhere else.\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019m a Latvian patriot and believe that all will be well, and that\u2019s very upsetting to me.\u00a0\u00a0Incidentally, the song has also been recorded in Latvian and Russian under the titles \u201cNebeidzamais st\u0101sts\u201d (Endless Story) and \u201c\u041f\u0440\u0435\u0440\u0432\u0430\u043d\u043d\u044b\u0439 \u0420\u043e\u043c\u0430\u043d\u0441\u201d (Interrupted Romance). It’s like a\u00a0dedication to all the people who have left Latvia and hopefully one day will come return.<\/p>\n Q<\/span><\/strong>:\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s been seven years since you have performed at Eurovision yourself.\u00a0\u00a0Why are you getting back on stage?<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/span>A<\/span><\/strong>:\u00a0\u00a0Yes, it\u2019s been seven years, but I\u2019ve always been involved in the competition in various respects.\u00a0\u00a0This year I decided to sing the song myself, because I have something to say, and I feel more ready for this than ever before.\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s largely because colleagues in Europe encouraged me to submit the song for the competition.\u00a0\u00a0They think that it\u2019s very melodic and will easily be understood by anyone.\u00a0As\u00a0an author of this song\u00a0\u00a0I very much feel the subject and know that I have to tell the story myself.\u00a0\u00a0I cannot offer the song to a performer for whom it means nothing, because then the audience will feel the falsehood.\u00a0\u00a0I learned about those emotions back when I was a teenager and left Latvia for the first time study at a high school in America.\u00a0\u00a0They return from time to time in various manifestations.<\/p>\n <\/span>Q<\/span><\/strong>:\u00a0\u00a0Was the song written specifically for Eurovision? <\/strong><\/span>A<\/span><\/strong>:\u00a0\u00a0Yes, we\u2019ve come up with an abandoned a number of ideas.\u00a0\u00a0We\u2019ve decided that the basis for the performance will be hope, which is also the central theme of the song.\u00a0\u00a0I can\u2019t reveal everything, but I want the performance to be tasteful, emotional and not exaggerated.\u00a0\u00a0It is very easy to mess things up if you have too many elements and show tricks on stage and the song and its story disappear.\u00a0\u00a0I hope that we\u2019ll succeed.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/span>Q<\/span><\/strong>:\u00a0\u00a0You\u2019ve taken part in Eurovision as a songwriter, as a results announcer and, when the Eurovision Song Contest was held in Riga, as a performer in the group FLY.\u00a0\u00a0Have you learned anything during these years?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Do you understand where the key of success is?<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/span>A<\/span><\/strong>:\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019m always learning new things, and there are many things, of course, which I’ve understood.\u00a0\u00a0The first and main thing is that Eurovision is a big show and a song competition \u2013 something that has been seen more vividly in recent years.\u00a0\u00a0Showmanship reaches us the best if performances are true and not exaggerated.\u00a0\u00a0Incidentally, I understand why FLY did poorly at the Eurovision Song Contest back then.\u00a0\u00a0Each of us was and, thank God, still is a successful stage artist.\u00a0\u00a0When we established the trio in 2003, perhaps we weren\u2019t quite ourselves, and the message of the song did not reach the European audience.\u00a0\u00a0I was terribly upset and didn\u2019t understand what had happened, because I thought that we did what performers at Eurovision are supposed to do.\u00a0\u00a0I remember having a cocktail at the banquet in the Skonto hall, and then I just couldn\u2019t control my emotions any further.\u00a0\u00a0I was so sad, I thought that we had disappointed all of Latvia.\u00a0\u00a0The good news, however, is that we gained enormous experience and became battle-hardened.\u00a0\u00a0There were so many people who supported us and lived along with us.\u00a0\u00a0Interestingly, Eurovision fans still remember us very well and think that we were not appreciated sufficiently.\u00a0\u00a0Now I think that everything happened as it had to happen.\u00a0\u00a0My homepage is still regularly visited by people from Europe who follow along with what\u2019s happening and that\u2019s great.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/span>Q<\/span><\/strong>:\u00a0\u00a0What will you do if you are given an opportunity to represent Latvia at Eurovision 2010 in Oslo?<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/span>A<\/span><\/strong>:\u00a0\u00a0Eurovision is the largest show in Europe, and Latvia\u2019s name is heard in it once a year \u2013 that\u2019s a sure thing.\u00a0\u00a0But this can be used in favour of our country.\u00a0\u00a0I would try not only to present a good performance, but also to use the Eurovision contest to advertise Latvia and encourage tourists to come and visit us.\u00a0\u00a0With careful planning, that would be possible.\u00a0\u00a0There are always hundreds of journalists from all over Europe at the contest.\u00a0\u00a0If the audience in Latvia believes in me, then I will do everything possible to make sure lots of people associate Latvia with things that are good, beautiful and interesting.\u00a0\u00a0I have years of experience, and I\u2019m sure that I can do that.\u00a0\u00a0I am not shy, I love music and Latvia, I like people and contacts with them, and I freely speak English and Russian.\u00a0The human factor is always the main thing, and that\u2019s true for me, as well.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/span>Q<\/span><\/strong>:\u00a0\u00a0You\u2019ve already popularised Latvia in different countries.\u00a0\u00a0Last year, your song “I Wish I Could Pretend”\u00a0took 2nd<\/sup>\u00a0place in the Irish Eurovision finals, and before that an American ABC network television channel in California did a story about you.<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/span>A<\/span><\/strong>:\u00a0\u00a0On Irish TV, the\u00a0funny thing was that on a live broadcast I didn\u2019t start by talking about my song.\u00a0\u00a0Instead I informed the popular American television showman Jerry Springer as to where Latvia is located.\u00a0\u00a0He said that he would never forget that it\u2019s in Northern Europe.\u00a0\u00a0I know that Latvians in Ireland were delighted about this.\u00a0\u00a0So was I.\u00a0\u00a0It is a bit silly, but I always get goose bumps when someone in the foreign media speaks the word Latvia, Lettland, Letonia or Lettonie.\u00a0\u00a0I have learned to say the word in several languages so that there are no misunderstandings, and we are not confused with Lithuania.\u00a0\u00a0As far as the television channel in America is concerned, that was a dream of mine \u2013 not to have them show me on TV, but so that I could talk about Latvia.\u00a0\u00a0We don\u2019t have any real chance to get on American news shows with things that happen in Latvia.\u00a0\u00a0But my dream of getting Latvia into American television news has come true, and it was in a light context, not via anything negative or tragic. Jerry Springer and Lauris Reiniks at Irish Eurovision.<\/p>\n Lauris Reiniks at ABC 7\u00a0News in California, USA – 2008\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n
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\n<\/span>A<\/span><\/strong>:\u00a0\u00a0Not at first.\u00a0\u00a0I wrote the song last spring, right after the Eurovision Song Contest in Russia.\u00a0\u00a0I was terribly sad for a variety of reasons.\u00a0\u00a0Later, though, I thought about Eurovision, and I don\u2019t think that I\u2019ve ever worked on a single song for such a long period of time to get it to where it is right now.\u00a0\u00a0I am deeply grateful to the conductor Aigars \u0100boli\u0146\u0161 who senses my music wonderfully and wrote a beautiful string instrument arrangement which he and his orchestra recorded.\u00a0\u00a0Then the whole song was mixed by my trusted producer Gints Stankevi\u010ds.\u00a0\u00a0Everyone who was involved did an outstanding job, and I am very thankful to them.
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\n<\/span>Q<\/span><\/strong>:\u00a0\u00a0Have you started thinking about your performance on stage?<\/p>\n
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