What's Teo up to these days in Belarus?
Minsk, Belarus - Teo, the Belarusian representative in the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest, has a very busy period behind and ahead of him. During the last weeks, the singer was overwhelmed with a lot of sweet pieces of cheesecake and many good and clever advices from Eurovision stars.
Meeting with Yulia Volkova
Teo met Yulia Volkova, a former member of the Russian girl band t.A.T.u., who took part in the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest reaching the 3rd place. Teo met Yulia in Minsk where she gave her solo concert. As Yulia has already gone through the Eurovision Song Contest, she shared her experience with Teo: "We came third, which was terrific, but it was already enough just to appear there on stage and see peoples’ eyes light up and smile. So much energy and passion," she said, smiling.
Charming her with a kiss and a bunch of roses, Yulia and Teo sat together watching his official video clip on a laptop. "It’s very stylish," she said, "and there’s a charismatic combination of Robert Miles and Ricky Martin in your performance. The song is very catchy." "I have always liked her music and was keen to meet her and seek her advice," Teo said afterwards.
Cheesecake party
On the same evening, Teo invited the fellow Belarusian singers from the national selection and local celebrities to officially launch his Eurovision entry song Cheesecake. The head chef at Victoria Casino, Alexander Zhilinsky, spent over fifty hours preparing and baking the two metre wide cheesecake, using over twelve kilograms of cookies, eight kilograms of butter, four litres of rum, six kilograms of sugar, twenty kilograms of mascarpone cheese and topped with 24 kilograms of fresh strawberries. He kept the recipe a secret, but it served over 320 people.
Dima Koldun's advice
A week later, in between dance rehearsals, vocal training and filming the postcard with the Danish crew , Teo met up with Dima Koldun, who represent Belarus in the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest. Dima’s advice was simple but important: to enjoy himself, to do his best and to "work your magic". Two singers sang together karaoke.
A concert with Dina Garipova on March 18th
Now Teo is in Moscow where Dina Garipova, last year’s Russian representative invited him to take part in her concert on March 18th. Dina Garipova, invited Teo to take part in her concert on 18th March. "We intend to sing a cover version of Rihanna’s Umbrella and I'm hoping that we can also squeeze in Cheesecake too," Teo said. "We met at last year’s festival Slavonic Bazaar and have been friends ever since."
After Moscow, Teo will be busy with his promotional events that will hopefully include Malta and Latvia. He also plans to came to Eurovision In Concert in Amsterdam. "My five hours’ sleep per night is reducing every day!", he said.
