Now we're in Belgium to interview Jan, our history manager. Jan is one of the lucky guys that can represent its own country, and his best score was a second place achieved on the last edition.






About EM:
1. How did you joined EM? How did you find out about EM?
I remember seeing an ad for EM on Facebook. I was curious about it and joined almost immediately for EM 22. After some time, I was designated "History manager" and I also joined the Fairness Committee.

2. Did you discover new music at EM? Name some of your favourite songs. 
Yes, I've discoverd new music, even from my own country Belgium. I'm very fond of the two songs by Heathers (EM 22+30), Mandy Capristo (EM 33), Alida (EM 30) and Euternity (EM 32).

3. What do you like most about EM?
It unites people from all over Europe, even from all over the world (hi, Tata!).

4. Are you happy with the results and voting system in general?
The best song doesn't always win, but it's the same case at ESC too. We all have our personal taste, and it doens't always match with mine. But overall, I'm satisfied with the Belgian results. I think we should maintain the voting system, but abandon the SC. It doesn't really is an added value, and I can't remember having ever voted for it.

5. Do you think that this contest can be improved? How?
It's sad that some players choose the easy option and send singers who already represented their country at ESC, or songs from the national finals. There are also some singers that have been sent in way too much! Search, my dear friends, and you will find! Some of the players that joined more recently are changing countries too often in my opinion. Keeping a chosen country for at least five editions would be a good solution for this.

6. What do you think about the EM Organizers and the other groups of EM (Family, Journalists, Fairness Commitee)?
They are all doing an excellent job.

7. Did EM influenced your life in some particular way?
Not really.

About ESC:
8: Since when do you follow the show? Which are you first memories of it?
The first show I watched was ESC 1989 in Lausanne. My mother promised me I got to watch the show until the Belgian entry was performed. Ingeborg performed "Door de wind" sixth on the night. Off to bed for little Jan. I watched the entire show live from 1990 until today.

9. Did you liked this year's winner? Did you had any other favourites?
I never thought Denmark was going to win this year. I don't dislike the song, but I don't see what makes it so special. My favorite songs this year came from Montenegro, Albania, Bulgaria, Norway, Hungary and Ukraine.

10. What about ESC2014? What are you expecting with all the recent news, from already selected singers to details about the venue and the show?
I'm still waiting for Poland to return, but it doesn't look good for the moment. I'm indifferent to the Bosnian and Portugese return, and I'm a supporter of the Turkish 'no' to ESC. Copenhagen is a beautiful city (https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/jan.vancappel/media_set?set=a.10201382941749788.1073741833.1061485618&), so maybe I'll watch the contest live over there.

11. If you had to select, which would be your "All-Time" song from ESC?
Terrible decision, but I'll choose "Primadonna" by Alla Pugacheva (Russia, ESC 1997).

12. Any last words to end the interview?
I wish everybody lots of fun and inspiration for the upcoming fourth season!

Good luck, Jan, for the next season!

Now, we return to Romania to visit our next person to be interviewed. Razvan is a romanian guy who's representing Finland in EM.







About EM:
1. How did you joined EM? How did you find out about EM?
I joined EM around 2 years ago, but I don't remember very well how I found about it. I think that I got a mail from Florin, promoting his contest.

2. Did you discover new music at EM? Name some of your favourite songs.
Well, I participated in the last 26 editions of EM so, of course, I discovered many new great songs. There were so many great songs that is very hard to choose between them! But if I think about it, I can name some of my favourite songs that come to mind, like:

Of Monsters and Men - Little Talks (Iceland)
Petra Marklund - Händerna mot himlen (Sweden)
Outlandish - Warrior//Worrier (Denmark)
Gigi Radics - Úgy Fáj (Hungary)

3. What do you like most about EM?
What I like most is that we have these chat meetings for each semifinal and final where we discuss about the songs and results and this is one of the things that makes EM special.

4. Are you happy with the results and voting system in general?
Yes, I think the results and voting system are pretty fair.

5. Do you think that this contest can be improved? How?
In general, I think there isn't too much to improve. Maybe it would be better without the SC, because not everyone gets to vote there and the ones that reach the final through it already know that they don't have much chances to do well.

6. What do you think about the EM Organizers and the other groups of EM (Family, Journalists, Fairness Commitee)?
I think that the EM Organizers are doing a great job, you can see that there is a lot of work put in the site design, the video results, the recaps. The only thing that they can do better is to keep up better with the dates.

7. Did EM influenced your life in some particular way?
Yes, because here I found many new friends who I talk to and, in general, a great community.


About ESC:
8: Since when do you follow the show? Which are you first memories of it?
I've been following ESC in every year since 2000, but my first memories of it are from the late 90's.

9. Did you liked this year's winner? Did you had any other favourites?
Yes, I liked it and I think it was one of the best, but I was a bit disappointed of how it sounded live. My favourite this year was Norway and other songs that I liked a lot were Iceland, Italy, Netherlands and Sweden.

10. What about ESC2014? What are you expecting with all the recent news, from already selected singers to details about the venue and the show?
It's a bit sad to hear that some countries are withdrawing, but on the other hand there are other countries that are returning, like Portugal and Bosnia, maybe others will be back too. The NFs season is about to start and I hope there will be as many great songs as possible.

11. If you had to select, which would be your "All-Time" song from ESC?
It's a hard question and your favourite can change from time to time, but at the moment it's Marija Šerifović - Molitva (Serbia 2007), closely followed by Secret Garden - Nocturne (Norway 1995) and Sertab Erener - Everyway That I Can (Turkey 2003).

12. Any last words to end the interview?
I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to share my thoughts with you about EM and ESC and I want to wish you all good luck!

Thank you, Razvan!
We'll move to Western Europe on the next interview! See you later!