Compact Disco were selected to represent Hungary at the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest in Baku with the song, Sound Of Our Hearts. The band are Gábor Pál, Behnam Lotfi,
Attila Sándor and Csaba Walkó. Here they talk to EuroVisionary.
1. Congratulations on winning the Hungarian DAL Eurovision selection. What reaction did your victory have in Hungary?
Thank you. As we are considered as an "underground" band, there was some surprise, but generally we had a very warm welcome in the position of representing Hungary and the Hungarian National Television (MTV) in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.
2. Have you received any advice about performing at Eurovision from previous Hungarian Eurovision acts?
Kati Wolf, last year’s Hungarian contestant gave us some advice regarding stage presence and performance, which we welcomed. Besides her, various musicians and other performing artists gave us some advice, and we’ll try to take them all on board.
3. Can you tell us something about the promotional video for Sound Of Our Hearts?.
The song’s official video was released a couple of days ago, it is already available on the official Eurovision channel. Contrary to the non-official video, it does not show global events, but tries to illustrate the message of the song, showing one miserable day of a homeless person and an executive (both played by the same actor, Antos Gémes) emphasizing the importance of human relationships and the not-so-uplifting nature of the lack of it.
4. Are there plans for a new album?
Since our latest album, II, was released less than a year ago, right now we’re focusing on promoting our ESC entry song and the other songs from this album. Works on a new album can be expected only in the first or second quarter of 2013 at the earliest.
5. What plans do you have to promote Sound Of Our Hearts in the coming weeks before Eurovision? Will you go outside of Hungary to promote the song?
We try to get our song, Sound Of Our Hearts to the widest audience possible, and to get ourselves acquainted to more and more people all around Europe, as far as our possibilities allow it. But we have already visited some neighboring countries and planning on doing it in all of them, plus we are going to perform in Eurovision events in Amsterdam and London, and more opportunities are already in the pipeline.
6. Do you have any favourite Eurovision songs from previous years?
This is a very difficult question, since there was a truckload of great songs during the past 57 years, not necessarily winners, and it is always hard to pick a few, but we like from recent times Lordi’s Hard Rock Hallelujah from Finland, the UK’s Love Shine A Light by Katrina & The Waves, Greece’s My Number One from Helena Paparizou, from earlier the world famous Volare and Waterloo, and the list can go on forever, it is just off the top of our heads.
7. Have you heard any of this year’s Eurovision songs? If so, do you have any favourites?
Again a very difficult question. Naturally we are tracking our fellow contestants, we instantly liked Cyprus’s, Denmark’s, Switzerland’s, Sweden’s, and Slovakia’s entry but there are also a lot of other great songs in this year’s roster, the list could (and will) go on.
Thank you very much. Good luck in Baku.
