R&B is not a genre you immediately associate with the Eurovision Song Contest but Slovakia will be hoping to buck the trend this year.
Like heavy metal overlords Lordi in 2006, TWiiNS will be hoping to use the element of the unknown to storm to success. The difference between the two is that, comparatively, TWiiNS are playing it safe. Their song is a mid-tempo ballad, for which Eurovision is more famed, and the lyrics detail a difficult recovery from a tough break-up, which is again standard fare.
TWiiNS are identical twin sisters Veronika and Daniela Nízlová. They have been performing together since childhood so the Dusseldorf stage will be anything but daunting. When they were younger, they released four successful albums in Slovakia between 2000 and 2005 and in 2010, single ‘Boys, Boys, Boys’ had limited international success. This means TWiiNS are already known in Europe and this could bode well when it comes to garnering votes from audiences across the continent and those looking at the Eurovision odds should remember this.
Another significant advantage is that the sisters already have Eurovision experience. In 2008, they were backing singers for Czech singer Tereza Kerndlova. Although she did not qualify from her semi-final, this experience could significantly aid the duo as it is guaranteed to quell the nerves and allow them to focus on their performance.
Slovakia have only participated in the Eurovision Song Contest on five occasions and have a particularly dismal record. They failed to get out of the semi-final in both 2009 and 2010 whilst they have never finished higher than 18th in the Contest proper. 19 points is the maximum haul they have attained.
Slovakians will be hoping that their favourite TWiiNS can buck this trend this time around, particularly as this will be the first time their entry is performed in the universally understood language of English. They have been drawn immediately after the more experimental Belgian entry in their semi-final so this could auger well too. Hopes will therefore be high that they can at least beat their previous record in the Contest.
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