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BLOGILKAR EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: FABRIZIO RAGGI

After the Sanmarine lyricist Mauro Balestri and the singer Valentina Monetta it's time to have a little chat with the art director Fabrizio Raggi. Read here what he had to say about the whole affair, how he was selected and what he thinks of Valentina and what he plans to do after Eurovision! Also, don't forget the Ralph Siegel interview from Baku 2012 here. This is the edited English one, read the original Italian one here.

Fabrizio, first of all thanks for the interview. Tell us a little how did you get to the Sammarinese Eurovision team?
Hello, thank you for the interview. I joined the team thanks to my professionalism and especially becouse Valentina wanted me. She proposed my name to San Marino RTV, and Alessandro Capicchioni and Ralf Siegel accepted.
Before this you have done so many different things, television series, soap operas, theater, film ... actor, director .... What is the role that inspires you the most?
When a man is born an actor you'll stay an actor for your lifetime. Acting is and will always be my first love, directing is sensual, acting on the set is sensual.
Make also acting teacher, vocal coach …
Acting coach. Teaching is a mission: you need to support one's vulnerability on one side, and on the other to arouse the sense of urgency and the risk for an artist is really a mission, to teach the technique and convey love for what you do. I teach in San Marino with other professionals, we opened a school of singing and acting, Voice Academy del canto e del teatro (here) and in Rome I'm with Francesca Viscardi Leonetti art director in the school of acting Free Mistake Project (here)
But back to the present and Eurovision. Art director. How much are you a dictator :-) from dress by Valentina to her hair and the rest? Or you limit yourself to the performance?
I give advise in terms of image, give ideas, then together with the whole production team we try to make these ideas reality. I would like to mention our designer for Valentina's dress for this Eurovision, Marilia Reffi, a precious mind and a woman of great culture and taste.
Can you tell us how you work? I guess the host TV provides you with information in advance of the stage, what it's like, measures, props .... Or how does it go?
First of all, we create ideas for a choreography, images, colors and so on, then we ask if we can do them, how the host broadcaster is setting the whole thing up and what it offers us, then we act according to their feedback.
And if in case you have any special requests .... like four dancers hanging down from the ceiling .... or they tell you immediately what is possible or not?
If they give us a positive response to our requests good, otherwise we work in another direction, obstacles do not scare me, I know my team, I know the protagonist and I know that together we are very strong.
And you, have you had any special request? I know that some delegations in previous years have asked for everything imaginable!
Each request is evaluated and, if possible, is achieved otherwise not.
What can you tell us the performance of Valentina without revealing too much? :-)
What can I say? Valentina has a very important tool: her voice, her beauty. She has everything she needs to be a star. On stage you do not need so much when you have this characteristics.
How was everything with this performance? Was it immediately clear and easy how it should be or did you have different ideas and then you have chosen this we will see later in May ....
As any fruit needs time to ripen, so a draft idea needs time to become a masterpiece!
I know you know already Eurovision. You follow it every year and you have some performance that impressed you in the past? Not the song nor the singer but just how it was made and the performance on stage – as we have seen all the colors on Eurovision stage over the years!
While watching old Eurovision videos, I cannot help but admiring the joy and spontaneity in the eyes of Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, the two ABBA female singers in '74 edition (the year I was born).
What awaits you after Eurovision?
I hope to go on a Greek island to relax!

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