Rui Andrade has already tried to represent Portugal in the Eurovision Song Contest various times, and he ended up third in every single of his tries – in 2011 with “Em nome do amor”, in 2012 with “Amor a preto e branco”, as well as in 2014 with “Ao teu encontro”. Nevertheless, he was one of the backing vocalists for the Tolmachevy Twins in 2014 for Russia, and he will be able to sing in front of his home crowd this year in Lisbon, but as a backing vocalist for Azerbaijan!
Rui Andrade joined the Azerbaijani team for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, as he is going to be one of Aisel’s backing singers for “X My Heart”. Both of them are currently in Greece with the rest of the team, rehearsing the entry for Lisbon, and having vocal lessons with Alex Panayi (who represented Cyprus twice in Eurovision – in 1995 and 2000). Alex has been the vocal coach of various successful Eurovision entrants in the last couple of years, including Sergey Lazarev, Farid Mammadov, Tolmachevy Sisters, and others. This year apart from working with Aisel, he is also working with Alekseev – the Ukrainian singer who is representing Belarus with “Forever”.
