Released early 2005 Recorded 2005 Country Belarus | Format CD single Genre Disco
Modern Laïka | |
Length 3:00
7:52 (Long Version) | ||
"Love Me Tonight" was the Belarusian entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 (ESC), performed in English by Angelica Agurbash. The song is an upbeat dance number, in which the singer pleads with someone to "love her tonight" and tells (probably) him that she has an "infatuation" with him. The song appears to have only been recorded in English, despite the Contest tradition of frequently recording versions in the native language of the relevant country. This is, however, not something that any Belarusian entry has done to date. The song was penned by the Greek composer Nikos Terzis. Terzis authored four previous Greek ESC entries, including two who made it to the third place - Antique's hit "Die For You" (2001) and Sakis Rouvas' dance number, "Shake It".
Agurbash was originally meant to sing the ballad "Boys and Girls"; however, the poor reception of that song changed both her mind and those of her production team.
As Belarus had not finished the previous Contest in the top 10, the song was performed in the semi-final, as eighth in the running order (following Israel's Shiri Maimon with Hasheket Shenish'ar and preceding the Netherlands' Glennis Grace with My Impossible Dream). Despite pre-contest popularity, it could only managed to garner 67 points by the end of voting to finish in 13th place and force Belarus to compete in the semi-final again at the 2006 Contest.
For the semi-final performance, Angelica and her dancers were dressed in baroque-inspired semi-historical costumes, even though no direct reference to the lyrics can be made, and the promotional video clip of the song featured modern costumes of both the singer and accompanying dancers. Continuing the long tradition of Eurovision strip songs, whose beginnings can be traced back to famous "Making Your Mind Up" performance many years previously, the performance featured Agurbash gradually having parts of her dress removed, effectively going through no less than two costume changes.
The song was succeeded as Belarusian entry by "Mum", performed by Polina Smolova.